The Dry Garden: Gambling on a cool summer
This week’s Dry Garden posts early because of May rain. After brief chivvying of So Cal gardeners to weed and sow, I get to the dark art of forecasting. For help assessing the odds of a cool summer as opposed to a hot one, and an early summer as opposed to late one, I contacted Jet Propulsion Laboratory oceanographer Bill Patzert. Some of you may remember that in September he put 80% to 90% odds on a strong cooling of equatorial waters in the Pacific, a system known as La Niña, producing winter drought for Southern California.
After nearly record rains in December, and a Christmas dinner of crow instead of turkey, he knew that Southern California ended up on the lucky side of La Niña’s traditional cutoff somewhere between San Diego and the Oregon border. This system tends to drive rain north and keep the south dry, but we …
The Dry Garden: Old tiers, new layout
Don't understand the water price tier system of the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power? Cheer up. Neither does the department's graphic artist. The tier shown on this dummy bill created to promote the new bill is wrong. If I understand it, and I'm not sure that I do, a Tier 1 allotment for a hot climate area would be 24 HCFs/mo or higher. It's still a better-looking bill that makes water use more clear. The real shame is that the prices are so low, too low to discourage pools and lawns or to raise enough money to step up replacement of aging city water mains. Click on the image above to be taken to this week's Dry Garden column in the Los Angeles Times, which looks at the bill.
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The Dry Garden: An orchardist among us
When musicians Kazi Pitelka and John Steinmetz tell friends that they are leaving their Altadena home of 15 years, the invariable responses are: “Why?” “Do you have to?” “Whyyyyy?”
It’s not that their friends are given to whining. It’s that few homes will ever be occupied so well. Theirs is a place where music was made, children were raised, a father died. Where mealtime meant family time and where Pitelka gardened, then cooked.
Click here to keep reading in the Los Angeles Times about the garden where Kazi Pitelka amassed 75 fruit trees, many herbs, chickens, vegetables and summer berries, and, in the process, became one of the best kitchen gardeners in the state.…
The Dry Garden: Stop saws, save birds
Text If there’s a tough instruction to follow in spring, it’s to relax. Don’t trim your trees, hedges or shrubs. Don’t paint the house. Greet sunshine by sitting back. The lazier you are, the more likely you are to hear the telltale cheep-cheep-cheep of baby birds, because spring is the high point of bird nesting season.
Text I say “high point” because California has a long nesting season. Hummingbirds have been broody since January and will remain so for some time. Think of them when you tell your gardener to leave the hedges, camellias and hibiscuses alone. Bushtits, swallows, wrens, woodpeckers, phoebes and finches are either sitting on eggs or constructing nests. Think of them, then put off termite work, gutter repair and tree thinning. The best months for tree work are August through December.
Click here to keep reading “The Dry Garden” in the Los Angeles Times.…
The Dry Garden: Mar Vista is groovy, too
The Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase turns 3 on April 30. More than 80 homes will be open to the public. Twenty garden designers will be on hand to discuss landscapes that save water and power. Thirteen homes will have their solar power installers there to explain the ins and outs of leasing or buying panels. It’s a safe bet that there will be some young capitalists seizing on the influx of an estimated 2,000 people to sell lemonade. Also expect a few glad-handers, because this project of the Mar Vista Community Council is a honey pot for politicians. It’s genuine community action and it’s insanely popular. Click here to keep reading The Dry Garden column on a miracle of community organizing in Los Angeles.…
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