Middlebrook Gardens

Voted Best of for 2012

sarah — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 23:14:51 +0000

I am pleased to announce that Middlebrook Gardens has been selected as a winner of the 2012 Best of San Jose Awards in the Landscape Services category by the US Commerce Association (USCA).

I’m sure that your selection as a 2012 Winner is a reflection of the hard work of not only yourself, but of many people that have supported your business and contributed to the subsequent success of your organization. Congratulations on your selection to such an elite group of small businesses.

The USCA “Best of Local Business” Awards Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

March 2012 Newsletter

sarah — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:21:40 +0000

Garden of the Month

Kaplan-Fischbein Garden on Stanford Campus

The Kaplan-Fischbein Garden on Stanford Campus, located in a wooded section near Hoover House, has large valley oaks, coast live oaks and an extensive grove of holly leaf cherry.

The formerly ranch style house was remodeled, including adding a second story, large windows, and a rustic/contemporary facade of stained horizontal wooden siding.

The entire site was disturbed from the construction. Stanford provided free mulch and we were able to cover the newly planted garden with ample mulch, 6 to 8 inches, to aid in soil health recovery.

Installing the garden in 2008, we built extensive mounds in the front and back. The former lawn area was converted to a ground cover of dwarf coyote bush, ceanothus maritima, and little leafed buckwheat. It was accented with a border of mounding species of ceanothus that spill over a bank.

A colorful coastal bluff garden adorns the front entryway.

In the rear garden, we built a series of mounds with granite boulders and accented them with colorful chaparral species.

We designed a riparian meadow and woodland setting, accenting two large existing redwoods with appropriate redwood understory plants. Toyon, holly leaf cherry, snowberry, and wood fern define the oak woodland perimeter.

Invasives still pop up, but each year more native species naturalize in the garden.

A 12-month management plan is in place to aid our gardener, John Carr, as he continues to manage this maturing native garden on the Stanford campus.

Plant of the Month

Wood Mint or Hedge Nettle – Stachy Bullota

Wood mint, endemic to California, is blooming in our nursery now and is a favorite of hummingbirds when they can get it. Found along the coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles, it likes fog or partial shade.

In mixed evergreen forests, wood mint (or hedge nettle) grows on north- and east-facing slopes, in Oak woodlands, and on banks of riparian habitat. Some of the most beautiful hedge nettles I’ve seen are found along the Big Sur coastline in Central California.

Woodmint foliage with ecological partners

In these foggy areas, the flower stalks may be 3 feet tall. The botanical diversity of the flowers is great, some with very large flowers and a wide range of different hues of pinks and pale lavenders.

It tends to colonize so it may be invasive after a few years, although I have had no experience with this.

Woodmint foliage

It’s lovely with Doug iris, sea side daisy, yarrow and coastal eriogonums like latifolium orparvifolium. It will like some summer water and, inland, it will prefer some shade. Plant it where it gets shade in the afternoon. It will bloom profusely in morning light.

If you’re interested in adding more biodiversity to your coastal bluff garden or you live in a natural mixed evergreen woodland ecosystem, this plant belongs in your garden, where it will find its natural home.

Native Garden Maintenance

12-month garden management calendar for a maturing native garden

(3-5 years old)

January
If the garden has a red fescue meadow, it will need occasional thatching. Cut back the meadow hard and thatch (remove dead grass material) every other year or every third year in areas where dead undergrowth appears. Reseed patchy areas as necessary with red fescue, clarkia, poppies and Chinese houses or other selected annual seeds. Lay down a 2-inch layer of rich humus/compost as a seed bed. Cover with a sparse layer of leaves to keep birds from the seeds. Include native bulbs. If you want the bulbs to naturalize, install in a mix of decomposed granite and site soil.

Cut back water on the meadow areas in summer or bulbs will rot. Make sure all bulbs are in gopher cages if gophers are present.

Adjust irrigation.

