By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

This month about .05 inch of rain fell on my garden, when I would normally expect .86 inch. During the weather year that just ended (July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008), we had 91 percent of expected rainfall. During the 2008 calendar year, we’ve had 61 percent. The trend is not good, and threatens to sink us into the drought that covers most of the West.

You can see drought mapped across the country by going to the U.S. Drought Monitor, whose current weekly map is pictured below. It’s put together by climatologists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

While you’re on the site, have a look at their 6- and 12-week animations, which show that while things are getting worse in the Northwest, they’re improving in Arizona. Must be those summer monsoons that I’m so jealous of.

For more information about detailed historical conditions everywhere in the West, go to the Western Regional Climate Center web site. There you can find, for example, average monthly and yearly precipitation for most significant western cities and towns (and lots of insignificant ones too); average high and low temperatures, plus extremes going back a century or more in many cases; average dates of first and last frost; and lots more information that gardeners depend on.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Carpenteria already offers gardeners lots of rewards -- Seaside Gardens nursery, with their incredible demonstration gardens; exotic Island View Nursery, Eye of the Day for pots, fountains, and statuary, and several orchid greenhouses.  It even offers a great place to have lunch in a garden -- The Garden Market.

What Carpenteria didn't have, until recently, was a home/garden store.  Porch ends that. 

Owners Diane Doland and Christie Boyd describe their style as "rustic contemporary."  That means furniture with fairly classic lines but often made out of sustainable products such as bamboo or salvaged wood.  Lots of neutral colors.  Lots of natural materials -- straws, stone, shells.

It's a beautiful space, too.  Flooded with light, big, fat, exposed roof beams, and a concrete floor with a lovely patina.  It used to be a bank building.  The vault is still in place.  Boyd and Dolan have turned it into a miniature art gallery for local artists--a fun idea.

Porch is located at 5065 Carpenteria Ave, Carpenteria.  (805) 684-0300.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

Garden designer Sue Goetz has one of the best storage sheds around. Fronting on her vegetable garden, it does more than provide dry inside storage: on one side wall, it backs up an espaliered fruit tree, while on an outside rear wall it has hangers for summer storage of long-handled tools (in winter, they need to be in a less exposed place or they’ll rust). Goetz lives, writes, and works in Gig Harbor, Washington. See her Creative Gardener website for contact information.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

When David Douglas landed at the mouth of the Columbia River in spring of 1825 to begin plant hunting in the Pacific Northwest, he was awed by salal. In his journal entry, he writes that “On stepping on the shore Gaultheria Shallon was the first plant I took in my hands. So pleased was I that I could scarcely see anything but it. Mr. Menzies correctly observes that it grows under thick forests in great luxuriance and would make a valuable addition to our gardens.”

Yet for all that praise, few of us use the plant in the landscape, so I was pleased to find this salal labyrinth at Earth Sanctuary on Whidbey Island, Washington. It takes advantage of salal’s ability to thrive in lean soil on shady sites, and to be kept in bounds by pruning. And where salal is native (on the mild side of California’s coastal mountains north of Santa Barbara, and west of the Oregon and Washington Cascades), it does nicely on rainfall alone after it’s established.

Earth Sanctuary, where you can visit this labyrinth, is a 72-acre private reserve dedicated to the restoration of original old-growth forest, and to personal renewal.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Usually I prefer to enjoy spiny plants in someone else's garden or even better out in the wild, but this tip from Nan Sterman in her book, California Gardener's Guide, Volume II, makes me more inclined to risk a few in my own.  If you get those nasty fine spines in your hand, she says, you can remove them by painting over the area with rubber cement.  Let the glue dry, rub it off, and the spines will pull right out, says Sterman.  Duct tape works pretty well, too, she says.

Photo courtesy of Stephen Ingram whose book I reviewed (well, sort of) on Friday.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Stephen Ingram's book with the above title, recently released from Cachuma Press (Los Olivos, California) has been sitting on my desk for at least a month now waiting to be reviewed. 

It's not that I haven't opened it.  I probably crack the cover every few days.  But I always get so absorbed in the pictures I never read very far.  Though I don't like spiny, prickly things in my own garden, I love the desert.  And every time I open Ingram's book and get hooked on his pictures, I want to go back to places I already know and love such as Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Joshua Tree National Park.  Plus some places his book has introduced me to I've never explored.  Whipple Mountains Wilderness in San Bernardino County and Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada for starters. And when I do I'll take his book.  It looks like a great field guide.

