Get ready for a weekend of gorgeous blooms that brighten landscapes, sidewalks and paths of the historic Bayou Bend Gardens and other locations during the River Oaks Garden Club‘s annual Azalea Trail, now in its 78th year.

Coinciding with this glorious rite-of-spring event is the release and sale of the garden club’s latest edition of A Garden Book for Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast, initially published in 1929. This first revision since 1989 is entirely updated, expanded and colorfully redesigned with a new emphasis on organic gardening, native plants and conservation.

“Since 1989, we’ve learned a lot about gardening that is more environmentally sensitive,” says Lynn M. Herbert, author and editor of the 670 page-plus definitive guide. “We all need to follow organic practices, like not using chemicals and using native plants.”

 This first revision since 1989 is entirely updated, expanded and colorfully redesigned with a new emphasis on organic gardening, native plants and conservation. 

The tribute to organic gardening begins with the cover photograph, which Herbert took along with numerous other frameable images featured in the book. Her close-up capture: A blossom from the passion vine, Passiflora incarnata, and so apropos as the vine is one of Houston’s most prolific native plants.

The theme continues with sections in the popular tables on trees, shrubs, vines, annuals and perennials, bulbs, turf grasses and more with green, bold-faced “NATIVE” designations for hundreds of indigenous plants for Houston-area gardeners to consider.

Readers can learn more about organic gardening through chapters like “Native and Invasive Plants,” “Lawns and Lawn Alternatives” and “Organic Recipes for Fertilizers, Insecticides, Fungicides and Herbicides,” to name a few sections.

“Native plants can require much less water,” Herbert says. “You’ll find native plants that like shade, sun, filtered light, almost any condition. Discovery Green is a example of great use of native plants, while you can also create a formally clipped garden with them. And they really attract wildlife, like butterflies, to help bring your garden even more to life.”

Azalea blooms lure butterflies and, with the Encore varieties and hybrids now flourishing at Bayou Bend Gardens, possibly soon hummingbirds, as the newer plants flower in Houston five to six months out of the year.

These hybrids join the 26-plus varieties of azaleas at Bayou Bend Gardens alone. And no wonder azaleas became popular for landscaping in Houston in the early 1930s, as they are “happy” nestled under pine trees that drop needles to add the perfect acidic balance to the soil.

In addition to the entire chapter dedicated to azaleas, gardeners can still depend on the comprehensive information throughout the volume, including in the month-by-month calendars for soil preparation, planting, pruning and maintaining hundreds of plants, Herbert says.

She adds the encyclopedic volume filled with stunning color photos came together only through a community wide effort, with more than 100 professionals and amateur gardeners contributing their knowledge to this edition.

“We’ve been told by nurseries, arboretums and more they see many people come in with the book in hand, asking for specific plants,” she says. “We decided to keep it hardback for that reason: It gets a lot of use.”

A Garden Book for Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast ($40) is available from 11 a.m to 5 p.m. during the length of the Azalea Trail run, Friday through Sunday, at the Forum of Civics Building, 2503 Westheimer at Kirby; The Shop at Bayou Bend and at 1620 River Oaks Boulevard. National Book Network is distributing the book.

In addition to the early sales at Azalea Trail locations, A Garden Book will also be available at area retailers and online in both hardcover and e-book formats.

Click photo to enlarge

Alrie Middlebrook’s affinity for growing things combined with her appreciation of nature’s original plans has resulted in one successful career and has her heading toward a second one.

“I became interested in native plants about 22 years ago,” Middlebrook says.

Taking her success with an indoor outdoor landscaping company, she created a butterfly garden at Community Hospital of Los Gatos in the mid 1990s, and in 1998 she created the Healing Garden for the Women’s Cancer Care Center there.

In 2001 she founded Middlebrook Gardens at 76 Race St., a design/build landscaping company.

In 2004 she cofounded the California Native Garden Foundation, which is headquartered at her place of business. She remains president and director of the foundation.

In 2007 she published Designing California Native Gardens, a 342-page book she coauthored with botonist Glenn Keator. The book sold more than 20,000 copies and is used across the state.

“That established me as an expert in the field,” she says, adding, “As I get older, I see the need for doing things for the next generation.”

