INSIDE: N Classified Marketplace, page 59 N Puzzles, page 60
Home Front
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Little details, such as the colorful birdhouse, top, are offered as garden surprises. An Abutilon hybrid offers a touch of bright color.
CELEBRATE EARTH DAY WITH SALAD ... Jody Main, organic food and garden writer, will teach how to “Start an Earth Day Salad Garden” on Saturday, April 17, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Common Ground Educational Center, 559 College Ave., Palo Alto. Class covers planting, harvesting and kitchen preparation, with a salad and dressing demonstration, snacks and recipes. Cost is $31 plus $5 materials fee. Information: 650-493-6072 or www.commongroundinpaloalto. org or http://earthdaygarden. eventbrite.com.
Read more Home Front and recent home sales on www.PaloAltoOnline. com.
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Mature landscapes reflect evolving trends on Gamble Garden’s annual tour
FROM THE GROUND UP ... A free class, part of the BayFriendly Gardening series, on “Gardening from the Ground Up” will be offered on Saturday, April 17, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Meet at the Palo Alto Art Center auditorium, 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto; the class takes place at the nearby Community Garden. Participants should wear covered shoes and bring gardening gloves. A $20 materials fee includes a Bay-Friendly gardening book. After attending the workshop, Palo Alto residents are given a voucher for a reducedprice Biostack compost bin. Registration requested. Information: www.ReduceWaste.org or 408-918-4640.
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How do their gardens grow?
TOMATOES AND PEPPERS ... UC Master Gardeners will hold their annual tomato and pepper sale on Saturday, April 17, beginning at 9 a.m. for best selection. The sale is held at the Palo Alto Demonstration Garden at Eleanor Pardee Park, 851 Center Drive, Palo Alto. Many heirloom tomato varieties, sweet and hot chili peppers, eggplants, basil and other plants will be available. Information: 408-282-3105, between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., Monday through Friday or http:// mastergardeners.org.
WATER-EFFICIENT LANDSCAPE ... Patricia Evans will give a free talk on “Designing Water-Efficient Landscaping” on Saturday, April 17, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at City Hall Council Chambers, 250 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto. Information: 650-329-2241.
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Concrete-paver paths lead visitors along straight lines in this renovated Old Palo Alto garden. The garden features low-water-use plants, but with plenty of fragrance, flowers or food. LÞÊ >À Ê ÌâiÀÊUÊ« Ì }À>« ÃÊLÞÊ6iÀ V>Ê7iLiÀ
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ragrance, flowers or food. That’s what landscape designer Kim Raftery was asked to provide from every plant included in the re-do of an Old Palo Alto landscape, one of six private gardens that can be seen on the 25th annual Gamble Garden Spring
Tour April 23 and 24. Most of the gardens have been previously featured on the annual tour, when they were newly planted. Now they’re being presented as either mature or redesigned and replanted. The Lowell Avenue garden,
which was featured in 2000, now surrounds a new home, which was built over several years. Many of the more mature plants were carefully protected, Raftery, owner of Raftery Garden Design, Palo Alto, said. Although the owner is very fond of gardening, she wanted to make it simpler. This time, the garden
was envisioned along with the architecture, which was completed in 2009. Today, there’s a view of a different garden “room” from every window of the modern, Mediterranean-style home. From the library at the front of the house, one looks out upon a patio, framed by three 40-year-old Mission olive trees. A new hedge near the front stucco fence will someday offer privacy; a loquat will soon be espaliered; and a new soapstone-and-marble fountain will provide sound. One of the three mature agave plants recently sent up a 20-foot blossom on a stalk — a once-in-itslifetime occurrence — then died. The goals of the redesign included sticking to the sight lines from the home, keeping a linear design (no curves here) and adapting lowwater-use plants. No leaf blower removes fallen leaves; instead they’re incorporated for mulch. “There used to be lawns. Now there are none,” Raftery said, (continued on page 39)
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