Blue Planet Garden Blog

UC Verde Grass – the lawn alternative I’ve been waiting for?

 
Photo courtesy of UC Verde Buffalo Grass

I’ve just started another chapter in my on-going quest to find lawn alternatives that look good, can handle foot traffic and are more environmentally sound than the fescue lawns that plaster California.  Remember my chamomile lawn that last year morphed into a Carex pansa lawn?  Well guess what?  It’s now home to 128 rapidly expanding UC Verde grass plugs.

When Tom Engelman from the GrassRoots Program, a non-profit website that promotes environmentally friendly lawn alternatives in California recently called me about UC Verde grass, I immediately volunteered my little front yard garden as a test spot. Florasource, the distributor for the grass, kindly provided me with a flat of plugs, and I got busy planting.

Some quick facts:

• UC Verde (Buchloe Dactyloides) is a bunch grass developed by the University of California. 
• It spreads via stolons, forming clumps that ultimately grow into a lawn.
• It requires 50 to 70% less water than traditional fescue lawns.
• Left unmowed, it grows into a meadow about 6” high – otherwise, mow every three to six weeks for a lawn effect.
• Low pollen count makes it better for allergy sufferers (my blogger friend VW has drilled the importance of this one into my head!)

I planted the plugs two weeks ago and I cannot believe how quickly they are growing. The stolons (the little side blades that are shooting out) are easily twice the length they were a week ago.

 

An artist, a neurosurgeon and a garden designer walk into a bar…

And probably grab a table and order a round of drinks. But the question is, why are they hanging out together in the first place?  It turns out they have more in common than you might think.

In their August issue, Psychology Today reports on the exotic field of neuroaesthetics, which is seeking to determine why we respond to art the way that we do.  According to the article, art makes use of certain visual tricks that engage our brains in a variety of specific ways.  So what we describe vaguely as beauty or creativity can in part be explained by how our brains process visual information.

The article shares 10 perceptual principles of great art, but I’ll just touch on a few.

The Peak Shift Effect occurs because our brain responds more eagerly to exaggerations and distortions than to real world people and objects. Why? Because this helps us recognize things, thereby hyper-stimulating our senses.  A Picasso that exaggerates distinctive elements is attractive to us in part because it makes it easier for us to recognize what it is. 

Picasso's self portrait may appeal because it makes it easier to recognize him.

And isn’t that the essence of a garden?  A garden is not a replica of the natural environment, but instead is an intentionally artificial construct that exaggerates many of the elements we enjoy in nature.  It may take its cues from the natural world, but its more orderly form and visually distinct spaces are exactly what makes it pleasing to us.

The Peekaboo Principle plays upon the fact that we enjoy a visual mystery and often respond to art that lets us fill in some of the blanks for ourselves. (The same principle applies to erotica, but that’s a post for another type of blog.)  An artistic example of this is  Cezanne's paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire, where the mountain is implied, but it is up to us to fill in the missing space.

Garden designers employ this same principle when they reveal part of a view, or create the sense that something interesting is happening just around the corner, creating a little puzzle that engages us more deeply in the space.  In my designs, I like to give the impression that a garden exists beyond its actual borders. A simple means of accomplishing this is to extend the backyard a few feet around the edge of the house, encouraging the eye to believe there is more to be discovered, even if the reality is a utilitarian concrete slab home to to compost bins and garden rakes.

So if some of you are thinking all you need to do now is find out what the other eight principles are and Presto! you’re a great artist, or if like me your first thought was whether two years of design school was educational overkill, it’s probably a bit more complicated. By hooking up subjects to MRI machines and testing their response to great art vs. kitch, neuroscientists are currently conducting experiments to determine if our brains can perceive a difference between great art and schlock.

In the meantime, I’m getting back to my current design and focusing heavily on principle number eight, Repetition, Rhythm and Orderliness with a little Grouping and Generic Perspective thrown in for good measure.

If the 50 Foot Woman had a Garden...

It might look something like this:

I visited my friend Maureen over the weekend and took this photo of volunteer sunflowers next to her patio - with thanks to her husband Jean Michel for stepping in to provide some scale. 

Maureen believes a recent rash of disappearing plants is due to gophers.

Me? I think these 15' sunflowers are fueling their mutant growth by eating the rest of the garden.

Is Love Better the Second Time Around?

I’ve been making more of an effort lately to visit past gardens I’ve designed.    There’s a risk to this, as there is always the possibility that things haven’t gone well in the months or years since the install.  Disaster can strike in many forms – gophers, deer, overzealous gardeners, faulty irrigation or even (gasp!) a bad plant choice on my part.

Recently the Germinatrix and Interleafer had a Twitter exchange on how much fun it is to develop a crush on a new plant.  Of course it’s easy to fall for the latest flashy Monrovia intro, or swoon over a seed catalogue photo, or admire the lush blooms of a new Jackson Perkins rose.  But in visiting past gardens, I've had the delightful experience of rediscovering plants that for one reason or another, I’d forgotten about.  Here are some of my new (old) favorites:

 

Chondropetalum tectorum

 

Chondropetalum with penstemmon and achillea

This amazing restio is evergreen, can handle full sun and does well in bog conditions as well as low water gardens.  This particular speciment is three years old and probably won’t get much bigger as this is a moderate water garden.  With regular water, it can get 8’ around.  I love the rich green and dark russet blooms and think it would combine beautifully with a burgundy Phormium like Monrovia Red or Dark Delight.

 

Mexican Feather Grass and Chocolate Cosmos

I chose to mass Mexican Feather Frass in this planter, and on a whim suggested the client interplant Chocolate Cosmos to create the idea of something peaking through the straw colored foliage.  I love this!  And of course it will be much more dramatic later in the summer when the cosmos really take off.  This plant was so hard to get five years ago that I forgot all about it.  I’ll be using it regularly from now on.

 Salvia chamaedryoides - Mexican Blue Sage

Salvia chamaedryoides (almost done blooming) with Santolina and Salvia clevelandii

This last bit’s embarrassing.  I actually had to ask the client what several of the plants in the garden were.  They looked at me oddly, but obligingly went to get their original plans.  How could I have stopped using something as ordinary as Salvia chamaedryoides?  Long blooming, sweet smelling, lovely silver foliage, and doesn’t get too big (unlike the Salvia clevelandii behind it – beautiful but a bit of a thug).  I guess my well-documented love affair with catmint drove this worthy alternative out of my mind.

 

Calamagrostis Karl Forester - photo courtesy of Gardensoft

Finally, how, how HOW could I have stopped using Calamagrostis Karl Forester?  This tall, dramatic grass doesn’t get too wide and is am amazing backdrop for just about any flower color.

Amber carpet rose                 Salvia Wendy's Wish

So while I continue to spend time with my newest friends, like Amber Carpet Rose and Salvia ‘Wendy’s Wish’, now that I’ve rediscovered my past loves, they’re suddenly appearing in my garden designs again.  In fact, I recently introduced Karl Foerster to Wendy, and have every expectation they will be a match made in heaven.