So I've decided I'm not going to wait to review Ingram's book.  I'm just going to share some of his photos and see if they inspire you, too.

Beavertail cactus at Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Teddy-bear cholla with blooming desert senna in the U.C. Sacramento Mountain Reserve

Mojave mound cactus at Joshua Tree National Park

You can find more of Ingram's photos on his website.  Or see him on one of his book tour stops -- see the schedule below.   Bet he gives a great slide show.

AUTHOR LECTURE DATES FOR CACTI, AGAVES, AND YUCCAS OF CALIFORNIA AND NEVADA

Santa Barbara: July 25, 7 p.m., Blaksley Library, 1212 Mission Canyon Road. Hosted by Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. 805/682-4726 or www.sbbg.org

Sun Valley: July 26, 10 a.m., 10459 Tuxford Street. Hosted by The Theodore Payne Foundation. 818/768-1082 or www.theodorepayne.org

Encinitas: July 27, 2 p.m., 230 Quail Gardens Drive. Hosted by Quail Botanical Gardens. 760/436-3036 or www.qbgardens.org

Crowley Lake: July 30, 7:00 p.m., Crowley Lake Community Center. Hosted by the Bristlecone Chapter of CNPS. www.bristleconecnps.org

San Marino: August 30, The Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road. Hosted by The Huntington Library Botanical Gardens, Succulent Symposium. 626/405-2100 or www.huntington.org.

Reno: September 4, 7:00 p.m., Room 104 of the UNR Department of Environmental and Resource Sciences Building, 1000 Valley Road. Hosted by Nevada Native Plant Society. heritage.nv.gov/nnnpsprg.htm

Henderson: September 8, 6:30 p.m., U.S. Geological Survey Office, 160 N. Stephanie Street. Hosted by Nevada Native Plant Society. 702/455-3859 or heritage.nv.gov/nnnpsprg.htm

Las Vegas: September 10, 7:00 p.m., 333 S. Valley View Blvd. Hosted by the Springs Preserve.
702/258-3956 or www.springspreserve.org

Solvang: September 18, 7:30 p.m., Solvang Branch Library, 1745 Mission Drive. Hosted by Santa Ynez Valley Natural History Society. 805/6935683 or www.syvnature.org

Arroyo Grande: September 20, 10:00 a.m., 379 W. El Campo Road. Hosted by Native Sons Wholesale Nursery. 805/481-5996 or www.nativesonsnursery.com

Santa Cruz: September 22, 7:00 p.m., UC Santa Cruz, Horticulture Building. Hosted by Friends of the UCSC Arboretum. 831/427-2998 or www2.ucsc.edu/arboretum/friends.

Las Vegas: October 2, 7:00 p.m., Nevada Garden Clubs Center, Lorenzi Park, 3333 W. Washington. Hosted by Cactus and Succulent Society of Southern Nevada. www.csssn.org

Monterey: October 16, 7:00 p.m. (Meeting place undetermined at this time.) Hosted by the Monterey Bay Chapter of CNPS.  (831) 582-3687 or www.montereybaycnps.org.

Berkeley: October 19, 4:00 p.m., 2904 College Avenue. Hosted by Mrs. Dalloway’s. 510/704-8222 or www.mrsdalloways.com

San Francisco: October 21, 7:00 p.m., County Fair Building, Golden Gate Park at 9th and Lincoln. Hosted by San Francisco Cactus and Succulent Society. www.sfsucculent.org

Orinda: October 22, 7:30 p.m., Garden Room, Orinda Library, 24 Orinda Way. Hosted by the East Bay Chapter of CNPS. www.ebcnps.org

San Diego: November 8, 1:00 pm., Room 101, Casa Del Prado in Balboa Park. Hosted by the San Diego Cactus & Succulent Society. www.sdcss.com

By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

On July 22, I showed an eyebrow-raising geometric entry by Kathy Swehla. Now I’ll show her favorite part of the same landscape: a rear-garden sculpture that grabs you on many levels. It’s certainly among the best contemporary stone art piece I’ve seen in 30-some years of garden gawking.

