hmb magazine sept. 2010

HMBHALF MOON BAY REVIEW MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2010

THE ANNUAL FALL FIX-UP ISSUE

Fixingthelighthouse

Restoration of Pigeon Point landmark sheds light on home upkeep. p14

f Q&A WITHFISHERMAN RUSTY BORO

T DEALING WITH RUNOFFT BATTLING INVASIVE SPECIES

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» PUBLISHER’S NOTE DEBRA HERSHON

Publisher Debra Godshall Hershon

Managing EditorClay Lambert

WritersMark NoackAmy Julia HarrisLily BixlerStacy Trevenon

Photographer Lars Howlett

Production and DesignBill MurrayMatt MedeirosMark Restani

Business Offi ceKim Ritner

CirculationBarbara Anderson Advertising SalesLouise StrutnerMarilyn JohnsonBarbara DinnsenPam Collins

Find us P.O. Box 68714 Kelly AvenueHalf Moon Bay, CA 94019p: (650) 726-4424f: (650) 726-7054

The HMB Magazine is published on the fi rst week of every month and inserted in the Half Moon Bay Review. The entire contents of the magazine are also available in PDF format online at hmbreview.com

HMBHALF MOON BAY REVIEW MAGAZINE

For those of you who like scavenging for hidden treasures, this is your lucky month. For those who plan on doing a little fall “spring cleaning,” coincidentally, this is a good month for you, too.

From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 25, the city of Half Moon Bay will be holding its 11th annual Citywide Garage Sale. Half Moon Bay residents can sell their unwanted items during a garage sale at their own home, which the city will post at no charge along with

other local garage sales, plotted together on one handy map. Last year, the event featured more than 100 registered sellers

throughout the city of Half Moon Bay. Another big part of the Citywide Garage Sale is that Good-

will Industries, a non-pro� t organization, will be holding a collection event on the same day from 1 to 5 p.m. Items in good condition that are not sold at the garage sales may be do-nated to Goodwill. � e trucks will be set up on Johnston Street between Kelly and Miramontes, behind City Hall. Goodwill In-dustries will also be collecting e-waste — computers, monitors

and the like — so this is a good opportunity to unload some of those items as well.Last year, Goodwill collected 26,000 pounds of stu� from 113 individual donors -- stu�

that may otherwise have ended up in a land� ll.� e Citywide Garage Sale is also timed to coincide with Allied Waste’s bulky item pickup.

� e company is scheduling its curbside pick up the following week.Registration for the Citywide Garage Sale is free, but act now; registration will close

sometime in early September. Maps will be available online and featured in the Half Moon Bay Review on Sept. 22. A limited number will be available for pick up at City Hall, the Ted Adcock Community / Senior Center and the library. More information is available at www.hmbcity.com/garagesale or by calling the city’s recycling hotline at 726-8263.

So clean out your closets and pass along all your reusable items. You’ll be helping out oth-ers in the community, the environment, and maybe make some money in the process.

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Features

9Q&A: RUSTY BORO

Fisherman at Pillar Point Harbor talks about keeping his boat ship-shape

14LIGHTHOUSE UPKEEP

Challenges of repairing the West Coast’s tallest lighthouse.

20HIGH AND DRYWays to deal with the runoff

when the wet weather arrives.

28RETURN OF THE NATIVES

Doing battle with invasive species in your back yard.

Departments

7 UPCOMING EVENTS

35 DOWNTOEARTH

36 SIGHTSEEING

On the cover Illustration by Bill Murray

» CONTENTS

The Fall Fix-Up Issue.

PAGE 14PAGE 9

PAGE 28PAGE 14PAGE 14

PAGE 28PAGE 9PAGE 9

HMBHALF MOON BAY REVIEW MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 2010

THE ANNUAL FALL FIX-UP ISSUE

Fixingthelighthouse

Restoration of Pigeon Point landmark sheds light on home upkeep. p14

f Q&A WITHFISHERMAN RUSTY BORO

T DEALING WITH RUNOFFT BATTLING INVASIVE SPECIES

ALSO:

BILL MURRAY


A Bright Idea!

Thank you Recycling Partners!


