3767 Redwood Avenue

Featured on Chance of Rain and in the LA Times, this drought resistant garden combines California friendly plants with raised beds of vegetables and herbs. It was is not on the published map so make sure you stroll up Redwood and don't miss it!
The angled walkway in front adds a feeling of depth as plants soften the front entrance and create a meadow woodland feel to give an overall feeling of serenity.

The trees add so much! The Forest Pansy Red Bud is a beauty in all seasons while Melaleuca Nesophila is always such a fun dramatic gesture - birds love it and so it bring lots of joy to the little front patio. The Yellow Tabebuia is a spring treat with its mass of clear yellow blooms. Finally, the Ginkgo is gorgeous and such a cast iron plant for our climate and city living. The Arbutus Marina in the back yard is a butterfly and hummingbird magnet. This is a wonderful example of how much you can add to a garden with trees! The water features always draw in birds and the finches seem to love the Abutilons in the garden.

The garden was designed by the homeowner (the company is Wild Gardens) and was finished in June of last year.

3237 Glendon Avenue

When the owner, a landscaper (Tanglevine) moved in eight years ago, the front yard was just a 1000 square foot grass hillside. Today it is an eclectic mix low water, bee and insect friendly flowers and shrubs evocative of the colorful gardens in Venice and Santa Barbara that the owner loves.

Rather than trying to achieve a particular ‘style,’ the owner wanted a free-form mixture of plants. The result is a garden in which aloes live happily next to lavender, roses, fruit trees and agaves—a living tapestry has evolved and changed over the years. It reflects the owner’s instincts for mixing colors and textures.

Beginning the garden makeover, the owner decided to invest in a two-person crew to remove all the sod as well as a roll off bin and lots of soil amendments. It was well worth the money. The crew dug 2-3 three inches off the top to remove all the roots, and the amended soil has been fertile and healthy ever since.

Once the soil was prepared, the fun part began: picking plants. The owner’s choices include pencil cactus, Echium, oak leaf hydrangea, a Japanese maple, stipa grass and many varieties of lavender. These plants have thrived over the years. A rose garden in the center of the yard offers a profusion of orange and peach blooms. The owner plants two wine barrels near the curb with a rotating display of seasonal color—currently anemones.

Hummingbirds, bees and spiders visit the garden daily. Occasionally the owner catches a glimpse of a lizard, grasshopper or dragonfly.

The garden has taught the owner a lot about patience and trial and error. It’s a process that can’t be rushed, but one that is extremely rewarding!

11375 Matteson Avenue

Spring! See our new bench made from recycled wood & hand-built-mold concrete shape.
Please try it out ... just know that our kitty Crystal often hides in the Chard right behind the bench!

Starting with zero gardening knowledge, in 2008 this family stopped battling their monoculture lawn and began learning how to cooperate with nature on their learn-as-you-go journey of drought tolerant landscaping, urban gardening and rainwater harvesting. 


New for the 2012 tour -  their  local Transition chapters and friends are having a barn-raising-style work party to help support residential lawn conversions. On this project, they learned  "on-the-job" as they helped install a simple passive, hidden "reservoir" for rain water collection to transform this 8'x15' patch of dirt into a garden of edible CA natives. Come see the results!

Their hope is to model creative self-reliance and to encourage growing food and community in a frontyard display that is friendly and inviting and not too “farm-y." This entire DIY project has had strict budgetary parameters (everything cheap, recycled or free) as the homeowners slowly converted their post-lawn moonscape into a creative sustainable garden featuring stealth edibles intermingled with drought tolerant natives and succulents, small "urbanite" terraces, a WaterWall for rooftop rain collection, and a bistro-style hardscaped frontyard room with homemade concrete planters and pavers. The L-shaped corner lot offers a spectrum of microclimates from sunbaked hardpan to mossy deep shade which has provided a steep learning curve for these beginning permaculture enthusiasts. The front entry of river rock, DG & flagstone is wide & inviting as well as easy to maintain. Recent learning curve adjustments include resculpting the berm with mini-swales and adding a keyhole feature to help prevent mulch and water runoff as well as a soil pH crashcourse due to excess lime leaching in concrete planters. In hopes of improving their resilience, ecological footprint and water savings, the homeowners recently consulted with sustainable landscape architect John Tikotsky  for advice on greywater Big Picture planning.

