A Little Knowledge

Many years ago, I called the Engineer to proudly tell him that I had decided to personally fix an electrical problem in my house. I had been to the library, found a book with clear and direct instructions for me to follow and I was ready to tackle the job. His reply, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." It made me pause. I don't remember the problem now, only the caution.

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing", is one of those records in my head. It's a good one for me. I'm a jumper. I'm usually in a hurry to start a project, then something interrupts my flow and I am off hurrying in another direction. The finish line is a novel place for me to find myself. When I decided to tackle my whole yard and introduce CA Natives, I knew I needed some education and perseverance. I needed all the help I could get.

The question I wrestle with now is: Am I stalling or learning? In rapid succession I will enter my learning journey of gardening with native plant, discovering local floral and fauna, meeting a community of like minded gardeners. I will give each class and field trip a blog page, the better to sort it all out later. This is the journal I've always wanted to keep.

Prickly Sour Thistle

Asteraceae, sonchus asper

sharp-fringed sow thistle, spiny show thistle

A member of the sunflower family.

NOT a CA native. The leaves are edible. Hmmm.

The leaves are bluish-green, simple, lanceolate, with wavy and sometimes lobed margins, covered in spines on both the margins and beneath. The base of the leaf surrounds the stem. The plant can reach 180 cm (6 ft) in height. The leaves and stems emit a milky sap when cut. The flowers grow in clusters and the end of the stems. (wikipedia)

Wild Cucumber

Echinocystis Lobata

Wild Cucumber

See the spiny fruit in the upper lefthand corner?

This invasive vine grows all over a tree in a neighbors yard. She's not fond of it since when the fruit dries and falls, it is rather unpleasant to step on. I searched the web to identify this vine and finally I found this wonderful article all about wild cucumber - pictures galore. Enjoy.

Capeweed

Arctotheca calendula

Capeweed, Cape Dandelion, Cape Marigold

This weed comes from Cape Prince in South Africa. Some plant it on purpose as a ground cover. It grows in rosettes and sends out stolons. Stolons are stems growing along or under the ground and taking root at the nodes or apex to form new plants. In other words, trouble.

Red Sand Spurry

Spergularia Rubra

red sand spurry

This is another non-native plant that has done well in CA.

Camarillo Bird Museum

Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology

The Bird Museum (Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology) is located at

439 Calle San Pablo in Camarillo, CA.

On the last Friday of the month from 3-4pm they conduct a public tour of the Museum. They limit the group to 20 people, so if you plan to visit them it is a good idea to make a reservation by calling 805-388-9944.

I took this tour on Friday, Jan 29th. This is what you can expect:

The tour will be full.

The museum is cold. Bring a jacket.

You will be entertained. Rene Corado, the Collections Manager gave us a very informative tour and told us exciting stories about his travels to collect specimens.

The museum houses 190,000 bird eggs, representing 4,000 bird species; 18,000 nests; 55,000 bird study skins and 8,000 books on birds and natural history. You will see a tiny fraction of these.

I hope you visit their website. Check back again in July to find information about bird identification classes they will offer in September and October.

Common Stork's Bill

Erodium Cicutarium

Common names: Redstem filaree, Redstem stork's bill, Common stork's bill.

This pretty 'weed' is an herbaceous annual, and in warm climates a biennial member of the Geranium Family of flowering plants. It is native to the Mediterranean Basin and was introduced to North America in the eighteenth century.

The stems bear bright pink flowers, arranged in loose cluster, and often have dark spots on the bases. The leaves are pinnate and fern-like, and the long seed-pod, shaped very much like the bill of a stork, bursts open in a spiral when ripe, sending the seeds (which have little feathery parachutes attached) into the air. Fun for all. I know you've done it, barely touched the tip of one of those spines and watched it curl back in fear.

Here's where it gets tricky:
The seeds of this annual are a species collected by various species of harvester ants.

It is a food plant for the larvae of the Brown Argus butterfly.

The entire plant is edible with a flavor similar to sharp parsley if picked young.

If I watch them carefully, maybe I'll put a couple plants aside for the ants, the butterflies and me.

Oriental Hedge Mustard

Sisymbrium Orientale

Common names: Oriental Hedge Mustard, Indian Hedge Mustard, Tumble Mustard

Not a CA native. It's a dicot (dicotyledon). Dicot is a name for a group of flowering plants whose seed typically has two embryonic leaves or cotyledons.