» UPCOMING EVENTS SEPTMEBER

Fall brings a fair in the forest

A mountain of art9/4 to 9/6 The 47th annual Kings Mountain Art Fair will fill the serene forested trails around the community center at 13889 Skyline Blvd. with high-quality art and fine crafts by more than 130 juried artists from California and beyond and by fine artisans within its own “Mountain Folk Art” section. Presented with a mountain of volunteer effort, the fair runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. all three days of Labor Day Weekend. Starting in 1963 when a handful of residents sold needlework in a local barn to support fire protection, the fair built a beautiful community center, sup-plied state-of-the-art fire equipment, supported the local school and community groups, and rallied the mountain folk in what has become one of the most notable art fairs in California. Each day begins with breakfast from 8 to 10:30 a.m., followed by lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the “Grill 56.” “Grandma Jenny’s” giant cookies are sold to benefit the school, and parents can browse while kids create their own art in the supervised “Kiddie Hollow.” In clear mountain air filled with the fragrance of redwood, juried and Mountain Folk artists alike offer fine paint-ings, ceramic arts, jewelry, textile art and clothing, glass, wood-work, leather, sculpture, photography and more, all to benefit the volunteer fire brigade, maintain the community center and local newsletter, support local youth and bring a mountain community together. (650) 851-2710.

Holy days

9/8The Coastside Jewish community will celebrate the High Holy Days for the Jewish New Year 2010/5771 with

Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services, including family services, vegetarian potlucks, music and reflection, through Sept. 18 at St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church at 1500 Perez Drive in Pacifica. Tickets range from $150-$250 depending on if you are going to celebra-tions of one or both holidays; no one turned away for lack of funds. (650) 306-0328.

Touchdown!

9/10 Half Moon Bay High School hosts Scotts Valley in the first of six home football games this year. Frosh-soph

play at 4 p.m. and the varsity game starts at 7 p.m. Half Moon Bay’s other home games are scheduled for Sept. 17, Oct. 8, Oct. 29, Nov. 5 and Nov. 12. There is an admission charge. 712-7200.

Strains of a Zephyr

9/12 Four noted classical musicians (Mack McCray, piano; Jennifer Culp, cello; Jodi Levitz, viola; Bet-

tina Mussemeli, violin) form the Zephyr Festival Classical Quarter, performing at the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $35. 726-4143.

Taste the coast

9/12 A no-host bar plus more than 30 local restaurants offer their specialties for sampling to benefit Senior

Coastsiders from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Sea Crest School gym, 901 Arnold Way, Half Moon Bay. Tickets $50 until Sept. 10; $60 after that, and $30/seniors. 726-9056.

Network with your representatives

9/16 From 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Cypress Meadows at 343 Cypress Blvd. in Moss Beach, mingle with elected

officials and local candidates at this “Network at Night” presented by the Half Moon Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce and Visi-tors’ Bureau. The event is for chamber members and the general public. Free. 726-8380.

Hope after tragedy

9/17 A Pulitzer Prize-winning story of a family seeking bal-ance after their world has been upended by tragedy,

along with warmth, wit and healing, makes up the stage drama “Rabbit Hole” offered by Coastal Repertory Theatre at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 9. Tickets are $15 to $30. 569-3266.


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Q&A Keeping your home-away-from-home

Fall is the time to fix up your house, but

what if you spend most of your time on

your boat? Rusty Boro, a salmon and crab

fisherman at Pillar Point Harbor, is an old

hand when it comes to boats. He’s been

fishing for more than 30 years and says

that maintaining his fishing boat, Bebe,

is a trial every year. He talked to Review

reporter Amy Julia Harris about what it

takes to keep a boat afloat year-round

and some of the repair challenges that

fishermen are facing this year. See Page

11 for the conversation.

Diana Gil-Osorio

afloatInterview by Amy Julia Harris

Photos by Lars Howlett

10 September 2010 HMB 22 October 2009 HMB

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Could you tell us about some of the repairs people should be making each year?

“Well, you should haul-out every year. We used to have a haul-out yard here but now you have to take the boat to Santa Cruz, Moss Landing or San Francisco. You also should change the zincs, paint the bottom of the boat, and do whatever you can. The more you keep a boat maintained, the easier it is to keep a boat maintained.”

What are some challenges fishing boats like yours face when it comes to repairs?

