Next Friday evening the winners of the California Friendly Garden Contest will be announced.
Now in its second year, the contest was created to identify and reward a few of those gardeners in Orange County who are creating and maintaining beautiful gardens that are also water efficient and resource conserving. These are the gardens of our future.
Entry into the friendly competition is now complete. Through the contests website, the public vote has also completed and the ten semi-finalists have been determined. These ten gardens will now be visited by a panel of experts for the final determination of the best California Friendly garden in Orange County. For the final judging I am privileged to be accompanied by some of the best and brightest landscape and conservation experts in our region. By the time you read this, we will have just completed visits to all ten of these gardens; evaluating not only the gardens beauty, the most important element, but many more subtle factors.
Here’s what we will be looking for during the judging; maybe someday your garden will be a winner.
What plants are used in the garden and especially, how are they arranged? Are any of the plant selections potentially invasive, damaging our native ecology? Of course, water efficient plants will be important and these will looked for.
But, we know that most gardens already contain many low water plants. What might make a winning garden is one where the plants are grouped according to their water needs. A California Friendly garden doesn’t have to be a completely dry garden. But we do want to see the low water, medium water and thirsty plants grouped into different irrigation zones. This principle, called hydrozoning, is critical to a water conserving landscape.
For instance, an olive tree with lavender and rosemary planted under it is terrific. Another area of the garden might have roses, annuals and a small turf area. This garden will score well, since the plants are hydrozoned. But if the thirsty annuals are under the olive and the water-thrifty rosemary is next to the roses, water efficiency is lost and the garden will score poorly. The same plants are used in scenarios, but because of good hydrozoning, one garden conserves water and the other does not.
Of course, we’ll also be looking at the irrigation of the gardens. We’ll check the controller, first to see whether it is weather sensitive model, or a “smart” timer. Then we’ll check the settings to see how often it operates and for how long. Finally, we’ll turn it on and see how well the system is designed and operating. Does water hit the sidewalks and driveway and quickly run to the gutter after a few minutes?
Out in the garden we will look for efficiencies like rotator sprinkler heads, low flow irrigation systems, surface irrigation techniques or drip irrigation.
We will evaluate water movement in the garden and how water might be conserved in other ways. In a rain event, where does the water go? Does it have an opportunity to percolate into the soil or is it whisked immediately to a storm drain and out to sea? We’ll even take a look at what happens to rain falling on the roof. Is any of it captured or allowed to percolate into the soil, or is it likewise sent directly off the property?
Certainly, we will want to see exposed areas liberally mulched, to conserve water and reduce soil erosion. If the mulch is made at home, using green waste and a compost system, all the better. We’ll even poke around and look for fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and snail bait residues and containers, preferring that these be organic formulations and that they are used intelligently.
It will be a long, but exciting day for all of the judges, able to see some great examples of beautiful and “green” gardens. Not only pretty gardens, but gardens that also protect and conserve our natural resources.
Next Friday evening, May 16, at a celebration at Roger’s Gardens the winners of the contest will be announced. Wendy Proud and I will present a brief illustrated program titled Gardening Green in Orange County, followed by a photo show and highlights of some of the gardens in the competition. Finally, the best California Friendly gardens will be announced and prizes awarded. If you would like to attend the celebration please RSVP to 949 721-2100 x 489.
Ron Vanderhoff is the Nursery Manager at Roger’s Gardens, Corona del Mar
