Rambling LA

State Parks In Crisis

2011-07-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

Because of a 25 percent cut to its budget, California's Department of Parks and Recreation is planning to close one quarter of all state parks by next summer. While this has upset park advocates, the state parks system faces another serious issue: The parks that will remain open are in need of maintenance.

One of them is Malibu Creek State Park. Its beautiful red peaks, willow-lined streams and oak woodlands have appeared in scores of movies and TV shows, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and MASH.

But under the sunny spotlight of a recent 90-degree day, a close-up reveals the starlet’s beauty is fading.

Listen to this story on KPCC.org.

States Struggle to Rein in Runaway Garden Plants

2011-04-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

On a misty summer morning, ecologist Christy Brigham sinks down to the sand at Point Mugu State Park, part of the patchwork of federal, state and private lands in Los Angeles County's Santa Monica Mountains. She watches a darkling beetle forage among rare dune plants -- lacy, lavender sand verbenas and beach primroses, which resemble large buttercups. When Brigham came to this area eight years ago to work for the National Park Service, she thought she'd become an expert on plants like these, part of the region's unique Mediterranean-climate flora. But instead, she's spent most of her time dealing with common plants, many of them fugitives from local gardens and nurseries. Continue reading on the High Country News website.

Flights of Fancy: South Pasadena Butterfly Garden

2011-03-01T10:42:00.001-08:00

When Barbara Eisenstein and her husband, Jim, moved into their South Pasadena home a dozen years ago, it was like many in the neighborhood: an architecturally significant home — a 1910 craftsman — surrounded by a fairly banal garden. The grounds were mostly lawn, albeit studded with mature trees. A few birds perched in the oak, but it wasn’t the miniature nature preserve that encircles their home today.

Over the years, the lawn lost ground and was supplanted by wildlife-supporting native shrubs, including ceanothus and sages, and herbaceous plants such as monkey flower, penstemons and yarrow. Today the garden pulses with vibrant colors, bird song and the slurping and munching of lizards, caterpillars, butterflies and other small dinner guests.

Read the rest of this piece on Arroyo Monthly's website.

AND check out the extensive sidebar (exclusive to the print edition and reproduced here) on how to attract these popular butterflies:

SWALLOWTAILS

In addition to the giant swallowtail, two others frequent local gardens. Named for the tiger-like stripes on their yellow wings, Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) will drink from a variety of plants commonly found at nurseries, including lantana and aster family plants such as zinnia. Eisenstein grows native seaside daisy (Erigeron glaucus) and a variety of sunflowers. These swallowtails deposit their eggs primarily on sycamore trees, but they also use poplars, cottonwood, willows and alders.

The anise swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) is also abundant here, because exotic sweet fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) has become a roadside weed and wildland invader. Skip the fennel; attract it with native plants from the carrot family.

COMMON BUCKEYE

Despite the name, these small brown butterflies are uncommonly lovely. Their wings are adorned with large eye-like spots in a kaleidoscope of blues, yellows, pinks, orange and black. “One of the reasons buckeyes are still relatively common in Southern California is because their caterpillars eat members of the snapdragon family,” says Karner. He adds, don’t panic if your snapdragons get chewed up. The plants will rebound—perhaps growing even more vigorously—and know that “you’re going to get some nice butterflies out of the deal.” Eisenstein’s garden features another buckeye host plant—native monkey flower (mimulus species).

LADIES

Painted lady (Vanessa cardui) is sometimes called the cosmopolitan because it’s thought to be the most widespread butterfly globally. This small orange and black insect migrates into Southern California from Mexico in late winter/spring. It’s the one school kids rear in classrooms. Among the plants that host its young are lupines, mallows—even a vacant-lot plant called cheese weed--and thistles. Native and exotic mallows are easy to grow. Lupines provide a gorgeous blue accent in a native plant garden; they are nature’s complement to orange poppies.

Resident West Coast ladies (Vanessa annabella) will frequent the same plants. Both species sip from sunflowers and buckwheats (Eriogonum species). Eisenstein grows California buckwheat. It sports little orbs of creamy white-to-pinkish flowers that dry to a rust color.

CLOUDLESS SULPHUR

This pretty pale yellow butterfly has become rare in recent years. It depends on native cassia and senna plants. The exotic ones found in conventional nurseries don’t do the trick, according to Karner. So ask your local nursery to order the natives, or visit the Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley or Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.

MONARCH

These charismatic orange and black butterflies only deposit their eggs on milkweed plants. The black, yellow and white-striped caterpillars nurse on the plants’ alkaloid sap, which makes them toxic to predators. Exotic milkweeds are readily available, but some research suggests they leave the butterflies more vulnerable to parasites than the natives do. A good source for milkweed seed is Butterfly Encounters.com.

When positioning milkweeds, keep in mind that some are not beauties, and the voracious caterpillars will defoliate them. It’s the butterflies that dazzle.

GULF FRITILLARY

This pumpkin-colored butterfly, with black and silver accents, is native to Mexico and the Southeastern U.S. The grey caterpillars brandish horizontal orange stripes and black spines. The insect moved into coastal California when its host plants—passion vines—became popular in gardens. Avoid blue crown passion flower (Passiflora caerulea): it’s a weedy plant that can escape gardens and damage wildlands.

Butterflies

2011-02-23T18:50:00.000-08:00

Meet Frank. He's a monarch butterfly that my son and I raised. We don't actually know the insect's gender, but that hardly matters to a four-year-old.

Butterfly gardener extraordinaire Connie Day gave us two caterpillars from her garden, which is a certified Monarch Waystation.

We reared them inside (mostly) on a milkweed plant, which provided all they required, except water drops. We placed the plant inside one of those netted cages you use to raise painted ladies.

Some articles I reported recently afforded me the opportunity to engage Brent "the bug guy" Karner of the LA County Natural History Museum in an extended conversation about butterflies. A portion of the discussion was broadcast last weekend on KPCC's Off-Ramp. Check it out.

Meet the Bark Beetles

2011-02-18T16:22:00.000-08:00

In the last decade, tiny forest-dwelling beetles have wiped out pine trees on millions of acres in the Canadian and American West, including Southern California. The rest of the state has been largely spared, but forest ecologists say that's likely to change.

Learn why in this piece I reported for KQED's Climate Watch.

Milkweeds for Monarchs

2011-01-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

Dwindling monarch butterfly populations have prompted some gardeners to pepper their landscapes with milkweeds, the various plants in the Asclepiadaceae family on which monarchs lay their eggs. Chubby, zebra-striped monarch caterpillars gorge themselves on the plants' milky alkaloid sap, which makes them poisonous to birds.

The question for many isn't whether to grow milkweed, but how -- and which kind.

In Connie Day's Santa Monica garden, a tiger-colored monarch spars with another butterfly, chasing it from a patch of milkweeds.

"The challenge is keeping the food here," Day says, noting that a few monarchs can defoliate a plant in a couple of weeks.

Read the rest of this story in LA Times Home.

Octopus's Garden

2010-12-12T12:30:00.000-08:00

Leo Carrillo State Beach

Last Sunday we spent a glorious afternoon peering into the homes of starfish, crabs, anemones and octopi.

Exceptionally low tide exposed lots of rocky reef at Leo Carrillo (pictured in video above). Tufts of eelgrass made some rocks look like punk-rocker heads, i.e. topped with green hair. Ten-foot-long strands of giant kelp (Macrosystis pyrifera) lay limp, offering a good look at their holdfasts (the bottom of the plant that anchors to the seabed).

Giant kelp, I'm told, is the largest marine plant known on earth, capable of growing to 100 feet in about a year.

My son enjoyed gently touching Pacific sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) and anemones (Anthopleura sola), as well as observing hermit crabs.

Mom was thrilled to see two tentacles of a two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculoides) before it wedged itself more deeply under a rock. These little guys are great camouflage artists, as well as contortionists. So look for them in crevices. This species takes its name from two, eye-like spots on its hood.

If you visit tide pools, please tread with extreme care. It's easy to squash the animals--especially soft-bodied ones such as nudibranchs--and with so many people visiting the beach, the impact is considerable. Never remove anything from a tidepool, even an empty shell--for one thing, you'll be messing with the hermit crab housing market.

Check out our previous intertidal romp at El Matador State Beach.

2010-11-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

This Summer I was fortunate to take a hike with Mickey Long, who supervises natural areas for LA County Parks and Recreation. I asked him to join me at one of the more depressing spots in the Angeles Forest front country--the trail from Chantry Flat to Stuartevant Falls.

Although we spotted a number of wildflowers along the fire road descending into Big Santa Anita Canyon--including indian pinks and native delphinium (both pictured below)--we sampled a Smorgasbord of weeds: annual grasses, Spanish broom, euphorbia, arundo, bladder senna, eucalyptus, even rock roses. "Aesthetically there's something missing from the landscape," said Long, "both in form and function. The danger here is,

even though we're seeing plenty of native plant habitat, if a fire comes through, the weeds will get the upper hand."

Long pointed out Western Fence and whiptail lizards, hunting for bugs in the underbrush. He said the non-native grasses don't support the variety of insects that the native plants do.

Things didn't get any more cheerful when we arrived at the stream.

English ivy blankets 3.5 miles of stream bank.

Cabin owners planted the ivy decades ago and it's run amok. To keep the alders alive, they clip it off of the trunks. But the ivy (with a little help from some Himalayan blackberry) has crowded out most of the native plants. On a subsequent trip I counted only three Humboldt lilies (pictured up top) persisting along the stream.

Long said no one has studied the effect of the ivy infestation on native animals, but "there's not too many ways this could be beneficial to a native animal." Amphibians need to be able to move from the stream where they breed and to the adjacent hillside where they burrow. "They need to feed as they move around, and I don't know what food sources are left under there."

You can learn more about garden plants that threaten wildlands in these stories I reported for KPCC-FM.

Late Fall In Our Garden

2010-11-17T10:41:00.000-08:00

Most of our summer edibles are gone. But one wax bean plant is still producing a profusion of shiny little beans. I assume they're tasty, but can't really say. My three-year-old has claimed them as exclusively his.

It's a great strategy for getting kids to eat veggies. We steam up a batch of mostly store-bought green beans, topped with our homegrown yellow ones. My husband and I look longingly at the wax beans, but our son hordes them all.

Another great kid veg: potatoes. Need I say it? They're fun to dig up. We've planted the remains of our last year's yukon golds and they're thriving. We stored the seed potatoes in a wine fridge over the summer. It's a small, 8-bottle cellar, so there was something of a Sophie's Choice going on all summer--more potatoes, less wine.

A lot of our last fall's seed was still viable this fall. Indeed, some of the lettuce and spinach seed I'd left in the fridge (in a plastic bag), took off immediately.

We're trying a new variety of beet this year. I bought some Bull's Blood from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I'm already enjoying these gorgeous red greens in my salads.

Roses: The Fruits of Neglect

2010-11-10T15:21:00.000-08:00

I've finally had some time to work my garden. After some reluctance, I pruned my unruly rose bushes.

Three of them top out over six feet tall, in part because I like them that way. They're surrounded by native sages and Mediterranean rock roses, and thrive on the same drip irrigation system and low-water regime. (I gave them supplemental water for the first couple years.)

I hadn't pruned the roses since last fall. As a result they were loaded with persimmony rose hips. I thought of it as my fall color, and the bushes looked far happier in the hot fall than had I tried to keep them blooming.

A few years ago Emily Green, who currently writes the LA Times Dry Garden column, wrote a brilliant piece about leaving roses alone. Check it out. It will make you long for the days when newspapers gave writers the space to write like this. Or at least some of them. Few write as well as Green.

Now, if only the weeds would pull themselves.

Climate Change

2010-10-24T15:20:00.000-07:00

Yikes! I've been away from this blog a really long time. I do have an excuse. A mountain lion ate my lap top.

Okay, seriously, I was single mom all this summer. Then I was drowning in real work (as opposed to this blog, which is just me making unpaid work for myself).

Anyway, among the projects keeping me from chattering is a new mini-gig contributing to ClimateWatch, produced by bay area NPR-station KQED. In radio reports and on it's execellent blog, ClimateWatch covers the science, politics and personal stories of global warming from a California perspective.

My first post for the ClimateWatch blog is a Q&A with David Nahai, former GM of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

I've just returned from the annual Society of Environmental Journalists Conference, held this year in Missoula, Montana. Nobel-laureate Steve Running offered a sobering overview of warming in that state over the last 40+ years: average temps up 1-2 degrees F, snow melting a couple weeks earlier, and aridification (stronger atmospheric evaporation) even though the precipitation is the same. The result, already: increased wildfires, bark beetles killing many conifers, and less water in streams in summer.

Michael Gibson of Trout Unlimited told us lower stream flows and warmer water is prompting the state to shut down trout fishing in August to protect fish. In the next 30 years, he expects trout to lose 5-30% of their Montana habitat.

I'd like to end on a cheery note, but, sorry, not this time.

Potted

2010-09-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont displays the ravishing beauty of California's wild plants. But the setting is so operatic, it can be hard to imagine this flora on a smaller stage, say, a patio or apartment balcony.

Unless you happen upon a nook where native plants are potted up for a more intimate performance.

On a foggy morning, a hummingbird swoops in for a sip of Cleveland sage (Salvia clevelandii, above). Impatiently, it probes the whorls of the petite lavender flowers. This sage is usually a sprawling shrub, but confined to a 5-gallon teal pot, the crisp reiterations of dainty leaves and blossoms have the restraint and precision of a Baroque concerto.

Many of Rancho's pots are tall. Low-growing species are raised 3 to 4 feet off the ground, offering a bird's- or bug's-eye experience of these intricate plants.

Click here to continue reading my LA Times story.

Trumpet Zucchini

2010-09-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

What possessed me? Who slipped me the silly pill that made me decide to grow two zucchini plants this summer?

I wanted to add a new kind, while relying on an old standby. It still amazes me that someone--my aunt--could mail me a few innocuous seeds and one would turn into this:

Zucchini rampicante tromboncino. This climber produces gorgeous curved or trumpet-like fruit. Many of mine have little leaves embedded along the side of the fruit, making them especially pretty as gifts. And, yes, I've had a lot to give.

We turned a few into the best-ever zucchini bread. And we've enjoyed endless rounds of ratatouille. (Believe it or not, my kid loves it.) Any recipe requiring 3 or more cups of zucchini gets my attention these days.

Exploring with Kids

2010-08-30T15:32:00.000-07:00

It’s late on a hot summer night. I want my 3-year-old to lie down and sleep.

He won’t — he’s busy nesting. Perched atop his scrunched-up blue blankie, he informs me “I can’t lie down, my eggs will get cold.” I suggest he keep them warm by lying on top of them. “They’ll break!” he wails.

I’m guessing he was a sea turtle that night, because a recent trip to a turtle rescue center had made a big impression on him. But he could just as easily have been a flamingo or an alligator. Could there be anything cuter than Mateo pretending he’s an animal? Well, yes

Read the rest of my story from the September, 2010 issue of Arroyo Monthly Magazine.

Recent Adventures

2010-08-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Would that every Southern California summer were this cool (current hot spell aside). My son and I have taken advantage of the weather to get out and about.