“Well, there’s just no money for repairs. If you can’t keep fish-ing, you can’t maintain a boat properly. It’s true that some of the prettiest boats in this harbor aren’t the hardest working boats.”

How expensive is maintenance?“My last haul-out was ten grand. Most of the time they’re

about $2,500 to $3,000, but I needed some welding on the bot-tom of my boat. My zincs used to only go two-and-a-half years and they’d be all worn. There are about eight zincs on the boat. So this last time around I went two-and-a-half years and they were totally gone. So it was eating part of the boat away because the zinc was gone. This harbor has gotten really hot over the years.”

So where does most of the wear-and-tear come from?

“The ocean is always moving — the currents come in and out. Metal in salt water creates current. So what happens is the rust and the corrosion starts from the weakest metal. Zinc is the weakest metal so normally it’s supposed to eat zinc first and then the metal. So when the zinc’s gone, it eats the metal. And if there’s no zinc, the next is steel. It works its way up the list.”

So things like zincs and haul-outs are annual fixes. What about other repairs?

“Not all repairs are things you can see. Stainless never rusts, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t get weak. Stainless has a shelf life of 10 years, but not many people know that. Bolts on my boat are stainless steel, and you’d never know they were old. You could have a stainless steel boat break in half, but you won’t see any rust on it. So whereas with a rusted boat, you know it’s time to change it, you’ll never know about this.”

What are the different types of boats and what’s the easiest type to maintain?

“Fiberglass boats are the best because all you have to do is wash them off with soap and water. Maybe once every six months, you wax them, and they look brand-new. Wood boats, on the other hand, have to be hauled out, repainted, refastened. They’re a lot of work too. Steel boats, once the rust comes, you have to grind the rust off, prime it, start over again. Each rust spot here has to be ground down to bare metal, primed and then started over again. This has to be ground off. It’s tough.”

Are you planning lots of repairs for this fall? “Normally, I used to haul-out every two years, but now

maybe I’m going to haul-out in December. During crab season when it slows down, I’ll haul-out again. This boat used to look real good years ago. I just don’t have enough time. My wife hasn’t been in my cabin in nine years (laughs). But here’s the deal. I put three kids through college and my boat went to hell. But now my kids are all grown up, they all have good jobs, and the boat is still going to hell (laughs).” 1

Q&A


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Lighthouse illuminates lessons for

home upkeep


Standing at the western edge of Pigeon Point Lighthouse, amid fog thick as split pea soup, California Department of Parks and

Recreation Superintendent Paul Keel looks up at the thrashed siding of the towering lighthouse.

“Nothing lasts out here,” he says.Keel makes his way over to unlock the chain-

link fence that has kept the public out of the light-house since a Christmas storm in 2001 gnawed at the coast and ripped out several strips of belt course supporting the lighthouse.

At 115 feet from base to top, Pigeon Point Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse on the West Coast. It’s one of less than a dozen remaining lighthouses in the Bay Area, and the National Register of Historic Places recognizes it as one of fi ve historic lighthouses in the country.

But its paint is peeling, a year-old door is al-ready rusting and the roofi ng on the adjacent fog signal house is beginning to show wear and tear from salty winds.

A fi xture on the Coastside, the lighthouse is a nostalgic indicator of times long ago and a disen-chanting reminder of budget woes: A U.S. House

of Representatives subcommittee recently recom-mended a quarter-million dollars be spent fi xing up

a trip up Pigeon Point’s spiral

staircase lights up

repair tips for us all

PHOTOS By LarS HOWLETT

By LILy BIXLEr


Pigeon Point, but the funds amount to just drops in the bucket for the $8 million to $9 million needed to do the job.

One reason for this price tag is that State Parks, one of the agencies working on the proj-ect, must maintain the lighthouse and ultimately restore it to its historical glory. In time it will eventually be reopened to the public.

“(The lighthouse’s history) is part of what we’re trying to interpret — it’s part of the story we’re trying to tell,” Keel said. “Why taint what these old craftsmen did?”