Still Planning

Books help a lot in the planning stage and the library has been a great source of information. I am building muscles carrying books back and forth. I have spent hours pouring over pictures and information, making notes and visualizing the future of my yard. However, there is nothing like a field trip. Seeing plants and fountains and gardens in person is essential for me. So off I went.....

Jackie Worden suggested that I check out Terra Sol Nursery in Santa Barbara. She knows that I need a water source (fountain, birdbath) in my yard and that I love succulents. Both are in good supply at this nursery. I also found a worm can

and some benches that I like. On a rack in the office area I found seed packets from Botanical Interests seed company. Organic. Some heirloom.

From there I drove to The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. I walked the entire garden, making notes of the manzanitas, meadow grasses, vines and ground covers. I'm aware of benches and paths, of color and texture. I enjoyed an outdoor art exhibit, 'from ashes to art' to honor the May 2009 Fire - they sliced burnt trees and had visitors write on them, then constructed these art-poles.

Then a friend suggested we visit Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria. Seaside gardens is planted in sections so you get a real feel for different types of atmospheres. Asian, Australian, Mediterranean, CA Native, Meadow, and so on. Exquisite. If you get a chance, stop by to look for yourself. I'm going to have a meadow. I fell in love with this grass.

I kept my hands in my pockets and my wallet in the car. It's hard to maintain this planning discipline. For me, it's essential to get the water structure in place before I plant. It's look, don't buy for another month or so.

Velvet Leaf

January is an important month for the Ventura gardener. This is year One in my garden and most of the big jobs for the gardener will wait. This is a start up year. I won't be trimming trees, I'm still planning. Weeds are my big January job. A little rain has turned my backyard into a tangle of weeds. A walk around my neighborhood proved that I'm alone.

I am curious about these weeds. What are they? Some have pretty little flowers. When you look closely at them, many are quite beautiful. I found a weed identification website that is very helpful. They have a weed ID tool. It's a series of multiple choice questions. They tell you not to answer all of the questions, because one false answer will lead you to the wrong weed.

Here is the weed:

The first question to answer is Board leaf, Grasslike or Woody? I chose Broad leaf.
"Where was this weed found?" I answered Urban - Garden/Landscape/Parks.
"General Characteristics - Growth Form," I chose- upright.
"Leaf Characteristics - Leaf Arrangement," I chose - alternate.
With that, I hit 'search database'.

The result was a list of possible weeds, with scientific names and Common names and pictures. I need pictures and they are very generous with pictures. This weed is definitely, without a doubt: Abutilon theophrasti or commonly called Velvet leaf because of her soft leaves or China Jute because of her tough fibers. She came here from China originally, to be a fiber crop, now, she's a lowly weed.

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.

The Getty

Last week I met with Brendon of Channel Island Landscape & Design. This week I will meet with the Jackie of A Water Wise Garden. I'll discuss those visits in my next blog. I will be working with both of them and I want to blog the whole story in one piece.

After the Brendon left I was feeling buoyed for a couple of hours and then panic stepped in again. What plants do I want? Do I want color in the front or shades of green and white and lots of texture? Since I can't do it all on my budget this year, what is really the most important? What can wait until next year?

Action always calms me and the most immediate thing I could think to do was to dig through my old Sunset magazines. I found gardens I loved and ripped out the pages; I started a new folder. I have to see the mature plants. I have to think about what they will look like in the summer and in the winter. I'm thinking about butterflies and birds. And gophers. I'm thinking about vegetables and herbs. Do I really need a little orchard that will produce too much fruit? Maybe. Maybe it will be barter produce. What about a cutting garden? Doesn't that sound romantic? "Where is C. D.? Oh, she's gathering a bouquet in the cutting garden."

In October of 2008, Sunset Magazine wrote an article; well did a 2 page photo spread with a few words, about the The Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Specifically about the cactus garden. Light bulb. I'll go to the Getty.

On Sunday I went to the Getty and took the garden tour. At the entrance to the Central Garden there is a concrete plaque on the walkway.

It's hard to read but it says

EVER                  EVER

PRESENT          CHANGING

NEVER                 NEVER

TWICE            THE LESS THAN

SAME                  WHOLE


DECEMBER ROBERT

1997 IRWIN


All of the Getty gardens were experiencing CA winter. The deciduous trees were bare. The grasses that grow 6' and cascade, were cut back. The bougainvillea was cut back. Plantings of dogwoods, red, yellow and orange were placed just for the winter. OH NO. I thought. Will I want to plant for the seasons and replant? Definitely NOT. I took some pictures of some plants that I thought I would like. I hope the gardeners can tell me what they are. The garden guide didn't know this detail. She was versed in the art of the garden, not in the horticulture of the garden.

