 |
Water-Smart Garden Tour |
|
|
Water-Smart Garden Tour |
Back Row: Bill Patterson, Brett Graf, Golden Love, Chris Perri (Presenter), Boby Markowitz, Susan McDonald
Front Row: Denise Weatherwax (standing), Barbara Olsen, Rick Weiss, Martha WeissTheme Awards
Creative Lawn Alternatives (Sponsor: Pacific Ground Cover & Nursery)
Professional: Karen Runyan Gardening (World Traveler Garden in Seaside Highlands)
This is a beautiful example of what one can do with a typical, small, suburban back yard. The hot and sunny location is perfect for the Australian, New Zealand and Mediterranean coastal natives and is very low maintenance. The garden’s patch of the lawn substitute Silver Carpet (Dymondia margaretae) helped it to win the Lawn Alternative category.
Homeowner: Terry Winston and Dan Davis (Aptos)
The backyard was terraced and the lawn replaced with Woolly Thyme (Thymus pseudolanuginosus) and Elfin Thyme (T. praecox 'Elfin'). There are lots of unusual California native and Mediterranean plants around the perimeter and an area for shade-loving plants. Lots of mulch makes this yard very drought-tolerant.
California Native Garden (Sponsor: Native Revival Nursery)
Professional: Brett Graf (Santa Cruz, property of Jeb Bishop, Cripple Creek Condos)
The plants at this location are both drought-tolerant, and native to California. The selection includes plants for sun and plants for shade. A feature of this garden is the stream planting using California native plants that will help clean up the water. Special treatment has been given to hillsides.
Homeowner: (no winner in category)
Succulent Plants (Sponsor: Monterey Bay Master Gardeners)
Professional: (no winner in category)
Homeowner: Maureen & David Wilmot (La Selva Beach)
This garden shows many simple but sophisticated ideas for water conservation, including an outdoor shower/French drain, downspout diversions, and pavers installed in sand. The Wilmot’s drought-tolerant plant choices include a bed of succulents for which they won the Succulent Garden Award.
Mediterranean Plants (Sponsor: Monterey Bay Master Gardeners)
Professional: Susan Wyche (Green Perspectives) & Barbara Olsen Designs (Rio Del Mar, garden of Martha & Rick Weiss)
This garden features an amazing water-smart transformation. Rick and Martha Weiss committed to removing their 4,000 square foot front lawn after they received their first water bill. Susan Wyche from Green Perspectives redesigned the space and made up the plans and Barbara Olsen Designs installed the water-smart Mediterranean style garden. The garden was re-sloped to improve drainage, drip irrigation was installed and three inches of mulch were applied to the newly planted drought -tolerant plants. The Weiss’s reduced their outside water use by 50%.
Homeowner: Denise Weatherwax (Santa Cruz)
Raised beds and groupings of California natives and Mediterranean plants meet the challenges of this coastal garden located half a block from Monterey Bay. Wild Lilac (Ceanothus) and African Daisies (Osteospermum) occupy a small part of the front yard beneath a Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata), while shade-loving, frost tender plants create interest beneath a second-story deck. The rest of the front yard consists of Sage (Salvia), Lavender (Lavendula), and Butterfly Bush (Buddleia) grouped around an Olive (Olea europea). The backyard lawn has been replaced by dry-stacked stone raised beds lined with gopher wire. The beds accommodate a variety of perennials, reseeding annuals and vegetables. The soil is fortified with homemade compost and is irrigated by drip as needed.
Water-Smart Garden Winners for Monterey County
Professional: Karen Runyan Gardening (Monterey, Emeralds and Gold Garden in Seaside Highland)
A creative combination of brightly colored, shade-loving plants combines with a dramatic water feature to show how to bring light into a dark garden area. The side garden is filled with drought-tolerant plants and contrasts nicely to what is around the corner.
Professional: Susan McDonald (Carmel Valley)
The garden is primarily committed to California native plants, plus grasses, Manzanita (Arctostaphylos), Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium), New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax), Elderberry (Sambucus nigra canadensis), Olive (Olea europea), Weeping Bottlebrush (Callistemon viminalis 'Little John'), Our Lord's Candle (Yucca whipplei) and Blue Oak (Quercus douglasii). Chalk rock around the border and the choice of plants set off the amazing views of this mountainside site.
Homeowner: Sandy Braddock (Monterey)
This lush garden shows how drought-tolerant plants can be blended with some specimens of moderate water use plants to create a woodland setting. The owner has used smart water practices to reduce water use by 40% over the past ten years.