You first see it when you walk through the front door, since it frames a bit of the view between the house and Liberty Lake (near Spokane, Washington). Then you gradually realize what’s going on here: it’s the centerpiece of a lovely, bubbling water feature—and the setting for a gas fire circle (see the close-up at left).

As Swehla described it, "The sculptural piece is created out of a single slab of sandstone that was roughly rectangular, 11 by 10 feet and 6 to 8 inches thick. The front, back, and sides are completely natural: no . . . finishing. The only cut is the center line and circle."

Swehla designed this project with Land Expressions in Mead, Washington (509 466-6683).

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Monday I wrote about my visit to the Arlington Garden in Pasadena, California and about how appropriate that demonstration garden felt for the season in our arid Mediterranean climate.  Suitably dry and quiet.

  This weekend a friend and I went to the Shipley Nature Center in Huntington Beach, California, an 18-acre demonstration garden and nature preserve.  And I was expecting a similar experience.  But there was a lot more life there than I expected.

This green fruit beetle (Cotinus mutabilis) was frolicking on one of the remaining Matilija poppy, for instance.  (As their name suggests these beetle feed on fruit so I don't think this guy was was doing any damage to the flower.  A dance in tribute to its beauty, perhaps?)

Photo by Nancy Malone

Then we came across this huge field of pink flowers.  Marsh fleabane (Pluchea odorata), I'm told.  Normally it just rings the lake.  But when the lake dries up in summer, it takes over the whole basin.  Skipper butterflies were loving it.

Marsh fleabane is obviously a big hit with bees as well.

Photo by Nancy Malone

The blooms on most of the Cleveland sage were gone.  But the few blue tubes that remained attracted tons of Gulf fritillaries.

Photo by Nancy Malone

And finally there was this wonderfully creepy stuff that made us feel like we'd walked into the Blair Witch Project. Anyone know what it is?

So go put on some sunscreen and walk on the wild side.  Obviously the show doesn't end just because it's summer.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

From a design perspective, nothing is as uninspired as a straight driveway across a flat lawn—nothing, that is, unless it’s a straight entry path from that very driveway to the front porch. But designer Kathy Swehla doesn’t have “uninspired” in her vocabulary, so she used giant circles to tie driveway, entry path, and porch together for a client in Liberty Lake, WA.

From above, this graphic tour de force looks something like a giant keyhole. From the ground, you can still make the pattern out, but mostly you just get the sense that you know exactly where the house’s main entry is, and you can't wait to walk the walk that gets you there. Either way, it’s impressive, and it works.

Swehla did the design for Land Expressions in Mead, Washington (509 466-6683).

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

A truly Mediterranean garden will not look its best in July.  And the Arlington Garden in Pasadena is truly Mediterranean.  So there's only a spattering of California poppies blooming now compared to the carpet of orange you would have seen in early spring.

And the lavender isn't the haze of blue the way it was a few months ago.

But the Arlington Garden is still a great pleasure to stroll through.  It has great bones--it was designed by Mayita Dinos--so it looks good year-round.  And what it lacks in color at the moment it makes up for in scent. All those resinous plants releasing their aromatic oils in the warm air.

Besides it feels right.  This is what a garden should look like in Southern California in summer.  Quiet, dormant, conservative.  It's been a long time since rain and a long time before any is coming. Save your strength.

There's an interesting story behind the property, too.  The Durand mansion--a 50-room, 17,000-square-foot French chateau of red Arizona flagstone--occupied this site from 1905 until 1960.  The house was razed in 1961 and the property lay vacant until the garden was installed.  Caltrans owns the property.  It expected to use it as a staging area for a continuation of Freeway 710 to the 210.  Since the chances of that happening any time soon are looking pretty remote, Caltrans leased the property to the City of Pasadena for the purposes of this demonstration garden.

The idea  came from two homeowners in the area--Charles and Betty McKenney.  And the nearly 3-acre property is maintained and supported by a non-profit corporation, The Arlington Garden in Pasadena. It's a pretty impressive volunteer effort.

The Arlington Garden occupies the northwest corner of Pasadena Avenue and Arlington Drive, just east of Orange Grove Boulevard.  It's free.  If you're in the Pasadena area, I encourage you to visit.