Our biggest recent adventure was a trek up the stream bed at Eaton Canyon. We were hoping to see frogs because there were so many tadpoles here in early summer.

Once we made it to the water, there was no stopping my three-year-old. Wearing his aquasocks (amphibious shoes), he trekked upstream, all the way to the bridge.

We didn't see any frogs, but were surprised by what appeared to be a couple of aquatic snakes, and oodles of dragon- and damselflies. We also scooped up aquatic bugs for a closer look with a magnifying glass.

My son was less keen on the terrestrial trek back to the car. But little doggies and girls commenting on his Kermit shirt kept him moving.

Once again, it was really hard to tear him away from the animal puppets at the nature center.

In late July we also enjoyed a visit to the Audubon Center at Debs Park. We spread a blanket next to a pond, and had a simple picnic. My son dug in the sand and climbed rocks; I enjoyed the birds and insects. Together we pretended to be bears in the little cave. Baby bear gave mom bear a time-out.

"Some people say personification of animals is a bad thing," says the Audubon Center's director Jeff Chapman, "but at a young age that kind of feeling and connecting with wildlife is a really good thing in my opinion. It’s a natural empathizing thing that young children have with animals."

Chapman encourages kids to share their discoveries on a board at the Center and on the nature website eBird (a joint project of Audubon and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology). "Audubon prides ourself on taking science and bringing it to regular people," he explains. "And allowing them to have a personal stake in feeding the world with information."

Find out about the other side of Debs Park.

Kern County Emerges as Powerhouse

2010-07-30T14:48:00.001-07:00

If you drive about half an hour north of Palmdale, you’ll find yourself in the foothills of Kern County ’s Tehachapi Mountains. They’re studded with Joshua trees, that sparse icon of the Mojave. But a new symbol is also rising, reaching its limbs into the desert sky.

Planted amidst the Joshuas: more than 3,000 wind turbines, resembling large white pinwheels. The older models are about six-stories-high. The newest are taller than the statue of liberty. Standing next to the turbines, Kern County planner Lorelei Oviatt says, “You’re actually in the middle of a 223,000 acre wind area that Kern County has set aside, where we hope we can site enough wind for over 3 million households.”

Read the rest of my story on KPCC.org

Gold Rush of Green Power?

2010-07-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

In reporting a forthcoming radio story on the rush of alternative energy projects in California’s Kern County, I spoke with V. John White, director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies.

The story takes listeners to the Tehachapi-Mojave Wind Resources Area, and airs tomorrow on KPCC-FM. Meantime, here’s a slice of my conversation with White.

Q: How’s California doing in its quest to tap renewable resources, ASAP?

A: We’re getting steadily better, I think. We spent a lot of time talking about doing renewables, but the fact is we’re still at roughly 15% renewable statewide.

That’s up a little bit from 12%. But we need to go much greater, to 20%-33% and beyond. That’s going to take significant effort, and I think we’re starting to get there. California had this big boom in the 80's and early 90's and then we stopped. And we learned a lot, but most of that experience went elsewhere and now we’re just getting back into it.

Q: How Does Kern County figure in this picture. I believe the California Energy Commission a few years back projected the county would provide about 40% of the energy needed to meet the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS)—the alternative energy mandates for investor-owned utilities.

A: They [Kern] have some of the best wind resources in the state that have yet to be developed--in the Tehachapi Mountains area. They also have, in parts of the county, very, very good solar resources. They also have proximity of transmission lines that bisect the wind and solar areas. So they have some very important advantages in terms of the resources they were blessed with.

They have some expertise from having built, operated and planned these resources, so they’re also becoming leaders and innovators in the planning of these project.

Q: What’s the county’s environmental record?

A: [County planners have] looked at where impacts might occur and added some requirements for the developers to protect species--it's a sign of some leadership. Also, in the solar area they have given a lot of thought to the best places.

Q: Are California's strict environmental laws slowing the pace of alternative energy development?

A: It’s really a combination of things. In some cases it’s the transmission, interconnections, and in some cases there are federal wildlife reviews the state can’t do anything about. I think on balance CEQA [the California Environmental Quality Act] provides a means of identifying and reducing impacts from projects. CEQA is a burden for developers compared to other states, but as a result we get better projects with better mitigation and sometimes even less opposition because of the care and the time that is taken.

CEQA is a proxy for a conversation between project applicant and community. I think what you have in Kern County is a moderator for the conversation that can help [energy developments] be successful. By anticipating there are problems that have to be solved, instead of like in Texas trying to approve them as quickly as possible, you avoid adverse consequences and you learn as you go in ways that improve the projects….

Q: Kern County generally prefers to see wind and solar projects developed on private land. Sounds like good strategy economically and environmentally, yes?

A: I think that’s true. One of the problems with private land, however, is a lot of it is divide up into really small parcels. The [projects on] federal lands…it’s important they have an opportunity to get approved if they’re good projects. We have a great amount of economic stimulus money that we’re racing to try to capture by getting projects approved.

The thing about solar is you can still get a lot of energy from the land--with the right acreage--with very high solar radiation. [Public lands in] Kern County are in the Western Mojave, which has some of the best solar resources in the state and the whole country. And if projects are built there they can be smaller than comparable projects because of how good the radiation is. We have to recognize the scale of the energy we have to displace; the [vast] amount of energy we have to have to get off coal, fuel and electrical cars.

I think what’s happening now is the urgency of putting people back to work, as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel use, have combined to create a sense of urgency that’s causing all the local governments, developers, and environmentalists to raise their game.

American Energy companies are also look across the border for alternative energy. Listen to my story for The World.

Lizards

2010-07-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

As much as I love lizards, I haven't taken the time to learn much about them. The common ones I've usually assumed to be fence lizards, and left it at that.

On a recent interview for a forthcoming radio story, I carelessly threw that label at this little reptile below. And was quickly corrected by biologist Mickey Long from the LA County Parks Department. It is, in fact, the California subspecies of slide-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana elegans).

Long also pointed out this lovely coastal whiptail lizard (Aspidoscelis tigris stejnergeri). This species moves fast.

If you've got lizards in you garden, they're likely the San Diego Alligator Lizard (Elgaria multicarinata webbii).

Finally, if you like your lizards big, head out to the desert. I saw this Chuckwalla in Joshua Tree this spring. (Definitely not a fence lizard!)

Summertime...

2010-07-11T10:23:00.000-07:00

...and the eatin' is easy. We're gorging ourselves on red baron peaches. Yesterday, peach cobbler; tomorrow peach-rosemary jam.

We're a little challenged aesthetically this year as we had to defend our food from digging skunks and at least one very healthy rat (all those blueberries he ate, no doubt).

In the bed above, Italian trombone squash (Zucchetta Rampicante Trombocino) is climbing a tomato cage and heading for a trellis. My aunt calls these "rumpa trumpas" and the name has stuck.

We also love the Romanesco zucchini we planted next to it. My 3-year-old enjoys the star shapes it makes when sliced.

Most of our seed this year came from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Renee's Garden Seeds.

The heirloom De Bourbonne cucumber is thriving. And the sungold tomatoes are producing, despite the unseasonably cool weather.

Renee's "French Gold" beans are delish!

I've let some of my spring lettuce flower and the one above produced a lovely surprise.

AFTER THE FIRE: ANGELES FOREST

2010-07-03T10:54:00.000-07:00

Southern California's chaparral is adapted to fire--or at least to natural cycles of fire. The progression of growth in an ecosystem is called succession. After a fire, with shrubs temporarily knocked back and more sunlight reaching the ground, annual wildflowers proliferate.

Indeed, several species are rare until a fire blows through and cues the seeds to germinate abundantly. I wrote about these fire-following flowers earlier this year for Chance of Rain. I hope you'll read the story.

I've been itching to see some fire-followers and other wildflowers, and check out how the Angeles Forest is regenerating in the wake of the Station Fire. So a couple weeks ago, I coaxed my 3-year-old into the car for a drive in the Angeles. Here's a slide show of what we saw, just from the road.

Thanks to Cliff McLean of the California Native Plant Society, San Gabriel Mountains Chapter for helping me identify the plants. I recommend his CD Field Guide, Common Plants of Eaton Canyon and The San Gabriel Foothills.

The flowers were beautiful, but I was troubled by some things I saw. First, despite many signs instructing people not to leave the road, people are hiking into the burn areas. Please know that if you do, you can tramp weed seeds from roadsides into not-yet infested areas.

The forest is especially vulnerable to weed colonization after a disturbance such as a fire. Weeds are no small matter; they can increase fire cycles to the point native plants can't recover. (Learn more about how human-caused fires threaten Southland ecosystems in my magazine story Sparking The Fires.)

You can see in a couple of the slides above that many weeds grow faster than native shrubs, allowing them to outcompete native plants.

The western stretch of Angeles Crest Highway (the La Canada entrance) is closed. You can access the Angeles through Big Tujunga Canyon, but the forest is closed to use, so stay on the road or face a $5,000 fine.

Click here for a larger version of the slideshow.

And check out this fun video about ecological succession:

Life Cycles

2010-05-24T01:40:00.000-07:00

Adults often talk with kids about how they're growing, how they used to be a baby, how they'll one day be a man or woman. My 3-year-old says he doesn't want to be a man, only a boy. No worries, I say, you'll always be a boy.

It's no wonder, though, he's interested in the cycles of life.

Yesterday, we went with friends to observe the tadpoles at Eaton Canyon. The boys spent nearly 2 hours watching the little commas squiggling in the shallows. They also enjoyed wading in the creek, and examining stones and water bugs.

A couple weeks ago, Eaton Canyon docents had set up a table with magnifying viewers and rubber copies of the tadpole-to-frog cycle. My son looked at them and pronounced, "metamorphosis." (The docents said the tadpoles were either Pacific or California tree frogs.)

We'd been raising painted lady butterflies at home. They burst from their chrysalises last Friday, and we released them the next day.

This year several people told us the caterpillars they got from Kidspace did not emerge. But we've had good luck with the ones we mail ordered from Insect Lore.

Critter 'N' Kids

2010-05-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

Last year, my son and I enjoyed the Los Angeles Zoo's Toddler Totes classes. Now that he's three, we've moved up to Critter 'N' Kids.

Our first class was "Fabulous Flamingos." In the classroom, the kids explored bird eggs, looked at flamingo feathers with a magnifying glass, strained glitter out of water simulating flamingo feeding, and created flamingo nests in a sand tray.

Then we headed out to observe the birds and discuss them.

Critter 'N' Kids runs Wednesday through Saturday mornings, about once a month. It's worth becoming a Zoo member to get the newsletter with the schedule of classes and special events (although you can find the info online too).

A single class is $18 for members, $23 for non-members.

The June class will be Amazing Alligators. Reggie has a new (girl)friend, Cajun Jane, so the class should be especially exciting.

Mourning Dove

2010-05-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Out back--behind our house--a mourning dove is nesting

sheltered under the 'Roger's Red' grape

Plumped, still and quiet she waits

shiny black eyes wide

Our son these days is still learning about respect

He whines

He screams

He wants his way

Then yesterday

He saw the eggs and the bird sitting so tenderly

Here mother dove, he said, here's seed for you.

Here mother dove, some water for you.

Small Wonders

2010-05-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about gardening is the little surprises: the bulbs and wildflowers that spout up in spots you didn't expect or had forgotten about, a new bloom you hadn't noticed forming.

Among the small wonders I'm enjoying these days is this feral celery (above). Last year the deliberately planted crop was bitter and I didn't (intentionally) start any this year. Wouldn't you know it, this volunteer, which has been totally neglected, is delicious. And it's growing in decomposed granite! Not that I recommend that; it's getting seepage from a nearby pot of marjoram.

We also had lettuce crop up in unusual places, including right next to nitrogen-fixing bean plants. Those greens were quite tasty; never fertilized. (I should note my entire garden is not that wet: it cropped up in places where I was watering new plants and near a water barrel.)

I mentioned earlier that my last year's basil, moved to a pot at the end of summer, had resprouted. Below is the proof of my perennial basil.

I'm also grateful for a bounteous harvest of snap peas. I love them so, I intend to try a tip I picked up from my dad the suburban farmer. (Okay, he's a college music professor, but he grows so much food he supplies his college cafeteria.) The tip: when weather warms, extend the life of your peas by placing ice cubes on the soil in the morning.

We're also enjoying spinach, scallions, lettuces, sorrel, carrots, strawberries, blueberries, and just harvested the rest of our yukon gold potatoes.

Apples on the way!

Turbines for Baja?

2010-04-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

The U.S. government this week approved the nation's first offshore wind project. It took nine years. Will similar projects crop up in California?

"There’s a substantial wind resource offshore of CA, fantastic wind resource," says Mike Allman, CEO of Sempra Generation, "but it’s never going to be built, it’s too sensitive. It’s a gorgeous area and people don’t want their view profile changed. The wind is strong offshore, in many cases, and you can put larger turbines offshore. But you need a lot of support to get that done."

So Sempra is looking high and low for windy sites onshore, including across the border in Baja California. Listen to my piece for PRI's The World.

Take a gander at the Sierra Juarez. Learn more about offshore wind in Nantucket Sound.

Arcadia Weed Park

2010-04-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

Noodle around on this blog and you'll see there's a lot devoted to lovely spots to hike and learn about nature. Arcadia Wilderness Park is certainly a learning experience. But it's the kind of hard lesson I'd like to be spared.

It's one of the most depressing places I've been. As you can see above, aggressive weeds called invasive plants don't respect fences. They escape gardens and hightail it into wilderness areas. The city of Arcadia has done little to nothing to control the weeds in its park and now they threaten the adjacent Angeles National Forest.

Castor bean and fountain grass have already jumped the fence. Fountain grass is crazy-bad. Below you can see it's growing out of every crack in a stairway and a slope that's been hardscaped. It also blankets a couple acres adjacent to this stairway.

And the plant has also taken root in a creek running through the park. Click over to my weeds series to learn more about fountain grass.

Ah, isn't that a pretty sight? The kiss of light on--just kidding, this is one weed duking it out with another. Bad boy cape ivy trying to strangle His Nastiness, castor bean.

Above Drew Ready of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council cranes to see the crown of a mature elderberry, smothered by cape ivy. "This area is pretty much a dead zone," he said. "If you listen and look around, you hear no wildlife--there's no songbirds; you see no lizards. There are probably rats."

At Arcadia Park ivy's got strangle-hold at least one sycamore (above & below) as well, and is making a run for some gorgeous live oaks. "The ivy over the years has covered the [oak] seedlings, so there's no regeneration going on in this understory," Ready said. "If this oak goes, there's a good chance there won't be one to replace it."

Click below to read the final two installments of my LA Times weed series:

Acacias

Brooms

Runaway Plants

2010-04-21T13:30:00.000-07:00

If you missed my five-part series on garden plants that threaten wildlands, check out the first three installments below (with links to the full story on the LA Times website).

GARDEN HANGOVERS PART 1

Ecologist Christy Brigham stands amid willows hemming Medea Creek in the Santa Monica Mountains. The trees’ amber leaves glow in the morning light. She frowns at an ivy-like plant with violet-blue flowers. It’s blanketing a large swath of the creek. “Periwinkle is a common landscape ground cover,” she says. “It’s attractive to some people. I think it’s a green menace.”