“Our reason for participating: We have had such fun with the project so far -- we really want to encourage others to be brave and take up their lawns. Now that the biggest physical part of the work is done, we are discovering the many joys of puttering in the garden and growing some of our own food. Plus since we're out front for all to see, a side benefit has been connecting with neighbors and building community!”

3782 Redwood Avenue

This homeowner is a garden designer and also a founding member of G3. G3 teaches landscape sustainability classes for homeowners and workshops for landscape professionals. 

The turf in the backyard was removed 10 years ago and the front yard turf 4 years ago. This will be the fourth season for the veggie garden in the front yard but the first year for the veggie garden in the back yard. Yes they have now removed most of those useless ornamental plants (saying “they were pretty, but you can’t eat them”). They have also used some interesting materials for raised beds, some very inexpensive tricks that even apartment dwellers may be able to duplicate. If that isn’t enough, they have added some edibles in the front parkway too. Basically don’t stop too long in the garden or they might plant something in your shoes.

There is practically an orchard of espalier fruit trees (a tree or shrub that is trained to grow in a flat plane against a wall): Fig-5 varieties, Apples-5 varieties, Citrus-4 varieties, native and edible Grape & Pomegranate. Artichokes block the front entrance this time of year; the postman must be very patient. You will see many pots of strawberries throughout the garden - they keep them going for the kids in the neighborhood. They even use the driveway as a squash patch.

They love the Arbutus Marina Strawberry tree in the front and watch hummingbirds and butterflies daily from the kitchen window. Wild life abounds! native bees, Monarch Butterflies, hummingbirds and a flock of Bush Tits each morning in the Pittosporum Silver Sheen next to the fountain - they come to bathe until the resident Anna Hummingbird protests. On average 50 Monarch Caterpillars could be seen from mid-summer until December. Swallowtail Butterflies share the front fence for their caterpillar to chrysalis transformation.

The homeowners use drip and hand water as needed and now have 2 rain barrels. Their water consumption has been reduced by approx 70%. This household uses an average of 42 gallons per person per day (the average home uses twice that) and they expect to continue to find ways of reducing their potable water consumption.

They are very jealous of the chickens next door, but share a back gate with their neighbor so after cultivating their garden they can easily drop off grubs – delicacies to most chickens.

3247 Granville Avenue

 

This homeowner wanted to convert the property from water guzzling, high maintenance and boring turf to a combination of plants that would save water, maintenance hours, provide visual beauty and benefit the local fauna of birds, butterflies and bees.

“When we bought our house the front yard was a sea of grass struggling to remain green and 8 shrubs carved into circles. It took a lot of water just to maintain it's boring appearance. We asked Susanne Jett to create a native garden that would attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Turns out it attracts people too, and we love it. Our garden has gotten more beautiful in the eight years since she planted it. After remodeling in 2010, we had Susanne return to do the backyard. Now our entire landscape is environmentally friendly and we couldn’t be happier with how it looks."

The garden refurbish of 2010 now includes a rainwater catchment element (infiltration pit) in the front yard and rain chains on all of the gutters throughout the property. The infiltration pit collects roof rainwater runoff from the front half of the house. Thousands of gallons of seasonal rainwater are diverted from the street gutter and into the ground water table of the site. All walking and driving surfaces on the property have been designed to reduce water runoff.


The front garden is a combination of plantings and permeable walking areas from the original landscape installation of 2004 and the post-remodel refurbish plantings of 2010. The back garden was completely re-landscaped as part of the 2010 remodel refurbish. The entire landscape is a combination of Mediterranean plants including CA native plants. With the exception of fruit trees and edibles in back, all selected plants are low to medium water need plants. There is no turf on this property. Most of the plants provide some type of habitat support and attract beneficial insects to support Integrated Pest Management in the garden environment.


