Heritage Garden Christmas Tree

The Heritage Garden Christmas tree fully trimmed.  Steven Smith Landscape installed and maintains the park in the City of Escondido, at the corner of Grand and Juniper. Photo credit: Debra Moore

 Merry Christmas to All!

Christmas Tree Lane 2013

We attended (Thank you Steve!) the Annual Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego's Christmas Tree Lane event held at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido.  The event  raised over $72,000 for the BGCGSD, and featured 10 designer decorated holiday trees, a boutique, luncheon and fashion show.  The theme for the afternoon was "Vintage Glam Wonderland."  Guests were able to get some of their holiday shopping done, while having a great time in one glorious afternoon of fun, food, fashion and champagne. 

Lucky Gigi won one of the gorgeous wreaths that were raffled off!

Heritage Garden

Another perspective from today, of Heritage Garden Park in the City of Escondido, at the corner of Grand and Juniper. Steven Smith Landscape, Inc. installed and currently maintains this park.

Meanwhile, stay tuned for photos at the park of the completed Christmas tree with all the trimmings!

Heritage Garden Christmas Tree

 Today we stopped by Heritage Garden,  the park Steven Smith Landscape installed and maintains in the City of Escondido, at the corner of Grand and Juniper.  This park is an ongoing collaborative project and the beautiful Deodar tree was donated by Evergreen Nursery and use of the lift courtesy of G. Weir .  Rosemary Duff Florist was on hand to get the trimming underway!  We plan to stop back in a day or two to get photos of the completed tree in all its splendor.

Our own  Debra Moore and Gigi Golden-Smith with some of the shiny "tree bling"

Consider the Cyclamen for Your Holiday Plantings

The holidays are right around the corner and we get a lot of requests for winter color changes for entryways and beds that speak to the season. Poinsettias are one logical choice, but a beautiful alternative is the Cyclamen.  A mix of the red and white varieties are perfect for this purpose.

Cyclamen, a tuberous perennial,  with orchid-like flowers, is a genus of the Primulaceae or primrose family.  They have large heart-shaped leaves and are available in many colors and bi-color combinations.
Cyclamen are surprisingly hardy as outdoor winter plants.

Please visit our website, stevensmithlandscape.com

Shades of blue

I wandered out to our loading dock on this beautiful crisp fall day, to see our latest plant deliveries and encountered a sea of blue Plumbago flowers.

 Plumbago is an evergreen shrub, flowering in various shades of blue. Plumbago auriculata, also known commonly as Blue Plumbago, Cape Plumbago, Cape Leadwort and Skyflower, is the most commonly seen.
A native to South Africa, Plumbago is a popular ornamental, and is considered moderately drought tolerant. Typically it is used in borders, foundation plantings, and for color massed in beds.


Please visit our website at stevensmithlandscape.com

Spring

My favorite benchmark that spring is afoot is the coming out of my Paperwhites,. aka my Tazetta Narcissus Paperwhite Daffodils.

My lovely, fragrant bulbs return every year at Easter time.  In 1999, I inherited 300 Paperwhite bulbs from a friend and planted them in my yard.  It sounds like a lot, doesn't it? It really wasn't that difficult. Not knowing a thing about bulbs, I googled Martha Stewart and read all about bulbs and how to plant them.  There is a special bulb planting tool you can buy, but i planted all 300 with a simple spade in one afternoon.

It was a labor of love. One that has been rewarded many times over as they multiply each year they come back up. It's been 14 years and now they fill up my yard!
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They look so pretty with some of my other misfit plants.
Here they are with some Begonia I rescued from a neighbor.







I wish i could make this blog a "scratch and sniff" because they smell so fresh and beautiful.  For just a few short weeks, my garden smells like heaven, especially at night. And then, they're gone. Until next spring, when they'll bring more buddies.

2nd Annual Mountain Bike Ride Benefiting the Challenged Athlete's Foundation

Don't miss the 2nd Annual Mountain Bike Ride to benefit the CAF! By participating in this fun outdoor event, you are helping physically disabled individuals receive the support they need to live active lives. This event has 3 different distance courses 10, 15 and 25 miles and we are encouraging all levels of mountain bikers to come out and join us. If you don’t ride, please join us for food, live band, beer garden, give aways, and more on:

Saturday, JUNE 1, 2013 9:00am
3680 Sunset Drive
Lake Hodges, Escondido 92025

Please arrive at 7:00 to register onsite.
For all the info and to register/donate online, please visit

mountainbikeforcaf.com

Heritage Park May 9, 2013

Steven Smith Landscape staff was onsite for the May 9th flag raising dedication at Heritage Garden.  Also attending were the Mayor, members of the Rotary Club, the Boy Scouts and representatives from other local businesses who were involved with the construction of the Park, along with our team.  Its great to see the result of all the hard work on this newly beautified corner of Escondido, at Juniper and Grand.

