Monthly Archives: February 2013

Unsure of What Plants to Select for Your Landscape or Garden?

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The Basics on Landscape Design, Tree and Shrub Selection for Southern California Landscapes

 
I am most definitely a native SoCal.  Born in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, educated at UC Santa Barbara and California Polytechnic University, living in San Diego for many decades, I have lived in Southern California my entire life.
 
Yes, we complain when we have hot spells, (last summer was ridiculous), Santa Ana winds, and the fog, but overall, we have the best climate in the world for growing plants.  Whether for ornamental landscapes or vegetable gardening, we a blessed with a climate and environmental conditions that allow us to grow an incredible variety of trees, shrubs, ground covers, turf, vegetables and fruits pretty much 365 days a year.
 
Walk or drive throughout our neighborhoods and check out the incredible plant diversity.  We are very accustomed to the trees and plants that surround us.  However, if you are from the midwest, east coast or other parts of the country or the world, you are most likely amazed at the variety of plant material.  Botanical gardens and arboretums from Santa Barbara to San Diego boast incredible displays of plants from around the world that flourish in our mild Mediterranean climate.
 
We have neighbors recently moved to San Diego from Kansas City.  They purchased a home and want to landscape but are completely baffled about what to plant.  Obviously, the trees and shrubs they were accustomed to in Kansas City were very different from what is available for landscaping in San Diego.  I offered some suggestions to help simplify the plant selection process.
 
There are many approaches one can take to designing and installing an ornamental landscape for their home or place of business.  Using a landscape architect to design a planting and irrigation plan is an excellent choice, however it can be costly.  Landscape contractors can provide design services as part of a design build contract, however you might feel uncomfortable about possible conflict of interest, and whether the contractor is truly knowledgeable about plant material and design.  Then, there are the millions of property owners trying to do it themselves.  This article is for you!

Where to Start?

Don’t get caught up with or distracted by endless design themes and details.  If you have a certain theme in mind, fine, then you most likely already know the kinds of plant material you want to use.  I prefer to design and select plant based on the site environmental conditions matched to the cultural requirements of each plant to be used in the landscape.  What does that mean?

What are Environmental Site Conditions?

The first step in selecting plant material is determining your specific site conditions.  There are many factors that affect plant growth and they are reflected in your site.  Analyze your location and be able to answer the following questions:

  1. Does the site face the north (full shade), east (part shade part sun), west (part sun – full sun), or south, (full sun).  Determining the site sun exposure is one of the most important environmental conditions.
  2. What are the temperature extremes.  Does the site receive cold weather extremes such as frequent frosts, freezes, snow or hail?  Does the site receive intense heat?  Determine the temperature extremes as well as the average seasonal temperature for your location.
  3. Is the site near the coast where it will receive constant salt air and sea breezes?
  4. Is the site windy, contain microclimates, protected by a structure?
  5. Is the soil a heavy, poorly drained clay or lighter, well drained loam, or sand?
  6. Is the soil structure friable and fertile or dry and compacted?
  7. Does the site drain well or is water trapped onsite or on top of a perched water table or spring?
  8. Are there rodent or pest or disease problems?
  9. Are there physical site constraints such as overhead or underground utilities, concrete or masonry improvement?

 
These are just a sampling of typical environmental site conditions that affect plant growth.  The more you know about the site to be landscaped, the better informed you will be in order to make appropriate plant selections.
 
In the next installment, I’ll discuss plant cultural requirements and the importance of selecting plant material with cultural requirements that match the site environmental conditions, a key to successful landscape project!

What Will be the Development Future for Balboa Park?

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Like many citizens of the City of San Diego, I have been closely monitoring proposals for the redevelopment of Balboa Park.  For those who might not be aware of this  situation, the Plaza de Panama  committee plan proposed changes to Balboa Park including removing vehicles and free parking within the park where they are now allowed and replace that with paid parking structures.  Included in the plan is construction of a 400 foot bridge extension and freeway like transition road from the historic Laurel / Cabrillo bridge for visitors to access the new parking structures.  The idea was to finish construction in time for the centennial celebration of 1915 Panama-California Exhibition, the reason Balboa Park first came into existence.

SOHO, (Save Our Heritage Organization), filed suit two years ago to block the city from proceeding with the proposed design.  On February 4, 2013, SOHO claimed a great victory when Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor ruled the City Council violated municipal code and utilized “faulty logic” in approving the Plaza de Panama Committee plan last July, 2012.  Judge Taylor ruled the City “abused its discretion” in approving the project and ruled to set aside the project’s required Site Development Permit.

Key to the ruling was according to municipal code for historic sites, the City was required to find that the project site would otherwise have “no reasonable beneficial use” in order to have the permit approved.  Obviously, Balboa Park has a great deal of “beneficial use” without the permit issuance, which the City seemed to ignore in their decision to proceed with the committees recommendation, perhaps the reason Judge Taylor deemed City Council had “abused it discretion”, used “faulty logic” and held that “the critical finding by the City Council is so lacking in evidentiary support as to render it unreasonable; it must therefore be set aside”.

Balboa Park is a rare and extraordinary site located in the urban center of San Diego.  This has been a free “peoples park” for locals and tourists for generations.  Supporters of the Plaza de Panama project contend it would reclaim the park from cars that currently drive through the park to reach parking lots.  Opponents to the plan claim while one small area of cars would be freed up, the remainder of the park would be dominated by traffic, new buildings and acres of concrete parking lots.  Tranquil Alcazar Gardens would become an automobile, bus and delivery zone.

With so much as stake for one of San Diego’s most important, historic and enduring landmarks, why has the City of San Diego failed to find an agreeable compromise?  Balboa Park is a historic resource that should be protected and sensibly improved to benefit  ALL the citizens of San Diego, not just special interest groups or donors such as Mr. Jacobs, who pledged to donate $30 million for improvements, but only using the Plaza de Panama plan, in other words, the philanthropic donation had political strings tied to it.  Not much of a philanthropic gesture in my opinion.  If Mr. Jacobs is truly interested in improving Balboa Park for ALL citizens, tourists and park visitors, he donation should not be tied to a specific design.

While I have spent a career working in land development, I am also a proud citizen of San Diego and I do not want to see the historic Cabrillo bridge turned into a freeway, and do not want to see the western historic architectural facade of the existing buildings destroyed because of a poorly conceived traffic circulation plan.  There are better alternatives available and the City Council needs to stop considering free donations with strings attached as the reason for choosing one alternative plan over another.

Balboa Park was conceived and developed as a free park for all citizens to enjoy.  That was the original intent, we should honor that objective in careful deliberation about the future of how to thoughtfully redevelop the park for future generations.  Lets not rush to a limited decision so we can have a park renovated in time for the centennial.

Click to read the full SOHO article, SOHO Wins! Balboa Park Saved!