How to Garden With California Natives: Lessons from the 2016 Theodore Payne Garden Tour

...antastic sheds in the Loxton/Clark garden: Or this inventive bit of garden art from the Hessing/Bonfigli garden in Altadena: Kelly and I both have mixed feelings about using found materials in a garden. I think the focus is often too much on telling a kind of visual joke, like when you, say put googly eyes on a old muffler and paint it purple. What works about the found art examples below and above from the Hessing/Bonfigli garden is that they are...

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Seed Tape Workshop at Summer Nights in the Garden

...ll Arts BOTANICAL TOURS with NHM Garden Staff SMOKE FLY SAMPLING with NHM Citizen Scientists PATIO CHATS: The Story of P-22, L.A.’s Famous Mountain Lion ENCHANTING TOY THEATER PERFORMANCES by NHM Performing Arts Staff LIVE ANIMAL PRESENTATIONS ART INSTALLATION, “Edge of Color” by Sarah Rara of Lucky Dragons LADWP Save the Drop Photo-Op Hope to see you there. More info on the Museum’s website....

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Mulch Volcanoes: Another Bad Gardening Idea

...ist Herbert Bayer’s EarthMound, 1955. Image: GardenHistoryGirl. How strange gardening practices, such as mulch volcanoes, get started is really interesting to me. Mulch volcanoes remind me of miniature versions of minimalist art earthworks or Native American mounds. Is the mulch volcano a kind of outsider landscape art? Is the mulch volcano a misguided attempt at putting a human imprint on nature, what landscape architects call “clues to care?”...

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I’ll Need This Someday: Clutter Control for Artists and Creatives

...neighbor Doug Harvey who turned the ever present street headboard into an art piece. Then there’s the time I passed up the chance to grab the Olive Motel’s Art Deco sign, only to see it later in a fancy boutique with a $3,500 price tag. What kind of creative person are you? Do you have a “I’ll need this someday” pile? When you’ve been blogging for ten years you sometimes duplicate subject matter. It turns out the Kelly already covered this topic...

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What laundry detergent should I use for greywater applications?

...tly useful site (he in turn, lifted them from the State of California’s Department of Water Resources) Check out that link to Brad’s site for more good info. on greywater detergents, and all things greywater in general: According to State of California Department of Water Resource’s Graywater Guide: Using Graywater in Your Landscape [2], specific ingredients to avoid include: -chlorine or bleach -peroxygen -sodium perborate -sodium trypochlorite -...

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