Front yards and sidewalks of Southern CA: goodbye to lawns!

 

Long Beach sidewalk, CA. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives.

There is an interesting post on The Guardian today, "The American lawn feels irresponsible": the LA homes ditching grass for drought-friendly gardens  that explains how many homeowners have decided to remove the lawn of their front yards and replace it with water wise gardens, in other words, draught tolerant gardens with succulents and cactus among other desert species. 

This is not new. There is a rebate program that has been going on for some years:

"The Los Angeles County Waterworks Districts offer customers a rebate for removing water-inefficient grass with drought-tolerant landscaping. The current rate is $1, with a minimum requirement of 500 sq. ft. and maximum of $5,000. The Rebate Program assists customers with reducing their overall water consumption." The paragraph is from the Los Angeles Waterworks Districts, the link to apply can be found here:

https://dpw.lacounty.gov/wwd/web/Conservation/CashforGrass.aspx#:~:text=The%20Los%20Angeles%20County%20Waterworks,and%20maximum%20of%20%245%2C000.

Succulents and wild grass front yard garden and a beautiful pepper tree which branches extend across the sidewalk. Photo by Myriam Mahiques, personal archives.

More information will be found on my previous post about Long Beach front yards.

I've been walking around the neighborhood again and enjoying the front yards that extend to the right of way landscape, in a wild but careful manner, most of the time in combination with the beautiful palm trees and old pepper trees. 

Long Beach is one of the most pedestrian friendly cities I've known in Southern CA, they have some rules based on research of other cities, like Chicago. There is  publication about "walkable Long Beach" containing an explanation of why trees are important, not only for our physical wellness but our psychology and behavior as well. 

https://www.longbeach.gov/globalassets/lbds/media-library/documents/orphans/cx3/chapter-7-make-long-beach-walkable

I am sharing here some of my pictures of September 2022 to complete the examples shown on The Guardian article and with the intention of bringing up the homeowner's interest on water wise gardens. 

A beautiful historical house on Termino ave. See how the succulents are arranged to create a border of the front yard.

A nice surprise to see a book exchange box in a front yard.

Wild but neat, the succulents are trimmed to keep the sidewalk width. In general, the trees are left to create canopies across, which I find very appealing. 

Cactus, succulents, palm trees, wild grasses....

Crossing Termino Ave towards the beach. 

Colorful ceramic pots are part of the landscape decoration.

The pepper tree across the sidewalk.

This picture has been taken with the owner's permission. We had a brief conversation about this landscape, he says that it is consuming too much water, even when they are wild grasses with a front yard Strelitzia (Regal Bird of Paradise or Parrot flower). He added that by January it will be all gone. I'll be back to see what he is proposing.

A different view of the previous photo, from the neighbor's house. Here we see a trellis with climbers, there's Rosemary in the middle of both lots. The Bird of Paradise is in full bloom.

Ivy covering the sloped front yard. 

A close view of the previous ivy, next planter is full of Rosemary, which strives very well in the southern CA dry weather. The right of way has willow trees, their branches in canopies.

Palm trees, cactus, succulents. A climber Gardenia and a Bougainvillea at the side entrance.

The following pictures of the Long Beach Green Belt are part of the draught tolerant urban landscape of Long Beach, California. The trail leads to the Colorado Lagoon, which is part of the wetlands.

This type of urban and landscape design is so important for people to learn how to take care of our environment. 

A beautiful Bougainvillea in combination with draught tolerant plans. This is a corner front yard as seen from the LB Greenbelt.

Art is also present in the trail. All pictures from my personal archives, September 2022.

One of my favorite front yards in the neighborhood. A mix of wild grasses with succulents, cactus and poppies. Personal archives, April 2024.

Wild flowers and cactus on the right of way landscape. Long Beach. Personal archives, April 2024.

Poppies, wild flowers, lavender, wild grasses on the front yard and right of way. Long Beach. Personal archives, April 2024.

Downtown Boston: urban landscape and hardscape impressions

A scenic view of one of the beautiful streets of Beacon Hill. See how the path is winding across the red-grey brick combination. The corner of two buildings gives shape to a small plaza with trees and climbers. The iron fence is to delineate, not to restrict the entrance to a quiet retreat.

I have visited Boston- Massachusetts two weeks ago, with the intention of keeping my training as an architect and urban researcher, learning about its urban morphology, the buildings technology, and its urban landscape-hardscape; every design is so different from what I currently see in Los Angeles, CA.

I had not the time to enjoy the interior architecture of the most important buildings, except the State House, my focus was mainly on urban impressions.