Periwinkle (Vinca major) hails from the Mediterranean. Let loose in parts of Southern California, it smothers virtually all of the wildlife-supporting native plants in its path. California is home to many indigenous plants found nowhere else on Earth. Many are at risk of extinction. The main culprit is urbanization, but weedy exotic plants — even some that residents buy for their gardens — often share the blame. Able to rough it in the wild, runaway plants can throw entire ecosystems out of balance.

Read the rest of the story.

GARDEN HANGOVERS PART 2

When many of us think of Los Angeles, there’s a palm in the picture. That palm is likelyWashingtonia robusta, the Mexican fan palm.

Mexican fans are the remarkably tall (up to 100 feet), skinny palms with fan-shaped fronds that have towered over much of the city’s built environment for more than a century. More conspicuous than stars in L.A.’s washed-out night sky, some palm constellations have even been dubbed historic-cultural monuments.

Although other palms have sneaked into the scene, Nicholas Staddon, director of new plants for Monrovia Growers, says Mexican fans are still popular and “very valuable — it’s fast-growing and has a wonderful tropical look.” No primadonna, aptly named robusta thrives in a couple square feet of dirt amid a sea of concrete, even roots in sidewalk cracks.

But the region’s palmy past is seeding trouble. Click over to read the rest of my LA Times story.

Part 3

Grasses are among California’s most prolific weeds. Exotic bromes and other annual grasses now carpet millions of acres, displacing of native wildflowers, bunch grasses and shrubs.

Most arrived with 19th century settlers and livestock (as contaminants in feed or lodged in animals’ coats, for example). But in recent years, ornamental grasses have joined the fray.

“Grasses are useful in a landscape,” says Jim Folsom, director of botanical gardens at the Huntington, “but by nature they are invasive; being a grass generally means being able to cover a lot territory fast.”

Read on.

Camping Joshua Tree

2010-04-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

What is it about boys and rocks? A place with rocks, sticks and bugs is a wonderland for boys small and large. All abound at Joshua Tree National Park. Especially rocks.

Thanks to our friends at Ramshackle Solid for planning this outing. It was at times--groan alert--rocky but thoroughly satisfying.

CAMPSITES

When we arrived at the park on Wednesday, all the campground were full. So we unpacked on nearby BLM land, the Dale Mining District. And were rewarded with utter quiet, a starry night, and gorgeous desert lilies blooming

everywhere.

The lily is the first picture in this slide show below. Click here for a full-screen version. (For slide identification, click the upper right corner and chose "Show Info.")

The drag came the next day as we packed it all up again and relocated to Jumbo Rocks campground in the park. This is a great site for kids over 5 years old. After chasing my 3-year-old around the tops of boulders, I'm ambivalent about it for younger kids. The granite is wonderfully sticky, but it won't stop a kid from taking a nasty fall. The site is especially challenging when there are older kids around who are allowed to climb higher.

Still, my son and his toddler friend seemed more likely to die at each other's grungy hands than on any granite ascent and fall. They fought incessantly--with fists, sticks, stones and gravel. The primal struggle replayed at night as my son cried out "it's MINE!" in his sleep. Fortunately, the worst was over in a day.

TRAILS

In addition to the big rocks, the abundance of short, flat trails make J-Tree a great spot for kids.

We hiked from Jumbo Rocks to Skull Rock, as well as around Hidden Valley, to Arch Rock and into wash near the Cottonwood oasis. Don't miss the very short Cactus Garden trail with its gorgeous cholla (pictured above).

My son hiked nearly all of the 1 mile Hidden Valley loop and was rewarded with a park pin for his cap. The presence of an older boy spurred him on. And I called it quits after this hike, so he'd be eager for the next day.

FLORA

For those who don't know, the park is comprised of both Mojave (high) desert and Colorado (low) desert. Joshua tree, desert dandelion, desert paint brush, calico cactus, apricot mallow, desert rock-pea, bladder pod, indigo bush and Encelia farinosa were among the plants blooming in the Mojave.

In the Colorado desert (also called Sonoran), I was thrilled to see blooming cholla, ocotillo, desert monkey flower, desert senna, desert poppy, the teeny Wallace's woolly daisy (Eriophyllum wallacei), beavertail cactus, prince's plume, Arizona lupine, desert canterbury bells, and more.

Most of these plants are easily identifiable with a little assist from books you can buy at one of the visitor centers.

FAUNA

At Jumbo Rocks we were treated to a good look at Western tent caterpillars (pictured in slide show). And we happened upon a couple of chuckwalla in a wash near the Cottonwood oasis.

My big disappointment: no jackrabbits. I love, love these big bunnies.

We spent our last two nights at the fab 29 Palms Inn, which lines part of the Oasis of Mara. It's a great spot for an easy look at wildlife, including cactus wren (above), quail, and lots of cottontail bunnies.

The pool is popular with the underaged, and the restaurant and bar with the overaged. If you stay over the weekend, don't miss a grounds tour with naturalist Pat. The Inn also supplies delicious sack lunches.

More on this trip from Ramshackle Solid.

Happy Days

2010-03-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

I find it nearly impossible to be miserable in spring. No matter how dark the evening hour, morning brings a new bloom.

These days the wildflowers are flouncing, the peas towering, and the bulbs blazing.

Pictured above is the California native Chinese Houses (Collinsia heteropylla). Named for its pagoda-like structure, this wildflower is found in oak woodlands.

Below are a couple hybrid sparaxis. Bulbs from the Cape of South Africa are generally used to a climate similar to ours (albeit not quite as dry) and lean soils. Here they're growing in decomposed granite, amongst California poppies.

When I first planned this garden I had pretty much one thing on my mind--lure birds. Over the years I've become more absorbed in the plants in and of themselves. And I've added plants purely to feed or please me.

But the birds still come and remind me not to stray too far from my original purpose. Below is a white-crowned sparrow, identifiable by the racer strip on his head.

White-crowned sparrow in ceonothus.

Reaping

2010-03-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

My son and I have been busy in the garden. We're sowing for summer, but we're also harvesting regularly from our fall/winter plantings.

We're--okay, mom is--enjoying salad, salad and more salad. Right now my salads consist of the following ingredients, all from our garden:

various lettuces
arugula, both the annual and spicier perennial
sorrel--just a few leaves cut into strips (chiffonade for you culinary types)
herbs: parsley, chevril, cilantro
carrots
tiny florets of raw broccoli. I'm usually not a fan of raw broccoli, but the fresh stuff is delish
pea pods, cut in 3rds (yes, I love those culinary scissors)
roasted beet
beet greens, in strips add a nice crunch
garnish of these edible flowers: arugula, rosemary, nasturtium & manzanita
I drop (cut) basil leaves into dressing of 1/2 olive oil, half balsamic vineagar

Speaking of basil: one of mine overwintered and is budding again! You've got to love perennial basil.

We sprouted yukon gold potatoes in the fall and they've topped the large storage bin we planted them in. We got our seed potatoes from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply.

My 3-year-old won't touch salad, but he does like the broccoli and tiny carrots steamed. He enjoys popping open pea pods. And, of course, he'll pick any- and everything.

Sierra Juarez, Baja

2010-02-27T17:41:00.000-08:00

I recently returned from Baja on assignment for the radio program "The World."

After visiting Baja's first wind turbines and talking with members of a land cooperative (Ejido), I traveled the length of the Sierra Juarez, from La Rumorosa South 30 some miles on rutted dirt roads into Paque National Constitucion and the placid Laguna Hanson.

The range is topped by a gorgeous Jeffrey Pine forest and the Laguna, the lake pictured in this slide show below.

As you can see, the flora here is a fascinating mix of plants you might recognize from the US side of the border and some endemic species. Coastal sage scrub and chaparral intermingle with Sonoran species at lower elevations.

Manzanitas abound and are mixed with red shank--the shrub pictured here with manzanita-like bark and fine, needle-like leaves--and junipers.

Due to road conditions, my traveling companions and I had a bit of an adventure--prompting me to wonder if we could survive on frosted oatmeal cookies and pee. Video on this to come.

Click here for a large-screen version of the slide show.

Garden Show Preview

2010-02-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

(From my article in the March issue of Arroyo Monthly)

There are flashier gardens around town — landscapes cloaked in splashy colors –– but for beauty that’s bone deep, explore the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia. “If you look at what are the most beautiful and environmentally appropriate plants,” says Arboretum CEO Richard Schulhof, “the Arboretum has been working to answer that question for over half a century.”

The Arboretum will showcase sustainable plants at its annual L.A. Garden Show, which runs from April 30 through May 2. Organizers include the Arboretum’s new horticultural curator, Jill Morganelli.

The garden’s aesthetic is partly sculptural — curvaceous succulents alternate with twisting branches and thick tree trunks. Largely absent are beds of rotated, brightly colored annual plants common at nurseries. Morganelli says the Arboretum’s signature bird, the peacock, is partially responsible for the look –– it’s an inadvertent “watchdog” of sustainability. “With annuals — plants that typically live for four to six months –– you’ll just waste all kinds of time and manpower,” she observes, “and they’ll be picked to the ground by peacocks.” She adds that annuals are generally water-hungry plants.

On a recent morning, as peacocks dozed under a Wedgwood-blue sky, Morganelli tromped into the 30-acre Australian garden to discuss alternatives. Amid the familiar eucalyptus and bottlebrushes, Morganelli pointed out unusual kinds of grevilleas and acacias. “Australian plants are super-important to us,” she says. “Their environment is just like ours, only on the other side of the world.” The flora from southwestern Australia, in particular, have adapted to a similar climate and comparable soils. Like California native plants, many will languish if watered liberally in summer. Usually, plants from both regions should not be fertilized; Aus

tralian plants are especially sensitive to phosphorus.

On our tour, Morganelli also dropped by the Desert Garden (near the Peacock Café) to brag about Sophora secundiflora, also known as mescal bean. Native to Texas, New Mexico and northern Mexico, this slow-growing shrub can be pruned into a lovely tree. “There’s rarely a design I do without one of these,” says Morganelli. “In the spring, it blooms the most gorgeous purple and white flowers that smell like grape bubble gum.” The rest of the year this Sophora sports silv

ery seedpods. (Note: The seeds are hallucinogenic, even poisonous.)

The L.A. Garden Show will also spotlight California native plants, flora that Morganelli admires. “The plants act as a habitat for native birds, bees and butterflies,” she says. “The other thing that’s really cool is some of them die back and, like magic, in the spring they rise up from the earth all fresh and new.” Morganelli says the plants generally need regular water to get established, but after about 18 months, “you can water as little as every two weeks and these plants live.”

In addition to the exemplary plantings, the Arboretum is inspiring a new wave of sustainable gardening with classes that are substantive and varied.

For more than four years, K.D. Henderson of Monrovia has been a regular at horticulturist Lili Singer’s Thursday Garden Talks, which prompted her to rip out her front lawn and replace it with drought-tolerant plants, including natives. “Visitors used to walk straight up to my door,” she says. “Now they stop and look around.”

That’s the kind of comment Morganelli, another enthusiastic instructor (she teaches organic vegetable gardening and plant identification) likes to hear. “I really feel we are undergoing a renaissance right now in Southern California landscaping,” she says, “and it’s so exciting to be a part of that.”

Among the Aussies Morganelli pointed out:

Correa pulchella (pictured above);

One of several evergreen shrubs commonly called Australian fuchsia. Little bell-shaped flowers—pink to reddish orange-- dangle from its branches. “It’s a great border shrub,” says Morganelli, “and a great accent you can pepper in, even a wonderful hedge.”

Grevillea ‘Wakiti Sunrise’ (pictured at article top)

This is a cultivated plant (a cultivar) bred from one of the 250 plus species of wild Grevillea. It unfurls intricate clusters of hook-shaped, salmon-colored blossoms. “If you want to get rid of your lawn--and don’t have kids or a dog,” says Morganelli, “look at some of these low-growing shrubs.” She also admires the yellow-green color of the foliage.

Acacia merinthophora

The zigzag wattle derives its name from its stems, which zigzag between its flowers--little yellow puffs accompanied by a single pine needle-like leaf (technically, a leaf-like structure called a phyllode). Zigzag’s branches spill out in a weeping fashion. Arboretum CEO Richard Schulhof advises planting this uncommon beauty in front of a wall “so you can see its shadows and the finery of the foliage.” (Note: Some other acacias—cyclops ,longifolia, and decurrens--are invasive; do not plant them.)

Dodonaea viscosa ‘Purpurea’

This Dodonaea is native to the American Southwest and Hawaii, but most of its close relatives, which are commonly called hop bush, hail from down under. Purpurea can be grouped together for a fast-growing privacy screen. Morganelli advises pairing them with showier plants: “Take the purple-bronze color of the leaves and bounce them off some other, low-growing greens.”

The Native Plants Morganelli recommends include

Penstemon spectabilis

Also known as showy or royal penstemon, this herbaceous plant dazzles with three- to six-foot tall flower stalks, covered with dozens of blue, purple or pink flowers. “I think of penstemons as my answer to foxgloves,” says Morganelli.

Salvia spathacea

This sage is popular with native plant gardeners. It smells delicious (a mélange of honey, lemon, mint), and can fill a difficult niche: dry shady areas. There’s a reason this red-blooming plant is called Hummingbird sage, says Morganelli, “you’ll see hummingbirds drink from these all day long.”

Asclepias fascicularis

That’s a fancy name for a modest plant known as narrow-leaved Milkweed. “It’s not a beautiful plant all year,” says Morganelli, “but it’s a food source for monarch butterflies.” She advises planting it near the back of a bed, and waiting for the gorgeous black and white striped caterpillars to turn up.

Diplacus or Mimulus

Scientifically, this group of plants goes by a tangle of names, but they are easily identified as monkey flower. Hikers recognize some of them from local trails. Some can be hard to grow and are short-lived; Morganelli recommends the yellow and pale orange shrubby kind.

Now Blooming

2010-02-22T13:04:00.001-08:00

The big bloom has begun around my yard. February through June is prime flowering time. Here are a few highlights, including Anna apple (above).

I added more South African bulbs this year, including this Babiana hybrid I bought from Jim Duggan Flower Nursery in San Diego. Jim is the source for species South African bulbs. You can buy a few of the Dutch hybrids in some garden centers, but Jim grows a wide selection of species bulbs. (More on South African bulbs.)

At the other end of the spectrum: volunteer sunflowers (from the bird feeder).

Desert Bluebells (Phacelia campanularia) are great for hot spots and easy to grow. You can find Botanical Interest seeds at many nurseries.

Three of my Ribes species have been blooming for about a month, including aureum, sanguineum glutinosum (below)

and viburnifolium (below). The latter has such tiny flowers, they're easy to miss.

R. aureum (Golden currant) is especially easy to grow and will reseed readily in the garden. I like to snip small branches and bring them in for a small, delicate arrangement.

This year I added the Ribes cultivar 'Dancing Tassles' to my garden. It's similar to sanguineum glutinosum (above) but with even longer, dangling flower heads.

Another petite blossom that sets my pulse racing is five spot (Nemophila maculata), pictured below.

