October 18, 2012_Solana Beach, California_USA_
McCarville admires the variegated colors of Kalanchoe ‘Fantastic,’ a hybrid variety of a succulent commonly called “flapjack” or “paddle” plants. Water-wise succulents are increasingly popular landscape plants.” Hayne Palmour IV • U-T photos
A milk weed plant from South Africa at Cedros Gardens in Solana Beach.
Horticulturist and landscape designer Jason Chen shows the flower of a “Giant Dutchman’s Pipe” vine plant at Cedros Gardens in Solana Beach.
Yellow blooms of the perennial sunflower “Maximilian” frame Cedros Gardens owner Mia McCarville and horticulturist/landscape designer Jason Chen. The flowers are part of the “cottage garden” area of the nursery, which is in the Cedros Design District of Solana Beach. Hayne Palmour IV • U-T
Penny Lingo
Special to the U-T
‘We don’t want to eat three meals at one time, then fast for a week,” said Mia McCarville, owner of Cedros Gardens in Solana Beach. “Plants are the same.”
Slow-release fertilizers, like most organics, she said, feed the plant with a steady stream of nutrients instead of a big gulp. “We try to use organic.”
Organic gardening is just one of the earth-friendly practices championed by McCarville and horticulturalist Jason Chen, the garden’s resident landscape designer.
Healthy soil is filled with microbes, essential for supporting plant life. “Chemical fertilizer is very easy to use, and it produces instant results,” said McCarville. But the high levels of chemicals kill the microbes and thus the soil, and then seep into the groundwater. “That will end up in the lagoon and then in the ocean.”
“And then it ends up (back) here,” Chen added. “It’s a big circle.”
McCarville’s experience with growing plants began in her early childhood when she helped her parents in their garden in Japan.
Her advocacy for the use of organic materials and water-saving practices has grown steadily in the past two decades, since she moved up from a smaller nursery to open her current business in 1993.
Though she said she is “is pretty much self-taught,” the knowledge she has acquired over the years enables her to offer her customers sound advice on plants and garden procedures, and consultations on design.
Chen, who holds a degree in ornamental horticultural design from North Carolina State University, came on board about two years ago. He estimated that design work is about 40 percent to 50 percent of their business. He’s learning a lot, he said, from working with McCarville.
The two agree that every plan must be tailored to the wants and needs of the client; at the same time, consideration must be given to conditions such as soil type, and the size and orientation of the space. “We have to know how the plants develop in the garden, how they’ll look year-round, before we can put it in the design,” McCarville said. “Sometimes we have to tell (clients) what they don’t want to hear.”
Both Chen and McCarville are enthusiastic about using edible plants in landscape design.
Chen cites citrus as an example of greenery with benefits: “It’s beautiful, it’s evergreen, and you can sometimes get fruit year-round.” Some hybrids grow well on the coast: Cara Cara pink navel oranges (Citrus sinensis ‘Cara Cara’), Valencias and all the Mandarin varieties.
For smaller spaces, options include planting one of the dwarf varieties or training a plant against a trellis on a flat plane, known as espalier. “We’ve had a couple clients that want to espalier,” Chen said. The spare, regimented look can complement a contemporary architectural design.
“Something new to this area is cherry trees,” McCarville said. “There are two varieties, and you have to plant both for pollination, but they both have wonderful fruit. Royal Lee (Prunus avium ‘Royal Lee’), and its companion pollinator Minnie Royal (Prunus avium ‘Minnie Royal’) have medium-large cherries similar to Bings in flavor. They are adapted to milder climates with moderate summers and winters that provide at least 200 hours below 45 degrees – less than half the chill needed for traditional cherries.
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