In search of sustenance

Each evening, a Pacific mist steals up the canyon to Remy O’Neill’s Malibu estate and then retreats to the shore by noon. On this wintry afternoon, the view is luminous. The ocean is still, the sky an immaculate blue. And the sloping meadow below the house, so emerald now, will be flooded with flowers by spring.

“On a good year,” she says, “it’s like a Monet.”

But this sea of color does more than please the eye. Its custom seed blend of regionally native annuals, perennials and grasses provides erosion control and wildlife habitat and serves as a compelling example of how a “green,” environmentally responsible landscape can enhance the space it inhabits.

For fire safety, the slope is cleared every six months, but clippings are never discarded. In fact, every speck of garden green waste is retained -- either left in place, as nature intended, or chipped, composted and returned to the soil as mulch. It’s one of many sustainable systems set up by O’Neill.

Simply stated, sustainable landscapes use resources smartly -- by reducing inputs and outputs. “It’s about working with what you have, stepping lightly on the land and restoring a balance.”

O’Neill’s tiny fingers mine the dark lettuce-dotted depths of a huge worm bin and fish out a handful of 2-inch-long red wigglers. “They need one pound of food every 24 hours per two pounds of worms,” she explains. Their castings are mixed with compost, produced nearby in four sturdy bins, or distilled into syrupy “worm tea.” Mixed sparingly with water, it’s a potent plant food.

But most of her plants are just fine without feeding, and too fit to be bothered by pests. A perfumed border of sage and woolly blue curls (Trichostema lanatum) attracts bees and other pollinators; butterflies flock to the native verbena; buckwheat and yarrow draw syrphid flies, whose ravenous young feast on aphids. The calming pond in the pergola harbors damselflies and amphibians. A windbreak of toyon and ceanothus ‘Dark Star’ ensures shelter for humans and food and refuge for birds. The unthirsty “front lawn” of chamomile and creeping thyme gets a haircut twice each year.

Water conservation is, of course, fundamental. A weather-controlled irrigation system supplies most of the garden -- slowly and intermittently, to prevent runoff. But the stone fruit and citrus orchards are watered entirely and, in turn, well nourished by a revolutionary installation, the first of its kind permitted by Malibu: a Subsurface Wastewater Infiltration System (SWIS) that processes and recycles every drop of water that leaves the house.

This is black water, folks, toilet waste included. Most California cities are still shy about gray water (household output minus the toilet).

O’Neill’s innovative landscape doubles as a demonstration garden for the Cornucopia Foundation, an environmental outreach group created in 1998 (she is vice president).

Over the mountains, in a distant corner of the basin, Ellen Mackey, a biologist for the Metropolitan Water District, has crafted a smaller sustainable landscape at her solar-powered Sun Valley home. It too functions as a model and is toured on occasion.

The former front lawn now brims with native shrubs, grasses and bulbs. Mackey is co-writing a book, to be published this spring by the MWD, on how to care for garden-grown natives. “The manzanitas seem to really like this spot,” she says.

A hand-lettered sign points to a secret side yard garden, the private domain of Mackey’s 9-year-old daughter -- complete with coral bells, sculpted fairies and a tree-stump table and chairs, set for afternoon tea.

In the utilitarian backyard, frisky brown ducks devour snails and fertilize beds where broccoli, parsley and nasturtium make excellent companions. Salvaged bricks and pavers are revived as edging and paths. Reclaimed chain-link gates shoulder a tunnel used for luffa vines and scarlet runner beans. The orchard provides fresh fruit year-round, with plenty left over for canning. Green waste is tumbled in barrel-shaped composters until ready for use as mulch.

For a new back deck, Mackey chose a composite material of wood and recycled plastic. (A similar product can be seen in the Jane Adrian-designed corner of the Sunset Demonstration Gardens at the Los Angeles Arboretum & Botanic Garden.)

O’Neill’s next project at her Malibu property involves swales and a concrete cistern to capture and store rainwater -- a job once performed by the spreading roots and deep mulch of native trees. While she is able and pleased to foot the bill for design and installation, most homeowners would pale at the cost.

Fortunately, Andy Lipkis of TreePeople has other plans for the urban landscape. His vision: sustainable practices in every garden -- and a municipal resource delivery system that provides its citizens with the “big stuff,” such as home cisterns and even larger contraptions.

A decade of work has proved to him -- and numerous public servants -- that change is both technologically and economically feasible. The model Hall House (see www.treepeople.org/trees), a single-family home in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, was retrofitted to conserve resources, reduce pollution and manage waste. A 225,000-gallon cistern lies beneath the parking lot at the new TreePeople Center (a notably “green” structure), and a whole-city retrofit will soon gather rain for 8,000 homes in Sun Valley.

Change, in fact, is far-reaching, with city planners and landscape professionals around the globe embracing sustainable guidelines. New products and technologies are rapidly emerging, and smarter gardens are being installed.

“But people must be part of the solution,” Lipkis adds. “Simple ideas -- such as mulching, permeable paving, growing your own fruit and compost bins in every yard -- can make a big difference.”

Going “green” in the garden is easy. “If you listen, the land tells you what to do,” O’Neill says. “It’s like an onion. Once you get started and see the results, it’s hard to stop.”

Lili Singer can be reached at home@latimes.com.

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In concert with nature

Going “green” in the yard is not hard. Just ask: “Where does it come from, and where does it go?”

Materials

Shop locally: Use locally made recycled and nontoxic products.

Choose wisely: Insist on sustainably harvested lumber and stone. Use gravel, decomposed granite and other nonrenewable resources judiciously.

Make it organic: Opt for 100% organic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, and organic compost and mulch -- preferably homemade.

Avoid the wild: Purchase locally grown plants. Never buy wild-

gathered ones.

Practices

Think forever: Build things to last.

Good dirt: Don’t remove or bury native topsoil -- it’s full of beneficial microorganisms.

Strategic moves: Provide erosion control and fire management strategies, where applicable.

Togetherness counts: Group compatible native and nonnative plants according to need. Minimize turf, but add flowers, fruit and seed for wildlife and the kitchen.

Waste not: Recycle green waste by chipping and composting for reuse.

Water wisely: Use low-volume or drip irrigation. Avoid overwatering, overspray and runoff.

Hardscape: Use porous or permeable paving that lets water percolate down.

Look skyward: Redirect, collect and store rainwater.

Creature feature: Use integrated pest management to encourage biological controls and minimize pest problems.

And finally: Mulch, mulch, mulch.

Sources: Andy Lipkis of TreePeople and landscape architects Owen Dell, Rick Fisher and Mia Lehrer.