The Plan

"Before you can have a meadow, you will have to get rid of these weeds," Jackie said. So I'm pulling weeds. I am not listening to music or a book on tape through this task. I'm listening to my yard. I'm connecting. I'm thinking about if and where to plant a fig tree. I'm wondering what will grow against the back of the garage. I'm cussing at this stubborn weed that finally pulls up with a 12 inch root.

Brendon East from Channel Islands Landscape & Design visited my home on Wednesday Dec 16th. He was recommended to me by Nopalito Nursery in Ventura. I checked out his website and was impressed. They do it all.

Brendon listened to my vision for my yard. He walked with me, making comments about the soil, the gophers, the ivy growing up a pepper tree, my driveway that will need to be replaced, raised beds for my kitchen garden. He took some measurements. I told him that I would be interviewing Jackie Worden from A Water Wise Garden and he seemed pleased. They have collaborated on other projects and made a good team. Jackie draws up the plans and recommends plants, and Brendon and his crew concentrate on the “hard scape”.

Hardscape is irrigation, fencing, driveways, raised garden structures, walls, and other inanimate elements of the yard.

Softscape is the plant material.

I was looking forward to meeting Jackie. She came by on Dec 23rd. I liked her immediately because she couldn’t help noticing bird calls and named the birds. A hawk flew over and I got a lesson in the warning calls of the little birds congregating in a tree. When I described a snake I found in my yard, that dropped its tail, she told me it was a CA legless lizard. She knows her stuff. I want bougainvillea in the front, but it’s too shady in the front of my house. But she wants to please me and kept looking for the perfect spot for bougainvillea in the backyard. I like this.

I met Jackie at the Salmon Run in November. She was answering questions at the National Wildlife Federation table, featuring Bird-friendly Habitat. While talking to her in my dining room, I learned that she is a Environmental Biologist. She knows her stuff.

She liked my amateur yard plan and noticed right away the sticky notes I had pasted to the side that said things like, weather station, compost pile, worm farm, kitchen garden, outdoor shower. I had a stack of books from the library to show her pictures to illustrate my ideas. She sensed my vision. What cinched the deal was when I showed her a picture of a meadow in an LA garden in one of the library books.

“Can I have a meadow?”

“Sure, we could make a meadow area.”

“No, not an area, the whole backyard.”

“Oh better yet. You might be able to do everything in your budget if we postpone the driveway. But before you can have a meadow, you have to get rid of these weeds.”

No problem. I skipped. Maybe it was a hop.