But striking the balance between practical maintenance and historical restoration has proven to be quite a feat. Although most ho-meowners don’t have to bother with preserv-ing their homes to such historical standards, the lighthouse has lessons to teach Coastsid-ers about regular household upkeep. To that end, the modern-day keepers of the captivat-ing lighthouse agreed to open Pigeon Point’s rusty doors and wind up her steep, spiraling steps to share some of her secrets.

Roofing fit for a king (storm):Before ascending the lighthouse, we take in

several buildings on the outskirt of the tower: a fog siren building, a keeper’s station and several buildings that now serve as a hostel. These buildings must also contend with gusty winds and salty air. Of particular concern is keeping the buildings’ roofs intact. Caring for the buildings is, “like keeping up a boat,” said Jeff Parry who tends the hostel. He struggles to find adequate material that will withstand the prevailing wind. One tip he’s picked up — a tip that might be of use to homeowners on the coast — is using five nails instead of three to secure the slabs of roofing.

Good windows can make all the difference:

Scaling the circular staircase up to the lan-tern room, Judy Pfeil, who was a docent at Pi-geon Point Lighthouse for more than 13 years, points out the new windows. Replacing all the

“(THE LIGHTHOuSE’S

HISTORY) IS PART OF WHAT WE’RE TRYING TO INTERPRET

— IT’S PART OF THE STORY WE’RE TRYING

TO TELL.”PAul Keel, StAte PARKS

SuPeRintendent

Left, docent Judy Pfeil stands between two pieces of the belt course that fell from the top of the lighthouse in 2001. At right, as State Parks Superin-tendent Paul Keel climbs the iron staircase, interior decay becomes more visible as the walls get thinner toward the top.


windows cost $50,000, but she explains it was worth it because the windows — with frames made from old redwood that grew nearby — keep moisture out of the building. Since installing the new windows, Pfeil points out, it even smells differently inside the lighthouse.

What a Fresnel lens teaches about window cleaningWith few other lighthouses in the country still housing their origi-

nal lenses, Pigeon Point Lighthouse is renowned for its first-order Fresnel lens. Pfeil explained that the lighthouse keeper used to wash all 1,008 separate pieces of glass with a homemade cleaning solution. What’s in this magic formula? Simply two-thirds water, one-third rubbing alcohol and a drop of Woolite mixed together in a spray bottle. With the damp coastal climate, the alcohol in this recipe helps dry up the excess moisture for a clean finish.

Don’t skimp on paintingPfeil advises homeowners to stay on top of painting — and to do

it right by adequately prepping the surface. On the tiptop tier of the lighthouse, on the walls encasing the Fresnel lens, Pfeil points out places where the paint is peeling back from the wall. In other places, rust bleeds from the walls. The lighthouse hasn’t been fully painted since 1992 when the Coast Guard ceased overseeing its maintenance.

“Don’t take short cuts,” with painting, Pfeil said matter-of-factly.“We certainly didn’t!” Keel laughs, hinting at all the work that’s gone

into this costly undertaking. 1

Top, a peek out a doorway shows views from the top that awed tourists until tours ended nearly 10 years ago. At right, wear and tear to the structure is visible everywhere. Volunteer Judy Pfeil notes a piece of the doorway that has sprung and attempts to pound it back into place.


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Staying high and dry when wet weather arrives On the coast, preparing for storms is a must

By Mark NOack

Winter rains were once an an-nual headache for Half Moon Bay resident Don Carey. The retired contractor would get water run-ning from his neighbor’s home to

his own backyard. It formed puddles and flowed down his driveway.

So when the 59-year-old redesigned his backyard six months ago, he knew he needed a new system to drain water. Instead of expanding his cement driveway, he went for a more permeable substance — grass.

He laid out a sheet of porous plastic underneath the spot where he laid his grass sod, and now his front lawn doubles as his driveway. Carey now regularly parks his work truck up on his lawn, and any rain that comes just gets absorbed straight into


the dirt. “It makes sense to collect as much water on your property as

you can,” he said.Any homeowner who has dealt with leaky gutters, deep

puddles or clogged storm drains knows that now is the time to make repairs and renovations to get ready for the rainy season. And local contractors and home supply centers say outfitting a home to be storm-ready doesn’t have to be difficult.

A number of measures can improve storm runoff, but perhaps the most effective is getting water to percolate into the ground. Cement and asphalt surfaces won’t let water leak through. Consequently, many homeowners opt for different materials.

