Monthly Archives: January 2019

Authentic Foothill Gardens, Sierra Madre

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New City Hall Gardens Reflect Rich History

The City of Sierra Madre, Sierra Madre Garden Club, the Sierra Madre Community Foundation, and FormLA Landscaping brought the new look of LA landscapes to Sierra Madre City Hall in November 2015. The Authentic Foothills Gardens at Sierra Madre City Hall are now well-established, lush and leafy, and now attract residents, birds and butterflies!

January 2025 Notice: While fires and recovery are in progress, we encourage Angelenos
to stay in their home communities and visit our fire defensive demonstration gardens
via their dedicated websites. We’d love for you to visit in person once danger has passed,
and nearby residents are further into recovery processes.
Thank you for your love and consideration.

The Authentic Foothill Gardens

The garden reflects a lush, leafy aesthetic authentic to the Sierra Madre area, and it has been featured on the 2017 Theodore Payne Foundation’s Native Plant Garden Tour as well as a tour during the 2016 International Greenbuild Conference. 

Pre-exising Sycamore in one of four IdealMow Meadows
Fire defensive demonstraton
City of Sierra Madre Team
Trails encourage kids to wander and explore.
The community installed the foliage in the garden.
The community installed the foliage in the garden.
The gardens encourage community
visitation and vitality.
Two bioswales help fuel the city’s
water independance.

While elevated by the San Gabriel Mountains, Sierra Madre has a Mediterranean climate, and the garden is designed to thrive in it!  Like the rest of LA, it will be dry throughout the year with occasional wet winters.  As a foothill community in an alluvial fan, seasonal fires and subsequent slides are of great concern.  When systematically used by the community, the Sierra Madre City Hall’s authentic plant palette can improve the resilience of adjacent wildspaces.

In addition to fire defensive and slope saving plants, the garden includes a variety of native edible and medicinal plants. These honor the area’s history as an agricultural hub for the largest indigenous population in North America. Birds, butterflies, and native fauna will flock to the gardens, as native foliage provides their most favored sources of food and shelter.

The public gardens both conserve water and fuel the groundwater table via two beautiful bioswales. When the swales are not doing their “real” job, they entertain the city’s children.

Plant Palettes

The foothills have distinctive needs: Fire defense and resilience. Slope retention. A tolerance for low water and high heat. Wildlife habitat. Fulfill them all with the Authentic Foothill Gardens plant palettes. Enjoy more fire defensive garden palettes via our Pinterest.

Happy at Home

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5 garden habits can bring greater health and happiness

January 6, 2020. By Isara Ongwiseth: We all think of ways we can turn over a new leaf in the new year. If your goals include greater health and happiness, these 5 simple, work-free habits can help.

Open the Front Door

It’s easy to go from building to building, exiting and entering our homes through the garage. This keeps us from fresh outdoor air, and limits our healthful interactions with nature and neighbors. Simply opening the front door can help. Take it to the next level by sweeping the front porch – some say it brings good energy into a home. We can attest to it bringing good energy into our hearts and minds.

Walk Barefoot

The practice of “grounding,” simply walking barefoot on the earth, is thought to plug us into the earth’s energy. It may sound too-good-to-be-true, but National Institute of health data backs it up. One study refers to grounding as “electric nutrition” that can reduce inflammation. Others show a variety of helpful outcomes from lower stress to improved sleep. So far, we’ve yet to see one describe the delight of feeling Carex pansa meadow grass tickling an instep. They’ll get there.

Say Hi to Someone

One of the top contributors to happiness and longevity is social connection. Simply sitting on a front porch or working in a front yard edible garden can spark interaction. No neighbor about? No problem! Your plants are likely in the midst of deeply important plant-conversation with one another. Why not join? It may lift your mood – and your voice is good for them!

Listen to the Birds

If you are lucky enough to live where birds do, take a listen. Birdsong has been tied to lower stress, better moods and concentration – even better business. Once you become accustomed to tuning into their station, you may notice the genre entering unexpected public spaces as cities, hospitals and workspaces experiment with playing birdsong to create atmospheres of calm and focus.

Cleveland Sage | Butterfly
Fountain | Hummingbird
Fragrant Coyote Mint | Bee

Watch, Wait, Wonder

The garden can be yet another task list, a space we walk through without noticing – maybe, on a good day, a place to stop to smell the salvia. Or we can make it our own, personal Disneyland. We commit to experiencing delight and awe each time we enter the garden, knowing that if we “watch, wait and wonder,” as we might with an infant, we’ll see, smell, feel and hear all we need to go out into the world at peace.