All planting areas on the property are serviced by low-volume, drip irrigation. The delivery of irrigation ranges from once per week to once per fifteen days. A weather-based irrigation controller on this site would enable irrigation delivery of 20 to 30 day periods. A weather-based irrigation controller will be the next landscape upgrade. Transitioning from a turf dominated landscape to one of low and low medium water use plants and low-volume drip irrigation can reduce water use on a residential property by 65% to 85%.

13014 Morningside Way

A pair of bonafide Dodger Stadium seats were the inspiration for this unique sustainable garden. The homeowners started seven years ago with the back yard that had a vegetable garden and a small lawn 12x20'.  

They had received a pair of Dodger Stadium seats and found a way to include a water fountain where birds could drink and bathe to create an effect that any garden enthusiast or baseball fan could appreciate .  A consultant from the Theodore PayneFoundation helped to keep the plantings 100% California Native. They even planted a grapevine, Vitus Californicus -Rogers Red, that goes around the vigetable garden fence.  Dirt burms added interest, and a drip irrigation system underground conserved water.  A number of large big pots are filled with more natives.  The hummingbirds especially like the fuchia (epilovium catalina). This area has become a very serene space to enjoy.

Inspired by the tranquility of their new backyard, the homeowners decided to transform the front as well incorporating a dry-rock river bed into the design.  

They left several existing trees and a few camelia bushes, but the new plants are all low water users with many California native plants.  The parking strip has less dense plantings and decomposed granite to insure easy access from a car parked on the street.  There is also a six-inch wide rock drainage around the parking strip to control water run-off from the sidewalk.  It solved an erosion problem and also added a design element.  All irrigation is by underground drippers.  There are also several large rocks to delight visiting grandchildren.  They love to climb on, jump off, or use the boulders for picnics.

Low-voltage night lighting accentuates the appearance.  Maintenance has been minimal and enjoyment maximal.  They used at least 4" of mulch to cover the entire space around the riverbed.  The plants are growing well and filling the spaces, and the variety of plants allows both color and accessibility.

3551 Tilden Avenue

This very large garden is designed primarily for asthetics. The owner’s foremost consideration was colors and textures. Eco-Nomical Landscape certainly achieved this goal!

A blooming cactus stands sentry at the front entrance

Wide swaths of gravel separate islands planted with cacti, succulents and other drought-tolerant plants. Even in winter, there are spots of color and the backyard is fragrant with the aroma of orange blossoms.

Only a few backyard trees remain from the original landscaping. They are joined by several fruit trees. A large flagstone seating area provides a vantage point for enjoying the garden.

3904 East Boulevard

This drought resistant garden was created with special attention to water conservation and capture. The landscape architect, project manager and landscape contractor will be on hand to answer questions!


The goals were a desire to save water, be beautiful and provide easy maintenance - and they achieved it all!


Grading was done so that run-off water is absorbed into soil and all new landscaped areas are permeable with planting areas covered in mulch. They use bubblers and some popup sprinklers. The rain sensor shuts off the irrigation when it rains. Established hydrozones and seasonal irrigation schedule lowers water consumption from 30 to 50% in this newly landscaped front yard.


Among some of the plants are: Cercis Canadensis (Eastern Redbud), Agave, Artemisia (Coastal Sagewort), Coleonema, Festuca (Blue Fescue), Ceanothus (Wild lilac), Hebe, Lavandula (Lavender), Loropetalum (Fringe Flower), Phlomis, Cerastium (Snow in Summer), Erigeron (Santa Barbara Daisy) and Lamium. What they love is the combination of colors.


There is so much to learn here and seeing a newly planted garden is a much needed perspective on spacing before you start your own!