I also adore its cousin baby blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii). I bought my seed at the Theodore Payne Foundation. The foundation now has a native plant Wiki, a source for pictures and information on plants you hear or read about.

Lupines are really taking off now.

And elegant clarkia (Clarkia unguiculata) has reseeded itself around my garden.

A Word from the Water Wise

2010-02-19T15:48:00.000-08:00

Last year I wrote about a gorgeous native plant garden for a local magazine. The piece was a general interest story on gardening with the California flora, but the homeowner and garden's designer, Eric Callow, impressed me with his enthusiasm for what I sometimes regard as the dismal science: irrigation.

Callow, a financial adviser and member of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden board, had transfered is his talent with numbers and spread sheets to the garden, calculating exactly how much water individual plants in his garden needed.

As someone whose watering regime is often douse plants when I remember to, Callow made my head spin. So I asked him to send along some tips. Here is the first of two parts:

When my wife Elisa and I were looking for a home eight years ago, we had the good fortune to find a mid-century modern house designed by Lloyd Wright Jr. The house came with twenty thousand square feet of yard begging to be re-landscaped and I already had a deep interest and some experience with California native plants. So, it was the perfect opportunity to design and install (with help) my own California native garden-including hundreds of feet of irrigation pipe and tubing.

The garden has matured wonderfully in many ways over the last five years and has been included on the Theodore Payne native garden home tour over that period. Certain areas in the yard have been real challenges, however, with apparently healthy plants just up and dying or other plants hanging on but not prospering. I decided it was time to consult an expert, so I called horticulturist Lili Singer.

Singer is special projects coordinator for the Theodore Payne Foundation, where, among other things, she produces the above referenced home garden tour. As she checked on my garden, noting a variety of problem plants and areas, a clear theme developed: most of the time, the problem lay in how the plant was being watered. It was not just a matter of too much or too little either; Lili also analyzed cases of inconsistent watering (too much, trying to make up for too little) and uneven watering (supplies not reaching some of the roots). As a result, I’m reviewing and revamping my garden irrigation system, circuit by circuit, again.

Now, not everyone wants to start digging up and replacing valves and sprinkler heads, let alone laying pipe, but two issues argue for at least understanding some of the big concepts.

For one thing, we’re all going to be pressured to use less water in the years ahead. In fact, the package of water bills recently passed in Sacramento stipulate that urban users will reduce their usage by 20% and local water districts are required to have a plan in place to do so sometime this year. The legislation raises some serious issues regarding the justice and necessity of singling out urban users, but there’s no question that we as gardeners need to do our part to save water.

Secondly, in my experience, the average hired gardener can’t be trusted to know what they are up to when it comes to analyzing or designing an irrigation system. Indeed, I’ve had to rework an extensive drip system because a professional landscape contractor’s employee didn’t understand the following precepts.

So, here are what I consider to the big concepts for understanding garden irrigation.

1. Hydro-zone: an area of plants with similar water requirements, watered by a single irrigation valve and circuit of spray heads, drip emitters, bubblers et cetera. The valve is like an electrically controlled faucet. When the controller/timer tells it to turn on, water is released into the circuit of pipe or tubing and distributed over the area being watered.

2. Efficiency: laying down water evenly over the hydro-zone and only in the hydro-zone.

3. Pressure: the force, measured in pounds per square inch (PSI), available at the irrigation valve.

4. Flow: the volume of water that will flow to the hydro-zone at a given pressure.

5. Precipitation: the amount of water delivered to an area (hydro-zone) measured in inches.

A hydro-zone can be simple, like a rectangle of turf, or complicated such as an irregular shape or even overlapped. It boils down to a grouping of plants that can be efficiently watered from a single valve. For the health of your plants-and your own sanity-you want to place plants together that need similar amounts of water in the same seasons.

Efficiency has to do with getting water to all the plants in the hydro-zone and not to anywhere else (like the driveway, etc.). Even application is important too since an under-served section of the zone will force wasteful over watering of the remainder. Professional irrigation designers assume that their best design for placement of the sprinkler heads will be only 90% efficient. I think a well designed low-pressure drip or micro-spray (think of a tiny spray head as opposed to a pop up sprinkler) system can do better. If you use more heads or emitters, each covering a smaller area, you can cover an area more precisely.

The pressure depends first of all on what your utility delivers. It’s usually too much, so you will likely already have one or more pressure regulators to reduce it to something manageable. For example, I have 185 PSI at the street, which is reduced to 75 PSI in the yard. That’s still way too much for the faucets inside the house, so there’s another pressure regulator to bring it down to 25 PSI. So, if your irrigation isn’t working well, the first thing to do is to check the pressure with an inexpensive gauge that screws onto a garden faucet. If it’s really low, maybe someone ran your garden plumbing from inside the house!

More often than not, however, the problem is not pressure but flow. Water flowing through a pipe creates friction and turbulence so that the more one tries to cram through it, the more pressure is lost by the time it reaches the other end. Even if the pressure can be increased, there’s only so much water you can get through pipe of a given diameter. Irrigation designers refer to charts to tell them how much of the pressure they’re starting with at the valve will be lost for every 100 feet of pipe the water is being pushed through.

Let’s say your irrigation circuit is designed to pump out ten gallons minute (not unusual), but the water is being pushed through 100 feet of half inch pipe before coming out the heads. The result will be really anemic because over 30 PSI will have been lost before the water gets to the sprinkler head. If there’s 200 feet of pipe, over 60 PSI will have been lost-perhaps more than you had to begin with! Of course, whoever designed the system should have used three quarter inch or even one inch pipe, but believe me, this sort of thing happens all the time.

When the weatherman says we had an inch of rain, it means that a baking pan left outside would have that depth of water in it: that’s precipitation. Precipitation is also how irrigation is measured, that is, in inches of water per month. For example, according to WUCOLS III (a water-use classification of landscape plants created for the California Department of Water Resources) an area of low-water plants--buckwheat, sage, ceonothus and the like—in Pasadena needs about two inches of precipitation in July. This may be more than the plants need to survive, strictly speaking, but is meant to be an estimate of what they need to be healthy and look good in a garden setting.

In any case, I am convinced that having an efficient irrigation system controlled to deliver planned amounts of precipitation is a least as important as your choice of plants in saving water.

Of course, most people will continue to estimate water needs by the old “seat of the pants” method, but I predict that as the conservation screw keeps getting turned, measuring precipitation will become the norm. How to do that is another conversation, complete with charts and graphs, which I’m writing up for the second installment of Irrigation Insights.

*Estimating Irrigation Water Needs of Landscape Plantings in California

The Landscape Coefficient Method and WUCOLS III (Water Use Classification of Landscape Species)University of California (a free publication available online)

Exploring the Intertidal

2010-02-13T15:16:00.000-08:00

Trip to El Matador State Beach

A couple weeks ago, friends invited us to explore tide pools at El Matador State Beach during an unusually low tide. How could I pass?

My son has touched sea stars and other marine invertebrates at the Aquarium of the Pacific, but he's never seen them in the wild.

It was a long haul from the San Gabriel Valley, but the drive through the Santa Monica Mountains alone was worth it. I gasped at the view above, looking west from Decker Road (Highway 23). I thought, "Tuscany has nothing on these mountains."

This route isn't the quickest over the range, but it's a gorgeous drive. The white ceonothus studding the hillsides glittered like diamonds.

Sadly, much of the roadside is lined with invasive, nonnative fountain grass (Pennisetum sataceum) that has escaped gardens and threatens rare habitats.

At El Matador, Giant coreopsis (above), bladderpod, and California encelia were in bloom. Cormorants sunned themselves on the rocks, and brown pelicans took a few exciting turns over our heads.

I pointed out several ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) to my son. Don't be fooled by their sedentary appearance, these fellows are accomplished hunters. They travel around on their tubed feet, attach the little suction cups to mussels, and slowly pry open their prey.

Once it cracks an opening, the sea star injects its stomach into the mussel, chows down, and retrieves stomach.

We also saw quite a few anemones, but they had contracted their tentacles, blending in with the rocks.

If you visit intertidal ecosystems, do so very carefully. People I observed on this visit seemed unaware of the camouflaged anemones and likely stepped on some.

A few years ago, I interviewed UCLA ecologist Rich Ambrose about intertidal habitats in L.A. County. He told me people are collecting or stepping on just about every kind of animal in and around tidepools.

He pointed to a fluid, deep purple sea slug: "This is an animal that’s really heavily impacted by visitors because as you can see it’s very soft bodied. People don’t see them and step on them and they squish."

People are also taking starfish home as souvenirs. And they’re illegally snagging crabs, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and other animals for their own dinner tables, or to sell to restaurants and aquarium stores. Ambrose’s research has found that about six percent of visitors collect something. That doesn't sound like a lot, but consider about 30,000 to 50,000 people a year will visit a single site.

Ambrose has tried to educate people, but he says some just don't care:

When I’ve tried to talk to them they’re not interested in hearing it’s not legal. They’ll collect big crabs that are uncommon. At one point we saw somebody drive down a pick up truck and was just filling up the back of the pickup truck with sea urchins.

(I pause for you to grumble, mutter, swear.)

Needless to say, the state lacks sufficient game wardens and park rangers to protect resources. On our Saturday visit, El Matador was entirely unstaffed.

All the more reason for those of us who can't hold our tongues, to keep our eyes open.

El Matador is located in north Malibu at 32215 Pacific Coast Highway.

The day use fee is $8

Sweet Greens

2010-01-23T15:21:00.000-08:00

The star of our vegetable garden this month is the delicious Di Cicco Broccoli. Hard to believe it all came from a $1.79 packet of Botanical Interests seeds.

Broccoli was a top priority for our winter garden, because it's so sweet when home grown. The stems of this one are even sweeter than the florets, so I happily give my son the soft tops and scarf down the rest myself. I often eat this broccoli plain; sauces can interfere with its wonderful flavor.

Di Cicco is also a beautiful plant. The site of ours, dappled with raindrops, glittering in the early light drew me outdoors this morning for a brief recharge before the breakfast dishes and diapers.

I started these plants in fiber pots on our shady back porch in late August. I placed them in the bed in October (I think).

Rambling the Arroyo

2010-01-17T15:21:00.000-08:00

This morning before the rain, my son and I enjoyed a short stroll along the lower Arroyo Seco with KPCC environment reporter Molly Peterson. We parked at Pasadena's Lower Arroyo Seco Nature Park and headed north toward the Colorado Street Bridge (pictured above).

My 2-year-old walked this, but most of the trail is accessible with a jogging stroller.

Under the bridge, concrete disappears and the stream meanders. Last summer, the Arroyo Seco Foundation partnered with the City of Pasadena to restore a petite native fish, the Arroyo Chub, to this area.

Willows and mallards also inhabit the stream bed, as do invasive plants such as Mexican Fan Palm, and cape-ivy (below). The latter is an especially brutal weed, as it will climb shrubs and trees and smother them. Left to its own devices, cape-ivy (Delairea adorata) will blanket the entire terrain, preventing seeds of other species from sprouting. It can be hard to tell destructive ivy from its more benign relatives, so weed experts advise gardeners to avoid ivy altogether.

After our short Pasadena walk, we drove a couple miles south to South Pasadena Nature Park, which flanks the Arroyo on the south as the stream swings west.

Horticulturist Barbara Eisenstein has led volunteer efforts to restore this stretch of the Arroyo. Eisenstein says the primary approach has been to try and get the upper hand on the worst weeds, including castor bean, milk thistle and ailanthus. She adds,

More recently I have been ready Bringing Back the Bush - The Bradley Method of Bush Regenerationwritten by Joan Bradley. The method is based on work by Joan and Eileen Bradley in Australia. Basically it calls for working from areas where native plants are doing well towards more degraded land. This allows the native plants to move out into the weedy areas. If one just removes weeds leaving a void, the weeds are always at an advantage for reestablishment.

We will be having a "Planting Party" on January 23rd with student volunteers from Occidental College (MLK Service Day) and community volunteers. We will be planting close to the central kiosk where the buckwheat, giant rye, coyote brush, toyon and oaks were planted in 2004.

The park has come a long way since it was "restored" in 2004. As we control weeds we are beginning to see native plants taking hold on their own. The buckwheat and California fuchsia are spreading from the 2004 planting. We have seen deerweed and datura, both native plants common in disturbed areas, and at my last visit I noticed some fiddleneck (Amsinckia). We have a long way to go but we are definitely making progress.

On our visit, Peterson helped my son photograph a toyon bush. He also enjoyed watching a trio of horses (plus riders) heading for the nearby stables.

Despite the weeds, the park is a refuge for native plants, including this lovely oak.

I enjoyed seeing the fluffy white blossoms of this coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis) glittering in the sunlight.

This park is just east of the bike trail that runs for two miles along and in the (channelized) streambed.

Lower Arroyo Seco Nature Park is located below Arroyo Blvd at Norwood in Pasadena. To get to South Pasadena Nature Park, head south on Arroyo until it meets Pasadena Avenue. The park entrance is on the right side, just before the road re-crosses the 110 Freeway.

Smart Meters

2010-01-13T09:48:00.000-08:00

Some power companies are pulling the plug on old-fashioned mechanical electric meters, and, to the likely disappointment of growl-happy dogs, meter-readers will no longer be invading yards across SouthernCalifornia.

Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric, and San Diego Gas and Electric are upgrading customers to digital “smart meters” that can transmit real-time data about electricity use wirelessly back to the utility company. (The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is updating its meters too, but primarily larger businesses will be outfitted with two-way meters.)

The next step is to provide detailed power-use information to homeowners, in hopes that they can assess and reduce their consumption.

Read the rest of my story on the LA Times LA at Home Blog

Manzanitas

2010-01-10T12:23:00.000-08:00

Two of my manzanitas are in splendid bloom. These gorgeous plants demand closer inspection. To fully appreciate them, get nose-to-nose with their tiny urn-shaped flowers--if you can find a cluster that isn't abuzz with bees.

Pictured above is the cultivar 'Lester Rowntree.' I'm so pleased to host a plant named for this pioneer (woman) of native plant horticulture. Starting in the 1930s, Rowntree traveled around California, including remote spots (alone), observing its floral and collecting seed.

Manzanitas are slow growers, but reward patient gardeners with sinuous trunks wrapped in red bark. (Photo below from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.)

While watering some blueberry plants sporting petite bell-shaped flowers, I recently wondered if they were members of same family as manzanitas, Ericaceae. They are.

Which makes my 2-year-old's odd preoccupation with eating manzanita's flowers and hard, bitter berries even more intriguing. He was drawn to the flowers after observing bees supping from them.

Manzanita means little apple in Spanish--an apt description for its berries. According to Kent Lightfoot and Otis Parrish in California Indians and Their Environment (yet another excellent natural history book from UC Press), some tribes along the central coast made cider from them. The Miwok dried, pounded and stored manzanita berries, re-hydrating them later. South Coast tribes often ground them into a flour.

Talkin' Bout Regeneration

2010-01-03T11:22:00.001-08:00

That's My Regeneration, Baby

People try to put 'em down, but native plants they get around. (Apologies to Pete Townsend.) It's been about 5 years since I started my second native plant garden.

Several of the original plantings are gone now, some dying inexplicably, others predictably. But in the last two years, my plants have started making their own design decisions. Aside from the annuals that have reseeded for several years, I now have a handful of perennials regenerating in my garden.

