Venice Garden and Home Tour -this Saturday

Image from Venice Garden and Home Tour.  All Rights Reserved.

This weekend brings another installment of the annual Venice Garden and Home Tour.  Running from 10am to 5pm on Saturday, May 7th, the walking tour will feature over 30 gardens and homes throughout Venice for people to ogle and muse over.  Should be another interesting installment, especially with the continuing onslaught of contemporary homes being designed and built in Venice.  More on this year's tour is shown below, as well as some pictures from previous years:

This annual self-guided walking tour will feature 30 gardens and homes in the charming, secluded Walk Streets neighborhood and streets south of Venice Boulevard. The tour is a showcase of how architects, landscape designers, and homeowners have crafted gardens and homes to make lovely living oases. These private spaces, sequestered behind carved wooden doors, contemporary metal gates and imaginative fences, are open to the public this one day of every year when tour-goers can walk the streets, meet and enjoy the community, and be inspired by the inventive design, surprising spirit and whimsy that is uniquely Venice.

The Walk Streets through tranquil neighborhoods where the homes face one another are actually pedestrian paths that bring people together. When Venice was being developed, workers lived in modest bungalows that later became summer beach homes for Angelinos; many of the remaining old bungalows are reworked now to meet today’s standards and tastes, and sit side by side sleek contemporary cubes. Local architects Barbara Bestor, Tom Carson, Talbot McLanahan, Tim Petersen and Robert Thibodeau, along with local landscape designers such as Jay Griffith, Pamela Burton, Naomi Sanders and Di Zock, have influenced the constantly evolving development of these distinctive neighborhoods.

The gardens and homes on this tour exemplify Venice's creative energy: the homeowner’s love of living inside or outside with nature, the use of lanterns and crystal chandeliers found hanging from trees or cleverly placed antique neon signs and sculptures in just the right places to enhance gardens. In these rustic enclaves, rooftop gardens and solar panels pop up into the trees, and tiny vegetable gardens thrive next to shady children’s play yards.

Now in its 18th year, the Venice Garden and Home Tour is the much anticipated annual fundraising event that draws visitors from all over California. The tour gives financial support for NYA’s Las Doradas Children’s Center, a licensed child care facility that provides full-time, education-based child care to low-income working families.

Image from Venice Garden and Home Tour.  All Rights Reserved.

Image from Venice Garden and Home Tour.  All Rights Reserved.

Spring Garden Events

Springtime means a lot of things in Southern California: blooms, the return of beach weather, and garden tours.  The LA Times has a comprehensive list of upcoming garden tours and events for the LA area.  Below is a brief list of some of the upcoming tours and plants sales.

April 28-May 1: The 21st annual Southern California Spring Garden Show      .

April 30: The self-guided Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase

April 30-May 1: The Mary Lou Heard Memorial Garden Tour

May 1: The Garden Conservancy's Open Days tour of private gardens in Pasadena.

May 1: The 52nd annual garden tour of the Santa Monica Bay Auxiliary, Children's Hospital Los Angeles will feature six Westside gardens.

May 1:  The Westlake Village Garden Club hosts its 38th Annual Garden and Patio Tour  of five gardens in Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks.

May 3:  The Sherman Library and Gardens Volunteer Assn. presents its 15th annual garden tour from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at private homes in Corona del Mar and Newport Beach.

May 6: This year’s self-guided Gate and Garden Tour in Laguna Beach. www.lagunabeachgardenclub.org.

May 7: The annual self-guided  Venice Garden and Home Tour

May 13: Friends of Robinson Gardens will present the 23rd annual “... Into the Garden” benefit tour 

May 15: The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days tour of Los Angeles.

May 15: The Huntington Botanical Gardens 36th annual spring plant sale .

June 4: The San Clemente Garden Club Tour

Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase

This Sunday was the 2nd Annual Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase.  The tour is hosted by the Green Committee of the Mar Vista Community Council, and features over 80 different homes.  As the website describes:

This free, self guided garden tour is all about water conservation. These homeowners have all made choices to eliminate or reduce turf lawns and have created gardens that thrive in our Southern California climate while using minimal water. Many are investing the water they use to grow fruits and vegetables for their families to enjoy.

