Pat Welsh Southwest Garden Advice, plus garden ideas for everyone » Pat Welsh

News of a window box in New York City

Pat — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:23:07 +0000

From Bob:
I abhor the idea of using poisonous chemicals in my “garden” – we have a pair of (wild nyc) morning doves that nest and produce 1-2 chicks every yr in a nook above my balcony; there are many bees (especially bumble bees) and the wasps; and we have way too much poison in our environment – I wouldnt add more.

Fyi, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden has a help desk where they recommend non-toxic remedies for garden pests. For example, they suggested the use of Murphy’s Oil to rid scale from citrus and ficus (I had a grapefruit tree that I grew from the seeds of a grocery store grapefruit that I ate, that grew big and beautiful and thrived many years.)

Answer from Pat:
It sounds as if you have a whole farm going outside your own city window. Glad to know it’s an organic one! Thank you so much for the tip regarding the help desl of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Glad to know of that and thanks for the Murphy’s Oil idea too for citrus and ficus scale. Incredible to hear about your grapefruit tree from a seed. Did you grow it in a pot on a roof garden or where? Did it bear fruit? I have often seen lemons in pots in northern France. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had an Orangerie for them with a glass south wall to keep them warm in winter.

Artichokes and Earwigs

Thanks for your inspiration

Pat — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:02:12 +0000

From Jim and Karen:
I just wanted to thank you guys for your inspirational walls in Del Mar and Solana Beach that we used to make our own mosaic wall in our front yard. The wall is 45′ long and 5′ high at the starting point. We used a combination of fossils, rocks, ceramics, shells, beads, copper, stained glass, etc. along with 15 different shades of grout. We are located in Carmel Valley and just wanted you to know that we love your work! I have included some before and after pictures.

Answer from Pat:
Your kind email and striking photos touched my heart to the core. I loved the way you did buildings and your various colors of grout. Your creation exudes originality, design sense and good taste. Please may we post your kind letter and photos on my blog? For those readers of this blog who don’t know the story, Betsy Schulz and I met in 2002, and Betsy instantly threw her heart over the jump. She agreed to partner with me and 80 volunteers in creating a mural that began as a chance inspiration that had popped in my head when I drove past a wall in Del Mar. In my minds eye I saw it covered with a multi-media mural like one I had just finished in my garden. When Betsy and I and our volunteers finished the job a year later, it was 92-feet long in entirety and 4-feet tall and contained over 30 original terra-cotta sculptures and infinite pieces of memorabilia contributed by townspeople and friends. It stands in front of the Del Mar Public Library on Camino Del Mar (Old Highway 101) at 13th Street in Del Mar. My book, the Magic Mural, tells the story and folks can learn more about the building process from my website. After creating this one great mural with Betsy and volunteers, I had to quit. I still paint in oils and watercolors but right now I’m concentrating on my blog and on writing more books.

Betsy Schulz, however, has continued on her inspiringly artistic path creating many murals and other public art scattered throughout San Diego County, including her fabulous arch and murals in Solana Beach. After we worked together, her career took off even more rapidly than before and her work is beyond compare. I never cease to be amazed and delighted at her abundant skills and talent without which I could never have put together my dream and made it come true. Betsy is an amazingly accomplished and versatile artist and it’s mind boggling to think of all she has done since. I wish I could have continued my partnership with her but I’m not up to it physically any more, and anyway one can’t do everything, much as one wishes one could—or at least I do. I now plan to continue writing books until I’m 90 and then switch to painting full time, mostly in oils. I’ve been offered a one-woman show in a San Diego art gallery, Art Expressions, and I have said, “Thank you but not now. When I’m 90 that would be great!”

You are not the only people who’ve been inspired by our murals to make some of their own, but yours are among the finest examples I’ve seen. I gasped also at the beauty of your gardens which enhance the total look.

Again many, many thanks for sharing these photos and your delightful story with Betsy and me.

Conversation Related to Fossilized Seabird (pelican) Guano

Pat — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 08:55:16 +0000

Message from Daniel:
The main problem I am having is not the performance of the product but it’s the education of what it is . It seems like the West coast people have not been exposed to a significant supply of the fossilized guano so they do not understand it. The East Coast growers all know about it. At our farm we grow using green house techniques and yes that is why we get huge results . Other farmers did not believe our results so we invited them to see for themselves even our competitors’ Everyone gets great results and time will tell on your artichokes. Buy the way you are invited to visit our Farm/ Packing house anytime we sell to Trader Joes everyday nationwide. We will not grow without the Guano our fertilizer was cut back over 30% and so far we can grow three crops with one application.