Her response to that need was establishing the Environmental Laboratory for Sustainability and Ecological Education, known as ELSEE.

“ELSEE came about because my landlord had gotten a zoning change and put these plans together to put in a mini mall,” she says, referring to her business at Race Street and Garland Avenue.

“I’d

been developing this land as an example of what people could do on their home property to create a sustainable garden, to keep their rainfall on site, to encourage pollinators and biodiversity. When I found out I might have to move, I thought, now is the time for me to reach out and see if we can start teaching the kids next door about their environment, growing your own urban food and protecting pollinators.”

(The Los Altos owner of the 0.38-acre lot got his zoning change in 2010, but thus far has made no move to develop the property.)

Middlebrook’s invitation to students at St. Leo the Great School next door to join her in her garden is now in its third year. Some 165 students from St. Leo’s meet there for an hour every other week.

“We teach them to science standards; we’re complementing what their teachers are doing,” Middlebrook says.

“It’s been a great program,” says Marie Bordelau, St. Leo’s principal. “It’s a way for some of the science they do in the classroom to come alive, although it’s not necessarily tied specifically to the science they’re doing in the classroom. It’s more the ecological curriculum.”

She says that as a Catholic school they’re teaching children about being good stewards of the earth, and the program ties in with that goal.

As second-graders came over on Feb. 28, they shared their day’s lesson with Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, who had heard about the program and came from Sacramento to see it in action.

The 17 students listened to Middlebrook talk about ELSEE’s food towers growing “super foods,” which she defined as “the foods that are really, really good for us–they’re super.”

Students were invited to name super foods, correctly identifying the arugula and kale, growing in the towers; they also named spinach and broccoli, which are not in the towers.

For the day’s exercise, students were given a sheet with colored photos of butterflies and the plants that support them.

Divided into four groups, they set off to find the plants and maybe spot a butterfly.

“It’s pretty good,” says Giovanni Caruso, 7, of the ELSEE classes. “We get to learn about plants, and we get to be outside. Last week we ate watercress. It’s kind of spicy, but it’s good.”

Seeing the worms in the worm bin has been a highlight of this year’s classes for Genesis Huether, 7; Chloe Bombaci, “almost 8”; and Genesis Ortiz, 8.

Brooke Garcia, 8, says, “I like eating new things and growing plants.”

At the end of the lesson, Middlebrook talked about chia seeds as “a super food that native people ate, and it kept them going.”

She gave the students chia seeds to eat and then passed out miniature chia lemon cupcakes for the children to enjoy.

Although her longest relationship has been with St. Leo’s, Middlebrook has also reached out to other schools in San Jose, including Bellarmine College Preparatory, Downtown College Prep and both Lincoln and Willow Glen High schools, as well as elementary school students at Trace and River Glen. One of her most recent collaborations is with St. Andrew’s School in Saratoga.

Middlebrook has shared the ELSEE approach with schools throughout California.

“We believe you can raise science scores and instill a love of science by going into the garden with a hands-on approach. We want to raise the California science scores,” she says.

She says all 50 states have voted, or are in the process of voting, that children in grades K-12 should be taught environmental science. “California is leading the country, and our lessons are based on that,” she says.

Middlebrook is a firm believer in moving beyond theory into practice, and she views schools as the perfect place to do that.

“We have 10,000 public schools in California, and most are in a sea of concrete with parking lots, sports fields and underutilized land that could be used to teach science, environmental education and food production.”

Middlebrook sees ELSEE as the model the rest of the state should follow, and she’s hoping Ross’ visit will help that happen.

“I love all the energy of the students,” Ross says. “I love how you can integrate what they’re learning in the classroom with hands-on in the garden.”

Ross believes it’s important that children realize where food comes from and that they have access to good healthy food.

One surprising thing about ELSEE is that it is staffed by volunteers, including, since February, some 15 interns from San Jose State University, Santa Clara University, UC-Berkeley Extension and Foothill College.

“We’re an all volunteer organization fed by young people in their 20s and 30s, They really want to see protection of the environment in the cities,” Middlebrook says.

“A lot of organizations have older people, but I try and attract young people. We want to make jobs for these young people.”

For more information, visit elsee-gardens.org.