This homeowner also works with The Los Angeles Food Policy Council  which has a number of Working Groups that are looking into how to create a healthier, more equitable, and sustainable food system in LA.  Their Working Group is called Urban Agriculture.  Their goal is to develop LA into a center where healthy and affordable food is grown in an environmentally sustainable manner.  They are trying to develop a comprehensive program to propose to the City to make it much easier to grow our own food and will be sharing information about their program during the tour. 

13000 Venice Boulevard - The Learning Garden

Enter on Walgrove
See a video preview of the garden on Mar Vista Patch here!
The Learning Garden at Venice High School was established in 2002 by a community wishing to utilize the one acre property on the Venice High campus more fully as a garden.
The Garden flourishes with over sixty fruit trees, a fiber arts garden, Chinese, Ayurvedic and homeopathic medicinal herbs, a tea garden and vegetable gardens. The excess produce is sent every other week to the Westside Food Bank, often times more than fifty pounds in a trip. The focal point of the Garden in late winter/early spring is our drought resistant California Native and succulent garden which is in full bloom.
They use no pesticides or fertilizers and the result is a spectacular array of insects and other life in the Garden. Some of the garden is watered with drip hose, but most is watered by hand. As a teaching institution, part of learning how to care for plants is watering them. There are three or four (depending on the week) different ways of composting in use.
Please note that you enter through the gate on Walgrove.

3518 Federal Avenue

This is a sustainable garden play yard! The owner designed this garden as an experiment for the modern family. They are developing ideas for families with children that are sustainable and functional. The result is a garden that maximizes the use of all the outdoor spaces for gatherings, parties, and exercise.

In the front lawn, They replaced the grass with artificial turf. On one side of the walkway is a putting green under a 20 foot tall teepee that functions as a jungle gym and, when covered, a fun play zone. On the other side an olive tree provides shade for a giant chess game and solar powered pondless water feature (for safety). On both sides, there are raised vegetable and fruit beds. Attractive low water plants grow along the low fence and on the parkway.

The backyard features a climbing wall, a trampoline and a zip line. Plans are in place for a “tree” house to be designed and built by the owners’ 7 year old.

3635 Grand View Blvd

This do it yourself garden is practically a farm and a permaculture paradise! Pinwheels, colorful Nepalese flags, solar path lights, wind chimes, trellises, seating areas including tables, chairs and a patio swing, a fire pit, water features (a small pond and watering can fountain) all make the yards more inviting. Enjoy a slide show preview of what you will see here. Honeylove will be a guest presenter at this garden with information about our urban beekeeping initiative.

This homeowner had always wanted a beautiful and inviting yard with bountiful fruit trees, vegetables and flower gardens. The original property, purchased in 1996 was a messy half acre which included a guest house built in 1923 and a ranch style house built in 1964 - shag carpets and all.

 

The back patio was a sloped cement pad, but it had beautiful palm trees with large aloe vera plants and Birds of Paradise in the front area with a “tropical” feel, a few fruit trees by the guest house and a huge St. Augustine lawn with a working irrigation system.  The homeowner planted more fruit trees and enjoyed the lawn until it was destroyed during two years of remodeling.  After several failed efforts to restore the lawn, which included Marathon sod and buffalo grass plugs, the irrigation was turned off and the lawn forgotten.

Meanwhile, the homeowner used the Do-It-Yourself approach and improved the yards as time and energy permitted. A level back patio was installed, and a small retaining wall added in front to address the slope of the yard. A broken concrete path led to the front of the house.

When the homeowner’s son, Jesse Dolan, graduated from UC Santa Cruz where he was the assistant manager of the University farm, he helped to create a more viable, sustainable and beautiful outdoor environment. Jesse will be on hand the day of the tour to answer questions. 

In March of 2011 he rototilled the large lawn area, laid out footpaths and planting beds and together they started a large organic garden from seeds and a few store bought plants. They also planted flowers and shrubs that enhanced the beauty of the yard, added color and fragrance and attracted bees and butterflies to the property. The first summer brought an abundant harvest of fresh tomatoes, corn, sunflowers, basil, beets, beans and wildflowers.

