Xeriscape in San Diego Balboa Park
Yesterday I had the opportunity to represent APLD (Association of Professional Landscape Designers) at EarthDay in Balboa Park. What a great day of interacting with the public and educating them about the benefits of using a professional landscape designer. Along with fellow San Diego district member Deb Oleary, we joined San Diego to celebrate EarthDay to show how we, (landscape designers) are making a contribution in changing the way people are gardening and landscaping in San Diego County as well as California.
EarthDay 2016
The public is definitely more aware of our current drought issues and the importance of re-looking at the issue of needing a lawn anymore. They are looking for resources, and San Diego Landscape Designers are who to turn to when needing help with sustainable and beautiful solutions for this necessary change.
As an example, fellow APLD member, Lisa Bellora of Ornamental Gardens by Lisa and I had the opportunity to re-design the planting of this beautiful double strip of Balboa Park last year with a xeriscape garden design. (Please see top photo). This area had previously been planted with the usual range of annuals such as petunias, lobelia and snap dragons over the years. Even though these plants are colorful and useful, their water usage is higher than the wonderful assortment of plants we chose to replace them with. This all came together as a group effort through the ‘Adopt-A-Plot’ program in Balboa Park. Funding was donated by San Diego Horticultural Society, and many members of the Master Gardener’s showed up to help plant.
We chose to use a combination of spreading lantana ‘Patriot Rainbow’, ‘Cassablue’ flax lily, ‘Campfire’ crassula, variegated myrtle, ‘Blue Flame’ Agaves, ‘Blue Chalk Sticks’ senecio and ‘Winter Red’ leucadendrons. We are still waiting on the California poppies to show up and the Bulbine bulbs to emerge. This design is proving to have great color and textural interest without the extra water and labor. As seen in the photos, many hands make light work! What a fun day!
Planting Day
Planting Day
Progress around Christmas time 2015
There are many wonderful combinations of perennials that can be used to create a color wave like this. Substitutions of plants could be done, such as using spreading ‘Sunset’ lantana in lieu of the ‘Rainbow Patriot’ that we used. These plants can be easily found at your local San Diego nurseries and additionally at your local Lemon Grove nursery or Poway Nursery. If you feel you would like the have the help of a certified landscape designer, please feel free to contact me to discuss your upcoming project!
