Field + Studio: Summer 2023
CRAFT LA is a collaboration of experienced landscape architects, designers, and naturalists orchestrating deeper and more meaningful interactions with the natural environment. We bring Big Nature to all spaces by designing through a lens that engages the natural environment – a biodiverse landscape rich in texture and fragrant native plants, teeming with local song birds, butterflies, and other beneficial critters.
Field + Studio is a journal to share our thoughts, seasonal observations, resources, and studio happenings.
Hello and Summer Greetings!
With the seasonal slowdown due to hotter temperatures and summertime schedules, we are taking in this time of year by watching the Allen’s hummingbirds return to the garden and observing native bunchgrasses get real big and crowd their neighbors. We’re eating all the tomatoes, stone fruit, and melon currently in season. We’re going on adventures to the Sierra Nevada to witness all the wildflower magic of the higher elevations, enjoying picnics at local parks like Vista Hermosa and Barnsdall Art Park, and gearing up for back to school.
We’re wishing you a slow rest of the summer filled with gentleness and cool water dips.
xo, the CRAFT LA team
Plants of Note
An ode to our love for California native plants, the plants that have been evolving in our region for millennia, acclimated to our specific climate, and symbiotically bound to the wildlife around us. We want to celebrate these plants (and animals) with you, our dear friends.
“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.” —Robin Wall Kimmerer
Hi friends! Stephen here — I’m so excited to kick this off with a little something from the heart. So let’s begin this journey with one of my favorite show-stopping native plants, known botanically as Fremontodendron californicum and commonly referred to as California Flannelbush.
I mean it when I say show-stopping — when this plant blooms, it will literally stop you in your tracks. My poor Subaru’s body has been nearly ripped from its chassis countless times; I jerk it to the nearest turnout and come to a screeching, dust-enshrouded halt. A mature flannelbush can range from 10 to 20 feet high and wide, and its late-spring, fiery orange blooms bounce off California’s cobalt blue sky. And if you’re lucky, you’ll see more than one! Typically, several of these species huddle up along south facing ridges and slopes, disturbed roadsides, and open ephemeral drainage ways, between 3,000 and 6,000 feet in elevation in the upper chaparral.
Take a closer look and you’ll notice the olive green fuzzy, flannel-like lobed leaves. But use caution as the hairs covering the leaves are known to irritate the skin and eyes for some. Now, have a look down at the native soil. Pick up a handful and run it between your fingertips. Notice how gravelly it is. This plant loves well-draining soil and the upper chaparral is full of porous decomposed granite soil. Step back and enjoy the splendor of this being. Bask in its majesty. Take a moment to peer around a bit and you may notice a few of its stellar companions: Chaparral Yucca, Mountain Mahogany, California Lilac, and Big Sagebrush, to name a few. All of these plants effortlessly complement each other.
In the garden landscape, give this sucker loads of space. Use it as a focal point, or as a backdrop shrub. Pair it with a few of the plants mentioned above, and be sure you have excellent drainage. No supplemental water is needed during the summer after it gets established.
There are several cultivated forms of the species so be sure to check out some of our friends listed below to learn more.
Cheers to Big Nature,
—Stephen
Native Plant Nurseries carrying plants of the Los Angeles Basin:
Tune In, Tune Out: Recommendations
Books —
Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi
Garden Allies by Frédérique Lavoipierre
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Film + Television —
Podcasts —
Landscape Language: What We’re Diggin’
Plants —
“Fremontodendron californcum and all the Sierra wildflowers.” —Stephen
“Rhus ovata and all the buckwheats!” —Meagan
“Verbena lilacina – it's so easy to grow and grows nearly full size in one season!” —Mel
“Lepechinia fragrans and Trichostema lanatum – both so fragrant and wonderful.” —Cait
Materials —
“I’ve been into Birds Eye Pea Gravel and boulders.” —Stephen
“Good ole pea gravel is really floating my boat right now.” —Meagan
“Heath Ceramics tile – so earthy and pretty.” —Mel
“Wood products from Angel City Lumber, sourced from locally felled trees.” —Cait
Join Us…
Please join us on Friday, August 25 at 8 a.m. for a morning nature walk in the Hahamongna Watershed Park followed by a visit to the Hahamongna Native Plant Nursery. Let’s talk native plants, observe local plant communities in the Arroyo Seco, and meet friends old and new.
RSVP here.