MGS SLO Weekend


We spent a very enjoyable weekend at the joint meeting of the Northern and
Southern California branches of the Mediterranean Garden Society on March 23/24,
2002.  Since we live in San Jose, we thought we'd drive down Saturday morning so
we left at 6am with the intent to arrive about 9:30 at Leaning Pine Arboretum.
As it turns out, traffic was very light and traveling speeds were shall we say a
bit over the limit, so we arrived in Paso Robles with plenty of time to stop for
breakfast at Margie's Cafe just west off 101 at the Hwy 46 exit.  Great food and
friendly service if you are in the area.  We then proceeded down 101 in a
torrent of rain, arriving at the Arboretum just after 9 am amid clearing skies.

The Arboretum is across from the horse farm which made for an organically
scented visit, unfortunately not floral.  The wind shifted a little later in the
morning.  We gathered (70 from SoCal and 15 from NoCal) in the entry garden
recently redesigned by Mark as a senior student's project.  Mark joined Dave
Fross, instructor and director of the California area garden, and the
Arboretum's director, Tom Eltzroth.  We received an introduction to the
arboretum and then split into two groups to tour the five acres of gardens,
which are organized in medit plant climate countries.  The gardens were
gorgeous, very well maintained and many areas were in full bloom.  The South
African ice plants were neon, the restios were in full brown flower, many
ceanothus and lavenders were blooming.  Dave pointed out that the Arboretum had
recently broken through the fence to increase the land available for more garden
space, particularly adjacent to a creek nearby.  Mounding and raised beds are
used extensively to improve the drainage of the clay soil.  Dave pointed out
some ceanothus and other California natives that receive runoff from the
dividing lawn during the summer that are doing very well, debunking the myth
that natives should receive no summer water.  (Your results may vary.)
http://dir.gardenweb.com/directory/calpoly

The tour completed, we retreated to the buildings for lunch.  The rain returned
during lunch, but cleared as we finished.  The next events were two private
garden tours with the landscape designer.  I apologize but I've lost his name.
The first garden was located in Arroyo Grande on a five acre flat piece of land
backing up to a mini canyon (30' deep) created by a creek.  The property owner
requested native shrubs and a native grass lawn over a septic leach field.
Watering is unnecessary and mowing is infrequent.  The lawn was beautiful.  For
some odd reason, the homeowner did not want trees planted on the site, so the
garden's height was about 6' maximum looking through the native shrubs.  The
second garden was in a gated community.  We did not do take that tour there
because we needed to check into our hotel.  We returned to Native Sons Nursery
(owned by Dave Fross) to enjoy some excellent wines and appetizers while walking
through the nursery picking out what we wanted to buy.  The setting was lovely,
the weather warm, and the hospitality provided by Dave and his staff were
charming.

The next day, there were two events happening at the same time.  A tour of
native plants at Montana de Oro State Park and a tour of the San Luis Obispo
Botanical Garden, a brand spanking new medit plant garden that eventually will
cover 150 acres with visitor center, exhibits, multimedia show, gift and plant
shop, cafe, garden art and more.  We opted for the Botanical Garden.  Currently,
there is a small preview garden with lots of variety and very enthusiastic
volunteers who do all the gardening.  A recently hired educational coordinator
is setting up activities and events for local school children.  Ken Levine gave
the tour along with his wife Gaby (Board president).  We then walked up the hill
to the propagation greenhouse and met the instigator of the whole thing, Eva
Vigil.  Eva gave us an enthusiastic preview of what was to come.  I highly
recommend a visit to this garden.   We will return to see the progress.
http://www.slobg.org/Index.htm

This weekend was great, we saw many new plants (and wrote them down to locate
later), met many fine people, and had a wonderful time.  Congrats to the
organizers for an excellent job.

Cheers,
Bracey
San Jose CA
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