Monthly Archives: April 2012

freeway wildflowers

Two Sundays ago, on Earth Day, in fact, I bounded out of bed early to head for a strip of wildflowers I’d been watching gain momentum for weeks and which looked to be approaching peak bloom. Instead of driving miles … Continue reading

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Saturday’s Clippings 4/28/12

I enjoyed this article very much earlier in the week, well worth a Sunday read: “Any patch of earth, large or small, turns out to be a mad surprise party of species — fluid, unpredictable and wild — and a … Continue reading

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selections from Mar Vista’s Green Garden Showcase

A quick look back at one of the gardens on the Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase last Saturday, which was a huge tour, with over 80 houses participating. Careful logistical preparation is required, researching and winnowing through descriptions online, mapping … Continue reading

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Carex pansa

“Somewhere out there in nature, he reasoned, there had to be a grass…that would be naturally low-growing, drought-tolerant, evergreen, and trampleable: a natural lawn grass.” – The New Yorker, August 19, 1996, “The Grassman.” Carex pansa, the California meadow sedge, … Continue reading

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the clematis club

I’m referring to a club in the informal sense, with really only one criterion for membership. And that is to push on past the inevitable early disappointments associated with growing clematis until one is found that will bloom in your … Continue reading

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Occasional Daily Photo 4/21/12

Some mornings the poppies do an especially fine job of arranging their blooms throughout the gravel garden. Orange notes from Papaver rupifragum and dyckia (I know I keep referring to this bit of garden as the “gravel garden,” which it … Continue reading

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friday’s clippings 4/20/12

Friday’s Clippings is a handy blog closet into which accumulated stuff can be shoved at the end of the week, things I want to refer to again that might be of wider interest. And speaking of odds and ends shoved … Continue reading

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quick trip to Rolling Greens

Work cancelled at the last minute today, the message on the phone said, so there I was in a Culver City business center parking garage with nothing to do. Driving around Culver City, I mulled the situation over and considered … Continue reading

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221 North Figueroa Street, Los Angeles

From the tenth floor looks like this: And at ground level. Aloes, furcraea, Kalanchoe thyrsiflora, Senecio mandraliscae, Dichondra argentea. One of the most successful public plantings of succulents I’ve seen around town. It’s been at least five years since I … Continue reading

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Foliage Followup April 2012

Grasses and agaves, yes, of course, solidity and movement, so why not grasses and aloes? A youngish Aloe marlothii and the evergreen cold blue steel blades of Blue Oat Grass, Helicotrichon sempervirens. I can’t imagine keeping a plant in the … Continue reading

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