I am the very proud recipient of the 2010 Volunteer Spirit Award! I was nominated by Habitat For Humanity and the award was given in the category of the Environment. I do the landscape designs for all of the new Sacramento Habitat Homes - Pro Bono. This is very rewarding work. The homes that we have built this year have all been LEED certified (Leadership in Environment and Energy Design). Our house have made Gold and the last two, Platinum - the highest level. The landscapes are all no-lawn and drought tolerant. Our ‘charette’ or group that designs and builds these homes just won the National Green Building award. We are very proud.
I strongly urge folks to go to the Sacramento Habitat for Humanities website and find out when their tours are (generally once a week). You will learn about what the families need to do to qualify, you’ll learn about the families that have been chosen for the Homes - there stories are amazing and moving. You’ll also get a tour of the Habitat Re-Store - a great resource for finding building materials and other odds and ends cheap!
Also, a word about VolunteerCenter of Sacramento: they have many programs that allow people to get involved in our community be it with animals, our parks, food banks or even assisting in giving birthday parties to children that live in shelters and have never had the opportunity to have a party. You can find them online at info@volunteersac.org or call: (916) 567-3100
Regarding energy efficient homes: Did you know that SMUD was given a Federal grant of several millions dollars to give in rebates for Homeowners to retrofit their homes to make them more efficient? The call the program the Home Performance Program and you can qualify for up to $5,000.00 in Rebates. You start with selecting a contractor. There is a list of approved contractors on SMUD’s website:www.smud.org/rebates or call them at 1-888-742-7683 ext. 18.
My garden is winding itself down. I still have many little orange tomatoes hanging on stringy vines. These will all come out as well as the pepper bushes. I can harvest my beets, although I have been doing that throughout the summer. All in all it’s been a good season. It ended up that the slugs left me only one squash plant...normally gardeners are inundated with squash but I could have used a little more.
Because I now have a plethora of cats (the feral mother cat, ‘Mimi’, bequeathed me with two litters before Happy Tails came out and assisted me in trapping her) I’m having a hard time keeping the cats out of my vegetable garden. Cat feces are toxic and should not be anywhere in the soil around your vegetable plants. I have tried all sorts of tricks and products, but once it rains, you have to apply all substances again! So, instead of fighting this I am going to change my garden over to flowers and herbs. The bulkier the plants get, the less the cats find room to dig. I’m okay with this decision - I am an avid frequenter of the Farmer’s Market and usually substitute what I haven’t grown with their vegetables - except for tomatoes, and by next year I’m sure I’ll be able to squeeze some plants in between the herbs without the cats getting in.
By the way, I have 3, 4 month old kittens that I would like to find homes for. Because the mother is feral, the kittens are shy and need some time and TLC to help condition them to a new home. They are outside cats, and after they stay indoors for a couple of weeks, they would be happy outside. They are excellent hunters...the squirrels tend to hide their nuts in other yards now, not mine. The kittens are all Tabby.
A week ago I needed a break and decided to slip out of the office and head up to Apple Hill.
If you ever want to get away and not have to drive too far, I highly recommend this trip. The fall is the best for Apple Hill. Besides the colors and the natural beauty, apple desserts are such a treat! There are also wineries to stop at to wine taste, Jack Russell Brewery and of course, lots of apples to buy. The picture was taken at the Boger Winery.
New Website! Finally after years of neglect I have a new website...created by Genevieve Walker, my daughter, and me; although Genevieve did all the graphic design and technical details. I now have new pictures in the gallery and a before and after page. I’m very excited about this and I hope that you take a minute to check it out: www.robertawalker.com
You may have noticed that the newsletter is late...the new schedule will be on a quarterly basis instead of monthly. You can always check in at my blog to see if there are any new updates or events that I think everyone might be interested in.
Another update - Juniper in the garden. I have two kittens now instead of four: Juniper and Violet. I also have the mom and the dad, and they live in the backyard. I love having them. The kittens like to get up on the fountain and let the water drop on their heads!
Earlier in the year I wrote about my new garden beds. The beds that I had double-dug, etc. Here is an update on what the garden now looks like. I was able to plant so much more because of the new space and close plantings. My only problem now is keeping the cats of the beds...they love the soft soil - it’s so easy to paw! I have started to stake the Dahlias, cage the tomatoes and continue to pick strawberries.