Please visit stevensmithlandscape.com to view our project galleries and contact us to arrange for a consultation.

Heritage Garden Escondido - Flag Raising Dedication May 9, 2013

This photo taken last week at Heritage Garden, shows the pavers we installed at the entrance to the corner of the garden, at Juniper and Grand, Escondido. Steven Smith Landscape, Inc. is currently participating in a collaborative effort to build this park in the City of Escondido.  We donated all the labor for the grading, planting, heavy equipment, irrigation, walls and pavers. All the materials are being donated by local Escondido businesses. Steven Smith Landscape, Inc. has committed to performing the landscape maintenance of the Garden as well.

We are attending  the Flag Raising Dedication at Heritage Garden, tomorrow May 9, 2013 at 8:30 AM.
Stop by and say 'Hi' !

Visit our website at www.stevensmithlandscape.com
For more information on Heritage Garden visit www.heritagegardenescondido.com

New Photos in our Galleries

Check out photos of these raised planting beds we recently installed at a residential landscape in Carmel Valley.  To view more photos of this project, please visit our installation gallery (select the 'features' tab)  at stevensmithlandscape.com

New Photos in our Galleries

Some work in progress photos from one of our residential installations. To view more photos of this project, please visit our installation gallery (select the 'residential' tab) at stevensmithlandscape.com

Flower Power

Armando submitted this just in time for Easter greetings. Osteospermum or African Daisy is a member of the Asteraceae family. They like sunny, well-drained conditions and are a tender perennial; best in an area where the winters are frost-free.  Used as a ground cover and bedding plant in ornamental landscaping.

In this photo they look as if they are glowing - or had some fancy filter applied.  But if you do a web search for Osteospermum, lavender images you will find something close to this and other lavender variations as well.

 

Heritage Garden: March 20th 2013

More photos from last week at Heritage Garden in Escondido. We arrived during the planting of an orange tree. Jaime S. is at the wheel. Photo credit: Debra Moore

Nicely done! 
To see a concept plan and other photos of Heritage Garden visit http://heritagegardenescondido.shutterfly.com
Don't forget to check in with stevensmithlandscape.com where we will be setting up another gallery section for this project once it is completed.

Heritage Garden - Tree Planting

We installed several trees last week, including oranges, avocados and these 36" box Olive trees. This urban 'oasis' is really taking shape beautifully.  Our crews are working hard towards the shared vision of Heritage Garden, Escondido.  We will return this week to document the continued transformation!

Heritage Garden, Escondido

 Steven Smith Landscape, Inc. is currently participating in a collaborative effort to build a park in the City of Escondido, at the corner of Grand and Juniper. The planning stages for "Heritage Garden" have been underway for several months. All the materials and labor are being donated by local Escondido businesses. There is an extensive list of participants now and even more to be added. Steven Smith Landscape's first endeavor is to build an approximate 300 lf.of keystone retaining wall. RCP Block and Brick provided the materials for the wall. This is an exciting project that beautifies an otherwise vacant lot area owned by the City.  -Chris Cutler
-photos by Debra Moore

 These photos taken on March 7, show our crew and all the progress they are making on the wall's construction. Great job guys! We will return again soon to document the ongoing progress. To see a concept plan and other photos of Heritage Garden visit http://heritagegardenescondido.shutterfly.com
Don't forget to check in with stevensmithlandscape.com where we will be setting up another gallery section for this project once it is completed.

Evergreen Pear Tree: now blooming

 

 The evergreen pear tree, Pyrus kawakamii is an early and prolific bloomer.  Found throughout San Diego County, it is prized for its showy winter bloom, and can grow as high as 30' and also as wide.  They bear a small inedible fruit.  There are less and less of these trees being planted in recent years due to their propensity for 'fire blight', which kills random branches from the tree and disfigures them.  Spray for fire blight can be somewhat effective, yet it is an annual expense.

Good options which are less prone to fire blight are:
Pyrus calleryana 'Aristocrat' and Pyrus calleryana 'Bradford'
Both are fruitless, have a very similar bloom, but grow in a more pyramidal shape.

Contributor: Chris Cutler

Photo credit: Armando Diaz (taken at one of our HOA's)

 

To see more suggestions for drought resistant landscape plants, visit stevensmithlandscape.com

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Two kinds of lettuce, red and romaine, freshly picked this morning by our Supervisor  Del K.  Del most definitely has a green thumb when it comes to vegetable gardening, and these were too pretty to go undocumented before they wind up in our salads. A most unusual but appropriate Valentine's bouquet!