The Dry Garden: “Spontaneous urban vegetation”
Weeds do so much cooling, aerating and stabilizing of vacant lots and roadsides that Harvard horticulturist Peter Del Tredici has taken to celebrating them as “spontaneous urban vegetation.”
But when a mother lode of seed from these fast-breeding, water-hungry plants germinates in a garden, particularly a drought-tolerant garden in Southern California, it’s war. It’s a water war.
By weeding after winter rains, you can allocate water to the right plants and cut off the thirsty interlopers. You’ll snare the seeds of weeds before they can spread. You’ll also clear out a sweaty little under-zone of greedy greens that block air and light from the plants that you want to thrive.
Click here to keep reading The Dry Garden in the Los Angeles Times. Or click here to read about Tredici’s intriguing new book “Wild urban plants of the northeast,” keeping in mind that, thanks to us, many of …
April uploaded
Hikes. Tours. Bugs. Plants. Landscape design courses. Spring. Southern California April dry garden event listings newly loaded. Or click here for March. If you have an event that you would like added to the calendar, please e-mail details to emily.green [@] mac.com.…
Rain in Spain
FROM NASA’s Earth Observatory: left is an image of southern Spain showing the course of the Guadalquivir River past Seville in March 2009. To the right is an image from March 2010, with blue areas around the river bank showing extensive flooding from late February rain. Click here to see the full resolution images.…
Manufacturing a mirage
Source: The Weather Doctor. Click on the image to be taken to a tutorial on, for want of a better word, "real" mirages.
No news is no news, unless you’re selling water in the desert, in which case, you’re probably pretty good at making it up. Hats off to Cadiz, Inc for today announcing the name of the drilling company that they will prefer for a groundwater mining project that hasn’t undergone environmental review yet. Making premature announcements is one way to make the project look further along than it is for shareholders, but the main intent seems to be to stoke local political support for the project by dangling the promise of jobs.…
The week that was 2/28-3/6/2010
Before and after the flooding in La Faute sur Mer (France). Source: Spot Image. The SPOT 4 satellite acquired an image on March 2nd that reflects the extent of the flooding on the coast and the island of Ré. Click on the photos to be taken to Spot Image.
“We have winds this strong every year, but what wasn’t emphasized by the French government, or weather services, was the fact that the winds would be combined with a high tide.” — French hotelier Mario Hamelin, “Atlantic storm Xynthia kills dozens in Western Europe,” Los Angeles Times, March 1, 2010
“We have to ask how in France, in the 21st century, families can be surprised in their sleep and drown in their homes.” — French President Nicolas Sarkozy, “Europe storm death toll at 62; France hardest hit,” Associated Press, March 1, 2010
“High tides are higher today.” …
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