Check out the new Ad Campaign, "Real People, Real Savings," from the California Water Board. You can click on the picture of me and see a video of me talking about my garden (you can also see the video on the "Press" page of my new website, www.robertawalker.com). They are working hard to provide tools for the public to change over to water-wise gardens.
Something wonderful to do this summer is to take a trip to Filoli Gardens in Woodside California. This beautiful mansion and several acres of English-sytle gardens are open to the public. There is an entrance fee, but it’s well worth it. There is a restaurant and gift store, and if you make reservations on-line beforehand, you can have high tea there. Visiting public gardens is a lovely day trip. There are also the gardens in the Golden Gate Park, the Japanese Garden and the Botanical Garden, not to mention the glass conservatory and dahlia beds. Also, UC Berkeley has a great botanical garden. There are many others in and around the Sacramento and Bay Area.
On Mother’s Day, May 9th I had my annual tour of the garden. For the last three years I have opened my garden and invited clients and friends to wander through. The hours of the opening were from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and at about 1:45 p.m. the heavens opened up and the rain came down in sheets! What to do? I poured myself a glass of wine (it was Mother’s Day after all) and sat down to watch the rain. As it wound itself down the first guests arrived through the gate. They were from the Perennial Garden Club and they explained that neither rain nor any other bad weather could keep them from touring a garden! They came equipped with umbrellas. As the day wore one, the clouds dispersed and the sun shone bright and beautiful and I lost count of how many people came through.
The garden looked lovely - it had a wonderful watering! A question that I was asked numerous times throughout the day was “how many hours a day/week do you spend maintaining this garden?” I was surprised because I spend very little on maintenance. The garden and the landscape takes care of itself. I have designed plants that grow to certain heights and planted them accordingly. 90% of the plants in the landscape are evergreen. The perennial color comes and goes, and the most amount of effort I spend in the garden is clipping the roses and flowers to bring into the house.
My backyard landscape is nearly four years old and most of the new plants have grown in. I never stuff more plants than can fit into any space so after seasons have come and gone everything has filled in and balances itself with the rest of the shrubs and trees. Many times I have been called upon to redo landscapes that are completely overgrown even though they are not that old. The problem is that often people want the “instant garden” look and they plant too many shrubs that grow too big, and then later on it becomes just another problem! Balance is the key, and balance is about knowing how big a shrub or tree will get - and patience.
I would also like to mention that a client of mine, Sue Anne Sheya plays the flute, teaches flute and offers performances. If you are having a party or function, consider having Sue Anne play! Her phone number is: (530) 746-8783. If I had known about Sue Anne’s flute playing, I would have hired her to play for the garden tour...how lovely to wander through the garden accompanied by sweet flute music!
When all the company left the yard on Sunday, guess who popped out of their home in my wood pile? My four little nursery companions: Sprout, Juniper, Parsley and Violet! Those are the names I’ve given them, but they need to find loving homes, so if you are ready for love and fun, consider one of these little friends. They should be ready for adoption in another two weeks.
Color and texture in the planting scheme is what really makes a garden stand out. I love to bring in the light and dark colored shrubs, setting them close to one another so that they are mutually complimenting. The same with texture: shrubs have a wide range of colors - from lemon yellow to deep purple and many varieties are available with “variegation” - multiple colors throughout the one plant. When you want your garden to look beautiful, colorful and alive throughout the seasons, then the bulk of the color should come from the shrubs - the perennial flowers can be added, popping out when they are in bloom. If you fill your garden with flower color, during the fall and winter when they’ve gone dormant, your yard will look dull and dead. Again, think: balance.
For bright yellow color try Coleonema “Sunset Gold” or Chamaecyparis “Mops” or even Juniper “Old Gold.” These plants are not deciduous and in the winter when it’s foggy and gloomy they will light up the landscape! The Phormiums or “flax” come in a variety of colors and unlike ornamental grasses, they do not go dormant and turn straw-colored. Loropetalum or “Chinese Fringe Flower” is ever-plum color. Try putting that next to silver Artemesia “Powis Castle,” Santolina or Convolvulous. You’ll find that when you use shrubbery to bring in the bulk of color into your landscape the maintenance is very low. The flower colors will come and go, and when they bloom they will be a delight but when they’re done the landscape will still look complete.
