By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine
Photos by Reginald I. Durant

When the people at Back to Natives see a piece of trashed open space, they know what to do: team their own volunteers with students and community members, mobilize corporate and government support, and replace imported weeds with native plants. You can see their projects for yourself, and even join up as a supporter or volunteer. What better way to learn about native plants?

Started just two years ago, this nonprofit group has already restored butterfly habitat at Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center in Upper Newport Bay, and is currently replanting native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers on 3 1/2 acres of Mason Regional Park Nature Preserve in Irvine. You can stop by to watch the transformation any time: maps at the information booth at the University Drive entrance (between Culver Drive and Harvard Avenue) direct you. Wildflowers—everything from lupines and poppies to baby blue eyes and tidy tips—start blooming on site in March.

Much is at stake. After the land here was smothered with dredge spoils from Newport Back Bay, initial landscaping attempts failed, and weeds took over. Habitat was lost for California gnatcatchers and least Bell’s vireos (both protected under the Endangered Species Act), to say nothing of the reptiles, butterflies, and myriad other arthropods that lived here.

By methodically finding out which natives grow well here (and some of that is done by trial and error), Back to Natives aims to restore this flood plain’s role in purifying water, and make it productive habitat for all kinds of wild creatures. Funding for the project is provided by grants from REI, the Wachovia Foundation, and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Vons Pavilions provided the compost for the wildflower study.  

Individual support is critical too. You can join Back to Natives for $30, or volunteer free at nearly any level, from pulling weeds to collecting seed from native plants already growing in the park, to raising native plants for the project at home. Contact Back to Natives online, or email them at info@backtonatives.org.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Talking with staff at Swanson's Nursery in Seattle a few years ago, I asked them what their favorite indoor plants were. They gave me a top ten list that I've hung onto, but never published before today.

They organized their favorites in three categories.

Fabulous flowers
Bromeliads Architectural and exotic, these bring the jungle to you. Try Aechmea fasciata ‘Primera’, whose big pink flowers make people ask, “Is it real?” Tillandsia cyanea (below) is another favorite.

Hibiscus Huge, mallow-like blooms come in twos and threes, require bright light.

Orchids Try any of the moth orchids (above) for winter-spring bloom in bright, indoor light; or for plenty of flowers that smell like chocolate, try ‘Sherry Baby’ orchid.

Spathiphyllums Pure white, calla-like flowers that bloom in low light.

Fragrant indoor favorites
Citrus ‘Meyer’ lemons give you citrus-scented blooms and edible lemons. Grow them in a sunroom.

Gardenia Another sunroom special with deep, spicy fragrance and white flowers.

Extravagant foliage
Aloe vera “The best burn treatment out there,” says Swansons’ Glenna Bennett, “everybody should have one in the kitchen.”

Begonia ‘Escargot’ Named for its brightly variegated leaves (left), which start small and spiral out into eye-popping 6-inchers.

Cast-iron plant (Aspidistra elatior) Cited as the only plant you could grow under your bed. Not really—but it survives on fewer photons than you can believe.

Maidenhair fern (Adiantum) Fascinating in its own right, it’s the classic filler: plant several around the base of a potted palm.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Like most garden writers, I am a plant geek.  So it has taken me a very long time to accept that gardens don't have to contain a hundred different species to be appealing.  And even longer to recognize how important the non-plant elements are to the success of a garden.  Examples like the one shown below, which is on page 36 of our January issue in the Southwest and Southern California editions, though, are a constant reminder. 

The contrast between the charcoal-colored walls that enclose the garden and the peach-colored structure that hides the pool equipment are as important as the plants.  And the metallic gleam of the side entrance gate is as important a focal point as the blooms of the Western redbud.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at the before.

Renovation by Troy Bankord, a Phoenix garden designer.  We showed the before and after versions of the front yard of this house in a post last month.  Take a peek.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

A week or so I go I solicited examples of parkways planted in something other than turf. 

Austin garden designer, Pam Penick, was the first to respond.

The example shown opposite is from Penick's former garden in midtown Austin. (She now gardens in the limestone hills in northwest Austin.)

The two plants are Mexican feathergrass (Nassella tenuissima) and damianita (Chrysactinia mexicana).  Both are tough as nails, says Penick.  They receive no irrigation, are situated in a blistering western exposure, and can endure the area's black gumbo soil.

I also like the generous stretches of hardscape Penick has placed between the plantings.  They make it easy for people to get in and out of automobiles parked curbside without mashing your plants. I've done the same thing at my garden.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Pam Penick, the Austin garden designer I mentioned in the previous post, has her own garden blog, Digging. Like a lot of us, she's posted illuminated garden scenes on hers in honor of the season.  Hers, however, have that special Texas flavor.  I've lifted one example.  Go see her blog for the rest.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

During World Wars I and II, allied governments encouraged their citizens to produce home-grown food in “victory gardens,” which replaced residential flower beds, appeared on apartment rooftops, and transformed vacant lots. The program was a terrific success: at its peak, home-grown produce is said to have accounted for 40 percent of all the vegetables consumed in victory-gardening countries.

The current sour economy gives us another excuse to grow our own food, and two books by Steve Solomon can help.

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades (Sasquatch Books, Seattle, 2007; $21.95) is indispensable for growing food in mild parts of the Pacific Northwest, which is why it’s now in its 6th  edition. In it, he covers planning, variety selection, planting, fertilizing, pest control, harvest, and all the tricks it takes to get you from novice to serious food grower.

