Not So Secret Gardens

Written by Bakersfield Magazine

For many homeowners, a yard is merely a buffer between themselves and their neighbors. A wide expanse of lawn, a few trees and shrubs, and maybe some annuals for color, along with a few hours of maintenance each week will generally keep your landscape comparable to the rest of the neighborhood.

For a gardener, however, a yard is like a canvas upon which to continually paint from nature’s ever-expanding palette. And for the visitor, nothing is more welcoming than to be invited through the garden gate into the magical world of plants.

“A garden adds interest and color to a yard,” said Rob Rephan, spokesperson for Green Thumb Garden Club of Bakersfield. “It also adds structure to the house and your eye is drawn to it when you drive down the street. It adds to the ‘look at me’ value. A well-designed garden makes people look at your house for all the right reasons.”

The club started with 16 members in 1995 and now boasts more than 100 members. The club has two plant sales during the year; one held in conjunction with the Bakersfield College Garden Fest in the spring and the other is held in the fall. The club also hosts an annual garden tour, featuring local gardens. The gardens feature unique plants and landscaped design. Funds raised from the tour help support the club’s activities.

The group meets on the third Saturday of the month at the Church of the Brethren (located at Palm and A). The monthly meetings start at 9:30 a.m. and feature speakers who have expertise in various areas of gardening.

People garden for many reasons. Some enjoy the sun-kissed flavor of homegrown vegetables; others enjoy the beauty of flowers. Some gardens specialize in specific species, such as roses, succulents, or bonsai; while others are all-inclusive and fill their gardens with every plant available. The one thing that gardeners share is a passion for the wonders of nature.

Though many people claim to have a brown thumb, Rephan claims that anyone can learn to garden; all it takes is the desire to learn. It’s not necessary to have a degree in horticulture or landscape design to have a beautiful garden. It’s not even necessary to have a yard.

“Someone told me there are 83,000 homes in Bakersfield,” Rephan explained. “That means there are 83,000 yards in Bakersfield and all of them have some space where you can garden. Even if you live in an apartment and only have a patio, you can still garden in containers.”

There are some basics to having a successful garden, and though it’s possible to learn through trial and error, it’s just as easy to ask an experienced gardener. Chances are, there’s one in the neighborhood. Advice from a neighboring gardener can be especially beneficial since they are likely dealing with the same climate and soils found in your own yard.

Even within the city limits, there are different types of soils and climate zones.

If you can’t find a neighbor who gardens, you may want to join the Green Thumb Garden Club. Members have varying levels of garden experience and nearly two-thirds of them show up at the monthly meetings. If you have a question about anything that pertains to gardening, someone at the club will likely have the answer.

Bakersfield’s gardeners are more fortunate than their counterparts in other climate zones. We can plant and harvest from season to season and local gardens can be filled with color year-round. Rephan said it’s simply a matter of selecting the right plants, placing them in the proper location; then watering and fertilizing as needed. “Everything needs fertilizing here because we water so much,” he added.

Knowing what to plant and where to plant may require a bit of research, but creating a garden will expand your living space and encourage you and your family to spend more time outdoors. A back garden offers the opportunity to create a private sanctuary that expresses your own style and personality. A front garden welcomes visitors to your home and when one person improves their landscape, it often starts a trend for the neighborhood which creates a lot of curb appeal.

Curb appeal has never been more important than in today’s marketplace. A well-maintained exterior lets people know you care about your property, and a tastefully landscaped yard adds to the appeal and value of your home.

After all, a garden brings new life into the yard, creating habitats for birds, butterflies, and beneficial insects. If you want to attract specific species of wildlife to the garden, you’ll need to incorporate certain plant varieties into your garden. For instance, if you’d like to attract Monarch butterflies, consider planting milkweed.

Rephan recalled the first time caterpillars feasted upon his passionflower, chewing it back to the stems. “Those caterpillars eventually turned into beautiful butterflies and the plant revived after a couple of months.” He said he enjoyed seeing the butterflies so much that he let it become a part of the garden’s annual lifecycle.

The success of a garden begins in the planning stage and you can build upon that plan as each season passes.

It has been nearly 20 years since Don Williams began planning his amazing garden. When he and his wife Marilyn first moved into their home, their backyard was like so many others: a large nondescript expanse of grass just waiting to be mowed.

“I mowed it once and said that’s enough of that,” recalled Williams. He immediately pulled out some graph paper and started working on a new garden plan.

The Williamses are active Green Thumb Garden Club members and participate in the club’s outreach activities, including maintaining landscaped areas at the Kern County Museum and the garden located at the 23rd-24th Street couplet, and the scholarship program for Bakersfield College students.

“We have made our yard a part of our living space,” he said. “We are out there every day.”

The Williamses live on a cul-de-sac so their backyard is large and oddly shaped. The garden is divided into different “outdoor rooms.” Each is a defined space with its own focal point and purpose. One room focuses on cactus while another features an aviary for Don’s Diamond Doves.

The family pool is in a separate area. Williams also built a greenhouse and keeps more than a thousand specimens of succulents from around the world. The “rooms” are linked together by brickwork.

“In this climate, you can have plants blooming even in the winter,” said Williams. “Our yard never goes brown and dormant.”

Surprisingly, Williams said garden maintenance is not a challenge. “If you plant the right types of things, fertilize correctly, and don’t overwater, you can cut out most of the weeds.”

Like Rephan, Williams claims the trick to gardening is planting plants in the right environment and he credits wife Marilyn with knowing where things should be planted. Williams said they spray for spurge like everyone else, but the task of weeding is simply a matter of pulling the occasional intruder during their daily walks through the garden.

Though the garden began out of Williams’ distaste for lawn mowing, grass hasn’t completely disappeared from the couple’s landscape. It has simply been reduced to a more manageable quantity. He added that it now takes about 20 minutes to mow and trim both front and back yards.

Though gardening is only one of the Williamses many interests—he also collects and restores old cars and she volunteers at the Guild House—they warn, “When you become interested in gardening, it can become an obsession. You’re constantly learning and reading about the topic, and when you travel you’re always looking to visit other gardens. It becomes a big part of your life.”

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Curb appeal is where the value of the landscape comes in.

The amount of time and money you invest in your landscape is a personal decision that should reflect your personality and lifestyle, but Gary Crabtree, president of Affiliated Appraisers, cautions people to not overdo.

“Your landscape should at least conform to the rest of the neighborhood,” said Crabtree. “A better landscape will increase the marketability of your property and help it sell faster [if you are planning to sell, that is].”

A well-landscaped yard increases the appeal of a property, but he says assigning a specific value to the landscape is difficult. People who spend a significant amount of money adding elaborate pools, waterfalls, and decorative lighting should realize that they won’t recapture their investment upon resale. Elaborate landscapes that become overbuilt for a neighborhood will regress in value toward the neighborhood norm.

As for the living elements of a landscape, Crabtree explained, “lenders are not real crazy about having appraisers assign huge amounts to landscaping. If the property is foreclosed and the water is removed, you have blight. When water is removed in this climate, everything is gone in two months.”

Buying a home is an emotional investment and curb appeal is where the value (of the landscape) comes in. “I’ve seen where people fall in love with a house and the landscaping and are willing to pay the upper end of the value range,” added Crabtree, “but you need to realize that this is more of an emotional investment than a financial one. Do it for your own personal enjoyment.”

Article appeared in our 28-3 Issue - August 2011