Answer from Pat:
Thanks Dan. I will try to mention guano whenever I can. Just as I have mentioned humic acid over and over, I will tell folks about fossilized guano,but you need to have a good definition of it also.

No related posts.

Pat Welsh’s Garden

Pat — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:21:14 +0000

Question from Cat:
I was wondering if you ever open your garden up for viewing. I would love to see it. I live in Trabuco Canyon, California and am an avid So Calif gardener. I travel to Great Dixter every year to take their gardenning symposiums and learn their techniques first hand. I would also like to buy a signed copy of your gardening journal.

Answer from Pat:
Thank you so much for this enquiry. About seven years ago my insurance company informed me that they would need to greatly increase my homeowners insurance if I continued to open my garden to tours and visits from the public. That put an end to visits to my garden from members of the public. Now my garden is back to being what it was always meant to be in the first place: A happy outdoor space for my own enjoyment and for the enjoyment of family and friends. The time felt exactly right. There are many great gardens out there, far better ones than mine now is. It is time for younger folks to take over.

Since making that decision, I’ve been simplifying my garden and making it easier care and more drought-resistant. I got rid of all my tubs and containers or most of them, pulled out all overly-thirsty plants, covered the spaces with mulch, replaced some with natives, added new potted arrangements of succulents, and installed a huge succulent bank next to the drive. It hardly ever gets watered. I’m now saving about one hundred dollars on every water bill. I’m also trying to resist temptations that arise sometimes to add more plants. The main additions today are fun things for my great-grandchildren, like potted “fairy gardens” and a projected “dinosaur garden”. We already have a “pirate garden” and may make a hobbit house or two. Wandering paths and flights of steps I made of sacks of concrete, hardened under the hose, already create fun places for my beloved great-grandson Archer to run around on. But I have to tell you I simply adore all four of them: Archer, Anushka, Fable, and Jade.

Here are some photos of my garden taken last Easter by my granddaughter Rebecca Woolf.
http://www.girlsgonechild.net/2010/04/garden.html

She has posted some other ones also: Click on this link to a photo of the very simple “fairy garden” I made with the help of my friend Denise.
http://www.girlsgonechild.net/2009/11/treasured.html

Regarding Great Dixter, Christopher Lloyd and I were friends. He visited my garden years ago. I visited him with my granddaughter Rachel Woolf when she was 13 years old and I took her on a trip to Spain, Scotland, and England. Christo gave me the room in which he was born. Rachel had been in another room but after going to bed, crept in to join me, even though Christo had said very decisively “My house is NOT haunted!” (We didn’t say it was, but you know he was a character.) So while we were there we both slept in the bed in which Christo had been born. That whole long weekend was a great experience and we drank a lot of very good champagne. This photo was taken by a lovely visitor to the garden during one of our afternoon walks around the garden. (Please say hi to Fergus.)

Romancing the Garden: A philosophy of gardening Pt 4

Pat — Sun, 30 May 2010 08:54:18 +0000

A garden may reflect a certain time or place, perhaps a country you love.

Pots, statuary, choose tasteful statuary and garden ornaments to add art and whimsy

Bird houses
Murals, mosaics
Statues and design elements can hearken back to ancient times,
other times and places.

But since a garden is all for fun, could be kitch Felder rushing shows us how:

Some gardens have a sense of humor
Shells, bottles, walls of color.
Gnomes?
Well-chosen signs

Practical aspects:

1. Work with nature, not against it
2. Be an organic gardener.

Before mankind invented pesticides everyone was organic and there were great gardens improve the soil with organic amendments release and attract beneficials. This kind of garden feels different than a dead garden where not even a beetle can survive!

How to do all this: make a list or create a design
o Let the space speak to you let the ground talk
o Don’t need to make a drawing
o Your garden can evolve
o Walk around, dream a little, get ideas and write them down don’t rush, there is time.
o Refer to magazines and books for inspiration
o Visit great gardens
o Nothing wrong with copying
o Keep a file of ideas and photos
o Choose materials with care,
o Best not to have too many materials.

And finally, once you have created this great garden,
Then live in it.
Go down there or out there,
Books to read,
Paintings to paint,
Letters to write, your friends
Family to be with.
Lunch under the arbor
Dinner and breakfast in the patio.
entertain in the garden,
Not always a barbque but out door.

