Landscape Architect Articles

Village Nurseries Donates $10,000 in California Native Plants to CURRENT:LA Water Public Arts Event08-10-16 | News

Village Nurseries Donates $10,000
in California Native Plants to
CURRENT:LA Water Public Arts Event

An 18.6-acre site adjacent to the LA River (left) is being used as a blueprint for drought-tolerant landscapes. The project aims to have hundreds of L.A. homeowners "mirror" the landscapes on their lawns.

Village Nurseries Wholesale, a specialty grower for landscape professionals, has donated California native, low-water-use plants valued at $10,000 to the city of Los Angeles' first public art biennial known as CURRENT: LA (www.currentla.org). The event runs from July 16 to August 14, 2016.

Los Angeles was one of four cities selected to receive $1 million for public art as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge (https://tinyurl.com/zc2g65o).

"Our donation to CURRENT:LA Water is in keeping with our ongoing commitments to landscape professionals and our communities in offering beautiful plants that conserve water," explained David House, Village Nurseries CEO.

Mel Chin, the artist responsible for creating the event's Bowtie exhibits, chose to use native California plants as public art. He was impressed with the wide variety of sustainable plants supplied for his palette." Chin's project, "The Tie that Binds: the Mirror of the Future (https://the-tie-that-binds.org/) re-imagines 18.6 acres at Bowtie, an area adjacent to the LA River, with a new landscape of native drought-tolerant plants. The public can take home free blueprints of the art/landscape to plant their own "mirror" sites. The blueprint clearly details the design, plant varieties and quantities needed to mirror the plot at a home or business of a committed participant. The project's goal is to have hundreds of these mirrored gardens installed all over Southern California thus reducing water.

For the landscaping, Village Nurseries provided "Julia Phelps' Ceanothus; California fuchsia (Zauschneria); "Our Lord's Candle' (Yucca whipplei); salvia California blue sage ('Winifred Gilman'); and dwarf coyote bush (Baccharis 'Pigeon Point'), among other California native varieties.

A year ago, Village Nurseries launched a "Save Water Stay Green" campaign to address the five-year drought in the West. It's designed to help educate landscape professionals and consumers how they can save water while still enjoying beautiful landscapes and gardens by installing low-water-use plants with reduced irrigation, i.e., drip irrigation and low-flow sprinkler heads.

Village Nurseries estimates approximately 70 percent of its 950 acres of inventory will perform well in the drought-stricken markets it serves. A complete listing of low-water-use plants is available in the company's extensive plant library