About 4 years ago, a gorgeous Dendromecon harfordii crashed before I could figure out why it was dying. I felt guilty. In trying to establish other plants around it, I'd probably overwatered it. Fast forward three years: a new plant has sprouted nearby (pictured above).

Meantime, in my front yard, some bird has planted a hummingbird sage (Salvia Spathacea) for me in the street strip, across the yard from its parent, rooted in a more sequestered spot. (See the photo below.)

Until this fall, a large coffeeberry (Rhamnus Californica) outside my office window afforded me a great look at many birds. I was distressed when it died. But then I remembered having seen a seedling sprouting nearby. I moved it closer to my window. It looks raring to go.

Other perennials roaming my yard: Hollyleaf cherry (Prunus ilicifolia), golden currant (Ribes aureum), pitcher sage (Lepechinia fragrans 'El Tigre').

A final note (and excuse to post a cute photo): This fall I also planted some little ones--penstemon Margarita BOP, Encelia Farinosa, Verbena Lilacina--that I propagated in a class at Theodore Payne. All summer, they sheltered in the dappled shade on my back porch. My son helped me care for them.

Snow Play & Fishing

2010-01-02T16:40:00.001-08:00

Last year, I somewhat foolishly plunked down the bucks to buy my not-quite two-year-old a snow suit and snow boots. I planned a surprise birthday trip to Big Bear for dad.

It was a memorable trip--but for the wrong reasons. Our pricey, so-called lake-view room abutted the main thoroughfare, which lit our room, unflaggingly, through the night.

A large storm left the town so snowy and icy, my son couldn't walk in his over-sized boots without slipping. The waterproof gloves were too big; the smaller gloves not waterproof. The sled was too scary. The visitor center was closed. The ski resort barred people from all snow recreation but skiing.

So we did the only thing our toddler enjoyed: drove the streets looking for snow plows.

This year, I was determined to use all that mini REI gear one more time before it was too small. Plus, our son had been asking for a mountain trip.

New Year's eve, we hastily packed the car and drove up Mt. Baldy (Yes, I know it's officially named Mt. San Antonio, but folks have been calling this highest peak in the San Gabriels Mount Baldy for more than a century.) There was far less snow than I'd expected (welcome to our warming world), but it was a gorgeous day atop the mountain.

The plan was to try out the Mt. Baldy Monster Tubing Park. But our son missed the (36") height cut-off by one inch. Still, he enjoyed the ride on the ski lift, and the cocoa at the lodge. I was grateful the Mt. Baldy Ski Resort management was relaxed about letting people play in snowy areas around the lodge.

After lunch, we headed back down the mountain to the Mount Baldy Trout Pools. My son enjoyed catching two rainbow trout. It was so quick and easy as to be anti-climactic for mom, but perfect for a toddler.

Finally, we crossed Mt. Baldy Road and idled alongside San Antonio Creek.

As I packed away the snow gear, I thought, if I keep the kid skinny enough he may be able to fit into that jumper for one more year.

Rainy Day, Trashy Day

2009-12-30T14:33:00.000-08:00

I love a rainy night. A rainy day, too. But I'll never forget the mountains of trash that wash into Southland waterways after storms. It's particularly depressing to see trash strewn in the branches of trees and shrubs, as you can see behind the ducks in this picture of the Glendale Narrows stretch of the LA River.

I took the photo above (and the one below) a couple weeks ago along the Rio Hondo, a tributary of the LA River. In addition to the ubiquitous shopping carts, plastic bags, styrofoam cups, soda cans, etc, there was a surprising number of rubber balls.

Film plastic is so light-weight that it blows out of trash cans and recycle bins easily. People who live near the Puente Hills landfill have watched the white baggies blow into their neighborhoods for years.

So to help you with a New Year's resolution to not lose sight of any plastic, following is a transcript of a radio story I reported a few years ago about the ecological implications of plastic accumulating in the environment.

KPCC ANCHOR: California has a reputation as a green state: a place where people care a lot about the environment. So you’d think that we’d have solved a basic environmental problem like litter. But public works crews haul tons of litter out of waterways every time it rains. Much of it is plastic. And, as KPCC’s Ilsa Setziol reports in the third part of our series on trash, some of the plastic is ending up in the ocean.

(sound up on: splashing, scraping, women chatting

“we need another bag”)

SETZIOL: After a fall rainstorm, nine women inmates haul trash out of a channel that flows into Newport Bay. Gloria Sauer with Orange County public works oversees the crew.

SAUER: Girls, get all of the floatable stuff. All of the trash and debris you see, the styrofoam cups and the glass, okay.

SETZIOL: The trash is caught behind a net that public works has installed to try to keep it from flowing into the bay and out to the ocean. In about an hour, the crew hauls out a couple hundred pounds plastic cups, water bottles, broken furniture and other trash. Orange County is still trying to get a handle on the total amount of trash is blowing or washing in county waterways—and where exactly it’s all coming from. Vince Gin is with the OC watershed division.

GIN: It could be a trash bag blown of a trash truck, or it could be a cup that didn’t make its way to a trash can. Sometimes, unfortunately it could be litter that someone has thrown out of a car and onto a street.

SETZIOL: Despite local efforts to capture trash, some of it ends up in the ocean. Of most concern is the plastic, because it’s so durable.

(sound of bubbling water)

In a lab in Redondo Beach, Charles Moore with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation is examining what’s in the stomach of an Albatross from the Hawaiian islands.

MOORE: Here we have a lid of some kind of bottle cap to a pen…different types of caps…Here’s a piece of jewelry.

SETZIOL: And lots of pieces of red, yellow and blue plastic. Big ones.

MOORE: Look at this we’ve got a toy bear

SETZIOL: An entire miniature, plastic toy bear.

SETZIOL: Moore says the birds didn’t evolve with plastic, so they have no way to distinguish it from food.

MOORE: They’re filling up on maybe a large percentage of non-digestible,non-nutritive plastic and feeding it to their chicks. So the chicks have what’s called a satiation reflex—it’s getting fuller and fuller and finally it stops demanding food from the parents.

SETZIOL: Moore says about 70 species of sea birds have been found to eat plastic. Researchers have also documented sea turtles and whales killed or injured by ingesting plastic bags and mylar balloons.

The Algalita Foundation thinks southern California is a major source. It sampled ocean waters at the mouths of the LA and San Gabriel Rivers and found 2 and a half grams of plastic for every gram of plankton at the surface--much of it very small pieces.

ANDRADY: Smaller particles I contend would be far more damaging from an ecological perspective.

Dr. Anthony Andrady is a polymer scientist with the research company RTI International. He says UV light gradually breaks plastic into smaller and smaller pieces. His research has found that krill and other zooplankton will eat significant amounts of microscopic plastic.

ANDRADY: That is particularly disconcerting because the food pyramid rests on zooplankton health. But whether that has an effect on them we don’t know.

SETZIOL: Researchers in Japan have found that pieces of plastic placed in seawater will absorb PCBs and other toxins. But scientists don’t know if marine life that eats plastic would absorb any of the pollution.

ANDRADY: It’s an unanswered question and when you have an unanswered question of this magnitude, it’s worrisome and we need to find an answer to this.

SETZIOL: Plastic doesn’t just breaking down in the ocean. It fragments on land and in rivers. The Algalita Foundation points out that the nets public works departments use capture trash don’t snag the small stuff.

(Clean up sounds up)

GIN: We can only pick up so much.

Vince Gin of the Orange County Watershed Department.

GIN: Trying to fight the problem by combating it after it’s already in the system is a losing battle. We have to work on reducing how much trash we create; prevention is absolutely key.

(trash hauling sounds)

In Newport Beach, Ilsa Setziol, 89.3, KPCC

Rancho Santa Ana

2009-12-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

I frequently advise would-be native plant gardeners to start with a trip to Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont. It's a beautiful place to see the California flora in a garden setting.

On a recent weekday, I strolled through the garden in a state of bliss. With trees and wildlife far outnumbering people, and an abiding quiet--aside from the chatter of birds--it was as exhilarating as a wilderness hike. California fuchsia was in bloom

toyons were heavy with berries

and wooly blue curls were, well, just their gorgeous selves.

I spotted some (Oregon) juncos, rested under some twisting oaks, and, yes, had a little chat with this Western gray squirrel. Notice that compared to the non-native fox squirrels, its tale is bushier and grayer, and its belly is white, not yellow.

The garden is handicap accessible and stroller friendly. It's a great place for children to toddle or run, and explore.

Rancho offers a free monthly Native Plant Clinic, in which experts answer your gardening questions.

Thar's Gold

2009-12-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

Precious Hike: Placerita Canyon

For years, Placerita Canyon, on the northwest edge of the San Gabriel Mountains, has been on my list of places to go. On a windy day late this fall, we finally made the trip.

Gold was discovered here in 1842--six years before Sutter's Mill. The gold rush didn't last, but Placerita later became a popular location for film and TV shoots.

Placerita is a lovely sycamore-filled canyon. This time of year, the gold is in the yellowing leaves of the trees.

To hike the canyon, take the main trail (on the right if you're facing the nature center). When you come to a fork, keep left to stay in the canyon. If you turn right, you'll loop back to the nature center--up a small hill with views of the Santa Clarita Valley.

I mention this because, strangely, the nature center offers descriptions of trails, but no trail map.

My son and his friend enjoyed observing a captive great-horned owl at the nature center. But otherwise the center itself was a bit of a disappointment: Few interesting exhibits; the staff was lurking in an office instead of with the exhibits or some place the public gathered.

Still, according to its website, the park offers family nature walks and live animal presentations.

Our son still naps, so for longer trips like this, we break up the return with a lunch stop. This keeps him from cat-napping in the car and missing a longer nap in his bed. For this trip, we lunched in downtown Montrose.

Getting There

From the intersection of the 5 and 14 Freeways, head east a few miles to the Placerita Canyon Exit. Turn right on Placerita Canyon Road and travel 1.5 miles to the park entrance.

The Future of Forests

2009-12-18T15:38:00.000-08:00

I was delighted when Emily Green asked me to interview Ronald Lanner for her website Chance of Rain. I adore his beautiful book "Conifers of California" (Cachuma Press). Of course, I proceeded to propose a really depressing topic: how global warming might effect California's forests. It wasn't a cheery conversation, but, if you care about trees and the animals that live amongst them, you should give it a look.

IS: Several studies have found animal species are shifting their ranges northward and upslope in response to warming. Are we seeing changes in conifer distribution?

RL: It’s hard to know for sure. Unless you do a controlled experiment over long period of time, you’ll not get definitive answer, but there are strong indications. At high elevation, where lodgepole pinegrows, it has, for a good number of years, been invading meadows. And mountain hemlock has also done that in the Sierra. It’s believed that ponderosa pinehas had an increasing mortality rate at its lower elevation and is tending to do best at higher elevations.

The discussion continues on Chance of Rain.

In Praise of Lili

2009-12-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

Plant lovers rejoice! Lili Singer is once again writing for Los Angeles Times Home. Singer knows more about gardening and Southern California friendly plants--both natives and exotics--than anyone I've met. What's more, she shares her knowledge with enthusiasm, lucidity and lovely prose.

So look for Singer's new column online and in the paper.

She teaches at Theodore Payne (where she serves as special projects coordinator), the LA County Arboretum and other venues around town.

I'm a huge fan of the Arb's Thursday Garden Talks with Lili Singer. This winter's series looks fantastic. Singer's guests will include irrigation expert Bob Galbreath, edible landscape pioneer Rosalind Creasy, and native plant guru Bart O'Brien. Also, Jerry Turney will cover the fundamentals of landscape diseases and Jan Smithen will lecture on great Australian plants for So Cal gardens. To sign up for one or all of the 8-class, Thursday-morning series, call 626-821-4623.

(The photo above is from the LA County Arboretum.)

Critical Habitat Expanded

2009-12-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

This lovely and rare brodiaea (Brodiaea filifolia) was afforded additional protection this week when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expanded the acres designated as critical habitat for the endangered species. (This photo was taken by David Bramlet.) The flower only grows in isolated pockets of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange and San Diego Counties.

Under the Bush administration, the agency had registered less than 600 acres as critical habitat for the species. Nearly 3,800 acres will now be official labeled as "essential to the conservation of the species."

“We’re glad the thread-leaved brodiaea will get more protection than the Bush government proposed, but we’re worried that the new proposal still fails to include 33 of the 69 locations of this very rare lily,” said Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Also, this proposal wants to remove protection for 16 more locations.”

According to the Center, the flower is threatened by a combination of urban development, off-road vehicles, grazing, and plowing for fire clearance and agricultural conversion.

The critical habitat designation doesn't fully protect the flowers (a corm). According the Stanford Environmental Law Society (in it's 2001 publication The Endangered Species Act), critical habitat designation can affect private land, "but only to the extent that a future activity on that land is subject to federal permitting." And only uses that "destroy or adversely modify" the habitat are restricted. (Hence, much ensuing debate over what constitutes an "adverse modification.")

The designation has the greatest effect on public lands, where federal agencies, such as the US Forest Service, usually take some additional steps to protect the species.

Anderson says since the plant was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1998, entire populations have been extirpated, Anderson says. She adds the plant is still extremely vulnerable. “Anything but an expansion of final critical habitat is a recipe for extinction.”

The Center for Biological Diversity has petitioned the agency to overturn or revise Bush-era decisions affecting more than 50 species.

Rain Captured

2009-12-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

The results are in: Our rain barrel, Urna Therma, isn't just a beauty, she gets the job done. When we installed her, weren't sure how much water we'd capture. But that one late October rain filled her shapely figure to the brim. So Urna may get a baby sister one of these days.

I use that tap on the bottom to fill my son's tiny watering can and water seedlings. For my two-year-old, it's a good alternative to the hose, i.e. he can't blast mommy with a hose.

With a little planning you can forego a rain barrel and channel rainwater directly into your garden. You can find details on a page of the TreePeople website.

Either approach can keep water from flowing off your property. Once it hits the street, runoff picks up pollution that can be transported into waterways and out to the ocean.

Ride & Play

2009-12-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

OUTDOOR FUN AT SANTA FE DAM RECREATION AREA

Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area is a large flood control basin that straddles the San Gabriel River as it descends from the San Gabriel Mountains into the valley near Irwindale.

The more than 800 acres here feature a large lake for fishing and paddling, a nature center, picnic areas with barbeque pits, playground structures, and miles of smooth, flat biking trails. In the summer, you can swim in a water play area.

We recently spent a Sunday morning biking the top of the dam, then played in the park/picnic area.

A ride atop the dam affords great views of the San Gabriel Mountains. (My son preferred the views of the 210 & 605 Freeways.) I also enjoyed watching a gorgeous white-tailed kite fluttering and diving down on rodents.

Well-maintained, smooth trails--perfect for little kids on their own bikes--skirt the lake. Slightly older kids can also ride the dam top. One note: there is no shade atop the dam, so I would not ride here midday in summer. Trails around the lake are shadier.

We plan to return for swimming, fishing, bird-watching, and chilling.

From May to October, there is a fat $10 fee to drive into the recreation area. (No charge the rest of the year.) But it's money well spent; the park is well maintained.