Starting two years ago, Half Moon Bay and its surrounding areas of the Peninsula have implemented stronger measures to urge homeowners to adopt better storm-water systems and reduce runoff. As part of a larger agreement between Peninsula cities and San Mateo County, local governments mandated that homes avoid increasing the amount of water runoff coming from their property, particularly for new homes or those that are being rebuilt.

To fulfill that mandate, homeowners have been encouraged to redirect gutters and drains so the water percolates into the ground, or to store the water in large retaining tanks.

Half Moon Bay City Engineer Mo Sharma said there are several reasons for these rules. First off, when it rains, the city’s drains and creeks can get inundated from too much water rushing down all at once. This can cause floods or increase the chance of creating blockages. Having too much water runoff can also be hazardous for the local creeks and drainage chan-nels, causing more erosion.

Extra runoff also increases the likelihood for hazardous sedi-ments to be funneled out to sea. Certain sediments can threaten marine life and hinder their ability to get oxygen.

Sharma said it doesn’t really matter how homeowners choose to handle the problem, so long as they take some initiative.

“The city doesn’t mandate one way or another as long

On the coast, preparing for storms is a must

“OuR REQuIREMENT IS THAT YOu HAVE THE MAxIMuM OPPORTuNITY FOR WATER PERCOLATION.”

-- Mo SHARMA, City engineeR

Rain barrels are a quick and easy way to reduce runoff and water usage. Just save water from wet days for dry spells.


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as the design provides no more runoff,” Sharma said. “Our re-quirement is that you have the maximum opportunity for water percolation.”

Some Coastsiders grumble that the water rules don’t make complete sense. One Miramar homeowner said he spent about $20,000 to build a gravel pit for the stormwater to drain into. But during the rainy months, the ground was already saturated with water, and the rain-water would eventually just flow out into the street.

Coastside resident Steve Hyman had success using cheaper wooden barrels for the same purpose. Work-ing at a friend’s home, he helped place the 80-gallon barrels at each of the gutter spouts to catch the water, which was later piped to water the yard plants.

“It was a really simple thing to do,” he remarked. “It waters your plants for free, and it looks pretty cute.”

Homeowners have many other ways to reduce runoff from their homes. Hundreds of gallons of water will fall from a house’s roof each year. Experts recommend homeowners store that roof-water in large barrels or tanks for later use. At Blue Sky Farms, a porous parking lot surface drains water into a large container un-derground that is later used for watering plants.

Native plants are also particularly adept at retaining rainwater, far better than standard grass lawns. Indigenous plants have better root systems and are more acclimated for the rainfall of the area. But even if plants or trees aren’t native, they still help with retaining water. 1

Top, Don Carey uses porous plastic under sod to create a driveway that both retains water and supports his car. Left, a driveway of a certified green home in El Granada utilizes paving stones to create a permeable surface.

24 September 2010 HMB24 September 2010 HMB

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Return of the natives

Doing battle with invasive species in your backyard

Fall is the time to punt your pampas grass, eschew your eucalyptus and

o� your oxalis. If it ain’t local, it’s gotta go. Luckily, there are local landscapers who special-ize in native yardscapes who tell us what to plant and what not to plant and why it’s important to do follow their lead.

“Give them an inch and they’ll take an acre” reads the cover of one of the copious inva-sive plants brochures available at the Master Gardeners o� ce in Half Moon Bay. Shannon Gibbs has been thinking about for that phrase for years and when she thinks of it, she usu-ally thinks of pampas grass. Pampas grass –or Cortaderia selloana -- looks like a wispy white feather duster, but it’s causing major problems along the coast.

When she moved to the Coastside 11 years ago, Gibbs was alarmed by the pampas grass bunched on the road-

BY AMY JULIA HARRISPHOTOS BY LARS HOWLETT


sides along Highway 92 and at Devil’s Slide that crowded out all other plant life. So she made it her personal cru-sade to do something. Gibbs began the Coastside Invasive Plant Educa-tion program through the Master Gardeners in 2007.

“The nice thing along the coast is that we don’t have a large number of species of invasive plants,” said Gibbs. “But the ones we have are really strong and they will crowd out everything.”