First gardening is all about creation.
That is the joy of it
Making a painting
One works the dream is in one’s head
The joy is in making that dream come true.
There was a time—could not sit in my own garden
Always something nagging at me to be done
Could only work in it.

But eventually the beautiful romantic garden you create is for your joy, for the joy of your friends and family.

Also at one time there is a certain tension: the garden never looks quite good enough to satisfy!

That era wears off.

Finally the garden is no longer about constant work. Certainly not about looking like a magazine cover every day of the week. Not about perfection,

It’s about creating and then living in a retreat, a peaceful oasis in the midst of our increasingly urban hustle and bustle.

It’s about happiness and joy.

Romancing the Garden: A philosophy of gardening Pt 3

Pat — Sat, 29 May 2010 08:44:39 +0000

The next step is: How do you carry it out?

Mine in a nutshell is:

“Create a romantic garden and then live in it.”
A Paradise Garden
The Garden of Eden

Dictionary definition of romance:

“Imagination, love, idealization, wafting one to another time or place excitement, love, and adventure of the kind found in romantic literature. A romantic quality or spirit. To be fanciful or imaginative in thinking or talking.”

“Having some aspects of the imagined, though unseen reality. Adventurous, idealistic, Passionate, visionary, Emphasis on feeling and originality, A suitable setting for love.”

So it is something one feels
And that gives delight
And that one cannot put one’s finger on.

One cannot analyze it exactly:

1. When you create a garden, you are not creating nature but a man-made (woman-made) copy of nature

A figment of our imagination,
Not exactly nature but pretending to be.
Creates an amazing feeling
People become passionate about gardening
Like falling in love
Projects one’s feelings onto someone else
One’s own love is reflected back

But gardening is also very practical. How do you carry out this desire in a practical way? So how does one create a romantic atmosphere?

Techniques to achieve it:

Go up in the air -

Build pergolas to walk through,
Arbors to sit under
(Not everything down flat on the ground)

Grow climbing plants -

Climbing roses
Wisteria
Hang baskets from trees or overhangs
- Install drip system
- Hide the drip lines.
(unnatural materials and plastic destroy romance.)

Think of your garden as having walls, roof, and rooms

Change the level of the ground -

If you live on a hill,
Or have a bank
Add terraces and steps,
Even if you live on a flat area build:
Planter boxes
Raised boxes,
Earth berms, banks
Make steps up, down
Level areas for plants, sitting
A structure for shade.
Excavating earth for a swimming pool?
Use to create a higher area held up by a retaining wall.
Chinese gardens with their hills
“The Floating Life” (translated by Lin Yutang in his book: The American Library “The Philosophy of Ancient China”)

Aim for a full garden, though not a cluttered garden -

allow spaces so you can reach plants
Patios, but not gaps in beds
A messy, cluttered garden is like a cluttered house
Groomed plants are like dusted furniture
An ideal to consider is to have plants filling beds, spilling over paths, but always clean and largely deadheaded.
No bare ground.
Mulch, mulch, mulch!
Bare ground in a garden is like a mouth missing some teeth.

Have 2 patios, one for winter, one for summer

Make many places to sit -

1. Long table for entertaining under a pergola with 14 chairs, enough for whole family.
2. Comfortable chairs here and there in many places for small groups and large
3. Round tables with benches.
4. Chaise lounges for relaxing
5. Set ups for easy entertaining that suits you.
? Could include having many umbrellas in summer
? Could be well-placed trees:
Painting ladies, like living in a French movie
? Voices wafting, laughter from a distance
? Good food, easy to prepare.
? So you create a stage and then you bring in the groups you love, whether family or friends
? Lunches with one’s mate together down in some special nook or secluded patio,
? Very special times for good conversation or just watching the birds and enjoying the beauty.

Don’t have all space so it can be seen at one glance -

Could be a garden of rooms
Even on a small patio or porch you can make them go round a corner to see what is there.
Great gardens have:
Hidden spots to sit,
Secret places to visit

Every path should lead you somewhere -

A statue
Seat
Gate
Fountain
Unique permanent plant or container

Have some formal aspects, not just paths wandering around without end (makes you feel you are lost)

An overgrown garden with nothing but wandering paths is depressing —even spooky
Some gardens are sad
Strive to create a happy atmosphere
Follow some good rules of feng shui
Covered bench facing the entry
Space for sitting under an arbor

Formality is cheerful

A straight path
Axial paths
A small herbal parterre
A large parterre

Make sure your garden appeals to the sensual side of human nature. The best gardens appeal to all five senses:

1. The sense of hearing: sound: attract birds.

Birds are the music of the garden
Create a stage (water, plants, bird feeders, houses),
Birds are the musicians
Butterflies are the ballerinas
A garden without birds and butterflies is a dead space

2 .The sense of hearing water:

Wind chimes chosen with care for artistic value, placed in correct spot
Could be a bird bath with dripper
Moving water is best such as a raised fountain to bring birds.
Recirculating water on timer
Keep clean, and in good working order
good feng shui)
Worth getting a good setup, something that works.

