Our new front yard, part 3: design

...us on what works, and on fostering abundant life. But they do like the way native plants give a strong sense of place and local identity. They also point out that in terms of the color palette and general aesthetic feel of the species, natives tend to go together well. If you have a selection of native species, and you bring in a non-native to fill a specific function in the community you’re designing, that’s fine, and it might work out well, but...

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Our new front yard, part 5: Constructing a meadow community

...Then again, that is true for most art. I spent a lot of hours researching plants, trying to find plants which would work together as a community, had low water needs and which would provide nearly continuous bloom over the course of the year. It’s a puzzle that runs in four dimensions, the fourth dimension being time. Then, of course, I had to find the plants themselves, and that was not so easy. So my original selections were edited to fit what...

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Native Plant Workshop

...misconceptions amongst novice gardeners about native plants: 1. If you use native plants the whole garden has to be natives. In fact, it’s great to mix natives with non-native plants. The natives bring in beneficial wildlife, are hardy and are efficient in terms of water use. Flexibility is key here–go ahead and mix natives with vegetables, fruit trees and other climate-appropriate plantings. 2. Natives aren’t edible. Many natives yield edible and...

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The Manzanita Miracle, or, why you should love native plants if you live in a dry climate

...or a manzanita. Manzanitas (Arctostaphylos) are handsome native California plants–native to the West in general– known especially for their glossy red bark and twisting limbs. They appear as both ground cover and shrubs, and some of the happier shrubs can get big enough to resemble small trees. As a class we ran the calculations needed to figure out how much water a particular manzanita would need in a particular place. These calculations are neve...

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Interview With Apartment Gardener Helen Kim

...Without any effort on my part, all of a sudden I was getting way too much aural and visual information! So I worked a little bit at creating some visual privacy for all of us: I hoisted the further-back plants up on multiple bricks and replanted so that the taller plants blocked the bed-view somewhat… and left the closer plants on sill-level. The step-terrace-thingie was a nice aesthetic result – but totally an accidental by-product stemming from...

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