Home&Real Estate
OPEN HOME GUIDE 62
Also online at PaloAltoOnline.com
Home Front
BOOST GARDEN HEALTH ... Theresa Lyngso, president of Lyngso Garden Materials, Inc., Redwood City, for 20 years and an active brewer of actively aerated compost tea, will teach a class on the “Soil Foodweb” on Saturday, Nov. 19, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Common Ground Education Center, 559 College Ave., Palo Alto. The class deals with increasing and nurturing aerobic organisms that make fertile soil. Cost is $31. Information: Master Gardeners at 408282-3105, between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., Monday through Friday or http://mastergardeners. org CARE FOR YOUR LAWN ... UC Master Gardeners will offer a free talk called “All About Lawns: Sustainable Lawn Care & Options for Reducing or Replacing Your Lawn” on Saturday, Nov. 19, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Mountain View Library, 585 Franklin St., Mountain View. The talk will cover how to use less water, fertilizer and herbicides and possible replacements, such as groundcovers and native grasses that mimic the look of a lawn, waterwise landscapes, edible gardens and meadows.
Clockwise, from top: In Marilyn Waterman’s Menlo Park garden one can find opuntia (or paddle) cactus; a bull-shaped pot holds succulents; Waterman sits in her “ode to Oaxaca”-style backyard.
A garden that delights
HOLIDAY TRADITIONS ... Filoli, at 86 Cañada Road, Woodside, opens its doors for day and evening holiday shopping boutique and luncheons, Nov. 26 to Dec. 3. Tickets, which sell out quickly, must be purchased in advance at www.filoli.org. FESTIVE CENTERPIECE ... Professional florist Susan Groves will offer a class on making a Thanksgiving centerpiece using autumnal flowers on Tuesday, Nov. 22, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at her studio in downtown Palo Alto. Meet at Deborah’s Palm, 555 Lytton Ave., Palo Alto, and walk to the nearby studio. Cost is $65, which includes materials, vase and instruction. Information: 650-328-0658 or infullbloom@ mindspring.com FALL COLOR ... in Palo Alto can be viewed on Greenwood Avenue, between Newell Road and Hutchinson Avenue, during November when the Ginkgo bilobas turn from green to yellow-gold. N Send notices of news and events related to real estate, interior design, home improvement and gardening to Home Front, Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 94302, or email cblitzer@paweekly.com. Deadline is Thursday at 5 p.m.
by Elizabeth Lorenz photographs by Michelle Le
No theme limits Marilyn Waterman’s imagination
I
t started out as a cabbage patch. One neighbor even wrote a poem about it. Nowadays, Willows resident Marilyn Waterman’s front yard is far from a cabbage patch. There aren’t even any cabbages planted alongside the grapevines, apple tree, artichokes, strawberries, blueberries and rhubarb that are planted there. The yard defies description. As a writer, one looks for themes, commonalities, something to tie a story together. But Waterman’s front yard plants, while deliberately chosen, are whimsical, unusual and certainly not uniform. And there is no theme.
A dwarf purple clematis flower grows in Marilyn Waterman’s front yard.
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