Water-Smart Garden Winners for Santa Cruz County
Professional: Brett Graf, Habitat Gardens (Santa Cruz, garden of Karen Theisen)
This waterless irrigation garden is filled with colorful California native and Mediterranean plants. Succulents are used in other areas. The driveway was recycled into a rainwater cache using old concrete as flagstones, and then planted with Thyme (Thymus). Vegetables and herbs are located in the front yard.
Professional: Golden Love, Love Gardens (Santa Cruz)
This garden shows efficient use of small spaces. The property has a dry creek bed that is used to solve winter flooding. A water cache system stores rainwater for garden use. There are fruit trees and vegetables planted in mounds. Lots of California native and other drought-tolerant plants are interplanted with vegetables.
Professional: Nikos Lynch, Terra Bella Landscaping (Santa Cruz, garden of the Bettencourts)
Professional: Bobby Markowitz, Earthcraft Designs (Soquel, garden of Jim & Carolyn Bowen)
This 1.5-acre Japanese style garden is irrigated with rainwater that fell on the roof during the winter. The blue tile roof drains to rain gutters and into a holding tank. A pump pushes it through a series of filters and then up to a series of tanks on the hill that hold 30,000 gallons of water. The plants are then watered through a drip system fed by gravity from the tanks. The garden is mulched and features many drought-tolerant plants.
Homeowner: Karin Grobe (Santa Cruz)
This residential garden is a thriving food producer that goes easy on natural resources. In spite of having a heavy clay soil, the garden yields a wide variety of annual and perennial vegetables, as well as dry-farmed fruits such as apples, pears, oranges, persimmons, lemons, figs and avocados. Sages (Salvia), Fuchsias (Fuchsia x hibrida), Beard Tongues (Penstemon), Peruvian Lilies (Alstroemeria) and Lavenders (Lavendula) provide color and texture. The difficult soil conditions have been modified with an initial amendment of topsoil followed by the ongoing use of conventional and worm composting. All of the green prunings from the garden are composted in bins, and the family’s food scraps are composted in worm bins.
Homeowner: Christine & Rick Moran (Ben Lomond)
Beds of tall bearded iris put on a beautiful show every May in this Santa Cruz Mountains garden located on two-thirds of an acre in Ben Lomond. These tough but delicate annuals require almost no water and are hardy to 0° Fahrenheit, making them ideal candidates for low water landscapes throughout Santa Cruz county. A fruit and vegetable garden requires occasional supplemental watering, but the rest of the landscape mimics wild California, with Manzanita (Arctostaphylus) occupying the sunny exposures and Douglas Iris (Iris douglasiana), Western Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum), Western Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa), Horsetail (Equisetum hyemale), Western Columbine (Aquilegia formosa) and California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) filling in the sun/shade mix provided by a healthy stand of Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens).
Homeowner: Bill Patterson (Live Oak)
The front yard was mostly lawn. Last year Bill Patterson went through the process of replacing the lawn with drought-tolerant flowers by covering the lawn with cardboard and newspaper and then amending the soil with fresh dirt and compost. He then planted the new plants and wow, what a transformation! After comparing last year’s water use to this year’s water use, we can see his outdoor watering was reduced by about 50%!
Homeowner: Jan Palia (Santa Cruz)
This garden exhibits several “rooms” with plants grouped for visual interest and similar water needs. They have planted a diversity of flowering plants to attract wildlife such as birds and bees and this year was certified as a wildlife habitat through the National Wildlife Federation. It’s either hand watered or watered using soaker hoses and drip.
Honorable Mention School Garden
Harden Middle School, Chris Carrier (Salinas)
Over the past three years, this garden has been developed with native and drought-tolerant plants, as well as handmade engraved bricks and tile mosaic hardscape. Student’s feeling of “ownership” of the garden has kept vandalism to a minimum and has encouraged students to use the garden as a favorite hangout.
Bayview School, Anna Wilson, Garden Coordinator (Monterey)
Although only three months old, the Bayview School’s vegetable garden is charming and also watered completely by hand. Parent volunteers recently landscaped the front of the school with drought-tolerant plants.
Honorable Mention Water Reduction Usage
Wade Petrini, Artificial Lawns Direct (Santa Cruz, garden of Mary Nona Hudson)
Last year this front yard had a thirsty lawn. The lawn was replaced with very real looking artificial turf and bordered by drought-tolerant plants on a drip system. It now only uses about 60 gallons of water a month. This summer the homeowner will notice a significant reduction in water use since the lawn will need no water.