The Gardeners Anonymous Blog

How to Get Paid For Putting In A Garden

The Urn is finally in place: Now All I Need is a Garden to Go With It.

I made the mistake (a couple of years ago) to take out a lawn and put in a drought tolerant garden instead.

Well, that wasn’t the mistake really. The mistake was not telling the Water District about it. You see, the Santa Clara Santa Valley Water District has a program whereby they pay you a rebate for every square foot of lawn you take out—as long as you replace it with something drought tolerant. Even if you document your lawn removal meticulously, the county doesn’t care. If they don’t get there and document your lawn before you remove it—they don’t pay you.

So this time I did it right.

I called the Water District and a nice man named Henry came out to record some information about the lawn I’m removing, and to show me how to save water with the lawn that I’m not.

I’m taking out 1,500 square feet of lawn, which means they’ll give me a rebate of $1,500 for my new garden. He told me if I wanted to remove 500 more feet of my other lawn I could have $500 more.

The rules are simple. You must replace at least 100 square feet of high water landscape with a low water landscape. This landscape must be made up of plants from the approved list on their website. www.valleywater.org/Programs/Landscaping.aspx.

Crikey, That's One Freaky Fountain!

I showed my favorite demo garden at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show now I’m going to show you my favorite single thing—item—piece of Kitsch.

The one thing I loved most was this weird fountain thing in the garden called “Salvaged Creole Jazz Courtyard”

I loved this freaky thing. It’s renew, reuse, recycle at it’s best.

The base is just broken concrete. The base of the fountain itself is probably broken and that is why it is sitting in concrete. It is partially mosaic. It holds succulents, which are very big this year—including “string of pearls”( Senecio rowleyanus )—reminiscent of the beads tossed around during Mardi Gras.

I must admit that the mix of alligator heads as a garden focal point is slightly odd. But there are people who consider me slightly odd.

Where does one get stuffed alligator heads, Bindi Irwin’s closet perhaps?

The Salvaged Creole Jazz Courtyard by:
Dawn Engel
Mike Diefenbach
Torres Gonzalez

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What’s In That White Stuff That Keeps Flowers Fresh?

I never put that powdery stuff that comes with fresh flowers in vases with my cut flowers. I’m not sure why, but I think it seems kind of chemicalish.

I’ve put a packet in once before and I sort of covered my nose and mouth and stepped aside until the initial puff of powder had settled, thinking I might be exposing myself to some powdery form of cyanide or arsenic.

I finally tried it again with the roses we bought for my son on the opening night of his most recent play. I put a packet in with them and—look at them—two and a half weeks later.

So what’s the magical chemical ingredients of the longevity potion powder?

Well, it’s sugar, mostly. Sugar. The sugar acts like food for the flowers. There is something to stop the growth of bacteria, and something to change the ph making it more acid, such as citric acid.

That’s all it is.

Tip: A 5oz. packet is enough for a pint of water. Most vases hold a quart. If you make the solution too weak, you may end up feeding the bacteria and therefore causing it to grow. oopsie.

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My Favorite Garden at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show

Even after all my bitching about the show, I did have a favorite garden.

It was, of course, Keeyla Meadow’s garden—Habitat Dance with a Red-Headed Snake.

She’s always my favorite garden designer. Her gardens have a great sense of humor and a sense of whimsy. She not only designs a garden, but she creates the beautiful sculptures and plant containers, too.

I was hoping to run into Keeyla at the show because I wanted to get a signed copy of her new book Fearless Color Gardens.

I met her once before, but sort of stammered around like some sort of freak, so I’m guessing she probably saw me hanging around her demo garden and ran the other direction clutching her book to her chest.

Enjoy these pictures of Keeyla Meadow’s lovely demo garden.

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