My Getty garden guide opened my eyes to 'view'. How will the garden look when driving by? How will it look from inside the house looking out? If I plant a tree there, will it block my view of the city? And she pointed out lines and colors and water and fragrance. I know that it will all get more comfortable as I go along, but right now I feel overwhelmed.

I went to the library and checked out books on Mediterranean gardens, kitchen vegetable and herb gardens and Robert Irwin's Getty Garden. I went on line to the Sunset Magazine website. My 5 year old granddaughter helped me measure the area I am considering for the kitchen garden. I drew up a couple of ideas for the lay out of raised beds. She helped. The budget is tight and I need to know a little about what I am doing. Time is money. I’m cramming for an exam.

I dreamed that the installation crew was here. They had dug a big hole and were installing a globe in the top left corner of my front yard. They had the driveway pulled up and several men were planting I don’t know what along my circle drive. And, they were doing something structural in the garage. “I haven’t approved the plan. I haven’t signed a contract, how much is this costing me?” I ran screaming out the front door. “And I haven’t even met Jackie yet.”

The project has taken over my days and my nights.

The Designers Are Coming

Yikes. Why do I feel this panic? What have I done? I'm about to hire a landscape designer. The idea is exciting and frightening. What am I thinking? I'm thinking can I afford it? Will I be able to get my vision across? There's so much to do. Now here's a curious thought. I'm thinking it so I'll put it out here. There is so much to do can it ever get done? Is this normal? This yen and yang of my thought process?

I decided to take a walk around the yard with pen and paper. Make a list. Start in the front and work to the back. List everything, sort it later. It calms me. It's just a yard. I've already wasted so much money in past years, planting and not watering; getting excited and then distracted. I could have paid 6 designers by now.

So BRING IT ON. I will interview 2 designers this week. My first one is coming on Wednesday. I'm ready. I'm calmer now. It's just a yard. And what a yard it will be.

Nopalito Nursery

My appointment with Antonio at Nopalito Native Plant Nursery was at 1pm on Tuesday. I left early. I have a reputation for taking the long way. Who was the wise man that said there is no wrong way? Well, I like that philosophy. I knew the Nursery was near Lassens, I had the map on the back of their business card and I had visited their web site. I was prepared.

I took the 101 N from my home, took the Telephone Rd off ramp, turned left onto Telephone, drove under the freeway and turned right onto Main St. I started looking for that view I saw on the website, of the benches and the wagons and the office kiosk. I saw Lassens, but no benches. I continued down Main St.

Plan B. Check the address. 4107 E. Main St. I had clearly gone too far. I turned around. When I got to 4100 block I knew I was close and pulled into a parking lot (now on the left). There they were. Over there. ACROSS from Lassens, sharing the parking lot.

(I made a second pass at the Nursery to give you better directions. When you turn onto Main Street from Telephone, you will drive 2 blocks and cross Donlon. Pay attention now because there on the right is the Lassen's sign - that's the driveway you want. Turn right into the driveway and you will see Nopalito Nursery in the back on the right.)

It's a tough find. But once you know where they are, you can't get lost again. I was early. I had brought my 3 ring binder. I felt like the first time I visited my accountant with my shoe box of receipts and papers, not knowing what to expect.

I was pretty sure that Antonio was the man in the kiosk helping customers. I decided to have a look around. I was greeted by Kenji. Seeing my 3 ring binder he had me pegged for a sales rep. I was feeling like a bumbling amateur gardener and he thought I was a sales rep. What about that? We talked about my yard a little, about their business a little. He told me that they would be having classes and speakers in the building adjacent to their business, beginning in January. Kenji, being the gentleman that he is, stayed with me until Antonio was free.

In my notebook I have some photos of my yard. An empty canvas I call it. And I have a plan I made in a landscape design class years ago. I had a wild list of my wants. A weather station, a compost pile, a little worm farm, an outdoor shower, a small orchard, a little propagation house, a vegetable garden, a reading room, a fire pit ...... Antonio was able to see right to my most immediate need. FIRST I needed a landscape designer to make the big plan. And then they can help me with the plants. Before we were finished, Rick dropped by. So I got to meet all of the owners. Antonio gave me the business card of a couple in Ventura that do landscape design. I signed my name to their email list so I would be informed of their classes and lectures and went on my way.

