Book: Plants in the Getty's Central Garden

We live only a mile or two from the Getty Center here in Los Angeles. It has become one of our regular places to visit when they have their regular Family Day events as well as any time we need a brief respite from the city.

One of my favorite parts of the center is the Central Garden designed by Robert irwin. Unlike any other garden I have ever visited, it offers a wonderful collection of experiences as you wander down via the zig-zagging path that follows a stream.

One disappointment, especially for a gardener, is that there are no identifyig labels or signs at all. You are left to your own devices to figure out what everything is. This is why I consider Plants in the Getty's Central Garden an "must have" if you are looking for a deeper understanding of the garden.

The book includes a Foward by Robert Irwin, three essays on the garden discussing its design and creation and a photo illustrated guide to all the plants you might encounter there. The garden does change, season by season, so you may not find everything listed and you might find new items that have been added since the book was written.

Even after visiting the Getty Center so many times over the past few years, this book will give me a new opportunity to see the garden in a fresh light.

Grasses in the Fall

It seems the folks over at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer area reading my mind again.

I was just wondering what to do with the fountain grass in my front yard and they offer up this column:

Let your grasses grow:
Ignore your itchy fingers and indulge lush ornamentals

I guess my intuition was pretty good last year, though, as I came up with the same idea they had...simply raking out the dead growth and leaving the main structure of the grass. It always bothers me when I see folks who have lopped off the top of the grass leaving an unnatural-looking flat-top clump that never seems to recover.

Sometimes, I guess, leaving it alone is the best action you can take.

Dangerous Gardening

Thank goodness I have never run into anything more dangerous than a piece of rusty metal or an unmarked spinkler line in my garden.

This San Diego man got more than her bargained for just trying to work in his yard.

Man gardening finds stick of dynamite