Gardening When it Counts—growing food in hard times (New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, 2005; $19.95) is more like a short course in vegetable gardening. Here you’ll learn about tools, seeds, soil, watering, composting, and choosing varieties that are easy to grow. It’s definitely more text-booky than the other volume but you’ll come away with a master gardener’s way of seeing and doing things.

I first met Solomon in the late 1970’s, not long after he moved to the Northwest and started Territorial Seed Company. He was standing in a cabbage patch in Lorane, Oregon, patiently explaining to me the advantages and disadvantages of growing hybrid varieties. He had the studious intensity of a college professor and the hands of a dirt gardener.

Having sold Territorial Seed years ago, he lives in Tasmania these days, still growing half the food he eats (his estimate), still writing, and still helping people get excited about the alchemy that turns dirt, sunlight, water, and seed into the best food you can put on your table.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

If you haven't bought your 2009 calendar yet, or are like me and end up buying several, here's one that's both pretty and practical:

The author is Nan Sterman, a busy Southern California garden journalist who writes for many newspapers and magazines, including Sunset and whose book, California Gardeners Guide Vol. II, also from Cool Springs Press, I admire greatly.

Each month's page includes information on a plant group that does particularly well in our climate plus some practical technique with enough detail to make it really useful plus a few bonus tips.  I look forward to using it.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

When snow covers the garden, as it has recently in much of the country, it works both for and against the plants you’re growing.

It’s good insulation when it completely covers plants that might be burned out by frost—and in the coastal Northwest, where I live, we grow lots of plants whose hardiness is doubtful. The principle is that night-time temperatures are usually much lower when skies are clear than when they’re cloudy. So when the clouds blow away after the snow blankets your garden, temperatures usually drop. A friend in Vale, Colorado, had one garden thermometer covered by snow, and one above the snow level. She dug out the bottom one and compared: temperatures at plant level were 20° warmer than above the surface of the snow.

Use this by leaving snow on your compost pile (believe it or not, it holds in heat and keeps the pile working), on your winter vegetable beds (mine are pictured at bottom), and on beds that hold borderline perennials.

On the other side of the balance, snow—especially the wet snow that falls when temperatures are near freezing—tends to deform woody plants by weighing them down and either breaking or deforming them. The best strategy is to shake snow off or knock it off with a broom to keep it from building up. Branches of pyramidal arborvitae, for example, tend to pull away from the trunk and stay that way for months after a snow storm. Ugly.

Bamboos usually recover well from snowfall, but it varies a lot by variety.

Ned Jaquith at Bamboo Garden in Oregon says that the worst is Phyllostachys vivax, a timber bamboo (and the hardiest one at that) that tends to break off in snow or ice. Yellow-groove bamboo (P. aureosulcata) and its relations often break off at the crooks.

Black bamboo (P. nigra) goes down easily in snow or rain, but it recovers well too, as does Fargesia robusta (mine is pictured at right, before I shook if off). Golden bamboo (P. aurea) and moso bamboo (P. pubescens) stand up better in snow.

Ned says that the problem is that once bamboos are flattened by snow, they almost never grow back as straight as they were before snowfall—a good argument for shaking the snow off before it takes the bamboo down.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

The current issue of Edible San Diego has some very sophisticated cocktail recipes you can make from fruit available in farmer's markets right now.  Or maybe, if you're lucky, you have these fruit in your own backyard orchard.  The inventor of the recipes is Maria Hunt, aka The Bubbly Girl.  She is the author of The Bubbly Bar: Champagne & Sparkling Wine Cocktails for Every Occasion whcich Clarkson-Potter will release next year.

My favorite of Hunt's receipes is the Pomegrante Gimlet.  Maybe because the color is so appropriate for the season. 

POMEGRANTE GIMLET

Makes 1 cocktail

2 ounces pomegrante seeds (which should produce about 1 ounce of juice)
2 ounces Martin Miller's gin
juice of 1 Mexican lime or 1/2 Bears' lime 1/2 ounce agave nectar
3 pomegrante seeds for garnish
1 lime slice for garnish

Muddle the pomegrante seeds in a metal cocktail shaker until you've squished them all and released their juice.  Add gin, lime juice, and agave nectar.  Fill shaker with ice and shake vigorously until mixture is well chilled.  Strain into a small Martini glass or a Champagne coupe.  Garnish with the lime wheel and the pomegrante seeds.

Agave nectar is available from natural food stores, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods, per Maria.  Bartenders love it, she says, because it dissolves easily in cold liquids.  Agave nectar is also easier to digest than regular sugar, so a better choice for diabetics, she adds.  For more information about agave nectar, she suggest this link.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Here's another lovely sounding cocktail from Maria Hunt, The Bubbly Girl, who I mentioned in the preceding post.  It's primary ingredient is Asian pears.  Not truly a seasonal fruit right now, I admit--Asian pears are more of a fall crop.  But I'm going to post anyway because this sounds like a great cocktail this time of year.  And, besides, let's be realistic, I won't remember to post it next fall.

The Ginger Pear
Makes 1 cocktail

2 ounces Asian pear juice
1-1/2 ounces Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur
1 ounce fresh lemon juice
3 dashes yuzu lime (a Japanese citrus) juice.  (available bottled in most Asian food stores)
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 pinch Chinese 5-spice powder
1 slice candied ginger, for garnish

Add Asian pear juice, ginger liqueur, lemon juice, yuzu juice, bitters, and Chinese 5-spice powder to a cocktail shaker filled with ice.  Shake vigorously until well chilled.  Strain into a rocks glass.  Garnish with a slice of candied ginger threaded on a bamboo cocktail skewer.

Yuzu juice is available from Chefs Resource if you're having trouble finding it locally, suggests Maria.