3.The sense of smell:

Fragrant plants so you will have fragrance in every season
Fragrance adds mystery and magic to a garden
Where is that coming from?

4. The sense of sight: use color schemes.

Spring: pink white, blue, yellow, and lavender,
South of border: shocking pink, fuchsia, orange, chartreuse, royal blue, purple, bright yellow
Sun colors: orange red, blue, white all the colors of sunshine
You would not fail to do that in your house.

5. The sense of touch:

Textures of plants
Soft fuzzy leaves
Smooth surfaces
Rocks and pottery
Sculptures

6. The sense of taste:

something you can eat
a lemon tree
vegetables
fruits
herbs

Romancing the Garden: A philosophy of gardening Pt 2

Pat — Fri, 28 May 2010 08:43:06 +0000

To clarify the ideas in this book, I have illustrated it with photos from my own garden and those of friends and family. I am very keen on the idea that a garden needs to be in harmony with the architecture of the house it surrounds. My own house is 50 years old and was designed by John Lloyd Wright, the second son of Frank Lloyd Wright, who was my husband’s stepfather, and since my house is built against a hill, the garden surrounds the house on only three sides, facing west. It is not a large garden, less than half an acre, but provides enough scope to illustrate a variety of answers to problems. Also I live in Southern California, overlooking the ocean in a coastal town, thus in a Mediterranean climate zone. All these factors necessarily effect the plants and gardens in the photographs, but all of the basic ideas illustrated by them can be adapted to other climates in far different parts of this country and the world and on widely differing lots, in small space or large.

Also in this book you will discover an ancient philosophy of gardening that anyone might choose to carry out. This is the philosophy that I have chosen myself, or perhaps it chose me. To put it simply my gardening philosophy or ideal is to create a romantic garden, in other words to attempt to make a little heaven on earth. The romantic garden of today is little more than the paradise garden of yesterday and in a way isn’t that what all gardens strive to be? A philosophy of life is a design for living. A philosophy of gardening is a template to aim for in every garden task. It should be broad enough to stimulate the nth degree of creativity. If one’s gardening philosophy is “I have a black thumb and everything dies,” one had better change it to “I have a green thumb and everything thrives!” One’s collection of plants might improve almost instantly, but might not constitute a great garden. Having a green thumb means “ I understand what plants need and I strive to provide it,” a worthwhile aim, but creating a great garden takes more than simply taking good care of plants. The healthiest garden in the world would not constitute a great landscape unless the plants and other features of the garden were arranged with utmost taste. There are historic gardens that are little more than collections of rocks and sand. But what rocks they are and how exquisitely arranged.

Great gardens have a breathtaking quality and the gardeners who make them always do so in coordination with a concrete plan or wholly mental dream. Whether they know it or not, these garden geniuses have a philosophy of gardening or an ideal, and they gradually work towards its expression. Vita Sackville West said she believed in “The greatest formality of design combined with the greatest informality of planting.” With that mental template and a superior site, she created one of the most celebrated gardens of modern times. Few of us are lucky enough to create a garden on 25 acres with old walls and a medieval tower, but any of us could adopt the deeper meaning of Sackville-West’s philosophy, even in small space and on a low budget. What Vita described was what she created: a formal garden, layed out with a distinct plan and straight lines, but with softened edges. When a rose in full bloom spilled over a wall in a natural way, she left it alone to be shaped as nature devised. When an aster at the height of bloom mounded over a path, she wheeled her barrow around the edge of it and continued on her way. To Vita, perhaps there was no greater sin than cutting back a plant before it had finished blooming. As long as her hands held sway at Sissinghurst, all plants were allowed to expand to full glory. Whatever changes they made in the straight line of a path and a wall were never deplored, they were welcomed.

It could be a theme—Japanese, Drought resistant, Mediterranean, Wild or Natural Garden, California Native Plants, Rare and Unusual Plants (a “home-made” botanical garden), A Tropical Garden.