Dolan also fenced off the orchard area to provide a large free range area for chickens that not only produce fresh eggs daily, but also help provide insect and weed control in that area.

Ice plant and compost help to replenish areas that still show damage from the earlier remodel. Hand watering as needed is now the only source of irrigation.

3527 Kelton Avenue

A 'before' shot

This is the owner’s first house. When he moved there in 2004, the “garden” was primarily lawn—puntuated, in the backyard, by an unruly, unpruned apple tree. He quickly gave up watering the backyard, but even the small front lawn consumed a vast amount of water and time to keep green. Thanks to the Los Angeles Free Mulch Giveaway program, the owner started getting two truckloads of mulch each year and progressively removed the lawn and amended the rich but hard clay soil we enjoy in Mar Vista.

The owner designed the garden—somewhat chaotically, by trial and error. The backyard is the productive side, with dozens of fruit trees that the owner planted over the first few years and annual vegetable crops.

The backyard demands more water and maintenance, so the front yard had to be less work. Gradually eliminating the lawn over the first three years, the owner planted Mediterranean: lavenders, bay laurel, grasses, succulents and caccti (mostly in pots because of winter rot problems). The owner couldn't resist adding some fruit trees to the frontyard, planting fig, Moro blood orange, Pakistani mulberry and avocado trees. Eliminating the front lawn decreased water usage by half!

The owner hand waters the garden to further check water consumption. Now that the back breaking part is over, he loves reaping the fruit, seeing the seasons change, and observing the wildlife that shares his garden!

3620 Mountain View Avenue

There are really no words that can express what a special experience this is. Both front and back yards will be open to the tour. This home is on the Mar Vista Historical Tour as one of the earliest homes built in Mar Vista. For fifty five years, the artist who owns this home has collected artifacts and turned this into a virtual museum of Southwestern plants and art. Give yourself extra time to explore and meander here as it takes time to absorb everything – with each step, there is a new discovery. Between hardscape, DG and drought resistant plants, this is the perfect example of just how special it can be to let go of a conventional lawn!

11835 South Park Avenue

This is a must see for so many reason!

This husband and wife have a design/build business . He is a licensed contractor and she is an architectural designer. They built this house in 2004 but just completed this landscape project in October 2009 – and for those of us who are neighbors, it was a delight to watch!

They wanted a low water consumption landscape as well as edible trees and a vegetable garden. They accomplished all of that and more. The front yard had the best sunlight for this, so their raised garden beds and fruit trees went in the front yard. They have rain barrels, a composter, and a chicken coop with  hens that lay 16 eggs a week. All of this is topped off with a life size statue of a cow!

The parkway is a combination of drought resistant plants and succulents in decomposed granite. It will be a treat to watch this as it matures.

They worked in collaboration with Steve Silva of Suburban Design Inc., a landscape design firm, to achieve the outdoor spaces they had always wanted. He was amazing at getting the right gardening soil and picking all the right plants and placing them together in an aesthetic manner.

In addition to their solar pool heater, they are in the process of installing solar panals on the roof. They expect to save $200 a month off their utility bill in addition to money they save on eggs! 

2561 Barry Avenue

Outdoor living space surrounded by a sustainable garden

This sustainable, water-wise garden wraps around the house providing outdoor spaces for lounging, dining and entertaining. Designed by Ania Lejman of ALD Landscape Design/Build and completed in early 2010, it replaced turf with permeable paving of decomposed granite, gravel and Santa Barbara area stone. The garden maximizes outdoor living while minimizing maintenance and upkeep. Barbeques with friends, bird and insect activity, and encounters with friendly neighbors have all increased since completion of the garden makeover. See before shots in this wonderful profile by Lisa Boone in the LA Times Pro Portfolio.

The low-lying front landscape is a mix of drought tolerant native plants and succulents. Small trees retained from the original garden—including a Southwestern native acacia that is home to hummingbirds and finches—provide a canopy of shade. A low stucco wall topped by a wood trellis separates the yard from the street, providing a sense of privacy while still permitting the owner to meet and greet neighbors while lounging on the front patio.  The owner has met more neighbors in the past year than in the 15 years before the garden makeover.

