A trip to California in October last year proved to be a fabulous opportunity to gain an appreciation of Californian native flora, drought tolerant gardens and nurseries and to meet like-minded people. I attended the annual general meeting of the Mediterranean Garden Society in Monterey about two hours drive south of San Francisco. The MGS is an international society dedicated to gardening in tune with a Mediterranean climate (rather than battling against it using extra water) and has branches in South Australia and Victoria. A climate is considered Mediterranean when (amongst other things) it has hot dry summers and cool wet winters.

As Californians are often in the forefront of irrigation design and my greywater recycling bible was written by a Californian; I expected them to be right up with the latest water saving measures. Imagine my shock to see sprinklers going in the heat of the day, green lawns (in autumn) and not a single dual flush toilet to be seen! Much of California was declared in drought only a year ago and consumers are only now being urged to reduce their water usage by 10% and to consider turning off the tap when they brush their teeth! Even though LA’s water supply has to come from the Colorado River 714km away (and about 30% comes from groundwater), the average Californian appears to take it for granted. It seemed to me that they are at the point we were a decade ago and one garden designer told me he is only just starting to install water tanks for some of his clients.

The average annual rainfall for Los Angeles is about 406mm and for San Francisco it’s about 533mm both falling mainly in winter. This compares with Melbourne’s annual rainfall of 655mm and Sydney’s annual rainfall of 1107mm generally falling year round. With much of Victoria battling its 12^th year of drought or below average rainfall; possibly there is a lot the Californians could learn from us. Mind you while we in Victoria are concerned about building one desalination plant; they are planning the construction of two dozen desalination plants!

My interest in Californian native plants was sparked after hearing Bernard Trainor at the Australian Landscape Conference in September 2007 (which reminds me the conference is on again in September this year). Bernard is an Australian landscape architect now living and working in Monterey. We were fortunate to visit several of his gardens and to hear him talk about the plants he uses. It was great to see some Australian native plants in his gardens!

Californian native plants share a lot of characteristics with Australian native plants and theoretically they should do well over here. We are already growing arbutus, archtostaphylos, artemisia, ceanothus, fremontodendron, quercus, salvia and zauschneria successfully; but there are many more genera that remain largely unknown to Australian horticulture. Shrubs such as California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum), sagebrush (Artemisia californica), tree lupin (Lupinus albifrons), coyote bush (Baccharis pilularis), white sage (Salvia apiana) and woolly blue curls (Trichostema lanatum) all have fantastic potential for our gardens but, unfortunately, are hard to come by in Australia. Interestingly, the Californians are also investigating alternative lawn grasses that need less water and less mowing and I saw several excellent examples in various locations. We are lucky that many Australian native grasses adapt really well to being maintained as a lawn and are becoming more widely available.

I visited Native Sons Nursery where owner David Fross gave an illustrated talk about Californian plants he considered were great in the garden. David co-authored “Californian Native Plants for the Garden” considered one of the bibles for Californian gardeners. A guided walk through the Californian section of the Leaning Pine Arboretum at Cal Poly (California Polytechnic State University) in San Luis Obispo taught me more about Californian natives in two hours than I have learnt in 28 years of horticulture in Australia. Nature walks through the chaparral (bush) in various locations were a valuable learning experience and provided me with an encounter with a cough-lozenge eating racoon!

Many savvy Californian gardeners have come to terms with their Mediterranean climate. The hot dry summers (often tempered by fog) and cool wet winters dictate the dry chaparral, the ‘golden hills’ beloved of author John Steinbeck and the valleys dotted with valley oaks. They try to garden accordingly; minimising or doing away with lawn entirely and utilising succulents, Australian and Californian natives and Mediterranean classics like olives, lavender and rosemary. It is a style of gardening that is already utilised successfully in the Mediterranean climates of south-west Western Australia and southern South Australia and could also work well in Victoria: which although not classified as a true Mediterranean climate, feels like it could well be on its way to becoming one after this last summer.

Links:
www.mediterraneangardensociety.org/
www.landscapeconference.com/AU/
www.bernardtrainor.com
http://nativeson.com/
www.leaningpinearboretum.calpoly.edu/