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| Photos by Renee Tondell |
This is this garden's sixth Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase and visitors have watched it go from newly planted to paradise! About half the plants are California Natives and half are Mediterranean climate plants from Australia, South Africa, Chile, The soil in these gardens - both edible & ornamental beds - is maintained exclusively with compost and compost tea. The owners have become such believers in compost tea and this biological method of garden maintenance that it has become the main thrust of their design and maintenance business - Compost Teana.
They also added a grey water system to the backyard and took the beds next to the house off of the main irrigation line. These plants have been maintained exclusively with washing machine gray water since April 2011. They use drip irrigation - once every two weeks on one line and once a month on the other.
After tearing out the turf in the front yard, these homeowners created a Mediterranean style courtyard, with a small fountain in the middle encircled by a 3’ high berm. The berm is planted with climate-appropriate plants, focusing mainly on California natives. They removed two very thirsty birch trees and replaced them with two beautiful, unthirsty, summer-flowering Chitalpa tashkentensis trees - which they received from the ‘Million Trees LA’ program.
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| Look for the surprise visitor! |
