By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Many botanical gardens offer wreath-making demonstration or other gifts-from-the-garden classes right about now.  Take advantage of them.  They're a bargain.  Here's a new venue in Southern California:

The Farm and Food Lab at the Orange County Great Park, November 21, 10 a.m. to noon. 

"Holiday Crafts from the Garden -- Create some wonderful hand-made gifts for those hard-to-buy-for people on your list from your own garden.  Join the California Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners of Orange County as they demonstrate a selection of garden gfit ideas to make for the holidays, incuding a holiday wreath."

The class is free.  Parking is $8.

The Orange County Great Park is located off the 5 Freeway and Sand Canyon in Irvine.  It's a little tricky to find. Check directions on the website before you go.

Can't make it?  Check out our How to Make a Wreath in 4 Easy Steps. 

Already an expert?  Share your know-how.  See  How To Host A Wreath-Making Party.

    
By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

At the recent Late Show garden show, we were thrilled by all the inventive displays. There were so many amazing creations that it's hard to narrow them down, but here are a few of our favorites. Above, garden designers Suzanne Biaggi and Patrick Picard created the Future Feast with edibles planted right into a tabletop. Produce doesn't get any fresher than that!

We also loved the way designer Beth Mullins turned tires inside out and used them as planters in her display:

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Here's another good idea I picked up from Teena Spindler and Kay Evans's talk on "Creating A Beautiful, Edible Garden" at the  Annual Garden Seminar of the Master Gardeners of Orange County:

Plant a blueberry bush in a large pot.  Then underplant it with strawberries.  (I'm inclined towards Alpine strawberries because they don't develop runners and stay in nice neat mounds.)

Since blueberries like acidic soil and much of the West has alkaline soil, growing them in containers is the only realistic option.  (You can tell yourself you'll keep amending the soil, but it's so much easier to control pH in a pot.)

But even if I had acidic soil, I think I might grow blueberries this way just for the pretty factor.  And the strawberries, especially, would be much easier to harvest.

Dave Wilson Nursery's recipe for a soil mix for blueberries in containers

More info on growing blueberries from Sunset

Blueberry recipes to try when your crop exceeds your cereal needs

The recipe I'm hoping I'll have enough berries to try out this summer -- Blueberries in black pepper-Syrah syrup

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

 Though it has been over a year since our blog post on Dymondia margaretae, the carpet-flat South African ground cover shown below, we are still getting comments and questions about it because more and more people are taking out all or part of their lawns and looking for substitutes.  

Phil's recent question seemed like one a lot of readers might have.  I quote him below:

"We have a space of about 200 - 300 sqf.  We purchased flats of Dymondia for it. What size clumps should be planted and what should be the correct spacing? The area had a lawn before which we sprayed a few times and lightly tilled. We are in Southern Cal. about 15 minutes inland. What would be the expected time frame for it to fill in and what's the best way to handle grass that keeps growing through? "

Though I have literally seen D. margaretea in hundreds of gardens--and liked it every time--I don't have it in my own garden and had no personal experience regarding growing it.  So I went to an expert, Randy Baldwin, general manager at San Marcos Growers, a wholesale nursery in Santa Barbara that propagates the plant.  Here's his answer.

"I tell people to plant this plant as close as they can afford.  But, if the area is irrigated and the soil decent, this plant can grow fairly fast, and a one-foot spacing would be adequate.  It would fill in within 6 months, assuming you planted in late winter through spring in an area with full sun and regular irrigation.  Buy flats if you can and cut them into squares.  As long as each piece has nice roots, they can be as small as one inch.  But test out a few to see if you need to make bigger squares to get clumps with roots before cutting up the whole flat.  If you can't find flats, break up one-gallon plants into multiples.

Regarding weeds, this plant can eventually do a good job smothering out new weed seed grasses, but when the Dymondia is young and there is space between plants, diligent hand-weeding is a must.  Site preparation ahead of time really is the key, though.  You need to get rid of the grasses that were there before you plant.  If you are dealing with Bermuda, it often takes repeated treatments of an herbicide used during the grass's growing season and while it is being irrigated so that the Bermuda thoroughly takes in the herbicide.  There are selective post-emergence herbicides that work on grasses that do not harm broadleaf plants, but my observation is they don't do a great job in controlling Bermuda.  Also I am not sure whether Dymondia is tolerant of these herbicides.  If a homeowner wantsto go this route, they should talk to a pest control advisor for specific recommendations.  And, even so, I would test a small area first before treating the entire planting."

