No painting by Numbers here
Setting:
Residential neighborhood with horse trails, and greenbelt located between Prado
Dam/Santa Ana River and Chino Hills State Park.
When
we moved into our home it didn’t take us long to realize that watering and
mowing our lawn was a waste of our time and resources with no real benefits. We
immediately vowed to be completely lawn free someday. It didn’t happen in a day
or a week or even a year but it has happened there are only a few inches of
unplanted earth left at the Stella Blue.
In
creating our garden the Stella Blue we have completely indulged our passion for
plants and rocks. And at the same time we have created a habitat for local and
migratory birds, insects, lizards, and other wildlife, and help preserve native
plant species. It also provides us with a living classroom where we can study
all phases of plant husbandry and identification.
We
tried to pay particular attention to California natives. But those of us that
live in this sweet spot of Southern California with it's Mediterranean Climate
(7 to 10 micro climate zones) know we are very fortunate to be able to grow
plants from around the world. The list of countries includes Bolivia, Mexico,
Madagascar and South Africa to name a few. Many of our plants, over 400 were
purchased at arboretums and botanical gardens throughout California. They
include many different agaves, aloe, crassula, hoya, cactus, bromeliad,
kalanchoe, and echeveria. It's becoming pretty well established with 25
separate growing areas.
Our
garden zone is Sunset Garden 23 and USDA 9. We irrigate with a combination of
automatic dip, misters and sprinklers. We use organic fertilizer and
insecticides. Our worst weather problems are the Santa Ana winds October –
January they can gust 50+ miles an hour. We have tried to plant with the hot
midday sun of summer in mind, but we are still making some changes. Besides the many plants and rocks in our
garden we also have a small pond, 5 birdbaths and 4 humming bird feeders that
we keep up all year round.
If
you would like to see a text only listing of some of the plants that we have at
the Stella Blue you can view either by bed
number, common name or Latin family
View
the Plants of the Stella Blue in year 2001 and 2002.
And just for the fun of it we are a Certified
Backyard Wildlife Habitat. Resources
provided by The National Wildlife Foundation and sponsored by www.enature.com they provide you with simple
tools so you can built your own on-line
habitat.
Listing
of arboretums and botanical garden (for a listing).
My
Motto
Deadhead! Deadhead! Deadhead! Like the music plays the band the flora and fauna
creates the garden.
Your
comments are always appreciated Stella
Blue….
Last
updated 3/06/03