green Archives - Go Sunset

11 Jan 2017

Interesting Drought-Tolerant Lawn Replacement

By Sunset

Today we are sharing a great guest post by Kitten Wylder Borgers. Kitten has been a client and friend for the past few decades. I have always loved and respected her viewpoint on our oxygen providing friends. I hope we provide you with good content and make your day a little greener.

Cheers, JZ

What’s Wrong with Today’s Drought-Tolerant Yards

Red Apple Aptenia I’ve been designing drought-tolerant landscapes for almost 20 years, and I have to say I’m pretty disappointed in most of the non-lawns I’ve seen lately. I’m a big fan of drought-tolerant landscapes, but the way people are going about drought-tolerant landscapes is all wrong. Too many people are killing their lawns with toxic chemicals and then covering them with crushed granite and a few small succulents and calling it done. In reality, creating a drought-tolerant yard can be WAY more fun and interesting than that.

Doing Drought Tolerant the Right Way

First, rather than just putting down gravel or crushed granite, why not try a ground cover that grows? I’m partial to Aptenia cordifolia (known commonly as heartleaf ice plant, baby sun rose, or red apple aptenia) myself. It spreads well (although it can be invasive), grows with basically no water, and is a dark green ground cover with small red flowers. Unfortunately, there’s some sort of blight (bacteria? virus? fungus? no one knows) that’s killing it all over southern California, so I have to at least temporarily rescind that recommendation. There are, of course, lots of types of ice plants or sedums that also take very little water, although most spread more slowly.

Thyme If you think you might want to walk on your lawn replacement, you could try spreading thyme (not the clumping kind); once established and assuming you just step on it occasionally and don’t play football on it, it’ll survive the steps and smell wonderful in the process. The same goes with most of the mint family. In fact, most herbs are VERY hardy and drought tolerant because they were weeds that someone found a use for.

Or you might consider freeway daisies (Osteospermum fruticosum). You can be fairly sure that if they grow along the freeway they’ll be hardy. If they start to get woody and leggy, you can prune them hard or even mow them, and the new growth will be beautiful. You could also consider some of the lower low-spreading shrubs, like lantana, which while about a foot tall, has lovely purple, yellow, or red flowers; and each plant has a 5′-6′ horizontal spread. You can’t walk on it, but the bees love it!

Don’t mistake drought tolerance for low maintenance. Weeding will be required, at least until everything has filled in. And keep in mind that EVERYTHING (succulents, cacti, herbs, all of it) needs water when you first plant it. But if you get the right plants for your environment, they’ll be happy and healthy once they’re going. And you’ll be proud of your beautiful yard!

Kitten Wylder Borgers

Wylder Landscape Logo Kitten Wylder Borger
Wylder Landscape
562 493-7072

Kitten Wylder Borgers is a working artist, dog walker/sitter, and landscape designer in southern California. Her interest in plants began in college in 1970 at UCSC, where she learned about herbs and dirt from Alan Chadwick at the campus garden and learned about composition and design as a dance major. Since then she’s continued to explore the world of herbs and other drought tolerant plants, both native and not, although she’s had to give up the dance major. She’s fond of getting dirty and being silly.

04 Jan 2017

Spring Cleaning Come Early

By Sunset

In our last eblast, we encouraged you to sift through your old things and look for forgotten or misplaced items that still had value to you. Hopefully you found some success in doing this, but regardless odds are you found items that had no worth to you and you were looking to rid of. If these items can still have value to other people then there is no reason to throw them in the garbage; rather, you should put them to use and give them to other people either for profit or just out of charity. In this blog we will talk about possible places to discard of your old items so that others may get the same benefits that you once got from them.

Craigslist or eBay

Craigslist and eBay are two simple and easy ways to get rid of items by giving them to others. Posting an ad on Craigslist or putting an item up for sale on eBay are easy processes and can be done in a matter of minutes. Additionally, by using these two services you can make some money back on those items that you once coveted and spent too much money on. Some may think that these forms of offloading items are ineffective because nobody wants to come pick up or bid on a random item; however, you would be surprised at the amount of people using these services searching for almost anything.

Help Thy Neighbor

Have you ever driven by a yard and seen a dresser, TV or some other item and then you drive by the next day and it’s gone? People around the neighborhood love to pick up items that others have no use for. Giving your old items to your neighbors is one of the best ways to get rid of old items because you can know that someone in your neighborhood is making good use of it. Additionally, you can always just ask your friends around town if they want some extra pool toys or an extra bike or whatever you are getting rid of because you never know what others may happen to be looking for.

Charity

If you prefer giving your items to those who need them the most then giving up your things to charity may be the best option for you. You can try searching online for a charity accepting the certain items you are trying to offload or you can just drop off your items at the NCL thrift shop “Miss Charity’s Attic” or your local Goodwill. Odds are someone in need will end up with your item and you can sleep easy knowing that your item is being put to good use.

Spring cleaning has come early this year. In looking through your old items you more than likely found some things you have no use for anymore. Granted, you could just dump these items in the trash, but why do that when you can continue their life cycle and give them to someone else. Giving these items to someone else will help keep you in the giving holiday spirit and help you sleep at night knowing others are benefitting from your generosity.