Thanks, Randy, for such a thorough answer.  I'm sure a lot of our blog readers will find this immensely useful.

By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

If you love Michael Pollan’s work as much as we do, you’ll want to see The Botany of Desire, a TV special based on Pollan’s book of the same name.

Focusing on four crops—apples, tulips, cannabis, and potatoes—the show explores how the plants may very well be exploiting us instead of the other way around. And it’s packed with interesting factoids. Some of my favorites (that won’t spoil anything for you if you’ve not read the book):

• Most apples in the wild aren’t sweet, and are basically inedible. (And Johnny Appleseed isn't quite the person you thought he was...)
• During the Dutch “tulip mania” in the 1600s, tulips were valuable commodities that signified wealth—bulbs of one variety cost $10 to 15 million each in today’s dollars.
• Cannabis extract was found in many over-the-counter medicines and was basically available anywhere before states starting outlawing it in the early 1900s.
• We might think we have a lot of choices between Idaho russet, Yukon gold, fingerling, and red potatoes. But in Peru, where spuds were first domesticated, people still cultivate more than 5,000 varieties.

The Botany of Desire airs on Wednesday, October 28 at 8 p.m. on PBS.

I love it when people take matters into their own hands. So I was really excited to meet Amie Frisch, project director for Veggielution community farm, who’s intent on evolving the local food movement in the San Jose area.

Amie and cofounder Mark Anthony Medeiros met a couple years ago while they were apartment-dwelling students at San Jose State University. They both wanted space to grow fresh veggies, so Mark posted fliers in a nearby neighborhood asking residents if they’d share some growing ground in exchange for homegrown produce. They got more responses than expected and, along with other student volunteers, they tended several gardens but soon wanted a centralized place where people in the community could get involved. One thing led to another and, last spring, they were offered a quarter acre plot in Emma Prusch Farm Park in San Jose. And Veggielution was born.

Situated below the intersection of the 101 and 280/680 freeways in the middle of suburban San Jose, it might seem like an unlikely place for a farm. But the land was once a working dairy farm in what was nicknamed "the Valley of Hearts Delight," and Veggielution is thriving there. With guidance from master gardeners and experts, along with a team of eager volunteers, they're producing bushels of crops—150 pounds of which goes to local food banks every week.

“Once the city saw how we transformed it, they started taking us seriously,” Amie says. A few months ago, they were granted use of an additional acre, and a hundred people helped break ground on June 20. Draft horses plowed and dished, and volunteers planted a third of the acre (shown above) that day.

Amie wants Veggielution to be a community resource where people can learn about agriculture and the related issues of health, the environment, and social justice. "Access to healthy food should be a right," she says.

Anyone can take part in the farm's weekly volunteer days, and go to regularly-held classes on a range of topics—this Sunday you can learn about mushroom cultivation. "In cities, you don’t see farms," Amie says. "We want to give people that experience and to dig into it."

And if you’re free Saturday evening, you can attend the Bounty of Heart's Delight fundraiser which starts with appetizers at the farm, followed by dinnner at Eulipia—all made with local, sustainably-grown food, of course. The event supports Veggielution’s new program  for local high schoolers who’ll learn not only about farming, but also about leadership, communication, and community issues.

"By making something happen, we're hoping that others see it's possible," Amie says. "We want to be the hub of local food in the South Bay. And we want to grow awesome food."

By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

Photos by Alicia Martin

We can't wait to check out the Late Show Gardens, a brand new garden show at Cornerstone in Sonoma, California focusing on design and sustainability. We've been looking forward to it for months since the contributors are some of the biggest names in horticulture—essentially the who's who of the garden scene—from the Bay Area and beyond.

As you can imagine, pulling together a garden show is a major undertaking. It involves endless planning and organizing, and the week before the show, when designers actually start building the display gardens, is especially intense. Tons of soil are hauled in, along with large trees, landscape art, and accessories—the photo above is a behind-the-scenes look at two displays, Growth Melt and Overgrowth, in progress. We can't wait to see what they look like when they're done!

The show kicks off this Thursday 9/17 with an evening preview party, and runs through Sunday 9/20. I'll be there Friday—hope to see you there!