A walkway of flagstone and decomposed granite—lined with a sweep of steely-blue Leymus grass and rosemary and anchored with dwarf citrus trees—leads to the backyard.  Herbs grow in built in planters conveniently located next to the kitchen door.

In a corner of the backyard, low-voltage lighting highlights the beautiful structure of a 100-year old prolifically fruiting avocado tree. Permeable gravel surrounds the tree. A generously sized corner built-in seating area with a gas-fed cast iron fire bowl make this a cozy space top lounge after an outdoor dinner with friends.

A low-emitter drip system, run once weekly, irrigates the garden. The landscape designer will be available to answer questions during the Tour. Visitors can also see the solar panels and tankless water heater.

3654 Meier Street

After remodeling their small Mar Vista Home six years ago, these garden enthusiasts decided to dig up the front lawn, which had died due to lack of water. They bought a few drought tolerant plants and planted them helter-skelter in the front yard in the hopes that they would take. Since that time the garden has become a "breath of fresh air". Bees, butterflies and birds visit year round and help pollinate their “favorite place on Earth”.

This past summer, after ceremoniously digging out the last little patch of grass, the homeowners installed a small patch of decomposed granite. After considering an irrigation system, they eventually decided that the joys of hand watering and the pleasure of spending quality time with their plants made irrigation irrelevant. They started raising chickens a year ago, receiving the benefits of both eggs and compost material that was spread liberally in the garden. Their pond recycles the water used and creates a lovely habitat for other creatures. They have a small and large compost area.  They are having great fun with the succulents, clipping cuttings and enjoying their growth all year long. 

They have an abundance of peaches, plums and grapes in the summer. The homeowners lovingly attend to their plants on a daily basis.   Gardening has become not just a hobby, but a meditation and a lifestyle for this couple.  Their grown children often comment on the ever-changing landscape that results from this constant attentiveness. These committed, inspired gardeners hope that someday lawnmowers and leaf blowers will become obsolete, and the air will be filled with the “sound of peacefully growing plants”.

13001 Morningside Way

The homeowner moved onto the property in July 2010. If you have ever encountered that crazy intersection of Morningside Way, Beethoven and Rose Ave, just southwest of the Santa Monica Airport, you know how busy it can get. The front yard consisted of overgrown juniper bushes and lawn. The owner realized that an antidote for the dreary landscape and car traiffic had to be concocted.

Using the permaculture model, he covered the lawn with flattened cardboard boxes, then spread mulch from the ground up with junipers on top. This killed off most of the grass over the next  several months while plans percolated for the front yard space.

In early Spring 2011 he built a 3' cinderblock wall around the perimiter and came up with a design for paths and planter beds. Edible Earth Designs in San Francisco executed the plan, created luschous planting beds with compost and mulch. They put in a drip irigation and populted the site with fruit trees, vegetables, herbs, and wild flowers. They followed the permaculture model of planting and creating ground cover throughout the site.  Some composting is still taking place on site.

In the middle of construction the homeowner was suddenly inspired to create arbors that would cover part of the walkway and allow for hanging fruit and climbing roses.  He put up a tire swing in the parkway to encourage kids & parents to pause and view the garden while walking in the neighborhood.

For the finishing work on two gates, this creative, artistic gardener used recycled materials and plans to continue that aesthetic throughout the property.

Space has been set aside for a pond, sundial and fountain, with 2012 as the target completion date.

Perhaps most immediate impact of this landscaping project was the profound sense of well-being that the homeowner experienced. The garden, which can be viewed from both Rose and Morningside, has become a focus of appreciation by the neighbors.  The owner encourages people to help themselves to fruits and vegies, always leaving some for the next person.  This aesthetically pleasing, unique and natural-looking front yard has enriched the community through it’s beauty as well as it’s bounty. 

A before shot of the property