Characteristics of CA Native plants w/ APLD and Cal Academy of Sciences

I joined APLD folks to talk to people about CA native plants at the California Academy of Sciences. I like to do this sort of thing.

Here are some of the characteristics of native plants that help them conserve water:

Slivery grey leaves with little hairs reflect light help keep a plants temperature down in hot dry climates.

Small leaves help plants conserve water because less surface area means that leaf will lose less water.

Waxy leaves serve as sort of a waterproofing that reduces transpiration.

Thick succulent leaves trap and conserve water.

Look at all those adorable signs MF made! So cute!

Look at all those adorable signs MF made! So cute!

Trees for Children's Play Environments

So plant ID classes can be very challenging. I’ve got some brain differences, including mild dyslexia, and memorizing a ton of plant names AND how to spell them is almost prohibitively impossible.

I’ve managed to soldier through life and all previous plant ID classes fairly well until taking Tree ID last semester. My LAST plant ID class required for me to graduate. I swear this one upset me so much because some large percentage of the grade was going to be on SPELLING. Spelling!!?

One of the grand things about life today is that there is the internet (a series of tubes) and spell check. Dyslexic people every where rejoice! Anyway. I have a Fine Art degree! Don’t ask me to spell!

For my final project for that class I had to get away from things I am bad at that make me feel terrible and like I am failing in 3rd grade again and get back to things I am good at, like illustration. I decided that illustrating a bunch of beautiful trees would sooth my fevered soul.

And, to make it more complicated (hello ADD), I thought it would be cool to turn those illustrations in to a book. Of course, I did not complete the project. I completed enough for the class but not quite enough to finish the actual book. I used Blurb to layout and print the book even though it wasn’t finished. I can finish it another time, right?!

Here are a few of the illustrations. I drew the whole tree and then a detail.

The Blurb software is called BookSmart and it’s … just okay. The final printed book is a little paperback and is so cute!

Here is the cover and some layouts

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How to make a daisy chain

I spent a lot of time in my backyard as a kid braiding and (attempting) to weave pine needles. Our big old American lawn had tons of clover that I would try to weave into a chain or a crown for my breye horses or for myself. I still have not successfully created a crown of flowers and at this point in my life I’m pretty sure I would just use florist wire.

This is a sweet little diagram of how to make a daisy crown. Erigeron karvinskianus would be a great plant to make one with!

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World's most dangerous garden

I’m intrigued! The world’s most dangerous garden! The Alnwick Gardens in England.This is a garden pretty much created to be a tourist attraction. And the Poison Garden is modeled after the famous Medici poison garden. I can’t find a specific link to this.

The Duchess that owns this castle and garden sounds like a badass.

"I thought, 'This is a way to interest children,'" she says. "Children don’t care that aspirin comes from a bark of a tree. What’s really interesting is to know how a plant kills you, and how the patient dies, and what you feel like before you die."

Confession time: sometime in the early 90’s I started getting a half sleeve tattoo. It was MEANT to be poisonous things but ended up… not being that. why? Who knows. I was like 19 and quite idiotic. I feel no shame. We are all on a journey.

Anyway. I would love to visit this cool looking garden. It is in the north eastern part of England, so Google Maps tells me. They have a treehouse cafe?! And it looks like a crazy mini golf course. Sounds fun and It is on my list of things to do.

The fancy wrought iron gate alone makes it seem like a worth while visit.

LINKS

The Wold’s Most Dangerous Garden

The Alnwick Gardens

Little Free Libraries

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Little Free Libraries are small personally managed 'take a book or leave a book' libraries. They are usually adorable. You can look at their Flickr gallery to see some examples of the awesomeness that people create.If you want to have your library registered and affiliated with the site you need to pay a small fee. They send you an official plaque and list your library on their map so people can find you.I would like to make mine with a green roof! I am not a builder type though and have no tools. I have a couple of friends who are and I plan on commissioning them to make this for me.

Here is my final concept:

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Design concepts - The Six Courtyard Houses

The Six Courtyard Houses were designed by Ibarra Rosano Design Architects in Arizona.This archdaily.com article has images and plan views. I'm not familiar with the climate in Arizona. I must say that I wouldn't want to live in the landscape pictured for these houses. It's a bit.. stark and exposed.What was the thought process for it? "I would like there to be a big central platform viewable from every window in the house. Plus, three plants." heeheee. I kid! Or do I?I'm more of a Secret Garden' kinda gal. But I want to learn more about this starker more modern/contemporary style. This Pintrest Board has tons of great examples.Various design concept sketches.I need to pick one to develop further. 1, 6 or 2?EPSON MFP imageEPSON MFP imageEPSON MFP imageEPSON MFP image

Fun at Tilden Botanic Garden

I really love Tilden Botanic Garden. For one thing there are about one million little bridges. And there is just a pleasing variety of microclimates and fab plants.

On our last outing there we sat around and used nature to make some tiny, ephemeral art. The second one is a nudibranch or maybe a paramecium. I realize a botanic garden probably isn't the right venue for this but I did it anyway and it was pleasing.

Lagurus ovatus

Laguras ovatusLagurus ovatus, or bunnytail, in my yard last Spring.Lagurus ovatus is highly adorable. I had it planted in a couple of containers this summer, including this old colander. Most the kids who visited my yard made a beeline for it and spent some time petting it.I like this in containers and used as a border. It self sows though, so if you don't want to see it in the next year you can trim the seed heads before they dry and blow all over the place. If you do want to see them next year let the seeds dry and then collect them.How do you store seeds?I often use old pharmacy medicine bottles.

Christmas day nature art

I bought myself the book Land Art in Town: Simple Inspiration Through the Seasons for Christmas this year. It is an awesome book. The author, Marc Pouyet, hung out in cities across Europe and made and photographed his land art. I call it nature art and think of land art as bigger earthworks type stuff. I'm more drawn to this smaller scale, urban, unexpected art using nature.Here are some of the things my sister, son and I created.