Get in the Dirt

Ocean View Farms Community Garden, Photo by Kathy Vilim

~Gardening not only puts food on the table, it also feeds my soul~

Usually I write about things to do in the backyard garden.  However, with the high cost of housing in SoCal, for many having a backyard garden is but a distant dream. After I sold my house, I missed gardening so much and wondered where I could garden. Then I discovered Ocean View Farms, a non-profit community garden in Mar Vista.

Community gardens are a wonderful resource.  They feed the need to see things grow, to nurture new life, to get in the earth and get soil under your fingernails.  When I am at my garden plot, I feel the sun warm my skin and the breezes pick up my hair.  All around me things are growing.  The place is alive with busy insects and butterflies and the splashes of color that flowers add. Here I can make a difference.  I can grow my own food.  Tomatoes simply are not the same in the store, after you’ve tasted hand-picked organic tomatoes.  And, I can give back to pollinators by planting nectar rich flowers and milkweed.

Are you interested in finding a place to garden? LA.Curbed.com has provided a list of the 10 best community gardens in Los Angeles County (compiled by Will Cooley)

Ocean View Farms Community Garden, photo by Kathy Vilim

Ocean View Farms:

I was happy to see that the garden I belong to, OceanViewFarms, is on the 10 Best Community Gardens list. A non-profit community garden in Mar Vista (established in 1977), it earned mention for having the “Most Impressive Compost.”  I would have to agree that their compost set up is extensive and impressive.  The “black gold” that results makes for a rich, organic garden compost that is available for all members to use.  In return, the members all contribute their spent vegetable plants to the compost pile.

For me this is a very important resource.  Your vegetables will only be as good as the soil that goes into growing them.  In Southern California it can be difficult to keep dry, sandy soil rich and fertile enough for a good harvest all by yourself.  Having a garden community to work with is a benefit I certainly appreciate.

Ocean View Farms is a large (500 plots) well-established community garden providing many resources for its members, including: a tool shed where tools are made available, a greenhouse for seed starting, and an orchard with fruit for the enjoyment of all members.

Did I mention that this garden is organic? Everything is grown organically. No pesticides whatsoever are used, and the bees say, “Thank you.”

Santa Monica Main Street Community Garden, photo by Kathy Vilim

Santa Monica Main Street Community Garden:

Located on Main Street between Hollister and Strand, this community garden has (73) plots and is also on the 10 Best Community Gardens list mentioned as “Most Integrated Into the Community.” Available exclusively to Santa Monica residents, this garden has a long waiting list. If you’d like to apply, fill out their application here: https://www.smgov.net/Departments/CCS/form.aspx?ekfrm=42024

When I visited this month, the Main Street Garden was holding a breakfast with featured speaker Christy Wilhelmi of GardenNerd. She spoke on Practical Pest Control for Small Space Gardens. It was a good chance to get to know the folks that garden there and discuss what to be growing this spring. The garden was alive with blooming flowers, planted to attract pollinators.  Recent rains have meant more butterflies, in particular Painted Ladies! It has also been a big help to the winter vegetable crops, such as cauliflower, broccoli, and lettuces.

Wattles Farm Main Path & Greenhouse, photo courtesy of Wattles.com

Wattles Farm:

Mentioned on the 10 Best Community Gardens list as “Most Unlikely Oasis,” Wattles Farm has a very interesting history. Located in the heart of Hollywood, this community garden was built on the grounds of a 40-acre estate named “Jualita,” the winter home of businessman Gurdon Wattles. His mansion is designated as City of Los Angeles Cultural Monument No. 579. The mansion with its lush landscaped gardens was built in 1907.

In 1975, an organic community garden was started on 4 of the acres It was one of the first gardens begun through the initiative of Mayor Tom Bradley’s community gardening program. Volunteers cleaned up the previous garden which had fallen into neglect, clearing brush and putting in plumbing for the first plots. They saved hundreds of original avocado and citrus trees in the orchard.

Today the Wattles community garden has 300 members and 172 plots.

“Someone loves this garden and has lent it to you.  

Please respect this kindness and leave it as beautiful as you find it.” 

The spirit of the members is reflected in this sign posted at the entrance to the grounds. It is this spirit of community that has saved the land from developers in this highly-prized part of Hollywood. 

The only problem with community gardens seems to be there are not enough of them! According to the Los Angeles Community Garden Council (LACGC), there are approximately 125 community gardens in Los Angeles County. You can find one near you by visiting their website: http://lagardencouncil.org/find-a-garden/ To learn the membership requirements of each, the application process, and the waiting list contact the garden manager.

If you want to get your hands dirty right away, you should consider volunteering at a local community garden hosted by Los Angeles Community Garden Council.  LACGC has a list of gardens that are looking for volunteers.  You don’t need experience to get started learning to garden. Check them out here: http://lagardencouncil.org/get-involved/volunteer/

Desert Rains Bring Eruption of Painted Ladies to Southern California

            Vanessa cardui, Painted Ladies Butterfly,
                  photo credit: www.laspilitas.com

The other day while I was sitting at a bus stop, I observed a number of tiny shadows flying toward me. I looked up to see butterflies, a whole flock of them!  They were small, almost moth-like.  Later walking to a friend's house, I observed more of these little butterflies, flying up her driveway and then up over the house, heading north.  What the heck was going on?