Gibbs knows the struggle firsthand. She had to deal with invasives in her own back yard. When she moved into her Half Moon Bay home, she inherited a sea of English ivy from the previous owners. She toiled for months to get it under control and eventually remove it altogether. In hindsight she said, it would have been a simple thing if the people who

had planted it had known that the ivy was an invasive species in the first place.

“The Coastside is a wonderful place to grow plants,” said Gibbs. “Garden-ers don’t want to plant something that is invasive, so why not give them alternatives?”

That’s exactly what Sally Coverdell does. As a landscaper with Blue Sky Farms, she says that spreading aware-ness is key.

“People just don’t know,” said Coverdell. “We have people coming in and saying, do you sell pampas grass? Letting people know is the first step.”

It’s the opposite of the NIMBY problem, says Christiana Conser, a project manager with Plant Right, a group that helps spread awareness about invasive plants. The problem, she says, is that it’s in everyone’s back

“THE NICE THING ALONG THE COAST IS THAT WE DON’T HAVE A LARGE NuMBER OF SPECIES OF INVASIVE PLANTS. BuT THE ONES WE HAVE ARE REALLY STRONG AND THEY WILL CROWD OuT EVERYTHING.”

— SHAnnon giBBS, CoAStSide invASive PlAnt eduCAtion

At left, Algerian Ivy has over-run the ground and trees at the entrance to the Sweet\water group campsite near Alsace Lorraine. Above, Sally Coverdell identifies some invasive species in her Miramar back yard, including nasturtium and blue periwinkle.


yard. People unknowingly purchase orna-mental plants that aren’t native to Califor-nia, and those seeds can hop the fence and invade wildlands. In fact, Californian’s pay, not just in aggravation — protecting Cali-fornia from invasive species costs the state $85 million every year. According to the California Invasive Plant Council, more than half of the plants currently damag-ing California’s wildlands were originally introduced for landscaping purposes.

Conser, a project manager with Plant Right, said that nursery industries intro-duced thousands of ornamental plants, but only 1 percent escaped to become invasive. Pretty good ratio, right? Well, not exactly. If you look at the California Invasive Plants Council’s list, of the 200 invasive plants that threaten wildlands, about half of those are ornamental.

“In the case of pampas grass, they pro-duce plumes with hundreds of thousands of seeds, and on a windy day, those seeds disperse for miles,” said Conser. How that plant interacts in the garden, how it’s in-

teracting in neighborhood and watershed — that can be completely different.”

One of the reasons this can happen, says Conser, is that invasive plants have the same characteristics that make for a perfect backyard plant — they are easy to propagate, they grow rapidly, they produce lots of flowers and they’re disease resistant.

That makes these plants virtually impos-sible to get rid of, but Coverdell is a ruth-less warrior when it comes to dealing with invasive plants. She has a degree in plant science from University of California, Davis, and has worked in horticulture for more decades.

She takes a bare-knuckled approach to foreign invaders by spraying and up-rooting. And in certain instances, sheet mulching.

Sheet mulching may not be high-tech, but it can spell death for unwanted plants. You take a thick slab of cardboard — several inches thick and place it on top of the ground after pulling up as much of the weed as you can. Then you cover the

“IN THE CASE OF PAMPAS GRASS, THEY PRODuCE

PLuMES WITH HuNDREDS OF

THOuSANDS OF SEEDS, AND ON

A WINDY DAY, THOSE SEEDS DISPERSE FOR

MILES.”-- CHRiStiAnA ConSeR, PlAnt RigHt PRoJeCt

MAnAgeR

Above, St. John’s wort from the Canary Islands overtakes a field and hillside between Gazos Creek and Costanoa, threatening to spread over the ridge into a state park.


cardboard in mulch, a layer of decaying organic matter three to four inches thick — and let mother nature do the rest. You are basically burying the remnants of the pesky plant alive under a teeming layer of compost and mulch.

That’s Coverdell’s approach to dealing with oxalis. The “Ber-muda buttercup” looks like an unpretentious enough flower, but once it sets up shop in your back yard, it can take over and be a nightmare for gardeners. The earlier you dig out oxalis in its fall-to-spring growing season, the easier a problem it becomes.