Romancing the Garden: A philosophy of gardening Pt 1

Pat — Thu, 27 May 2010 08:40:48 +0000

One of the most basic instincts of many animals, including humans, is to mark and defend a territory. The parrot fish patrols his section of a coral reef, the tiger marks the edges of his range, the moose marks his chosen rutting field. Ants protect their chosen bulls-horn acacias and mankind measures and marks the boundaries of his country and dies to defend them. He builds towns and marks out fields with walls and fences. Even nomadic species have territorial instincts. Elephant families return annually to a treasured sausage tree; migrating birds come back each year to the same nesting area. And just as birds build their nests and defend them from intruders, so do people build houses and memorialize their rights to them with maps and measurements and legal papers.

Once cities and towns are created and wealth is amassed there is time for another basic instinct to begin to display itself, the desire to surround one’s dwelling with a garden, and only man does this. Some animals undertake farming. Birds plant seeds, and in some cases such as when scrub jays plant pine nuts how can we say for sure that these intelligent creatures aren’t creating future food sources? Ants depend on farming for survival, tending aphid cattle and growing mushrooms underground on leaves, but among animals perhaps only the bower bird can be said to involve themselves in something akin to gardening, though the bower bird’s creations don’t include plants.

Many people who take up gardening suddenly discover they’re hooked on a genuine passion which takes various forms. The first sign of a problem is when the search for new plants becomes an addiction or one simply must have every new and interesting garden tool. Some of the people who get hooked on gardening are looking for something that never quite arrives. There is often a yearning in the hearts of young gardeners and beginning gardeners everywhere for something indescribable they are trying to create, call it completion or maybe perfection, which can never be attained. Each job has its rewards, its moments of triumph but always there is another task ahead, another mountain to be scaled. Perhaps the plan never turns out to be quite good enough, the garden is never perfect enough, and it seems as if there is never a moment when the gardener can sit down and enjoy what they have done because perfection is always out of reach. It becomes the source of huge drive, and eventually if one is lucky the result is a really lovely, an inspired, and perhaps even a great garden. So I ask you,“Do you have a philosophy of gardening, and if so, what is it?” Judging from the fact that you have picked up this book, I am guessing that you are a person with some interest in gardening. Perhaps you are in the throes of creating a garden for yourself and your family with your own hands and back, and the sweat of your own brow. Or you may be designing or building gardens for others, or hiring people to make a garden for you or for someone else, or perhaps you write about gardens and gardening or make paintings of gardens or simply love to go on garden tours. Whichever of these situations is true for you, finding and knowing your own personal philosophy of gardening can increase your pleasure in gardens and in gardening. It can bring your unique creative abilities into focus. In this book you will also find ways to bring it to fruition.

All My Edens: A Gardener’s Memoir

Pat — Thu, 06 May 2010 08:50:23 +0000

Entertaining story of Pat’s early life from childhood in England to a farm in Pennsylvania and her youthful riches-to-rags adventures in America. Includes many amusing and touching incidents, including “Peter’s Path”, “The Frog that Knew It’s Way Home”, and “The Night I Saw a Gnome”, also Pat’s love story and vintage photographs. Exudes love of nature and garden-oriented lifestyle. (Currently out of print; available through used book searches.)

Buy online today!

The Magic Mural

Pat — Tue, 04 May 2010 08:48:58 +0000

Written and illustrated by Pat Welsh with photos by Betsy Schulz, published in 2005 by the Friends of the Del Mar Library, ($14.95)

Tells the story of the Del Mar Library Multi-Media Mural, a 92-foot-long creation covering a formerly bare 4-foot-tall concrete wall in front of the library on Old 101. Since completion of the mural in 2002 many visitors to Del Mar have asked about it, so Pat wrote this book to tell the story and explain how it was made. When she sat down to write, however, the book unaccountable turned into a children’s story with several positive messages hidden in it. Adults who read it aloud will learn the step-by-step process of making a multi-media mural for their garden or community. Children will enjoy the pictures and imaginative aspects of the tale. Exudes local color and has already inspired fund-raising projects by other communities.

Can be purchased from the Del Mar Library and from select bookstores. Or send a check for $14.95 plus $5.00 postage tax ($19.95 total) and handling to Pat Welsh, P.O. Box 2509, Del Mar, CA 92014. Due to the generosity of Joe Jelley who underwrote the printing all proceeds from books bought under the auspices of the Del Mar Library go to the Friends of the Del Mar Library for the benefit of the library. A full 50% of proceeds go to the library when the book is purchased from other vendors.