The Dry Garden: Pruning sage
Posted on | August 27, 2010 | No Comments
Last spring, horticulturist Lili Singer remarked to me that one of the most touching mistakes she sees made by novice dry gardeners is timidity in pruning their sages. And so, in the summer edition of the Theodore Payne Foundation’s Poppy Print newsletter, she nudges native gardening converts to do it.
With thanks to Lili for the push, I am going to echo the prompt in this column in the hope that others may learn to work out their frustrations on their gardens in such a timely fashion.
If it seems late, it isn’t. Only the most ferociously organized gardeners dead-head sage as soon as the flowers fade in June. Watching the flush of flowers drying on the branch through July and August makes for too many sunset grace notes. As Lili notes, birds move in and glean the seeds. Yet by late August, those fluttering elegies to spring just look dead, and it’s as obvious to the most laissez faire gardener as it is to the fire marshal that it is time to prune.
Click here to keep reading about pruning sage in this week’s ‘The Dry Garden’ in the Los Angeles Times.
Four scenarios for climate change and water
Posted on | August 26, 2010 | No Comments
The US Environmental Protection Agency has opened a 45-day public comment period for a draft report looking at impacts of climate change on the water supplies of four American urban regions: the Bay Area in Northern California, Seattle in the Pacific Northwest, New York City in the Northeast and Spartansburg in upstate South Carolina. Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments: Four Case Studies of Water Utility Practices was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment’s Global Climate Research Staff, formerly known as the Tortuous Title Division of Guess Whether or Not it’s a Quango. As it is a draft, the agency requests that readers not cite or quote the content. However, it does welcome feedback. Consider mine given on the title and name of the author. Click here for the EPA’s main climate change page.
Betting man seeks angles
Posted on | August 25, 2010 | No Comments
It’s unclear to seasoned observers whether the speculators behind Cadiz Inc, a company pushing an outlandish plan to tap desert groundwater for Southern California cities, plan to go for actual water, or are content to capitalize on the stock market on the sheer prospect of mining it. Cadiz founder Keith Brackpool likes to play all the angles.
To appreciate just how many angles, check out Capitol Weekly’s report today on a Brackpool-backed bill in the California legislature seeking to change rules as to how one can wager on horse-racing.
“One key component added to the bill is exchange betting,” reports the Weekly. “This is a type of betting that allows players to essentially bet against a horse, or bet that a horse will finish in a particular spot in a race, or take innumerable other possible positions. Unlike traditional betting, where the track provides odds on particular horses, the house merely facilitates complex bets between willing parties. People can stake out positions and even sell them to others bettors prior to a race.”
Brackpool, a generous donor to [and/or employer of] a string of powerful politicians including former California Governor Gray Davis, Schwarzenegger Chief of Staff Diana Kennedy and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to the state horse-racing board last September and became chairman in January. The Weekly reports that he also owns several politicians, excuse me, horses.
The city flower
Posted on | August 24, 2010 | 3 Comments
LA's city flower, the bird of paradise, is actually a native of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The image is a detail taken from "The Lilies," a Taschen collection of paintings of plants in the Liliaceae by botanical illustrator Pierre-Joseph Redouté. Click on the ikhamanga, aka Strelitzia reginae, aka bird of paradise, to find out more about "The Lilies" and the 18th century artist nicknamed 'Raphael of Flowers.'
A year after the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power began offering $1/square foot for home owners to rip out lawn, KPCC reports that the Los Angeles County Waterworks Districts is following suit. A teaser interview today by Patt Morrison with horticulturist Lili Singer, special projects director of the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers & Native Plants, will be followed by a longer appearance by Singer tomorrow on AirTalk.
By all means tune in because ripping out your lawn is the right thing to do, but tune in if you simply like plants. Many of you will know Singer from the garden show that she did for KCRW in the 1990s, others will have taken her newsletter, yet others will have followed her in the Los Angeles Times. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, there is a treat in store. Her presence on AirTalk makes it one phone-in program where even too-cool-for-school types should seriously consider dialing the expert. Singer’s kind, helpful, smart, funny and, best of all, back on the radio.
Heat wave
Posted on | August 23, 2010 | No Comments
The National Weather Service on Sunday issued a heat advisory for Southern California lasting through Thursday. During the peak of it, valleys could range from 98-108 degrees F, lower mountains 96-107, Antelope Valley 102-110 and the inland coastal plain 90-98.
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