For info and tickets, go to thelateshowgardens.org or call 415/721-1550.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

This beautiful stacked wall with its amusing broken pot inserts was shot at Cambria Nursery in Cambria.  The idea came about when garden designer Shana McCormick of Great Gardens and artisan Gustavo Mora put their heads together to figure out a way to use some of the cracked pottery that was accumulating at the nursery.

Because these inserts have no drainage holes and aren't easy to water, succulents are the best things to plant in them, says nursery manager Becki Smith.  She also recommends not using pots that are too large.  "Don't go over 12 inch," she says. "If they're too large it takes away from the beauty of the wall."

You can see more of Mora's beautifully constructed walls at the Cambria Pines Lodge next door to the nursery.  Mora also conducts classes on how to build stacked walls at the nursery occasionally.  If you live in the area and are interested in attempting this yourself, you might want to get on the nursery's mailing list or check in regularly on their website.

Container lovers might also like our story on 24 Great One-Pot Gardens.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

That's the situation Robin Rouse faced in her beachside house in Cayucos on the Central California Coast.  All of Rouse's primary living quarters are on the second floor.  There is a large deck up there, too, with an even better view of the ocean than from the patio below.  So there really wasn't that much reason to descend.  Still you looked down on it every day.  So it needed a focus.

Baywood Park landscape architect Jeffrey Gordon Smith gave it a dramatic one.  The Nautilus shell was his inspiration.  He laid down a spiral-patterned patio constructed out of flagstone pieces interplanted with Dymondia. And he ran a ribbon of tumbled blue glass -- reminiscent of beach glass -- through it.  At the center he installed a small gas-fired fire pit housed in a Corten steel bowl.  There are strands of 110 volt rope lighting underneath the glass ribbon which create enough glow you can see the patio's motif even after dark.

Smith added curved retaining walls wide enough to double as seating walls around the perimeter of the patio -- suspecting Rouse might be more tempted to use the space once he was finished.  And he painted the sea wall behind them the color of beach sand so it would virtually disappear.

Rouse says with this pretty pattern to look at her second story view is better than ever.  The fire pit even puts out enough warmth to heat her top deck, she says.  Still she spends less time there.  "I find myself being drawn down to the garden now," says Rouse.  "I love this little space."

All photos by Chris Leschinsky

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Honey bees get all the press , but they don't do all the work.  There are dozens of species of native bees equally willing to pollinate your plants.  One of them, the bumble bee, we all know and love.  But the smaller ones -- Anthidium, Xylocopa, Osmia, Halictid, Andrenid, Megachillid, Mlissodes, Anthophorid, -- you likely don't even notice.  The guy seen here--a Halictid, I'm guessing--is an example.

It's not hard to attract more of these hard workers to your garden.  All it takes is providing the right nectar plants.  Emerson Commmunity Garden in San Luis Obispo is proving just how quickly you can get results. 

The gardeners using the twenty nine plots in the Garden began an experiment with entomologist Dr. Gordon Frankie of the University of California Berkeley in 2007.  They began adding flowers known to attract these bees to their individual plots.  (The gardeners were primarily interested in growing edibles, and there were few ornamentals in the Garden when the experiment began.)

It didn't take long to see an increase in the number and type of bees showing up. What's more, says Barbara Smith, one of the plot holders and the local coordinator of the project -- it's her space you see below -- everyone in the community garden has seen improvements in their crop yields. And yields get a little better each season as the gardeners learn more about bee gardening and the number and variety of bees keeps improving.

You don't have to grow anything exotic either as you can see.  Toadflax (Linaria purpurea) gallardia, catmint, asters, rudbeckia, and salvias -- all common garden ornamentals -- are doing a great job luring in native bees at Emerson Community Garden.  There is no shortage of honey bees here either. 

If you're in San Luis Obispo drop by and take a look.  Emerson is at the corner of Nipomo and Pismo Streets.  Look for plants with markers like this to see what they're luring in.  Or visit the U.C. Berkeley  Urban Bee Gardens website to find out what to plant.

Sunset's garden staff is so enthused about the success of the Emerson example, we're going to add some of the plants from Dr. Frankie's list in our own test garden.  Can you have the same success in a small garden about the size as a typical backyard as you can in a community garden?  We'll let you know.

Or, if you're doing it already, please tell us about your successes.