This is a new column for Topanga’s gardeners or those who think they might like to garden in Topanga. The information is based on Sarah Priest’s extensive knowledge, expertise and love of creating gardens and landscapes.

In typical Topanga fashion, not everything is blooming on the same timetable. The Coffeeberries, aka Buckthorns, have been blooming since early February, icing the local mountains like cupcakes with thousands of sweet-smelling native shrubs. As the Buckthorns go to seed, the Ceanothus (also known as Wild Lilacs) will be the next to explode with clouds of fragrant blue, purple and white blooms.

Although we have had a dry year so far, it is still not too late to plant wildflowers and shrubs. The wildflowers—look for California poppies in seed or in small sprouted “six-packs” in local nurseries—will need water only this spring, while newly planted native plants and shrubs will need watering for the first year. After that, they usually don’t need and don’t want supplemental water, making them a smart landscaping choice as water costs soar.

Ornamental gardeners should be done pruning roses and planting bare root roses. Cool weather gives us a last chance for this through the middle of March or so. Don’t buy bare root roses that are dried out or have lots of sprouts on them. It’s still okay to prune fruit trees that have started to bloom out. The cut blooming branches look spectacular in a vase in the house.

Deciduous Magnolias and New Zealand Tea Trees are blooming now and a good selection is available in local nurseries. As with most plants, the nurseries have the best selection when any particular plant is in bloom. Brighten things up with primroses and pansies which should give you flowers right into summer. Be aware that primroses like the shade; pansies need sun.

We are right in the middle of azalea and camellia season and they will flower into June or so. Depending on the variety, most can take some shade and prefer an acidic soil. Add soil amendments if you have clay-like soil. Azaleas need regular, but not too much water, while camellias can become pretty tough and tree-like over time, and may need little water.

PREPARING YOUR GARDEN SITE

Through the years, so many Topanga clients have asked me to create a wonderful vegetable garden for them. Many of us (including me) are in love with the idea of harvesting organic fresh veggies and bringing them right in to prepare healthy foods. The thought of saving big market bills by having “free” foods we grow is equally appealing.

This can be tremendously challenging in Topanga because in most areas of the Santa Monica Mountains everything that digs, crawls, flies, jumps or has a mouth is eventually going to plot to munch all of the food in our green and luscious gardens that we lovingly and arduously planned, built and grew, especially so as local hillsides dry out.

Some hints for making it work would be to have the whole “floor” of the garden completely covered with hardware mesh (chicken wire won’t do) for raised beds, or dug into the ground underneath, so our friends that live under the soil won’t pop up to munch or drag our vegetables under to consume in privacy. Once that is accomplished, pull the wire up the sides to about six feet or so to prevent deer from jumping in for a quick meal. Oh, and the top has to be covered, too, or the birds will come in for their share.

There’s not too much to do about munching insects unless the whole structure also has insect screening. Crazy as it sounds, many Topanga gardeners do go ahead with all of this, so strong is their desire for fresh foods. Check out the gardens at the Topanga Community House for a good example.

Once we add in the costs of sometimes daily watering, seeds and bedding plants, plus the many, albeit highly satisfying hours of soil preparation, building raised beds, planting, weeding and other necessary maintenance that all “farmers” must perform, the disappointing news is that dollar for dollar it may be a lot less costly just to patronize the Topanga Farmers Market or the organic bins at grocery and health food stores.

Fruit trees have plenty of wild fans, so keep a sharp eye out for the day everything ripens and get out there immediately or even preemptively to get the best of your harvest. Citrus does really well in our sunny climate and are less likely to be “harvested” without permission. Good drainage, some fertilizing, and protection from frost is about all you need for abundant harvests of these sunny fruits.

Please remember to respect our local wildlife. Everyone knows that without birds and bees, our gardens and the world won’t survive, so killing and poisons are not smart options for “control.”

And yes, it is the beginning of spring in Topanga. Enjoy the wildflowers, plant some natives, take a walk in the State Park and watch for the next column for more hints on late Spring gardens.

Sarah Priest melds her love of interior design, home staging and landscaping through her business Sarah Priest Estate Staging. She is available to assist Topanga homeowners add value and beauty to the inside or outside of their home whether they are selling or staying. Contact her at (310) 455-3547; Sarah@SarahPriest.com; or through www.SarahPriest.com.