All over the Southland people have been observing these small orange creatures flying hard in gusty winds. Where did they come from, and where are they headed?  Some people thought they are monarchs migrating north from Mexico.  But, no, monarchs are much bigger. Then I read about the explosion of Painted Lady butterflies! 

Researchers have advised that the Painted Lady butterflies (Vanessa cardui) overwinter in deserts, such as the Mojave and Colorado deserts, before embarking on their annual migration to the Pacific Northwest. The profusion of butterflies happening right now coincides with the super blooms in the desert following all the rainfall we just had. In a normal year, for example, Anza Borego desert gets 3 inches of rain per year. but this year they got 3 inches just over Valentine's Day!  

In the past six drought years California has seen a huge decline in butterflies in general. Probably the most watched are the western Monarchs. Painted Ladies are not in such dire straights as the Monarchs. One of the advantages they have over the Monarchs is that they can eat the nectar of a wide number of plants, so they do not have to search for Milkweed. The usual nectar sources visited by Painted Ladies are nettles, mallows and borages, but they can also enjoy lupine, sunflowers and poppies if rains make them available. They can also ingest a large number of plant toxins. 

Painted Ladies can fly at speeds of up to 25mph. They can travel a distance of 2500 miles. They use the abdominal fat they stored as caterpillars to fuel their flight. Their small 2-3 inch size leaves them largely unnoticed during normal years. It is this year's eruption that have brought them front and center to the attention of Angelenos. 

There is something magical about the flight of the Painted Ladies, en masse during this year's migration. In the urban environment we are thirsty for nature. And these orange winged beauties remind us that all around us, no matter where we are, we can find nature.  And nature never fails to be amazing. 

https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-butterflies-desert-explosion-20190312-story.html

#rainfall #pollinators #butterflies #SoCal

Gardening In the Line of Fire

Manzanita's spring blossoms, of the Genus Arctostaphylos

December 4, 2017: California seems to be on fire.  Everywhere. It started last week when Santa Ana winds stirred up a wildfire in Ventura, California, just to the north of Los Angeles County. I was on my way up to Santa Monica to take care of some business at the courthouse there.  Everyone was talking about the fires. It was a warm, dry day, more like summertime than Christmastime. The sky was hazy and girls passed by with masks over their faces, so as not to breathe in too much ash and particulates. The golden sun took on a new color. It was just the beginning of what would become the week ahead.

My car radio was alive with chatter about how this was not the fire season: It is too late in the year and fires are supposed to be over.  "Newbies" to Los Angeles had to call into the radio station to put in their "two cents," annoying me with how they know all about living in LA.  "This is what it's like living in LA: you never know when there might be a fire and we are always living with this danger..." much like folks back East live with tornadoes or hurricanes or ice storms. I suppose that's what they meant. I wanted to call in and say, "No. This NOT normal for Los Angeles."

For one thing, we are in our 6th year of drought. Nothing is normal now. The trees are stressed. Aluminum has been sprayed on us day in and day out for weather modification... Ah, but that is a subject for another post.

As the car radio droned on, I started thinking about the backyard gardeners in Southern California. We all spend much time and money planning our landscapes: shopping for the right plants, learning where to place them, and how to care for them.  Then, should a fire appear out of nowhere and strike our neighborhood, causing evacuations, we have to leave our gardens behind. When we leave our houses, we leave our gardens, too.  And we don't know what we will come back to.

What a terrible feeling that is!  Even if the insurance companies reimburse you for your house, how do you replace the garden?  All that love and careful nurturing of your plants: they are like friends that cannot be replaced. The only choice is to start over. You assess the damages, decide what to keep and what cannot be saved, and you move on.  And that takes time and money.

So, now we come to why I am writing this blog post. There are things you CAN do to mitigate the destructive effects of wildfires on your garden and make the new garden stronger.  With a little bit of  research, you can make your new garden even more fire resistant!  I suggest you start with taking a look at which plants you choose to put in.

In Southern California there are native plants that are fire resistant and plants that are fire tolerant. There are a good many varieties of plants to choose from. You do not have to go with strickly a "cactus and succulent" garden if you don't want to.  I want to introduce you to some of the native plants I know of that would work well in your new garden.  Like the lovely Manzanita~ If you had a garden full of Manzanita, they would survive fires. Yes, they still burn, but they do not die. Instead, they grow back from a basal stump and eventually return to their enchanting pre-fire forms, producing sweet pink blossoms in spring that pollinators so enjoy.