Transplant, pot up, or compost new seedlings, natives that have germinated or naturalized in the garden, such as buckeyes, wood mint, holly leaf cherry, toyon, and so on.

Remove invasives.

February
Continue to cut back woody undergrowth on baccharis and other deciduous shrubs.

Cut back bunch grasses hard to the base. Remove thatch (dead grass undergrowth).

Divide irises.

Cut back remaining dead growth on perennials that haven’t set bud.

Continue to remove weeds and invasives.

March
Replace sparse areas with new mulch until plants are able to make their own mulch to cover bare soils where the roots will be exposed to increased heat from the sun.

Train espaliered shrubs to trellis or vertical stakes or fences.

Tip prune or pinch back.

After plants are in bud, refrain from any additional pruning or shaping.

Weed invasives.

Lay down snail bait or organic solutions, especially around young plants or any lupine species.

April
Don’t cut back spent bloom tips on ceanothus until rainy season is past.

Remove spent flowers on most plants to prolong blooms.

Cut back short-lived perennials hard after flowering period to prolong life.

May
Continue to shape new growth of young shrubs and plants before they enter into heavy growth period.

Define each plant’s shape within the context of its relationship to the other plants around and near it, in order to create a balanced composition. Each plant should have its own space and not encroach on others. Remove plants that are crowding each other.

January 2012 Newsletter

sarah — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:27:42 +0000

Happy New Year and welcome to our upgraded website!

We are kicking off 2012 with a bang!

Please do see our 2012 workshop calendar posted under events. Proceeds go to The California Native Garden Foundation and the ELSEE Project.

We have two events coming up this month. Pete Veilleux will be teaching us about container gardening with natives on Jan. 14th from 10AM-Noon. You will have an opportunity to make your own container garden. We’ll have many suitable natives for sale in the nursery. And on Jan.28, at noon, I’ll be giving a popular talk you may have missed, “Twelve Months of Color in the Native Garden”. In this talk I describe over 150 plants, many under-utilized, that bring color to the garden each month. We will serve special food from our garden and many of the plants I’ll be discussing will be for sale in the nursery.

Looking back, 2011 was a good year in spite of the economy. Here are a couple of projects we designed and built that we’d like to share.

The Greene Garden designed by Randy Moore, our project manager at Middlebrook Gardens, featured some amazing stonework. Our crews were able to construct these walls and terraces without mortar. Many tons of Loon Lake boulders mixed with grey lava rock and tumbled blue stone made this a unique palette. Now, let’s just wait until the plants grow in…..

Greene Before

Greene After

Greene Left Side

Greene Right Side

Our next project was the second ELSEE model garden and was designed and built for St. Andrews Episcopal School in Saratoga. As a teaching garden, it features riparian, oak woodland, grassland, coastal bluff, chaparral and desert plant communities. It also has an extensive native edible garden, organized by regions of California.

A large butterfly raised bed for veggies with fruit trees and a caterpillar garden filled with winter vegetables are major elements. There is also an amphitheater, a stage & gathering area and six custom mosaic tables created by Artist, Christina Yaconelli working with the students from St. Andrews.

The tables feature giant insects from the different ecosystems of California, like a California orb weaver spider & California sister butterfly. Watch for the grand opening on January 23rd.

St. Andrews Before Installation

St Andrews After

St. Andrews After

Orbweaver Mosaic

Our winter hours are 6:30-4 M-F. Nursery open by appointment only during the week. If you want to order plants, please call or email Sarah Bronstein at (408) 489-2845 or Sarah@Middlebrook-Gardens.com.

Our Nursery is open every Saturday to the public from 10AM-4PM. Alrie is usually here every Saturday to answer any questions.

Thursday’s are teaching days. Students from St. Leo’s come in the mornings & afternoons. Anyone is welcome to come and observe or become a teaching docent! Fridays are intern days. We are propagating natives and perennial food plants. All are welcome to join us here for that as well.

We hope to see you in the garden one day soon!

Alrie Middlebrook