Compared to Los Angeles, what I really appreciated is the human scale of every passage, alley, street, avenue, so full of domesticity regardless the skyscrapers height. It is a virtue not seen in Los Angeles, the city of the cars, with huge walls as basements, so unfriendly for pedestrians, mostly in Summer.

I am sharing some of my hundreds pictures with captions of my impressions. All pictures were taken in August 2022 and belong to my archives. Please do not share without permission.

Urban planters with flowers, the black matching the entrance of the train station.

The metal fence is more a decorative prevention device as the level is lower inside the planters. I can't help noticing the trash can due to the lack of design, after reading the story of the design competition for expensive-fancy  trash cans in San Francisco.

Rectangular planters next to the pool and Brutalist buildings at the Christian Science Plaza. The planters have incorporated seats.

Christian Science Plaza. Another walk-through view, a serial vision in the words of Gordon Cullen. Here, the church at the end of the perspective, the hemicycle and continuous never ending seating at the edge of the lawn. 

The Children's Museum at the waterfront. The concrete and glass is extended and attached like a modern screen in front of the typical brick Boston building. See the floor design adjacent to the deck. 

Floor design patterns is everywhere, and so beautiful to see. Here and there, some gray planters. The lamp posts have a contemporary design, pretty much different from all others in Downton Boston.

The monolithic sculptural stones in front of the Children's Museum, they somehow remind me of Stonehenge.

A small plaza and playground before discovering the waterfront. 

In areas of contemporary development, the skyscrapers are separated with relax areas. Note the floor textures and the equipment color so bright in contrast with the buildings facades.

An avenue close to the previous picture. A colorful contemporary sculpture surrounded by native landscape, the lamp post caught my attention as old fashioned. Some Eclecticism is welcome here.

Same contemporary neighborhood. This so modern urban sculpture has been surrounded by a guardrail, obviously it has been a bad choice since the "spikes" may be dangerous for passers-by. I think the City should remove it, to the regret of the artist. I see it as the "anti Feng-Shui". :)

Chinatown. The Asian lion and some domestic planters here and there, as a limit of the colorful street playground. I think this street is confusing, the floor is so plain that it could be not meant for pedestrians. 

In continuation with the previous picture caption, see what happens when the street and pedestrian areas look the same. 

A planter in Boston Chinatown. I am wondering if the store owner added it to embellish the store?

The most accomplished urban design in Chinatown, it does not need too much explanation. See the picture is taken in Summer and though the colors are nice, the lack of shadow-trees-plants, make the place uninviting. One does not want to be sitting there in plain sun for in the hard Winter.

The Massachusetts State House at the end of the perspective, this is Boston Common Park, usually called "Boston Commons". I was chatting with a colleague-friend in real time and we had a good laugh when he asked me "Who planted this tree??".

Beautiful Beacon Hill street again, even though the sidewalks are narrow, the gate has two pines next to it. Very nice detail. I have also seen planters with flowers below the windows everywhere in Beacon Hill. Some of them were plastic plants, I assume due to the hard Winter.

Downtown Boston planters with longitudinal stones as seats.

Boston City Hall. Same planters, in combination with round ones full of Summer flowers. As a side note, people has criticized this Brutalist building, up to the point of calling it the  ugliest building in the world, per Wikipedia. My colleague friend and me find it amazing. 

The plaza around Quincy Market. The plain planters are  used as seats as well.

Quincy Market again. With the planters, pop up stands and longitudinal stone seating. See the lamp posts with flowers pots, they are everywhere. I see them as a domestic feature, nevertheless all elements are adding human scale. The place is alive without a doubt.

Quincy Market across the historical market. See the floor textures and patterns.

The Pandemics pop-up dining areas. I like how they include real hanging plants. I have seen too much plastic plants in Southern California pops-up. 

The flat contemporary fountain with the recurrent stone seats around.

These sculptural poles have some inbuilt seats as well, or at least they look like seats. This plaza has an artisans fair on weekends. Conventional benches are added across. 

Milkweed Balloon Plant

 

In continuation with my post of Front yards of Long Beach, I'd like to share these snapshots of the Milkweed Balloon Plant (Gomphocarpus Physocarpus) that I have taken back in July 2022 while walking in Long Beach, CA. 

The plant is native to southeast Africa, but has been widely expanded. It is an ornamental plant, also known as Hairy Balls, Balloon Cotton Bush, Bishop's Balls, Nailhead, or Swan Plant.

This one picked up my attention because it is the first time I see one on a front yard, so close to the sidewalk. It has been planted in combination with flowers bushes of different colors and textures. It looks very pretty in Summer.