The day after the garden tour my daughter and I headed for the City - San Francisco - to finally get to a nursery that I’ve been wanting to go to: Flora Grubb Gardens. What a treat! Flora Grubb has been featured in Sunset Magazine and also Garden Design Magazine. Flora Grubb sells fabric pockets that hang vertically which enable you to create a “vertical garden.” They also have a vast array of succulents and huge vertical plantings that are literally living art.
As you walk through the nursery you’ll come across some really crazy whimsical items, such as an old car that has every open orifice stuffed with plants...even the hood is ripped open for palms to grow out of the top! A bicycle is rimmed with air plants. It’s so creative and inspiring...I highly recommend a trip there. It will get your creative juices going!
Flora Grubb:
1634 Jerrold Ave. S.F.
www.Floragrubb.com
It’s just the beginning of April and yet we’ve had both the showers and the flowers! A month ago I had a truck-load of compost delivered by Carol (the Compost Lady), and I started shoveling. After more than a few wheelbarrows filled to brimming, I took a break and covered the compost with a tarp in case it rained. Well, good thing I did - in between quite a few storms I managed to finally get all the compost off my driveway and spread throughout my garden. In the meantime, my yard has come alive.
Recently I decided that I wanted to maximize my edible-garden space. Several years ago I had brick raised beds built.
The area of my yard that has the vegetable garden is the only area that gets full-sun throughout the day. In order to expand I took a sledge hammer to two of the brick beds, the middle 8-foot round and a back rectangular bed. I drew out a 20 foot circle and decided that in it there would be four concentric rings - four rows to plant in. 
I should have cancelled my membership at the gym because the digging, shoveling and moving brick was, and continues to be, far more intense than my workouts at the gym! The reward for this manual labor however is way greater than any gym workout, my garden is getting rebuilt and it’s so beautiful outside - much nicer than the smelly gym. From the picture you can see that I’m almost done. The weather forecast looks good so I’ll be able to finish and be ready for my spring planting.
Before I started this endeavor I read up on the best methods of digging the beds. A great resource was Barbara Damrosch’s book, Garden Primer. She and her husband have a large organic farm in Maine and much of their produce is used in local restaurants, even some in New York. I used Barbara’s method of double digging and I’ve even drawn a little diagram of how it’s done:
This is where I used a lot of the compost that I had delivered. I'm excited to see how it all turns out!
Sunday, April 25th, from 10a.m. to 4 p.m is the Bay-Friendly Garden Tour. This is a wonderful tour of gardens in the Bay Area - Berkeley, Emeryville, Alameda & Fremont. The tour is FREE, you just need to register on their website and they will send you a booklet with directions, pictures and a schedule of talks being given. You can load up your bikes and ride to see the gardens, or choose a cluster of homes and then walk to each garden. The gardens chosen utilize drought-tolerant, organic and environmentally friendly practices.
I have named the mother cat “Mimi”. She comes to my back door for food, and in the morning I walk out to the back of the yard where her nest is and bring her breakfast in bed. By the end of May the kittens will be at the age to be fixed and have their shots...let me know if you’d like a sweet addition to your home! However many might stay with me, I’m thinking of naming them after the plants and flowers and herbs in my garden: Parsley, Pansy, Columbine, Daisy, Rose, Weed, etc.
My target date for this year’s open garden at my home is Mother’s Day, May 9th. I will send out emails with an invitation. As always, there will be tea and cookies and white wine. What a lovely way to spend the day!
I love to look around me and see even the oldest most twisted tree awash in blossoms! With the dark skies the colors stand out even brighter. The flowering quince is just about done, the daffodils are still standing tall, the tulips are still pushing through, but the fruit (and ornamental fruit) trees are in bloom...big time!
I love to cut branches and put them in a large vase. Shown here are branches from my ornamental plum tree. The Forsythia just started blooming and they make a beautiful arrangement as well.