But are invasive plants really so bad? Many of them are beau-tiful, which is why home gardeners plant them in their back yards in the first place.

It all comes down to what we value, says Conser.“When invasives move to wildlands, they move into a natural

area and they take over,” she said. “And they’re the only thing that can live there. There are no natural enemies to keep them in check. So you’ve got to ask yourself, ‘Do you value having a monoculture … or do you want to preserve biodiversity?’”

For her part, Gibbs wants to see a world along the coast with more than just pampas grass.

“There is a real responsibility on the homeowners on the coast,” said Gibbs. “If we don’t start looking at what we have in our back yards, these plants can take off into the open space and our Coastside will be transformed.” 1

Avoid the invaderst Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana)

Pampas grass can hop from your back yard and set up along rivers and creeks.

t Ice plant (carpobrotus edulis)

Easy to grow and drought tolerant, ice plant overtakes sand dunes along the coast.

t Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)

This perennial herb competes with native plants trying to re-inhabit a site.

t Blue gum eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus)

The Australian tree is adaptable to a range of condi-tions, which makes it pop up everywhere and crowd out native plants.

t Blue Periwinkle (Vinca major)

This evergreen trailing vine spreads its roots to provide ground cover and will continue to spread if it makes it to open spaces.

t English ivy (Hedera helix)

The evergreen climbing plant can choke out other plants both in backyards and wildlands.

t For a complete list of California’s invasive plants, visit www.plantright.org.

Top right, blue periwinkle is commonly regarded as a beautiful flower, but the plant can quickly choke out other species threatening habitats for local insects and animals. Below right, Sally Coverdell holds a bunch of invasive montbretia that she uprooted to make room for native species.


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» DOWN TO EARTH

Contact Jennifer Segale, Wildflower Farms, 726-5883 and Carla Lazzarini,

Earth’s Laughter, (650) 996-5168.

Q: What is a good, low-maintenance plant that

would grow well inside? I have a medium-sized pot and bright light.

- Carol R., Half Moon Bay

A: Well, you can try something I planted last month, an Agave

attenuata. I got a fabulous pot (about 1.5-by-2.5) at Fabbri Home & Garden, filled it with potting soil and planted one large Agave attenuata. Generally, succulents are not the first thing you think of as an indoor plant, but with the right conditions they make excellent plants for the home or office. They are incredibly hardy and low- maintenance, and the bold, structural look makes for an incredible addition to any room. Just make sure you have a few es-sentials: bright light, warmth, and minimal watering. Agave loves deep but infre-quent watering and a little organic fertilizer every couple months. They don’t need a whole lot of care other than that, although an open window with a warm(ish) breeze wouldn’t hurt.

I would recommend buying a large agave, since they grow fairly slowly.

— JLS

Foolproof potted plants

“MY GREEN THuMB CAME ONLY AS A RESuLT OF THE MISTAKES I MADE WHILE LEARNING TO SEE THINGS FROM THE PLANT’S POINT OF VIEW.”

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Potted plant tipHere are ingredients for a gorgeous grouping of potted plants:

Cerinthe

Thyme ‘Elfin’

Carex buchananii

Sweet Pea ‘Electric Blue’

Salvia uglinosa

I usually buy all of these in a 4-inch size or one-gallon size. Plant all of these in any order, in the largest pot you have. By the fall they will be bursting out with color and texture!

— JLS

Agave attenuata


» SIGHTSEEING WITH LARS HOWLETT

Composing in three dimensions

Lars Howlett is the Half Moon Bay Review’s

photographer. You can reach him at

[email protected]

n When: 3:04 p.m., Aug. 2, 2010n Where: El Granadan Exposure: 1/125 of a second at f/5, ISO 400n Photographer’s Notes: I was on assignment to photograph nuclear weapons historian, journalist and author Richard Rhodes when he suggested the home library as a setting for a portrait. I agreed, but was careful to position him closer to me than the shelves — about two feet from the camera and 10 feet from the books. Simple portraits can be more compelling when the composition include a fore, middle and back-ground. For example, say you want to photograph a family in front of their home. Instead of having them stand on the steps, bring them out onto the sidewalk with the home in the distance. With this technique your subject will have a stronger identity and not get lost or overwhelmed by the environment.

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hmb magazine sept. 2010

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