For more dam biking, try Hansen Dam.

Winter Veg

2009-11-26T10:36:00.001-08:00

Our fall/winter vegetables are taking off. The lettuce in the bed pictured above finally sprouted, after three tries. The seed I started in fiber pots in a shadier spot took off immediately, but this bed with afternoon sun was slow to go. Next time around, I'll try a trick Renee Shepherd of Renee's Garden Seeds told me about recently: put the seed in the fridge for a day before planting it.

I interviewed Shepherd recently for a short piece on arugula I wrote for the LA Times. I've planted four kinds of arugula this year because--need I say it?--I love it, and it's so easy to grow. You can buy both annual and perennial arugula. Extra! Read all about it in my arugula report.

Some summer treats still linger, including bell peppers, a lone watermelon I hope will ripen, a few strawberries, and basil.

Some of our pak choi (below) is ready to harvest, and the broccoli is bursting. The peas are producing their first pods (above).

I've also started cilantro, parsley, beans, beets, and chevril. I highly recommend the latter. I like to toss this delicate-flavored herb into salads; it also complements all things eggy quite well. Chevril doesn't dry well, so it's best to grow it.

Essential Herbs

2009-11-19T15:00:00.000-08:00

You know you're talking to a plant person when you ask to take her photo and tells you she wants to do a little grooming first--not herself, mind you, just the plants.

Snipping some wispy brown leaves off a couple chives, Shirley Kerins, manager of plant production and plant sales for the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens, told me it was more important that the plants look good.

I went to talk to Kerins for a recent piece on alliums I wrote for the LA Times. It's a huge genus--some 500 species--and, alas, I only had room to discuss the ornamental kinds.

But they have plenty in common with their culinary brethren. Kerins searched among a vast field of flats for some of the long, slender leaved onions, chives and garlic that make up this group of plants. "It’s a monocot," she explained. "You can tell a monocot because the [leaf] veins run parallel, as opposed to a dicot where the veins are netted."

Among Kerins' favorites are chives. "Every one who cooks should have chives in their garden. Because it is so easy to run out and snip off the leaves," she says. She recommends snipping the leaves down at the base, taking an entire strand, rather than just trimming the top of the plant. New leaves will sprout up and the plant will look better.

Kerins introduced me to a new variety of garlic chives (Allium Tuberosum) called Nira. Like other varieties it has an oniony taste with a tinge of garlic. But it's flattened blades fan out like a palm frond.

Kerins says the poofs of white or purple-pink flowers chives produce are a pretty addition to a kitchen garden or the front of flower bed.

Plus, she advises, "you can pull those flowers apart and sprinkle them on your salad, and you get a crunch you don’t get from the leaves, but you get the same flavor."

To learn a bit about ornamental alliums, including the native species, click here.

Beautiful View, Beautiful Park

2009-11-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

Vista Hermosa Natural Park

Last Sunday, my family strolled this gorgeous 10-acre park just west of downtown LA. Unprompted, my husband commented, "Every neighborhood should have a park like this."

With my heart aflutter over the large palette of mostly native plants, I was thinking something similar. Kudos to landscape architect Mia Lehrer for a gorgeous design. I can't help wishing some of the degraded stretches of Griffith Park looked more like this.

Vista Hermosa offers sweet views of downtown, including Disney Hall. We enjoyed strolling through the young sycamores, alders

and willows.

Larks scurried along a grassy gully, yellow-rumped warbles flashed their buttery backsides, and white-crowned sparrows seemed to be playing hide-and-seek under some alders.

Grasses don't usually thrill me. But the fine texture of the bunch grasses here on a misty, soft-lit morning was magical. I also enjoyed the intermingling of red-blossomed California fuchsia with petite roses bursting with red hips.

In the children's play area, my son enjoyed walking atop this snake, and sliding down a giant turtle.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy created Vista Hermosa with funding from two state water bonds, and LA's proposition 12. An amiable park ranger was on hand the day we visited.

After the park, we lit out for lunch in Japan town. It was a sweet itinerary for an increasingly beautiful city.

Vista Hermosa Park

100 N. Toluca Street

Los Angeles 90026

Casting Seed

2009-11-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

I've been peering anxiously at little sprouts in my garden. I usually scatter wildflower seed before, during or immediately after the first fall rain. This year, dreaming of spring, I joyously tossed seed on a drizzly day.

But my hopes started to wither with the subsequent Santa Ana winds and two heat waves. Yes, the poppies had reseeded on their own, but, aside from the nonnative corn flowers, there seemed to be few other species.

I started to pull some of the overabundant poppies. Sheltered underneath I found clarkias, lupines and other seedlings. Those I'd strewn in shadier spots had survived, too.

California poppies seem to thrive just about anywhere in Southern California. (Just don't expect them to grow if you sow them in summer. In my experience, they'll wait for fall.) As Barbara Eisenstein said in a recent class at the LA County Arboretum, these annuals with long tap roots seem to condition the soil, breaking it up and making it more hospitable for future generations of plants. The first year I ripped out lawn and replaced it with natives, poppies were the only native annual that made a go of it. But as the years have gone by, more of them have taken root in the garden.

In nature, poppies plants mingle with lupines, creating a gorgeous carpet of blue and orange. Lupines also improve garden soil by hosting bacteria that convert nitrogen gas in the air into a form other plants can use.

The lupines sprouting with poppies in my parkway are probably not native to California, but they reseed in this hard-to-grow spot. (I do grow native lupines elsewhere.) I think their origin is a lovely Botanical Interests mix called Sweet Baby Blues. This wildflower mix includes several California natives including desert bluebells (Phacelia campanularia), baby blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii) and five spot (Nemophila maculata).

Elegant claria (Clarkia unguiculata) also self-sows in my garden, though I've thrown more down this year to ensure it's presence. I adore its tall spikes of pink and magenta flowers. I've also scattered farewell to spring (Clarkia amoena) and plan to try some Clarkia purpurea (look them up on Theodore Payne's fabulous California Natives Wiki).

Harder to grow--at least for me--are the two Nemophila species pictured below, Nemophila maculata and Nemophila menziesii. I've tried them in several shady or part-shade spots, but so far they favor only one nook.

I enthusiastically recommend two other plants that aren't annuals but low-growing natives that reseed easily. First, blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum). I'm at a loss to explain my passion for these petite, purple members of the iris family with grass-like foliage (below). They look lovely clustered around one of my bird baths.

Blue flax (Linum lewisii) produces similarly shaped and sized blue flowers, also in clumps. Various species of Linum are native to much of the American West. I planted it to bring a little blue to my very purple native plant palette. You can find blue flax and the desert bluebell seeds on racks in many mainstream nurseries.

For more on spectacular wildflowers, click to my recent piece on the rare flowers that bloom after wildfires.

Soil for Pots

2009-11-07T15:09:00.000-08:00

We've been enjoying some delicious strawberries this fall. They used grow in an inch-high raised bed, but I was constantly battling slugs and pillbugs. They're faring much better in two pots, including the strawberry pot pictured above.

This year, I filled my containers and raised beds with Tim Dundon's legendary compost from the Altadena horse barn he manages. By next year I hope to have enough of my own compost. Decay is happening in my bin, Green Johanna, but ever so slowly. (My red wiggler worms are also doing their part.)

Wondering how to fill your raised beds and pots? I offer three possibilities in a recent piece for the Los Angeles Times: Experts Give the Scoop on Potting Mix.

Hike Los Angeles

2009-10-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

RAMBLING MT. WASHINGTON

Elyria Canyon Park is a lovely refuge in NE Los Angeles. This undeveloped patch of the southwestern side of Mt. Washington is surrounded by city. But it preserves a fairly intact parcel of native walnut woodland.

California walnuts (Juglans californica) are important nesting trees for birds and a food source for ground squirrels and Western gray squirrels. They frequently mingle with coast live oaks in shaded canyons. Sometimes, like here, they are the dominant tree species.

We recently enjoyed a peaceful Sunday morning stroll in Elyria Canyon. At 9:00 a.m., we were the only people on the trail. We encountered plenty of fall color--in the form of poison oak.

I thought my two-year-old would be bored here. There's no stream, no nature center. But he was enchanted by the simple act of hiking with a walking stick--fashioned from the dried stalk of an invasive mustard plant. (No native species were harmed in the making of walking sticks.) He also liked the views of the city, the Verdugo Mountains, Griffith Park, the LA River and--boy that he is--the 5 Freeway.

We listened to scrub jays squawking, and watched yellow-rumped warblers and white-crowned sparrows dart through the elderberry bushes.

I was charmed by a small patch of California fuchsia (below).

I hear there are remnant patches of native purple needle grass (Nassella pulchra), but, with toddler in tow, didn't try to identify them. In the 19th century, sheep and cattle grazed Mt. Washington, so the persistence of anything herbaceous is a pleasant surprise.

After our hike, we took the boy for a train ride at nearby Griffith Park. Even closer is the playground at Rio Los Angeles Park.

Picture Perfect

2009-10-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

My garden is home to many spiders. With the exception of the black widows, I'm happy to see them. But, unlike the birds, they've never set me rushing, breathlessly, to reach for a field guide. Until a couple weeks ago. That's when I sauntered onto my patio and saw the image above.

From a glance at my copy of Insects of the Los Angeles Basin (published by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County), I'm guessing it's a Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia viridans). The book says the adults do not entrap their prey in webs, but rather pounce on them.

Transitions in the Garden

2009-10-22T15:32:00.000-07:00

This blog has been a bit thin of late. In part because I've been clicking away at prose that pays, but also because--do I need to say it?--it's fall! My son and I have been enthusiastically sprinkling, poking and tossing seed. More on this in a minute. But first, a farewell to summer.

The pumpkin bonanza is winding down. Our Renee's Garden Antique French Pumpkins have yielded a wonderful crop, on which we've feasted for nearly four months now. In addition to the previously chronicled goodies, we've also made several rounds of pumpkin bread and two kinds of pumpkin soup. We saved the misfits for jack-o-lanterns.

We've finally said farewell to the Amazing Super Zucchini. Here's a shot from a month before its demise. Note how it has overflowed the raised bed by four feet.

Back in late August we seeded some broccoli (pictured below next to basil) in pots and kept it partially shaded on the back porch. Next it was carrots, peas, then pak choi, beets, arugula and lettuces. Peas are among our favorites. Their roots host bacteria that pull nitrogen gas (N2) from the air and convert it to a form that peas and other plants can absorb (thus benefiting us all). And my son enjoys the instant gratification of plucking the pods and eating them right off the vine.

Next we'll plant turnips, spinach, leeks and garlic. We purchased our seeds from Renee's Garden Seeds, Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply, and Franchi.

When my son--a mere two-year-old--recently asked me, "Mommy did I come in the mail? Where did I come from?" There was a discussion of tummies--and seeds.

Pictured above: peas started in porous, biodegradable pots that can be placed directly in a bed when the seedlings are more established and less vulnerable to being uprooted by backyard wildlife such as possums.

Red-Tailed Hawks

2009-10-17T15:54:00.000-07:00

TO TAKE A BACKWARD LOOK

These are the days when Birds come back —

A very few — a Bird or two —

To take a backward look.

– Emily Dickinson

HOPE is indeed a thing with feathers. In a landscape entombed in cement, the sight of a wild bird soaring — circling over the freeway, alighting on the towers of high-tension power liness — offers a sudden thrill.

If it’s a majestic bird, it’s probably a hawk.

In urban Southern California the two most common are the litheCooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperii), which lurks in yard trees and jets out to nab little birds, and the larger red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). The latter is the one you see coasting around in lazy circles, buoyed by upwelling currents of hot air called thermals.

Wanting to know more about these birds, I called conservation biologist Dan Cooper, the consultant behind Cooper Ecological. Cooper has been observing LA birds since he was a teen. He’d know where to find a red-tail.

He took me to the Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery, which dates back to the 1880s. As we strolled among century-old gravestones and towering pines, Cooper pointed out that the West Adams area is one of the most densely populated parts of the city. “This cemetery is one of the few big green patches. Any one who’s been down here knows it’s solid urbanization.”

It’s not a place you’d expect to see a lot of wildlife, I said.

“There’s not a lot here,” he agreed, “but a few things that have adapted and we just saw one, the western bluebird. The common birds here are going to be house finch, mourning dove, and [European] starling.”

But as we drove in, Cooper had spotted a red-tailed hawk perched atop one of the pines. So, binoculars in hand, we went looking for it.

“They like tall trees to place their nest,” said Cooper. “And they’ll often roost in tall trees, sitting right at the top. But when they hunt, they hunt by circling and soaring around, diving down on things; they’re not sit and wait predators.”

How do they hunt?

“The adults will circle,” explained Cooper. “When they see something, they nose dive. Just before they hit the ground, they’ll pull up, stick out their feet and land on their prey and squish it on the ground, and kill it with one hit–they land on it with their talons extended. After they land, they’ll fan their wings out a bit, take off to a perch with the prey in their feet and start pulling it apart with their beak.”

In addition to favoring cemeteries and other places where tall trees skirt open areas, red-tail hawks also seek out trees rooted on hillsides or even slight rises like the one the Rosedale Cemetery blankets. “You think of LA as being flat,” said Cooper, “but there are actually these old ridges and little hills all through the city. And birds still do select for this topography. In the depressions, where you have a lot of sycamore trees, you’ll see riparian species, like red-shouldered hawk, are still there.”

Cooper can identify birds flitting by so fast that most people barely see them. He pointed out darting swallows and a black phoebe perched on a headstone (a stand-in for the boulders the bird evolved with). But the hawk was eluding us.

Red-tailed hawks are native to the LA basin. Some are resident; others drop in for the winter. Before the ranch era, nesting and roosting trees were far less common in the area. “The hawks may have nested in sycamores where Echo Park Lake is or MacArthur Park is,” said Cooper, “then foraged here on the plain.” As people planted eucalyptus and other large trees, the hawks moved in.

As human development proliferated, so did introduced species such as theeastern fox squirrel, rock doves–a.k.a pigeons—and possums. “We’ve have garbage all over the city, squirrels eat our garbage,” said Cooper, “So we have this inflated prey base. If every one fed their cats inside, we wouldn’t have possums, squirrels, and rats everywhere. We’d have a lot lower population of prey for hawks.”

Click on the image to be taken to the US Fish and Wildlife Service forensic laboratory

An echoing “CHEEeeev” pierced the sky above us. A brown bird with broad wings spanning four feet glided past, its rust-colored tail fanned. “That’s a red-tailed hawk,” said Cooper. The bird circled, cutting in front of a distant airplane, then disappeared behind a tree.

A few minutes later the hawk was back in view—with a mate. It folded its wings into its body and plummeted, headfirst. Then the bird pulled up—as if that death dive was just a joke–and joined the other hawk. The two zigzagged in unison, yellow legs dangling, giving the impression of a pair of hang gliders.

“That’s their courtship,” said Cooper.

“What’s the deal with the dangling legs?” I asked.

“It means I like you,” Cooper guessed. “I like your style.”

It was spring, the birds were courting, so we searched for a nest. No luck.

