Attention SCV Garden and Landscape Enthusiasts!

Photo of Dadd Residence on the sypmosium tour by Jane Gates

For all you SCV garden and landscape enthusiasts, the place to be on September 23^rd through September 26^th is the ‘Gardening under the Mediterranean Skies VIII: Style and Whimsy in the Sustainable Garden’ symposium starting mornings at the Los Angeles Arboretum. This is a 4-day event where you will hear the West Coast’s top garden experts talking on sustainable landscaping and gardening tips, attend workshops and go on tours for fabulous gardening ideas that will work here in the SCV. For more information check out www.PacificHorticulture.org/education-events, email symposium@pacifichorticulture.org or call (760) 295-2173.  And for more information on SCV landscaping and gardening, check my blog at www.gardengates.info or Gates & Croft Horticultural Design.

Heat relief in SCV

Photo by Jane Gates

Here’s a little psychological heat relief for the SCV. If  you want to take a quick, cool tour of my SCV pond area with the musical accompaniment of a song I wrote and recorded years ago, please visit this video at my blog: Pond Meditation and Jane’s Song. Then think about how cooling having a pond or water feature could be in your own garden. Water gardening is a perfect way to alleviate stress and cool the ambiance. If  you want some landscape design advice or help, call me at Gates and Croft Horticultural Design at 661 299-5383. And enjoy relaxing to my heat relief video shot locally, here in the SCV.

Gardening and the SCV heat

Photo by Jane Gates

When extreme heat hits in the SCV, water  your plants deeply in the dark of the early morning. Watering during the day will NOT help most plants and lawns withstand our high temperatures in Santa Clarita. In fact, water can work like a lens and focus sunshine on living leaves, creating burns on foliage.

For more gardening tips, check my blog at GardenGates or get SCV garden and design ideas from my site at Gates and Croft Horticultural Design. Wear plenty of sun protection in the SCV garden, too, with a sun hat, gloves and sunscreen.

SCV stress relief in the garden

Pond photo by Jane Gates

Here’s a little stress relief meditation tour of my SCV garden pond. I made up a little flute accompaniment.  May it help clear  your mind. The video is at http://gardengates.info/category/videos/short-pond-meditation-flute-meandering You can design a pond into your garden, too, to relax  your heart and soul any time you want. Call me for garden design help at 661-299-5383, or check out my site at Gates & Croft Horticultural Design. Find stress relief in the SCV garden where nature will help you balance. In the meantime, please relax to the little video in this link.

SCV cartoons, illustrations and paintings

Cartoon by Jane Gates

Need a cartoon or an illustration for your SCV business? Art can add murals to the garden and interior, offer paintings to take you places you wouldn’t ordinarily go, or add decor to your life. It can also help you promote your business, immortalize your pet in a portrait or illustrate books, flyers, posters or greeting cards. Check out some of my art at my website at www.janeschwartzgatesart.com or email me if you can use a little more art in your life here in the SCV.

Vote for your favorite businesses!

The Signal’s  ‘Best of SCV’ voting won’t last much longer, so if  you have a business you like here on the HotSpot Santa Clarita — or anywhere else in the Santa Clarita Valley — make sure you cast your vote for your favorite to help everyone else share the recommendation. I’d sure appreciate any votes for Gates & Croft Horticultural Design under landscaping. And I’ve already voted for some of you. But I’m not done voting yet! So log on to http://the-signal.upickem.net/engine/Welcome.aspx?contestid=19069.  And lets help all our favorite SCV businesses gather votes as the ‘best in the SCV’!

Handle the SCV heat with a water feature in your garden

Koi pond photo by Jane Gates

Want to stay cool and enjoy your SCV garden in the summer heat? Design a water feature in your garden. You can do something as simple as a bird bath or add the soul-calming splash of a waterfall. You’ll find some tips on adding a water feature to your SCV garden at my blog in the article: Add a water feature to your landscape. Or check out other SCV and local landscape ideas at my landscape design site, Gates & Croft Horticultural Design.

Art rescues the SCV garden

A subtle mural adds depth to a narrow garden. (Photo, art by Jane Gates)

I don’t know if you see as many ugly walls around the SCV as I do, but here’s an idea on how you can use art to rescue the dull block wall or bleached wood fences so often seen in the typical SCV garden. Consider having a mural painted. Or maybe you might want to paint it yourself. Or how about having a party with friends over to have a whole art festival on your wall? See some ideas on rescuing an ugly wall posted on my blog, GardenGates.  Just think, you could turn a boring old wall into a fun or showy work of art!  You can see some of my own art on www.janeschwartzgatesart.com or check out some of my landscape designs at Gates & Croft Horticultural Design. Or give me a call at 661 299-5383 and we can talk mural painting, art or garden design here in the SCV. Hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend.

Happy 4th of July, SCV

Raccoons can be common pests in the SCV (Photo by Jane Gates)

Make sure you clean up after 4th of July festivities or barbecues in the SCV garden or you could be inviting destruction from our local raccoon population. If raccoons are a problem in your yard, read this little article on Discouraging Raccoons for some helpful tips. Or for more useful gardening information, check out my blog Gardengates or my site at Gates & Croft Horticultural Design for landscaping ideas in the Santa Clarita area. And have a fun and safe 4th of July here in the SCV.

SCV vegetable gardening tips

Photo by Velvet Heller

July is here and here are some tips for the SCV vegetable gardener.

Keep seeding root crops like beets and carrots. Put in a late planting for sweet corn. Support tomato vines. Crop zucchini often before they get too big and drain plants of energy. Avoid planting cold-weather crops like cabbage, peas and fava beans here in the SCV in July. It’s also too late to plant most squash, tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplant and peppers from seed, but started plants are still okay.  And keep a sharp lookout for insect pests. If you spy them early, a hosing of water or a spray of an insecticidal soap should be all you need for control.