Spring 2013 San Diego County Garden Events

A hillside butterfly garden on display in the 2012 Clairemont Garden Tour

It is officially Spring and it’s time to think about attending one or more of this season’s garden events. I encourage you to attend a tour and plant sale in your neighborhood or explore a new neighborhood! Here is a list of events for the San Diego county area:

Through May 12: Visit the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, CA – See the Ranunculus flowers bloom in patterns yet unseen in the 15 year history of the event. Cost $11 for adult, $6 for child. Event website

March 22 - 24, Orchid Show at Scottish Rite Center in Mission Valley. Event website

April 6, 9 AM to 4 PM San Diego Horticultural Society 25th Annual Garden Tour of seven diverse Poway gardens sponsored by San Diego Home and Garden Magazine. Rumor has it that this is one of the best garden tours in the county. Event website 

April 6 - 7, Southern California Plumeria Cutting Sale at Room 101, Casa del Prado, Balboa Park. This free admission event is a cutting sale (cash and check only) with demonstrators and vendors on hand to offer advice on caring for plumeria. Event website

April 13,  9 AM to 3 PM, Fallbrook Garden Tour displays seven gardens featuring water conservation and native vegetation. Tour begins at Fallbrook Historical Society. Event website

April 20, 9 AM to 12 PM, Point Loma Garden Club Annual Plant Sale at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Event website

April 20 - 21, San Diego Rose Show at Liberty Station, Point Loma. Amateur and expert presentation of roses. Cost is $5 per adult, children under 12 are free. Event website

April 20, 10 AM to 4:30 PM, 8th Annual Encinitas Garden Festival and Tour displays eighteen gardens focusing on the use of space. Gardening Sale and exhibitions will take place as well. Event Website

 April 21,  2 PM, 11th Annual Seaside Native Plant Garden Tour, St. Mary's School, Oceanside. Tour will showcase eighteen front yard gardens that focus on native plants. Event website

April 27, 10 AM to 4 PM, 12th Annual Point Loma Garden Walk will feature ten neighborhood gardens and a large plant sale. Event Website

April 27, 9 AM to 3 PM, Friends of East County 18th Annual Garden Tour features six gardens and a craft show. Event website

April 27, 9 AM to 3 PM, 6th Annual Ramona Garden Club Tour and Sale, Ramona Library. This tour will feature six gardens and a large Plant Sale. Event website

April 27,  9 AM to 4 PM, 19th Annual Spring Garden Festival, Cuyamaca College. Learn about urban farming and sustainability. Loads of activities for all ages and gardening skill levels. Please review website because there is some discrepancy between on-line resources of the actual date. Some sites say April 27, others April 28. Event Website

May 4, 10 AM to 4 PM, Clairemont Garden Tour. This 17th Annual event features twelve homes in Clairemont, Bay Park, and Bay Ho. Check out the cool gardens in central San Diego, in the neighborhood I call home! Event website

May 4, Master Gardener Spring Seminar, County of San Diego Operation Center, Kearney Mesa. Take a class from the San Diego Master Gardeners, view demonstrations, and purchase items at the garden market place. Event Website

May 11, 10 AM to 4 PM, Mission Hills Garden Club Walk, Mission Hills Nursery. One of the most highly regarded garden tours in the county in the area of historic Mission Hills. Information is currently forthcoming on garden club website.

May 18, 10 AM to 4 PM, 15th Annual Secret Garden Tour, La Jolla and Muirlands features six secluded, old-growth gardens. The garden locations are a tightly maintained secret until the day of the tour. Event website

May 18, San Diego Floral Association Historic Garden Tour  and Plant Sale will showcase eight gardens in the eclectic and historic neighborhoods of Burlingame and North Park. Event Website

Take a stroll through the garden gate - you'll never know what you'll find!

Trending in the Garden 2013

I may be a bit late in posting trends for 2013, but I figured since the active portion gardening season starts in spring, my timing is still relevant. I have been researching gardening trends for the year and have organized them in to three main themes. As with most things under the sun, none of these are new, but rather, many gardening resources and individuals are focusing on these topics.