A couple days later, I met Cooper on a suburban road in La Habra Heights. A large bowl of sticks was nestled in a two-story eucalyptus. Squinting into some binoculars I saw two motley young hawks—downy heads and partially feathered bodies—preening their newly sprouted wing feathers. (A sibling lay in the nest.)

One of the juveniles tottered to the nest’s edge, gingerly unfurled its wings, and looked down.

Cooper told me that a red-tail’s first flight is really a hazardous jump. “They’ll sort of flop to the ground,” he said. “At that point really vulnerable to being eaten by cats and coyotes, or just killed in the fall. But they do have a little foliage between them and the ground so they may hit the crown of one of these [native] walnut trees.” The fledglings will flap and crash around nearby trees until they learn to fly.

The young hawk apparently thought the better of it and stepped back from the edge. A good decision considering its parents soon returned. The big babies plead for food with a breathy calls sounding something like pweese, pweese, pweese!

As the female—the bigger of the two adults—wheeled around the nest, Cooper told me, once the young birds fledged, they would leave the area. “They might stay a few weeks, but eventually they’ll disperse,” he said, “find their own mate, and set up shop somewhere else–maybe in the Puente Hills, maybe somewhere far away. It’s pretty amazing where these birds will make a home.”

This web story first appeared on Chance of Rain. Thanks to editor Emily Green.

Click here for an earlier audio version from KPCC's Off-Ramp.

Sparaxis flowers bright and easy

2009-10-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

Gardeners who like a touch of the exotic need not despair in these water-conscious times. Many of Earth's loveliest flowers can get by with less.

Take sparaxis, a group of bulbs -- underground stems called corms, to be precise -- that hails from South Africa. It grows to about a foot high and can be so alluring, it will have you crouching for a closer look.

My story continues in Los Angeles Times Home.

Photo credit: Annie's Annuals and Perennials.

El Dorado Nature Center

2009-10-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Call me a geek, but virtually nothing excites me more than finding a new patch of Southern California to explore. The survival of the natural world amidst the miles of concrete is thrilling.

I'm still aflutter weeks after my family's first trip to El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach. (If you don't live nearby, this place is worth the drive.)

The nature center sits on nearly 100 acres of parkland sandwiched between the 605 and the San Gabriel River. Two miles of easy trails wind through a mix of exotic and native plants.

You'll enjoy easy bird and turtle watching around the two lakes. I never tire of watching snowy egrets (below).

Park staff--and volunteers, no doubt--have done some admirable restoration of native plants here. You'll know you've reached a good patch when the air becomes especially fragrant. Be sure to have any kidlets take a good whiff. (Below, my son is sniffing white sage.)

On our recent visit, we enjoyed watching a red tailed hawk land on a nearby power tower, ground squirrels filling their cheeks with acorns (below), and checking out the rosy boa inside the nature center.

In addition to two snakes, the nature center features animal pelts, live bugs, animal shells and skeletons, and other educational exhibits. My son did not want to leave.

If you've got more time, take your bikes or a picnic to the adjacent El Dorado Regional Park. Or simply watch men piloting sail boats in the little lake. Your seven dollar admission ($5 on weekdays; free if you don't arrive by car) is good at both locations.

We had so much fun, we've made a note to return with bikes and pick up the San Gabriel River Bike Trail from this spot.

Directions to El Dorado Nature Center.

Tale of Two Squirrels

2009-09-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

Take a look around your neighborhood these days and you'll probably see this squirrel busily collecting acorns and other nuts. It will bury them and dig them up in winter and spring.

I've watched some amusing yelling matches between squirrels and scrub jays. The squirrels swoosh their tails furiously and scream. (The more fluid, back-and-forth tail waving is an amorous gesture, according to Jim Dines, a mammalogist with the Natural History Museum of LA County.) Dines says, "Jays are particularly intelligent--they're related to crows--and will watch where the squirrels are burying their nuts so they can steal them later."

These are a few of the tidbits I learned reporting the following story on native and nonnative squirrels in the Los Angeles area.

NATIVE GRAY

Who hasn’t watched their backyard squirrels scurry along power lines, spiral up and down tree trunks, whip their tails and holler “chkk-chkk-chkk” at trespassing scrub jays?

Now that autumn trees are full of acorns, the antics are in overdrive.

Surprisingly, though, the squirrels leaping from bough to bough in urban Los Angeles aren’t native.

Before urbanization, trees were far less common in the Los Angeles basin. Ground squirrels burrowed into the earth, but the native arboreal squirrel lived in mountainous areas.

The story continues on Chance of Rain.

Lives in the Balance

2009-09-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

An article in the prestigious science journal Nature this week includes a sobering graphic. In it, the earth is sliced into nine wedges representing planetary systems such as climate, fresh water, ocean chemistry, biodiversity, changes in land use, and the nitrogen cycle. Three of them are very red, indicating humans have already interfered with the climate, biodiversity, and nitrogen cycles sufficiently to potentially threaten our own survival on the planet. In terms of biodiversity, the graphic illustrates what conservation biologists have been saying for some time: Humans are causing other species to wink out at a rate 100 to 1,000 times higher than what the fossil record indicates as a natural baseline.

The authors note that Homo sapiens evolved and thrived during an unusually stable period in the earth's history, a 10,000 year increment called the Holocene. "Such stability may now be under threat," the scientists say. Human activities could "push the Earth system outside the stable environmental state of the Holocene, with consequences that are detrimental or even catastrophic for large parts of the world."

Click here for a summary of the paper.

Note that "ocean acidification" refers to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by the oceans. The burning of fossil fuels is altering the chemistry of the seas, turning them more acid.

Bike and Play

2009-09-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Early Morning Ride Along the Arroyo Seco

I usually prefer a hike to a bike ride, but with a toddler in tow, biking has its advantages. It's generally easier to haul a 25-pound hunk of squirming flesh in a bike seat than in a backpack carrier. However, suitable routes are in short supply. If you're up early on a weekend, try this simple ride along the Arroyo Seco and around Pasadena's Rose Bowl.

This ride is not suitable for young children on their own bikes, unless you opt for a just a loop around the Rose Bowl.

Start at the intersection of Arroyo and California Blvds. There's ample street parking. Head north on Arroyo, along the Arroyo Seco. The Arroyo is a major tributary of the Los Angeles River. At the rim here, it's lined with large oaks. If you've got a toddler aboard, he will appreciate the many spandex-clad bikers whizzing past.

The Arroyo Seco Foundation has been working on and advocating for restoration of the area. One exciting development: the petite Arroyo Chub once again swims natural stretches of the stream. The chub is a small minnow native to slow-flowing, muddy or sandy stretches of Southern California streams. Urban development and introduced species have substantially reduced its populations. This information on their restoration to the Arroyo Seco comes straight from the Foundation's (ASF) website:

The Arroyo Chub, a native species that once thrived in the Arroyo Seco, has returned. Last summer three hundred of the small fish were planted in the natural stream areas of Pasadena's Central Arroyo stream below Devil's Gate Dam and just above the Colorado Street Bridge, and recent sightings indicate the fish are doing well particularly in the lower stretch.

"This is a momentous development and a key milestone in our campaign to restore the natural attributes and functions of the Arroyo Seco," said Tim Brick, Managing Director of the Arroyo Seco Foundation. The fish restoration came as part of the Central Arroyo Stream Restoration Program completed by ASF and the City of Pasadena. The project included water quality islands in Brookside Park parking lot, trail improvements, and backwater pools and improved habitat for the fish.

On this ride, you will bike on the street, which is why I recommend starting out around 8:30 a.m.

The route climbs steadily, but not too steeply, until it reaches the Colorado Street Bridge and 210 Freeway. This is where things get a tad dicey. As it ducks under the freeway, Arroyo Blvd becomes steep and narrow. I suggest you wait a minute for some other bikers to join you, then descend. This should help you be more visible to cars. You'll be through this bottleneck in a minute.

As you head towards the Rose Bowl, note the playground and Kidspace Children's Museum on your right. Bike traffic around the Bowl flows clockwise (reverse of the pedestrian route).

My son and I topped our ride with a romp around the playground. We sent my husband back to get the car. He didn't complain, as he rode back unencumbered.

Here's a link to another Arroyo Ride.

The Big Blue

2009-09-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

I've launched a new column for this blog's sister site, Chance of Rain. Edited by Emily Green, the weekly rambles explore nature in and around urban Southern California. Here's a taste with a link to the full story:

THE DINOSAURS are gone. So too the mammoths, saber-toothed cats and short-faced bears. Even California’s mascot, the grizzly, no longer roams the state. Megalopolis has replaced megafauna. Yet the largest animal ever still graces the California coast. This summer, I went looking for it.

The story continues on Chance of Rain.

Trills and Thrills in the Garden

2009-09-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited that I'm hopping up and down. Hopping like a California Towhee in the underbrush of my yard! California Towhees look a like big, plain brown sparrow, but with a longer tail.

Its presence is evidence that my humble habitat is doing its job.

I immediately emailed conservation biologist Dan Cooper of Cooper Ecological to ask if this meant I could claim my native plants are providing good habitat, superior to your average garden. "Yes," he answered. "That's awesome. They are a major indicator of native habitat, in my opinion."

I've had my yard "certified" by the National Wildlife Federation's Garden for Wildlife program. If you've got native plants, consider applying. After you fill out some forms and pay a small fee, they'll send you a sign that helps raise awareness of the role yards can play in sheltering and feeding wildlife.

Another thrill in the garden this week: My barely five-month-old California fuchsia is blooming. This native is a welcome addition to a native/Mediterranean-climate garden because it blooms when most of the other plants don't. Nevin Smith, author of Native Treasures, says its long, red tubular flowers are "a classic example of flowers evolved for pollination by hummingbirds." The hummers can thank dry garden queen Emily Green, who gave me two of the plants.

Lean and Green

2009-09-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Some folks know I'm a frequent contributor to Arroyo Monthly. I love this publication for Irene Lacher's excellent editing, and her willingness to run longer stories. Only some of the pieces I've written fit the focus of this blog, but my September story on a new green development in Eagle Rock isn't too much of a stretch. Here's an excerpt and a link to the full story.

Earlier this year, retired teacher Karen McKay and her husband John were searching the online real estate service Redfin for a home in the Pasadena area. Nothing stood out. “A lot of the places were 1920s bungalows,” says McKay. “They were cute but required someone younger and more energetic to keep them up.” Plenty of condominiums were listed, but the McKays didn’t want to deal with a homeowners’ association.

Then they read about Rock Row — 15 new homes squeezed together on half an acre on Yosemite Drive in Eagle Rock. The individual parcels were tiny — only five inches separate the residences — but buyers would own their lots. There were no shared walls and no potentially contentious homeowners’association. Plus, the project was in the vanguard of environmentally friendly construction. “We didn’t know that people were building like this,” McKay says of the dual-flush toilets, double-pane windows, low-water landscaping and more.

The McKays consider themselves lucky to have found Rock Row in time. Priced around $500,000, the homes sold out within a month. If the project holds up to rigorous third-party inspections, it could become the first multi-home development in Los Angeles to earn a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating, the gold standard for green buildings.

Click here for the the full story.

Chaparral

2009-09-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

As the station fire continues to rage in the Angeles National Forest, I can't help mourning some of my favorite hiking and camping spots. Indeed, some of the family-friendly places mentioned on this blog have either burned or are likely to burn.

But fire is a natural part of the forest's dominant ecosystem, chaparral. Chaparral consists of large evergreen shrubs such as ceanothus (above), chamise, manzanita, mountain mahogany, and laurel sumac. It often intergrades with sage scrub habitat, characterized by summer deciduous plants such as sages.

Chaparral shrubs can regenerate after fires. Some resprout from burls or root crowns under the soil, others have seeds that are capable of lying dormant for a century until fire stimulates them to germinate. It's remarkable considering chaparral fires frequently reach temperatures of more than a thousand degrees. "Making them among the hottest fires in any natural environment in the world today," according to Philip Rundel and Robert Gustafson, authors of Introduction to the Plant Life of Southern California.

"This system is a fire-prone ecosystem," Rick Halsey told KPCC listeners this week on a segment of "AirTalk" I produced. "Its natural fire return interval is every 50-50 years, so these big fires are natural to the landscape. Not the frequency, because most of these fires are caused by humans. But the size and intensity are perfectly normal. So instead of looking at this thing as a tragedy that could have been prevented, and trying to manipulate the landscape, what we need to do is create communities that are adapted to the landscape rather than forcing the landscape to adapt to us.”

Halsey leads California Chaparral Institute. The problem, according to Halsey and other fire ecologists, will come if people ignite another fire in the area before the native plants have time to recover. "The trick now is to keep fire out of this fire scar for at least 30 years or so," he said. "At that point the plants and the system are capable of recovering properly. The scary part of this now is often a few years after a fire, weeds get into the area, especially in wind-driven events and you can re-burn areas that already burned only 4 years before. For example the Witch fire in '07 in San Diego County burned 70,000 acres that burned 3 years before." The end result of frequent fires is a diverse landscape native shrubs are replaced by a sea of a few invasive plants, such as non-native annual grasses.

To learn more about the problem of frequent fires, read my magazine story from last fall called Sparking the Fires.

Where there's Smoke

2009-08-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

We're choking on forest fire smoke here in the LA basin, especially in the San Gabriel Valley, so I thought I'd pass on some health tips. These are especially important for people with respiratory issues and heart problems, the elderly, and children.

"Take special care to protect children," says Norman Edelman, M.D. and Chief Medical Officer with the American Lung Association (ALA), "They are more susceptible to smoke because their respiratory systems are still developing."

My son is miserable; he's been cooped up for days. We made sure to change the filter in our A/C and are running a HEPA filter air cleaner, as recommended by both the ALA and the LA County Health Department. The health department recommends avoiding A/C units that draw outdoor air, and using a recirculated air setting if you have one. The ALA advises against air cleaners that emit ozone, as they will compound the assault on your lungs. One sign that yours is ozone-generating is the sweet smell it produces. (HEPA filters do not emit ozone.)

Yes, shut your windows, and don't exercise outdoors.

The American Lung Association says if you're going to use a mask, make sure it's labeled "N95" or "P1000" and comes with two straps for a tight fit. Ordinary masks will filter large particles, but leave you vulnerable to the tiniest particles, which are especially dangerous.

If you have ash in your home, use a damp cloth to clean it up, not a vacuum, which can send some of the ash flying.

The Station fire is burning areas that have seen fire in 60 years or so. Since most scientists think the natural fire cycle is 50-150 years, the chaparral should be able to regenerate. However, if another fire returns too soon, it could destroy the ecosystem. It's a serious concern considering the number of human-caused fires we have these days. To learn how increased fire cycles are threatening Southern California ecosystems, check out this magazine piece I wrote last fall: Sparking the Fires

Nature Magazines for Kids

2009-08-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Last night before I fell asleep, I found myself tucked in bed, perusing the pages of National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) Your Big Backyard--alone. That's right, I was reading a magazine for preschoolers by myself. I enjoyed the photos of darling sifaka lemurs, and, yes, comparing the beak shapes and sizes in an article called "Take a Peek at Beaks."

We just started my son on Your Big Back Yard, which is written for ages three to seven. It contains a nice mix of simple nonfiction articles on animals and not-so-factual stories, such as the adventures of Ricky Raccoon. I recommend it.