Fortunately, I live just down the road from part of the tour, so was able to hop on my bike, and enjoy the afternoon seeing about 10 houses that ranged from highly designed, horticultural gardens to self-described rock gardens.  Each garden provided a different look at water conservation, but all featured permeable surfaces, and low-water use plants.  Some of the yards had been converted to edible gardens, growing artichokes, lettuces, snap peas, chards, strawberries, and tomatoes among others.  I was also able to stop by the Venice High School Learning Garden, one of the more extensive school gardening programs in Los Angeles.  It was a great facility that features a range of demonstration gardens and plots tended by students at the high school.

Although I really enjoyed the aesthetics of some of the professionally or highly-designed gardens, there was something sort of wonderful about the home grown "rock people" and like-minded, willing amateurs who took a lot of pride in pulling out their lawn and putting in a few plants.  While the yards were certainly not showpieces, the owners took as much if not more pride in it as people might talk about their lawns.  But it wasn't simply about aesthetics, they felt a real sense of empowerment and pride about doing their part - displaying a sort of DIY ethos for sustainability.

Overall, it was a great event that not only provided inspiration for people to rethink their yards, but also a forum for community members to interact with each other.  Look forward to attending next year.

  Raised bed made out of straw waddles (erosion control devices)

  Traditional raised bed

 The Desert Garden at the Venice Learning Garden

National Landscape Architecture Month

It's April and that means it's National Landscape Architecture Month. The Southern California ASLA Chapter has a number of good events lined up for the month, including a tour this Saturday of the Council District 9 Neighborhood City Hall by Pamela Burton and Company that features a green roof, solar panels, and a graywater reuse system (see poster below).

Other events include lectures by Mia Lehrer and Ken Smith, and tours of Vista Hermosa Park and Valley Crest Tree Nursery.  More information on all of the events is available at the Southern California ASLA webpage.

2010 AIA Los Angeles Spring Home Tour I

 (image from Interior Design Magazine.  All Rights Reserved)

This Sunday, April 11th from 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM is the AIA Los Angeles Spring 2010 tour.  This spring the tour is in Venice, and features homes by Abramson Teiger Architects, Bestor Architecture, Irani Architects, and Tighe Architecture.  Last day for online tickets is today with prices running from $65.00 - $75.00 depending on your affiliations.  Architects / Designers and docents will be on hand to answer questions and talk about the home.  More info available at AIA Los Angeles and a few images from Interior Design.

Theodore Payne Foundation Home Tour

This weekend is the 7th Annual Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour.  For $20, attendees get a chance to visit over 50 native plant gardens throughout Los Angeles.  Some great teaser images and more information are available at the Theodore Payne Foundation website.

7th Annual Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour

When:  Apr 10-11th, 2010

Description:  On Saturday, April 10, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. visit fabulous native plant gardens from Brentwood to the mid-Wilshire district to Santa Monica to Torrance. Sunday, April 11, same hours, view gardens in the San Fernando to San Gabriel valleys. Only $20 for your choice of nearly 50 native plant gardens on view through this self-driven tour. Learn how to save water and wildlife while creating a beautiful garden -- the Garden Tour is an educational and inspiring event! The plants are labeled at every garden, and docents and homeowners are there to answer your questions. Have some fun and invite a friend!

 (images from Theodore Payne Foundation.  All Rights Reserved.)

A + D Museum: Spring Urban Hike Schedule Announced

(image from http://aplusd.org/v5/. All rights reserved by A+D Museum Los Angeles)

Don't know much about Los Angeles, or ever wondered more about the urban environment in which you live?  The Los Angeles Architecture + Design Museum have teamed up with Mike Sonksen (aka Mike the PoeT) to showcase the hidden jewels of LA.  Each "hike" explores a diverse and interesting community of Los Angeles, offering cultural, historical, and architectural backgrounds to the neighborhoods along with a  unique poetry performance by Mike. Their Spring Urban Hike schedule includes:

1/31 -   Downtown's Historic Core
2/7 -    Koreatown
2/27 - Boyle Heights (Including a Goldline Ride)

All tours start at 11AM, and are free for A+D members.  General admission tickets are $15, or $5 dollars for students per tour.  A three-tour package is also available for  $30. RSVP at info@aplusd.org or 323.932.9393.