1. The Sensory Experience in the Garden

Double Delight roses

The sensory experience of a Garden has become tantamount. Many gardeners are focusing on adding fragrant flowers, plants that bring vivid color year round, and use of textures that are delightful to the touch (and also release an enchanting scent). Striking variegated leaves are big this season as they provide pops of color when blooms are scarce. My favorite variegated plant is the Japanese mock orange hedge. I love the pale mint leaves with a creamy edging. The small flowers bloom February through April and are akin to citrus flowers. Gardeners are opting for fragrant flowers over minimally fragrant ones. Roses are following this trend; garden centers and nurseries are stocking more fragrant types of rose such as Peace, Mr. Lincoln, and Honey Perfume. Older, heirloom roses are popular again as well. My favorite heavily scented flowers are jasmine, sweet peas, and of course, roses. Children’s sensory gardens are now in vogue; check your local botanical garden or arboretum for potential offerings. These gardens focus on visual, scent, texture, and taste cues to get children excited about learning where food comes from and the ecology of land stewardship. Creating an herb garden (indoor or outdoor) with kids is a fun home activity to get them interested in plants.

Herbs bring sensory elements to the garden.

2. Urban Farming

Another main theme of 2013 gardening is the idea of creating and maintaining an urban farm in one’s backyard that gives the home owner a degree of self-sufficiency in bringing nutritious food to the table. This movement focuses on more intensive gardening methods (more production per square foot), raising farm type animals (mainly chickens for eggs, but rabbits, goats, and bee keeping are becoming more common), and use of strictly organic methods of growing food. In my mind, there is still a debate to be had between the labels of an urban farm versus urban garden. I think that using the label farm is a bit too ambitious for even most seasoned backyard gardeners and doesn’t represent the way the majority of American gardeners operate. But that is a debate for a later blog post. More importantly, I am very excited about the renewed interest in potager gardening, the design of esthetically pleasing, self-sufficient edible gardens that have their roots (pun intended) in early Mediterranean Europe. Again, more to come in a later blog post.

Flowers not lawns!

3. Ecological Gardening Design and Practices

Ecological practices will continue to influence garden design with a focus on planting native species to support native wildlife, planting of gardens that support bee and butterfly populations, and drought tolerant landscape design for dry areas. Meadows will be replacing lawns, growing heirloom plants and collecting heirloom seeds will pick up steam, and organic methods of pest control, soil enrichment, water collection, and composting should spread. I ditched my lawn years ago and now happily grow fruit trees, wildflowers, artichokes and squash in its place. I am finishing the organic soil amendment of my vegetable beds (with Hubby’s help, of course) with compost and pasteurized chicken manure. I have a pie in the sky dream of building a rain water collection system, but that will have to wait until more immediate needs are met (primarily the spring planting).  

I am anticipating a wonderful growing season this spring especially if the lovely pre-spring weather is an indicator of the future. Daylight savings is already a blessing in allowing me some week-day time in the garden. Did I miss anything? What is trending in your garden for 2013?

Rites of Spring: Sakura Matsuri

One of the more beautiful preludes to spring time is the flowering of Japanese cherry blossoms. The Japanese Meteorological Agency tracks the sakura zensen, or cherry blossom front, as it starts in Okinawa and moves northward to Kyoto and Tokyo then finally to the northern-most  island of Hokkaido.  How lovely to track a front of flowers rather than a winter storm! The cherry blossom is a popular motif in Japanese culture, symbolizing the ephemeral nature of beauty and life itself.  In more recent times, cherry blossoms symbolized friendship between Japan and cherry blossom recipients. Thanks to the generosity of the Japanese people, many nations now have Sakura Matsuri, a festival to celebrate the arrival of the cherry blossoms. One of the most popular, The National Cherry Blossom Festival, celebrates the arrival of the cherry blossoms that surround the Mall in Washington, D.C.

Hubby and I were fortunate to attend the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden this past weekend to view the blooms, purchase ceramics at the craft fair, and watch dance demonstrations by the local cultural societies.  The Japanese Friendship Garden has completed the majority of the new landscaping in the canyon below the Casa del Rey Moro Garden. It isn’t quite finished yet, but I can’t wait to go back and see the completed water features and filled-in landscaping.  The wisteria near the koi pond was only just beginning to bloom, and I must make another trip to the garden to see the blooms in all their gorgeous, fragrant glory. I love Japanese garden esthetic traditions; allow me to share some spring-time inspiration:

The festival through the petals of the cherry blossoms

Cherry blossom detail

Cherry blossom detail

Koi pond

Overview of main pathway

The bamboo trains the pines to grow in a desired fashion, like bonsai.

Pathway to lower canyon & cherry blossoms

I love rain chains - I want one!