Home&Real Estate Home Front
BROKEN STUFF? ... The next Repair Cafe Palo Alto, where one can bring anything from small appliances to ripped jeans, will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 21, at the Museum of American Heritage, 351 Homer Ave., Palo Alto. Information: www.RepairCafe-PaloAlto.org GARDEN TREES ... Susan Hamilton and Katherine Naegele will talk about “Trees in the Garden” at the next meeting of the Garden Club of Los Altos at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 23. Focus will be on selecting and maintaining trees for life. The group meets at the Los Altos Lutheran Church, 460 S. El Monte Ave., Los Altos. Guests pay $5. Information: www.gardencluboflosaltos.org
GAMBLE GARDEN SHOWCASES SIX GARDENS ON ITS ANNUAL SPRING TOUR
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nazzy gardens come in all shapes and sizes, formal and informal. To locate this year’s six stand-out gardens, Laurie Callaway, who’s chairing the Gamble Garden spring tour on April 26 and 27, along with Barbara Brown, knocked on close to 100 doors. One gem among her findings is a very adult, formal garden in the Southgate neighborhood in Palo Alto. The owners had lived there for more than 20 years; now the children were grown, a two-story house replaced the onestory neighbor and water-wasting lawns were definitely on the outs.
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Also online at PaloAltoOnline.com
What they asked Lisa Brown and Dorrit Kingsbury of Brown and Kingsbury Design, Menlo Park, to do was to incorporate fountains and urns, boxwood hedges and low walls to create defined garden rooms on their 7,500square-foot corner lot. Today, instead of a gentle slope leading to the front door, one walks up three steps onto a brick pathway. The entry is framed by a pair of large urns; that pattern is repeated throughout the garden, mostly in pairs, but sometimes in threes. Some are filled with white roses (continued on page 43)
PLANT SALE ... Along with the annual Spring Tour, Gamble Garden will hold its annual plant sale from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, April 26 and 27, at 1431 Waverley St., Palo Alto. The sale includes garden-related gifts, plants and advice from horticultural resources. Information: 650-3291356 or www.gamblegarden.org GROWING HERBS ... Food and garden writer and educator Jody Main will teach a class on “Growing an Herb Garden” from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, at Common Ground, 559 College Ave., Palo Alto. Main will bring samples of culinary, medicinal, botanical and tea herbs from her garden and talk about container gardening with herbs. Everyone will take home cuttings. Cost is $31. Information: 650-493-6072 or www.commongroundinpaloalto.org RHODIE SALE ... The De Anza chapter of the American Rhododendron Society will hold its annual plant sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, in front of the Citibank building at 130 Main St., Los Altos. Information: www.deanza-ars.com/ GOOD BUGS ... UC Master Gardeners will offer a free class called “Don’t Smash That Bug! Recognizing Beneficial Insects in Your Vegetable Garden” from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, at the Mountain View Library Community Room, 585 Franklin St., Mountain View. The class will deal with encouraging good bugs in your garden. UC Master Gardeners will also offer a free talk on “Composting and the Soil Food Web” from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30, at the Los Altos Library, 13 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos. That class deals with creating the best soil for local gardens. Information: Master Gardeners at 408-282-3105, between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., Monday through Friday or http://mastergardeners.org DESIGN TRENDS ... A free workshop on “Remodeling vs. New Construction” will be held at the Harrell Remodeling Design Center, 1954 Old Middlefield Way, Mountain View, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, April
A garden room was created in the front of the house, above, with rows of sculpted boxwood balls, a pair of urns (with more boxwoods) and a bench. White delphiniums, right, are among the many white blooms in the garden.
FROM
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by Carol Blitzer | photographs by Katie Brigham
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