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Test garden at EPCOT in Orlando, Florida

SO, WHAT IS A TEST GARDEN?

People who work with plants (artist, designers, horticulturalists, growers, biologists, people who make garden products, etc.) often need a space where can grow and experiment with plants. It is different from a garden someone might design for themself or for a client in that it is always in flux and the priority is given to whatever new experiments need to be done, not in cultivating of the overall look of the garden. That being said, some test gardens are really spectacular!

Sitio Roberto Burle Marx, Woolly Pocket, Gardens at Ball

WHY DID YOU START A TEST GARDEN?

In 2010, I decided I wanted our property in Los Angeles to function as a test garden. My environmental design studio, BREAKurban was designing more and more landscapes and I needed space to experiment and grow things. I was inspired by three test gardens I visited that year: Sitio Roberto Burle Marx outside of Rio de Janiero, the Woolly Pocket Test Garden (that I managed for 6 months) in Los Angeles and the Gardens at Ball outside of Chicago.

All of those test gardens are on larger properties with substantial resources. Our home is a typical LA urban lot (150 x 50′) with a compound of four buildings (c. 1907) on a slope. There is a narrow parkway and a series of terraces at the front of the property, a side yard and a maze of small outdoor “rooms” between the buildings.  So, we are a dense ‘urban test garden’.

We are just getting started with this project; we are only 2 years in! So our test garden doesn’t look as impressive as the gardens above. But we are actively working on it and plan to make the test garden available to garden tours in the next few years.

WHAT ARE THE GOALS?

• Grow 100 new plants a year!
• I also want to experiment with new garden products, soils, fertilizers, irrigation methods, plant propagation, methods of staking plants, pruning, green wall products, etc.
• Originally I had the additional goal of the garden being >50% native California plants, so it could qualify for native plant tours, but I have concluded that it isn’t practical. Space is at a premium and many of the natives are too slow growing for my rate of experimentation. But that being said, we still have a number of natives here and including a beautiful toyon growing in the front yard (the city of Hollywood was named after this shrub).

We grew 14 types of heirloom tomato from seed in 2012

WHAT HAVE YOU ACCOMPLISHED SO FAR?

Since the garden is young (less than 2 years old) we have been putting a lot of time and money into the infrastructure: hardscape, lighting, irrigation, etc.

In 2012 we planted over 100 plants and finished all these projects:

• NEW HIGH TECH IRRIGATION: Installed (8) new valves in the front yard, and laid groundwork for (8) valves in the backyard. Our new irrigation controller checks the weather online so that it doesn’t water when it has rained. I can also log in via an app on my phone to control or override the irrigation schedule, like for example if I want to give my lemon tree some extra water.
• LIGHTING: Added landscape spot lights to allow for night time gardening and viewing of raised beds.
• MORE RAISED BEDS: Increased the number of raised beds in the garden from 4 to 9, giving us a lot more space to experiment with heirloom veggies and herbs.
• GROW LIGHTS: We set up a permanent grow light setup in the upstairs of my office, with multiple types of lights and heat pads. We started about 500 edible seedlings in winter/spring 2012. We gave away a lot of the them to friends, neighbors and clients and we grew a lot of them in our garden.  We grew 26 tomato plants last season – 15 different varieties. In total, I started 85 types of plants from seed in 2012.
• HARDSCAPE: Removed several areas of concrete and turf from the yard and replaced it with really handsome gravel from Bourget Brothers in Santa Monica. New steel retaining walls and edging between beds. Repair of concrete retaining walls and sidewalks that are over 100 years old.
• HANGING BASKETS: I planted over a dozen large hanging baskets with succulents. Originally they were going to be watered by drip run along the ceiling of the porch, but we have concluded that the drip is not necessary. They are happy being quickly watered every few weeks with a hose.
• LANDSCAPE PLANTS ADDED: Prostrate rosemary, (4) types of lavender,  ceanothus, an octopus sized aloe, agaves, lantana, (2) types of jasmine, etc.
• DROUGHT TOLERANT PARKWAY: The parkway is narrow, just 28 inches wide. Previously it had scrappy turf and crab grass on it. We dug that out, planted (2) queen palms, (3) small succulent gardens and filled in the rest with dymondia a drought tolerant turf alternative that does not need to be mowed. We intentionally did not run any irrigation out to the parkway.

Succulents in the process of being planted in the “farm” and a new leucadendron

WHAT ARE YOU GROWING THIS YEAR?

Spring 2013:

• NEW SUCCULENT GARDEN: In January I took the terrace we previously called the “farm” where we grew squash and watermelons last year and replanted it with succulents: jade, aloe, aeonium, silver dollar plants, agave, senecio, etc.  I did this because as much as I liked having the additional vegetable garden space, we do have about 10 other raised beds on the property. The “farm” can be seen from the street, and you walk by it as you enter the property and I decided that it would be nice to have a more substantial planting there. Many of the plants were previously in pots in the backyard and doing this freed up some space in the backyard to start collecting cacti.
• JASMINE: We planted (2) additional jasmine to help cover a chain link fence. The one we planted last year is doing SO well at providing screening that we decided to extend it.
• DYMONDIA:  Last year we removed the grass from our parkway and planted dymondia as a drought tolerant groundcover/ turf alternative and while sections of the ground cover were thriving and growing in, other parts had kind of died out and were still showing a lot of soil. So we over-planted another 6 flats of dymondia onto the parkway. The over-planting seems to be going well and I hope that we get 100% ground coverage by the end of next winter. The soils in Echo Park are heavier/more clay like than are normally recommended for dymondia, but with a bit of amendment it has proven to be possible to grow it here. You just need to be patient and be willing to over plant until it fills in!
• CACTI: I recently started collecting of cacti at the back of the property, some of which were donations from a neighbor. I am interested in collecting more cacti samples from around the neighborhood and starting some experiments mixing soils for the cacti and with cacti propagation.
• BANANAS: Jonathan has been asking for banana trees for a few years so I bought him two of them for Valentine’s Day. They are still in pots, but they will be planted in the backyard in the backyard as soon as I have some concrete removed.
• LEUCADENDRONS: A couple of years ago I bought a yellow pincushion protea. Originally it was in a pot but we planted it in the garden last year. It has thrived and has the most beautiful flowers (that cost $2+ each per bloom at the Farmer’s Market!)  and I want to add more protea to the garden. We added two this season.
• EDITING THE GARDEN: We only have so much space in our test garden and as we plant new things we sometimes a forced to remove older things. Generally I am trying to remove the more common ornamental plants, that I am the most familiar with, in order to make room for plants I haven’t grown before or that are more unusual. We are always giving away plants — if you live nearby let me know if you are interested in adopting extra plants!

We will post more test garden updates soon!

CAN I SEND YOU PLANTS/PRODUCTS/FERTILIZER/SOIL TO TEST?

• We welcome your inquiries. Space is at a premium and we have a long list of things we want to experiment with in the test garden. If your product/plants etc. are a good fit for the current or upcoming growing season we will let you know.  Email me at patty@pattyhume.com.

 What should we grow in the Test Garden in 2014?