{"id":65236,"date":"2015-05-27T12:57:22","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T16:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=65236"},"modified":"2015-05-27T12:57:22","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T16:57:22","slug":"the-leonotis-leonurus-down-the-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=65236","title":{"rendered":"the Leonotis leonurus down the street"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><big><center><\/p>\n<p>This Lion&#8217;s Tail is thriving in the front garden of a neighbor who took advantage of the first wave of lawn removal rebates offered a few years ago by our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lblawntogarden.com\/\">local water department<\/a>.<br \/>\nI&#8221;ve been personally characterizing the latest round of lawn rebates after April 2015 as the second wave, just to distinguish between the two, because I have noticed some differences.<br \/>\nThe first wave of rebates resulted in front gardens filled with natives and other dry-adapted plants like this leonotis from South Africa designed around paths, berms and swales.<br \/>\nThe work and planting in the first wave was mostly done and\/or directed by the homeowner.  This Lion&#8217;s Tail garden also includes, among others, ceanothus and the Indian Mallow, Abutilon palmeri.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/may2015general\/1-P1016133.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\" photo 1-P1016133.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In contrast, I&#8217;ve noticed that a lot of the second-wave designs include far fewer kinds of plants, and quite often are entirely of smallish succulents.<br \/>\nWidely spaced succulents bedded in gravel or mulch and laid out in a horizontal grid.  <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/may2015general\/1-P1016136.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\" photo 1-P1016136.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now that actual water restrictions are in place as of April 2015, the second-wave gardens are being executed in more haste and less planning than the first wave.<br \/>\nLess planning and haste seem to be hallmarks of a well-known company which leaves its sign in the newly planted grid advertising free lawn removal in exchange for the rebate.<br \/>\nNot that there&#8217;s anything wrong with seizing an entrepreneurial opportunity.<br \/>\nBut results from the second wave are almost a throwback to that time when a dry garden meant a kitschy collection of cacti, bleached cow skulls, and wagon wheels in white rock mulch.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/may2015general\/1-P1016111.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\" photo 1-P1016111.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/may2015general\/1-P1016134.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\" photo 1-P1016134.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hopefully, there will be some fine-tuning of these second-wave gardens by the owners now that the heavy lifting part of the job has been done.<br \/>\nThe Lion&#8217;s Tail doesn&#8217;t mind pruning, dry conditions, and will roar in full-throated tawny bloom spring through fall.  For full sun.<\/p>\n<p><\/big><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Lion&#8217;s Tail is thriving in the front garden of a neighbor who took advantage of the first wave of lawn removal rebates offered a few years ago by our local water department. I&#8221;ve been personally characterizing the latest round &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=65236\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[36],"tags":[4219,4199,4218,4198,1123],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-gYc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65236"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65236"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65607,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65236\/revisions\/65607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}