After a fire, your garden will be void of much brush; it may look like a whole new palette to paint on. So rather than fill it with more plants that would be destroyed if wildfires should come again, consider using native plants that stand up to fire, plants that will be with you for a lifetime. It will make coming home after an evacuation that much less stressful. Your favorite plants might be charred and blackened. They might be smaller versions of their former selves. But they will continue to grow. And the wildlife that called them home will return, too. They will put out seeds that native birds rely on. The ecosystem will continue to thrive, and your garden will be reborn!

Remember, plant fire resiliant and fire tolerant native plants.  Look them up. Research your options.  I will post some great native choices in upcoming blog posts for you.  Because, I am a Southern California gardener, too.  I have lived in the chaparral & soft-scrub areas of the Santa Monica Mountains for most of my adult life. And I have seen what wildfires can do. I am no "newbie" to this place. And I am here to tell you, you can be strong. You can create a better and stronger garden that will last you a lifetime~ 

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Is It Time to Ditch Your Lawn?

iDeer Running through Wildlife Corridor in Toopanga State Park, CAPhoto by: venturacountytrails

It is so dry that deer have appeared on the Pepperdine lawn.  Anyone who has spent any time in Malibu or has just driven up the Pacific Coast Highway has seen that huge expanse of green-covered hillside that is the front lawn of Pepperdine University.  I try not to think about how much water it takes to keep it green throughout the summer!  Now, it seems that the Santa Monica Mountains are so dry that deer are bringing their families down to the Pepperdine lawn to drink the freshly watered lawn, even in January!

California's Drought Emergency

Back in 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown officially declared a drought emergency in California. 2014 had been the state’s driest year on record, with reservoir levels dropping and no rain in sight. It was the third dry winter in a row, and the Dept. of Agriculture declared a natural disaster for 27 California Counties, largely because of the impact on agriculture throughout the State.

Now, fast forward to 2016. We have had 5 years of drought, and this year for the first time ever the Governor had to implement statewide water rationing. He urged us to take a moment to think about how we are all connected to each other in a time of water crisis, as well as being connected to the plants and animals that live here.

It is time to be a sustainable gardener in California. What better time to ditch that lawn? 

More than 50 percent of water use goes to landscaping, in particular lawns. Besides being waterhogs, lawns are unhealthy (to us, to our pets, and to butterflies) because of the high amount of pesticides used to keep them up.

Why not let your lawn go brown?  There are plenty of websites and videos that can show you how to lose your lawn, incl. what grass removal method would work best for you, such as the easy and popular lasagna style.

What will replace my lawn?

1. You can remove entire lawns and replace them with Zen gardens of big boulders and tiny rocks that are raked into designs.

2. Or, you can plant meadow seed mixes. Theodore Payne’s Nursery is an excellent source for California native wildflower seeds and grasses.

3. Make your lawn smaller and your borders deeper. Plant drought-tolerant native plants in your borders. I love Salvias for their drought-tolerance and variety.

4. Make a center island design for a native plant or pollinator garden in the center of your lawn.  

Other water saving measures without losing the lawn include:

5. Reduce your water use in the garden by keeping your topsoil from drying out using mulch in flower beds and small stones in garden paths.

6. Capturing gray water from laundry and showers to reuse in watering the garden. This made a huge difference in my Topanga Canyon garden!

California Gardens Don't Rest in Winter:

In most of the country, where snow falls and covers the lawns for months, the ground gets to rest, and the gardener gets to rest, too.  Out West, we try to keep things green all year long even in dry summers.  Now it seems we can’t rely on all that imported water from places like the Colorado River to keep our manicured lawns looking their best year round.  Instead, we need to make the best use of our precious resources: We need to be more sustainable gardeners.

Being a Sustainable Gardener:

What does that mean? To be a sustainable gardener means to use as little of nature’s resources as possible, and to create gardens that will take care of themselves for years to come. There is no better proven way to do this than to landscape with native plants.  Native plants are naturally adapted to the conditions in which they live. While some are more drought-tolerant than others, most native plants only require extra water when they are first planted and are getting acclimated.

If we Southern Californians are serious about living lightly on the land, we have to remember that the water piped in here is imported, every drop taking away from the water tables of other places.

Luckily, our mild autumn weather gives native gardeners an opportunity to still get out there and make some big changes right now.

Not sure where to start?

Look for native plants that do not need a lot of rainfall (drought tolerant).  There are nurseries that specialize in natives in your area  that would be happy to help you with ideas. Note: Plants called Xeriscape plants are drought tolerant, but are not necessarily native plants.  So if you want to bring a balance to the ecosystem of your garden, you want to opt for adding drought-tolerant California natives instead of plants from elsewhere.

Contact the CA Native Plant Society http://www.cnps.org/ for suggestions on choosing native plants in your region, where to find them, and where to see them.

Some of my all-time favorite native plants that are drought tolerant and also beneficial to pollinators include all of the Sages (Salvia): White Sage, Purple Sage, Black Sage. These are all bee, hummingbird and butterfly magnets, plus they stay green all year long, creating a nice backdrop for many other natives.

Have you ditched or reduced your lawn? Do you have any water conserving tips? If so, we’d love to hear from you~

© 2014, Kathy Vilim. All rights reserved.