We are getting close to spring, and now is the time to start your vegetable seeds indoors...actually you could have started last month (I’m a little late!). I am also preparing my garden beds. Each year I order a load of composted manure that is mixed with wood shavings from Carol Jones. I call her “Carol the Compost Lady.” For $50.00 she’ll deliver a pickup truck full - towering full, and fork it onto your driveway or street. I mulch my existing beds with this also. Years ago my hairdresser Bob worked in a small salon that was in an old Victorian in downtown Sacramento. The garden was absolutely beautiful. I asked him how did he get everything to look so lush? Bob and the other stylists all chorused, “Carol the compost lady!” If you would like to order compost from her you can call her at: (916) 397-2854 (She prefers payment in cash).
Many things bring me joy in life, but there are two that take precedence: Creating beauty and being able to give to people. The work I do fulfills both of these. The landscapes I create are all focused on beauty, and the joy it brings to my clients make me feel so good! Sometimes clients will tell me how their new landscape or garden has changed the way they do things - from not going out to their yard to spending all of their time in their yard! When I hear this I get a tremendous sense of well being. I feel that I’ve been able to give in a way that will keep on giving and changing. To be among the team at Habitat for Humanity is a great honor.
Habitat for Humanity was started by Millard & Linda Fuller back in 1976. It so happened that Jimmy Carter was a volunteer, and continues to be a volunteer in the building of houses. Habitat for Humanity is now a global organization, and besides working locally in building homes for low income families, it also works toward providing relief in disaster areas such as Haiti and now Chile.
A wonderful thing to do for yourself or your whole office would be to attend one of the Habitat Tours that are given on Thursdays. It only takes an hour, and they give you a history of Habitat for Humanity, a tour of their Restore and a profile of the families that are working to get a home.
The office and Restore are located in the Old Army Depot - 8351 Umbria Ave., Bldg. 5
The phone number at the office is: (916) 440-1215 ext. 1109
The next tours will be:
3/11/10 8:00 a.m.
3/25/10 10:00 a.m.
Ground Hog Day!
Pennsylvania’s official celebration of Ground Hog Day began on February 2, 1886. Although it was on February 4, 1841, from Morgantown, Berks County (Pennsylvania) a storekeeper reported, “Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate.”
The tradition originally came from the Germans. When they arrived in the 1700s, they brought with them a tradition called Candlemas Day. It came at the mid-point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Superstition held that if the weather was fair, the second half of the Winter be stormy and cold.
So, from 1886 to our present 2010, Punxsutawney Phil, “Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators,” (Groundhog Day movie,1993) and Weather Prophet Extraordinaire, a groundhog named after the settlement Punxsutawney, which is named after the Native Americans who lived there, reports the weather.
The report for 2010: Phil saw his shadow and went back in his burrow to sleep for another six weeks of winter!
the Home and Landscape Expo 2010
One of the features that I had in our booth at the Home Show was a sculpture: a little dog made of stone. This little dog seemed to be the highlight of the booth...countless people stopped to look at and inquire about the dog. One fellow suggested I name the dog “Roxie”! This wonderful creature was created by Mary Ellen Garcia, or The Rock Lady (see my previous post). She also creates cats out of stone, turtles, birds and people. If you’d like to get in touch with her you can call her at (530) 363-3081; and, you can make an appointment to visit her studio in Pollock Pines!
I love my little dog. On the first day of the show I told it to “stay” - and that dog did not move an inch for the entire three days!
“Humans tend to look at gardens as an expression of nature.
Nature looks at gardens as an expression of humans.”
-Perelandra Garden
I wish you all happy dreaming and visualizing of your spring gardens!
I Have Worms!!!
At the Home & Landscape Expo that took place on January 29th, 30th & 31st, I met Lara who owns Urban Worms. In our conversation I learned quite a bit about “vermicomposting,” the practice of using earthworms to turn your kitchen scraps & other organic material into a rich soil amendment for your house or garden plants.
I have been interested in this type of composting for quite a while. After meeting Lara I was thrilled to be able to purchase my own home composter...which came with 1,000 red worms. It’s very easy to maintain and does not have any unpleasant odors. A medium-sized worm bin can process more than 5 pounds of food waste each week!
According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, “Earthworms are the intestines of the earth.”
One of the most comprehensive resources on vermicomposting is Mary Appelhof’s by Worms Eat My Garbage, which is in it’s second printing after selling 100,000 copies.
To find out more about the worm systems that are available, and to order, go to Urban-Worms.com or call (818) 506-1284
