Garden Talk

April 21, 2020

“God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.”
- Francis Bacon

My Mother’s Garden

One of my favorite places to “Be” is in my mother’s garden. It appears she was born with a green thumb and is always happiest working in her element. The moment I step into her garden, I experience the sound of wind chimes, a variety of bird songs, and an abundance of curious hummingbirds that swoop in to drink from the fuchsia colored ‘hot lips’ or to perch on the olive tree branches above.

My mother has been a thoughtful and meticulous gardener for as long as I can remember. So, with the arrival of Spring I thought it would be fitting and inspiring to interview her and hopefully capture some gardening insights for myself and aspiring green thumbs everywhere. Enjoy!

What is your earliest memory of a garden or gardening?

My earliest memory of a garden was of my grandmother's house in Parral (Chihuahua, Mexico). There, the houses were built around the gardens. It's a central square with a paved patio and raised flower beds. All the rooms in the house exited out into the garden. In the raised beds my grandmother had all kinds of plants, herbs and trees. I also remember that she had birds in big cages and they were always singing. I used to love to sit in the internal patio. I think it’s a moorish architectural feature we inherited from Spain. It’s like a covered porch area behind the doors that lead to the street outside. I remember sitting in the wood colored chairs and watching people walk by the entrance. I also remember my grandmother would feed the Tarahumara who often sat nearby selling things. In Mexico, you never know what you are going to find behind those closed front entrance doors. It’s an entrance to a little kingdom there.

Rios-Pizana family, Parral Chihuahua, Mexico, 1956 in the family home courtyard.

When and how did you develop your love for gardening?

Ever since I owned a home, our first little house, I’d get up on the weekends and work on the flower beds before the kids woke up. Early in the morning when I had time.. and it was just lovely. Or, I'd go for a walk to get in shape and then come back and work on the yard. It was an older neighborhood, the trees were mature and the soil was really good. There were lots of fuchsias and lots of shade in the yard, so I could plant flowers that took well to shade. I just like the warmth of having color and flowers.. I remember going for walks in the neighborhood to where the Leather’s used to live. Mrs. Leather always had workers in the garden and her house was featured in sunset magazine a couple of times. I developed my love for gardening because of the beautiful gardens...I just enjoyed them.

Let’s talk about your current garden. When you first moved into your home 10 years ago, the yard was a plot of dirt. How did you decide what you wanted it to look like?

Well, I had to design something that was manageable for me. I moved here to grow older safely, and to retire. I was living by myself, so I needed a garden where I could have lots of plants and color, but not so much work I couldn’t take care of it.

When designing the garden, I wanted to move freely from one side of the yard to another, and move freely from the back of the house to the front. So I decided I wanted crooked walkways and a larger patio to move about freely.

I had a very specific design in mind and hired someone to draw it up to scale and to plan the irrigation. I wanted a water spout on all sides of the house and I made little “houses” for them from Redwood scraps, which we cut up to make a little pipe to insulate the water in the winter and to keep them cool in the summer.

Originally, I wanted a patio cover and a raised half moon veranda, but when we drew the plans to scale it was going to be awkward and would be less flexible to walk around in so I decided not to do a retaining wall.

The flower beds are narrow, but I wanted to invite the birds in and I specifically planted flowers (like the Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips') to attract the hummingbirds, and the olive trees attract the birds. The birds love to eat them.

I also organized the garden according to how the sunlight would move through the garden. I placed all succulents and drought resistant plants on the “hot”side of the garden that gets the most direct sunlight. In this area, I also place granite instead of soil and barrels of plants so I would have less to worry about. The soil for planting here is actually very bad. It was previously wetlands, so the soil is very marshy and sometimes feels like rock. It’s clayish. The soil is very different from our previous houses which had very rich, prime agricultural soil. My flowers grew very nicely over there. Here, I have to work very hard to make it work.

Tell me about your moon garden.

I like the white flowers, and I put little solar lights at the base of them so they reflect on the flowers at night. In the moon garden, I have iceberg roses (the little white ones), which I like because they are not thorny and they last forever. They usually bloom very early in the Spring. If there is rain, they start blooming by February. The first bloom of the season is beautiful with great big blooms. Afterwards they are smaller, but they will give me flowers until December. I like those roses because they are so hardy, they’re not thorny, and they are beautiful. They light up at night, especially under a full moon, and it’s like having a little natural lamp post out there.

What do you love about gardening?

Well, it is Zen for me. It’s relaxing and you forget about everything. If you are tired or stressed and you work in the garden you forget about everything else. It is just Joy. I also love to hear the birds. There are a lot of birds in this area, because (before it was developed) the wetlands were a natural bird refuge, especially for Scrub Jays, Northern Mockingbirds and Red Tail Hawks. This land was litigated for 8 years before they could even break ground to build housing. But now I am happy to retire peacefully here.

Where do you spend most of your time in the garden?

In the flowers beds and trimming and pulling the dead leaves and turning the soils.. The flower beds take up a lot of time, even though it is a little garden and a little yard, it’s still a lot of work.

What are your favorite tricks or tips you picked up along the way?

The lady bugs. I buy ladybugs because they eat the aphids which eat the flowers. I put them at the base of the roses at night so they can climb up, but sometimes they fly to the neighbors house so it doesn’t always work very well. I also learned that dish detergent and water can help to heal infected plants, like my lemon tree. I just mix them in a sprayer and treat the leaves.

What is your favorite plant in your garden?

I like to have something in bloom every season, so there is always a little bit of color and joy in the yard, but the iceberg roses in the moon garden are my favorite.

What advice would you give to a new gardener?

Well there’s lots of books, but if you just walk through an arboretum you can see what you like. Also, when you go to places like Green Acres, they have gardening consultants that know all about the plants, like which ones are good for the location, which ones take shade or sun. It’s a great place just to learn and see what you like.