We're still reading NWF's magazine for kids under age four, t00. Wild Animal Baby comes in a sturdier, smaller format. It includes very simple articles about animals, poems, a simple game where babies match an animal cracker on one page to the real animal on the adjacent page, a story about kids encountering nature, and more. My son loves the stories and still asks for them by the characters' names. These magazines are big hit with all the little kids we know. Indeed, my five-year-old niece won't part with hers.

Our family also likes National Geographic's Little Kids. This magazine covers nature and world cultures in a format aimed at preschoolers. It includes stories and games. A nice touch is the punch-out animal cards that come with each issue. For older children, check out National Geo Kids.

National Wildlife Federation also publishes Ranger Rick for young people over age seven.

New Approach for Old Fashioned Flower

2009-08-23T15:30:00.000-07:00

I'm a big proponent of California natives and other Mediterranean-climate plants, but I can be tempted by beautiful blooms of all sorts. Recently, I was asked to write a short piece about cannas for the Home section of the Los Angeles Times.

Reader, I developed a bit of a crush on this Victorian era plant. They're probably too thirsty for my garden--although many plants can do with far less than we think--and the tropical look just doesn't fit, but I wouldn't begrudge anyone a canna or five, especially if they're put to good use.

Horticulturalist John Schustra of Greenwood Daylily Gardens says if you've got a spot where water pools in your yard, put in cannas. They'll slurp up the water and filter out pollutants. (Note: pooling water could be a sign you're overwatering your yard.)

Nurseries, including Schoustra's, commonly use cannas in bioswales to keep polluted water (i.e. enriched with fertilizers) from running off their lots.

However, if you're looking for a place to cleanse grey water, a patch of cannas could be a nice fit. "They're greedy pigs," says Schoustra, "They don't have to have a ton of water and a ton of fertilizer, but if it's there, they will take it."

Or you might try what I've done with quite a few conventional garden plants: cut back water and see how they do.

"I don't look at them as being that thirsty," says Randy Baldwin of San Marcos Growers. "They're tough plants. They grow better with more water, but they have durable rhizomes." Baldwin and Schoustra recommend the orange variety 'Intrigue' as especially drought-tolerant.

Schoustra has crossed 'Intrigue' with another variety to come up with this beauty, called 'Chocolate Inferno.'

Schoustra advises giving cannas abundant water when they most need it--summer months--then cutting back in the fall. "The first week in September there's a little clock that goes off in most perennials in Southern California," he says, "and they stop having so much sugar in their system, they start storing starch for the winter, and their water needs drop off a great deal."

A suite of viruses has beset cannas in recent years. They mottle canna flowers and foliage and generally weaken the plants. Randy Baldwin says the variegated varieties are especially prone to infection.

But wait, there's more! To find out the secret to robust canna blooms, read my short LA Times piece.

Summer Beauties

2009-08-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

I have to stop apologizing for how my garden looks at the end of summer. Sure, it's not at its most colorful, but, you know, it doesn't look too shabby either.

Purple-black globes dangle from my native grape--the hybrid 'Roger's Red' to be precise. My coffeeberry bushes (Rhamnus californica) sport petite red and black orbs. Goldfinches are feasting on the seedheads of cosmos, but delicate pink blooms continue to emerge.

I planted two of the grapes to cover a large arbor over our backyard patio. They're lovely. And they're helping us reduce our energy use. The broad green leaves provide shade in summer, cooling both the patio and my office. In winter, the leaves blush, then drop, allowing sunlight to warm the patio and house.

We're now contemplating what to do with the grapes, which are small, seedy and sweet. My two-year-old loves to eat them, but we have more than even he can pillage. Our friend Eric Callow, a board member of Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, says he plans to make jelly. We hope to follow his lead. My copy of Edible and Useful Plants of California offers a recipe. I'm told others have made wine. Hmmm.

Back to the cosmos for a minute: I've grown them for years because they adapt well to our climate. These Mexican plants are fairly drought-tolerant and self-sow readily (i.e. sprout up year after year without replanting). You can also snip some for indoor arrangements.

Composting with Worms

2009-08-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Plenty of Pets

Has your kid been nagging you for a pet? Tell him you'll give him not one but thousands of pets. These composting redworms aren't just easy to keep--they earn their own keep. Just feed them kitchen scraps and they'll thank you with great compost or fertilizer tea for your garden. My son likes to watch them squirm in his hand.

We bought our Can-O-Worms earlier this year from All Things Organic. I was frustrated with the slow progress of my regular compost bin, and tired of buying fertilizer. We've already fed our watermelon plant some of the "tea" you can drain from the bottom of the can. Eventually, I'll harvest some of the castings (i.e. manure) to add to my soil.

According to All Things Organic, worm castings provide a slow, steady release of nutrients to feed plants. And worm castings are loaded with humic acid, which is "a natural soil 'glue' (binding agent) that is vital in binding humus with mineral soil, and helping to prevent it from being washed away."

Our worm farming hasn't been trouble free, but it's not much of a challenge either. Originally, I ignored the advice to freeze my kitchen scraps before throwing them to the worms. So, yes, fruit flies moved in. This problem disappeared once I put the compost bucket in the freezer. (The cold stuff also keeps my worms cool on these hot summer days.)

Next, some larvae took up residence. I think they are Soldier Fly larvae. I've been scooping them out and tossing them in the garden for birds to eat. According to All Things Organic, they don't threaten my red wigglers or harm my compost. They're just yucky. All Things recommends you leave them alone, let them develop and fly away. My copy of Insects of the Los Angeles Basin informs me that they occur naturally in garden soil, and do not bite or sting.

For more than you'll ever need to know about worms and composting with them, check out Worm Digest.

Hike Griffith Park

2009-08-09T15:15:00.000-07:00

Amir's Garden

It's been too hot to hike. But we snuck a short one in at Griffith Park last Sunday, plus an hour of play at Shane's Inspiration Playground. Our toddler had just started sleeping in a bed instead of a crib, and we were looking to tire him out.

We hiked the short (1/2 mile) trail to Amir's Garden. A volunteer, Amir Dialameh, landscaped this area with exotic plants. Although I wish he'd opted for native plants, the area is a lush, cool respite. The steep, little paths that run between the dense vegetation are fun for kids to explore.

The first 1/4 mile of this trail is steep, so this is a better hike for kids over five. (Our two-year-old climbed on dad when the going got tough.) The trail levels out once you hit the water towers.

Other highlights of the hike: good views of Glendale, the Verdugo Mountains, NE Los Angeles, and eastern Griffith Park; and horses that frequent the trail, stopping to slurp from the trough at Amir's. (But some can get a little too friendly.)

The trail to Amir's is an unpaved fire road; it's hot and exposed, so don't hike it midday. Still, you cool down once you get there. The benches make it a nice spot for a snack.

If your kids are still energetic you can follow the trail further uphill. We turned around and headed for the playground. You can also couple this hike with pony rides (and train), the Merry-Go-Round, or Travel Town, all of which are fairly close by.

Directions to the Trailhead

I find LA Recreation and Park's website for Griffith woefully inadequate. It lacks a good map and directions to key features. It's also not updated. (The Bird Sanctuary looks alluring on the website, but the trail through it is closed.)

From the intersection of Griffith Park Drive and Crystal Springs Drive (next to Shane's Inspiration Playground, just north of the Merry-Go-Round), follow signs for the Harding Wilson Golf Courses Club House. Take Griffith Drive past the Club House to Mineral Wells Picnic Area. Just as you arrive at the picnic area, look for the junction of three trails, including a wide road that heads to some water towers. That's your trail.

From the NW corner of the park, look for the intersection of Zoo Drive and Griffith Park Drive (near Forest Lawn cemetery). Take Griffith Park Drive (heading SE) to Mineral Wells Picnic Area. At the southern tip of the parking lot, look for the junction of three trails, including a wide road that heads to some water towers. That's your trail.

Or try these directions sent to me by the volunteers who maintain the garden.

Vegetable Garden

2009-08-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

State of the Veg

Many in our neighborhood turned out for our annual block party last night. Our family offered up some homegrown zucchini for the grill, but were bested by Joel's cucumber, tomato, bell pepper salad. Though I did impress people will tales of our prolific pumpkins. And I made note of who's got what for future bartering.

At the end of this post, I'll tell you about a class that can help you start your fall/winter vegetable garden.

In the photo above, you can see how I've tucked a pumpkin plant in among my natives and other low-water plants, such as cosmos and thyme. I started the pumpkins next to conventional irises (which headed for dormancy as the pumpkins took off), and coaxed the long vines into open spaces between my shrubs. (More on these pumpkins.)

As I predicted, we harvested our first fruit before July 4. These are Renee's Antique French Pumpkins. They're good for eating and carving.

So far, we've made

Mini pumpkin pies (basically pumpkin custard smoothed into cooked pastry dough and baked in a muffin pan).
Pumpkin pancakes. My favorite recipe is from the fabulous Weelicious website. (You don't have to use rice milk; I use whatever kind I have on hand.)
Pumpkin smoothies: yogurt, banana, pumpkin puree, orange juice.
Pumpkin smoothies II/popsicles: pumpkin puree, frozen mango pieces, banana. Pour the leftovers into popsicle molds.

We also grew a bit of corn. It was delicious, but bolted on the first really hot weekend. Just as I was ripping it out, I noticed it had formed ears at the very bottom--which our local Possum had already discovered. As I've mentioned, we're pesto crazed around here, so we like to throw our corn, zucchini, and tomatoes into a pasta dish with homemade pesto.

We're enjoying four tomato varieties right now

San Marzano
St. Pierre
Cherokee Purple
and the greatest of these is... Sun Gold! These sweet cherry tomatoes have been producing for two months and are still at it.

I think the expression one zucchini plant can feed a family must be wrong. Our Mexican Zucchini is feeding a neighborhood. Best of all, it's super kid food. Grated it sticks to anything (i.e. can't be picked out and dropped on the floor). You can toss some on the top of your rice for the last five minutes of cook time. Then enjoy it with lunch, dinner, or breakfast. Yup. Warm the leftover rice with milk, honey and some fruit.

Also growing strong right now

cucumbers
watermelon
butternut squash
basil, basil, basil
bell peppers

It's been hot so I've piled on more mulch. The difference between a little mulch and four inches is amazing. I've also clustered the potted tomatoes around the raised beds and brought in a shade umbrella, because my babies were frying! (Plant babies, that is.)

PLANNING YOUR FALL GARDEN

I'm already dreaming about fall/winter veg. If you are, too, but aren't sure how to get started, one option is to sign up for the The LA County Arboretum's Square Foot Garden Class. I'm curious to see if Jo Ann Carey, the instructor, recommends an alternative to peat moss, which makes up a third of Mel Bartholomew's recommended mix for these dense gardens. Large scale harvesting and shipping of peat moss is not sustainable. At a recent Theodore Payne Foundation class Steve Gerischer of Larkspur Garden Design recommended using Coir instead. In any case, here's the class information, as described by Arboretum staff.

SQUARE FOOT GARDENING

Your choice of 3 different dates:
Saturday, August 22 (Oak Room)
or Saturday, October 17 (Oak Room)
or Monday, October 26 (Bamboo Room)
9am-12noon
Jo Ann Carey, instructor
$22 members/$25 non-members
Please call 626.821.4623 to register

Nothing compares to the flavor of food that is grown in healthy soil, without pesticides, and allowed to grow until just the right time for harvesting. Square foot gardening uses only 20% of the land space of a conventional garden and saves both water and time. There is no tilling of the soil so anybody can do it. This method will be fully explained so you may create your own square foot garden, with lessons on setup, planting, watering, growing vertically, pest control and harvesting.

Hop, Slither & Stalk

2009-08-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

Much More Than Fossils

The Natural History Museum Rocks (and Hops)!

And the Emmy goes to...the education staff at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. I'm so pleased to see the Museum put energy into programs beyond dinos. Encouraging kids to appreciate living creatures should increase the chances future generations will get to see wild frogs not just zoo and fossil frogs.

A great example: the Museum's new Hop, Slither & Stalk program. Performers transform themselves into animals using costumes and puppets made from recyclable materials. This includes some very creative uses of garden gloves and file folders.

We watched Frogman (above) transform from tadpole to frog. Turtleman (below) demonstrated the powerful jaws of an Alligator Snapping Turtle. These men are two of four performance artists on staff at the museum. (The performance artists also animate T-Rex and Triceratops for Dinosaur Encounters.)

An educator (uncostumed) provided narration and encouraged the kids to hop and crawl like frogs and turtles. This program is designed for kids age three to nine, but all ages are welcome.

Future episodes include Buggin' Out (insect puppets), Metamorphosis (featuring a 25-foot-long caterpillar puppet), and Where do YOU live?(about animal habitats). These are short programs, so arrive on time and plan to take in other exhibits and programs, or drop by the Discover Center, on the ground floor.

Hop, Slither & Stalk runs Wednesday through Friday at 10:00 a.m. and Saturdays at 1:00. It's designed for kids participating in camp programs, but all museum visitors are welcome. Look for it in the Grand Foyer, right inside the front door.

After the show, my son and I, along with our friends from Ramshackle Solid, headed down to the Discovery Center. Among other things, the boys swept plastic chips off of (fabricated) dinosaur bones in the excavation pit.

Then it was up to the second floor for another episode of Dinosaur Encounters. I was surprised to see Frogman evolved into a paleo pal, who quizzed kids on dino facts. What did this dinosaur eat? How can you tell?

If you're planning a visit soon, don't miss the Butterfly Pavilion.

Wondering why you didn't know about all these great activities? I confess it's not that I'm so smart...I'm a member. Members, of course, get newsletters with the latest.

Slum Days of Summer

2009-07-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

REUSING AND REDUCING

When friends and neighbors drop by these days, I often find myself apologizing for the homeless encampment look of our backyard: the clothing strung up on the arbor, a little city of cardboard boxes my two-year-old drives his toy cars on, and gobs of cups, buckets and shovels spilling out from the kiddie pool and sandbox, etc. I'm hopelessly didactic, so I'm likely to point out the conservation mantra: reduce, reuse, recycle.

A lot of the mess keeps my son busy while I tend to fruit and vegetable plants. The box garages (below) is one of our attempts to reuse some of the miles of cardboard that come with kid stuff.

The clothesline is retractable and is strung between poles of a shade structure that covers our patio. On hot Southern California days it's ridiculous to turn on your dryer, then crank up the AC. According to National Geographic's The Green Guide, a typical dryer emits 1,450 pounds of the global warming gas CO2 a year. That's equivalent to driving the average car more than 1,400 miles.

We have an efficient, Energy Star dryer and it's powered by our solar electric system (at least during the day), but a hotter house increases the likelihood we'll have to leave the AC on when it's dark and I'm already feeling parched as a prune. (Running the dryer at night, as recommended for folks without their own generation, would require power from the grid.) Besides, when outside temps hit 90 degrees, clothes dry faster on the line. And sunlight bleaches out many stains.

Unfortunately, my kid's too little to reach the line. But I like to think he's getting a good demonstration of evaporation.

Click here for more simple ways to cut your carbon.

Got a conservation tip? No idea is too modest. Please share.