I left Nopalito Nursery content. I had what I needed. Kenji, Antonio and Rick are professional. They know their product. They have been in business since late October but it feels like they are long established. I'll be back for sure, for classes, lectures and plants. And I'll be bringing my neighbors.

Drip, Drip, Drip

Water

Drip, Drip, Drip. Hear it? That’s the faucet in my kitchen sink dripping at the rate of 30 drips per minute into my 1 quart Pyrex measuring cup. I’ve set the timer to see how much water I collect in an hour. Before I fix the faucet, I want to know how much water I’m wasting. I don’t want to waste water.

Water is a big problem for me. I come from the area of the US where rain takes care of the yard. I’ve been in CA now for 40+ years and like those foreigners that never lose their accent, I can’t learn to water my yard. The only solution will be to finally have a system that waters efficiently with little effort from me

My faucet drip collected 2 ¼ C of water, that’s 18 oz., in one hour. Little by little a tiny drop became 2 ¼ cup of water. Imagine that. I’m thinking a drip system will be my yard choice.

The Yard

I have some ideas about my yard. I want a sign in my front yard before the end of 2010 that tells my neighbors that I have a Certified Wildlife Garden and I want a year round vegetable garden. I want my granddaughter to love the yard. When I take her to visit friends with interesting yards, she says, “I wish we lived here.” I tell her, “We can do this too. We can create a garden.” It makes her smile.

Education
On Saturday November 20, 2009, I took a class called, “Winter Gardening” through Ventura College’s Adult Education. Our instructor was John Windsor. When I got home from class on Saturday, charged with renewed resolve, I went to my bookcase. There I found:

A children’s book, Gardening Is Easy When You Know How published in 1974. The book is full of ideas for children to learn about seeds and planting. When I opened the cover, two torn pages from an unknown magazine titled, “Electronic garden journal” fell out. In 1974 I knew that I wanted to journal about gardening, to have a record I could use yearly, the intense work done in year one, then enjoying subsequent years making adjustments. 1974 is 35 years ago. I don’t have a garden journal.

Also on the bookshelf:
Sunset Western Garden Book Copyright 1973
Growing California Native Plants 1980
Sunset Waterwise Gardening Copyright 1989
The City Gardener’s Handbook from Balcony to Backyard Copyright 1990
Rodale’s Successful Organic Gardening HERBS Copyright 1993
Sunset Landscaping and Garden Remodeling Book Copyright 1994.
6 old The Herb Companion magazines I picked up from the giveaway basket at my favorite yarn shop.
Creative Concrete Ornaments for the Garden Copyright 2005

Finally, the goldmine. My 3” three-ringed binder of collective attempts to garden, landscape, and plan. See. I put them in reverse order. Plan should come first. My brain doesn’t ever start there.

In the Binder I found instructions and notes from another class I took. 13 steps of Landscaping your yard. 1. Measure the site and make a plot plan. That’s a big step. And I found the drawing I made of my yard.

Now is a good time to say that it’s paramount that you have a sense of humor about the journey of life. “Be gentle with yourself and if you didn’t get past step one then, you can start on step 2 now,” I tell myself.

Step 2 should be: Know when you need help.

That brings me to other recent events. On Sunday November 8, 2009 I participated in the 16th annual Salmon Run to benefit the Matilija Coalition. In the Patagonia parking lot an information and walk/run support community was set up. There I found the Nopalito Native Plant Nursery. They were busy and I didn’t yet have a plan, except that I wanted native plants in my yard. I grabbed their business card and put it into my pocket. That same day I went to the Ojai Farmer’s Market to visit my Dutch flower grower friend and there the Nopalito Nursery was again. I made a mental note to visit them soon, after I took the Winter Gardening class.

Step 2 might also be: Establish a budget. Yes, first a budget. Then get help to make a plan, then a priority list.

“Know thyself,” Socrates said. I know watering is my number one failing. Water will have to be at the top of the list. Drip, drip, drip. Can you hear it? Sounds like an analogy is coming. Drip, drip, drip may become my new mantra. Make a consistent effort in the yard and it will become your dream yard. I’m counting on the youthful energy of Nopalito Nursery to answer my questions and guide my way.

I hope you’ll join me and learn along with me about gardening 52 weeks a year in Ventura County.