episode twelve: The Big Picture

No live orchestra played an original music score, no tall red curtains spanning the width of the stage swung open, and no troupe in sparkling costumes knee-kicked its way on stage. No one ever told them they needed a big production to present “Episode 12: The Big Picture.” The Garden-Wise Guys just needed clips from past episodes to tie together everything they’ve been explaining about sustainable landscaping for the past four years. Wise Guys Owen Dell and Billy Goodnick, who also happen to be landscape architects, donned their donated tuxedoes (courtesy of King Tux) and took center row, sitting at Santa Barbara’s Granada Theatre to summarize what they’ve been saying all along: The three elements to sustainable landscaping are design, construction and maintenance.

Watch episode 12 online right now! click here

In the design phase

1. Know the site, and/or be like Owen and make friends with the site by sitting. Sit in a chair, move the chair and sit again, taking in the areas of shade and sun, the windy spots, the flow of drainage.
2. Do a site analysis, which, for Owen and Billy meant dressing up in trench coats and vintage brim hats, like Dick Tracys, taking notes. What are the lot measurements, the building’s dimensions and the existing plants? Where are the good views, the problem areas of the garden? Get it on paper, and to scale.
3. Decide what to keep and, yes, what to toss. While Billy said it’s time to bite the bullet, Owen said bite the shrub. Which he did, snarling and shaking his head in a clip, his teeth clenched around uprooted shrubbery. Soil should play a part in the decision process, but no, Owen didn’t gnaw on a sample.
4. Which brings us to the next consideration in the design phase. Know your soil. Clay? Sandy? Loam, which is the ideal? Most of us have clay. You don’t need a taste test. Use your fingers.
5. This step is the key concept in sustainability: Right plant, right place. This was the topic of their first Garden-Wise Guys episode, when our first impression of Owen was a gardener who held up two fingers as a visual aid to:

1. Concept 1, which focused on picking the right size and spacing of plants.
2. Concept 2 (Owen holding up three fingers), regarding plants that prefer sun or shade
3. Concept 3 (one finger), soil type
4. And concept 4 (two fingers), knowing water requirements, such as infrequent deep irrigation for shrubs and frequent shallow irrigation for lawns.

Lawns. Say that to Owen and you might as well scratch the chalkboard. “I hate that word,” he said, cringing.

6. Reduce or eliminate lawns. Sometimes, homeowners need only a postage stamp of a lawn, as Billy put it. Owen showed an alternative called a sedge lawn, which can be mowed. Or not. Either way, it uses half as much water and fertilizer as a conventional lawn.
7. Consider irrigation options. Rotating sprinkler heads? Drip irrigation?
8. Use an irrigation controller.
9. Research plants:

a) What is the function of the plant for the area? Food? To attract birds, or beneficial insects?
b) Categorize plants according to their heights – low, medium or high.
c) What do your plants need? Soil type, watering, sun or shade.
d) Look at plants for their colors and shapes.

Gotta go. The Wise Guys got kicked out of their seats.

In the construction phase
Billy and Owen snuck into a balcony, because their show had to go on, now explaining that construction can involve demolition of existing elements, grading, adding drainage components and installing fences and patios. As for sustainable landscaping:

1. Remove an old lawn sustainably. For the removal of an existing lawn, try covering it with cardboard that you were planning to put in the trash, and cover that with a few inches of mulch, then wait six months.
2. Treat soil with respect. Details are in Episode 3 called “Journey to the Center of the Dirt.” One point was to take advantage of Mycorrhizal fungi, which attaches to roots and forages for water and nutrients. The additive reduces the need to water and fertilize because it makes plants more efficient.
3. Use sustainable landscape materials. Use things that are already here. See Episode 7 to hear that reuse beats recycling. For instance, use broken concrete to make a retaining wall, and buy local rather than imported stone for other hardscaping.
4. Choose healthy plants. Episode 7 features a “Firescape Remodel” and how to check roots before you buy a plant.
5. Put plants in the ground. Owen took the opportunity to plug his invention: prefab holes, which he said can be purchased tapered and in difference sizes. A gardener just has to dig, insert the prefab holes and plant the plant. Or review Episode 8, for such tips as digging a hole that’s twice the diameter of the plant container.

Gotta go. The Wise Guys got kicked out of the balcony!

In the maintenance phase
Billy and Owen suddenly appeared sitting on Theatre stairs, pointing out that 20 percent of a landscape’s cost goes toward design and construction, and 80 percent goes toward maintenance over time. The right design should result in little maintenance that gets easier over time.

1. Treat the garden as a natural system, keeping in mind that nature works on cycles. Billy volunteered to illustrate, in the form of interpretive dance, on stage.  In his tux and accessorized with a green leafy tiara, Billy raised his arms, his fingers fluttering to reflect rainfall, as Owen narrated. Rain falls. Billy squats, fingers fluttering. Plants grow, Billy rises, still with the fluttering.  Leaves fall; Billy goes down, his arms slinking in snake-like motion, fingers fluttering a little less. And nature produces mulch, at which point, Billy is on his knees, bowing, head tucked.  Point being, nature provides mulch. Leave the leaves be. Just pull back the mulch 6 inches from the stem or trunk to deter mold growth.
2. Mulch on the surface, and incorporate compost into the soil. Again, they referred to Episode 3.
3. Use a push mower.  Americans spill more than 17 million gallons of gas yearly refueling garden equipment, using 800 million gallons to fill that equipment. Remove the lawn or use a push mower, Wise Guys said.
4. Manage pests sustainably. See Billy dress up as a ladybug in Episode 5. Ladybugs could be part of an Integrated Pest Management program, which means using fewer chemicals. For aphid control, for example, try hosing aphids off a citrus tree. That might be all that’s needed. Or offer beer to snails in a pie tin buried to be level with the soil.
5. Prune as needed. Episode 5 has more details on garden maintenance. Wise guys told viewers to use pruners, not hedge trimmers, and to remove the part of the plant that just doesn’t look good anymore.
6. Be patient with your garden, they said just before they’re kicked out of the theater again. They rolled a clip, pointing out that plants in shade may grow more slowly than like plants that get more sun, as they were forced out. They end up outside the back doors, in the alley.

Gotta go. The Wise Guys got kicked out of the alley.