Gardening amid drought in Southern California

Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful article and accompanying photos of the Sarkissian garden in Modjeska [Beauty and the Drought,&rdquo, July 10]. You’ve made me appreciate my gardening friends and their efforts.

You’ve brought the plants and irrigation and history of the garden to life.

Linda Missouri Huntington Beach

ALTHOUGH I’M glad you are championing the use of California natives, I didn’t find “Beauty and the Drought” at all inspiring. It showcases yet another garden not at all relevant to the average homeowner in the San Fernando Valley. How many Valleyites have an acre of “rural, riparian landscape”?

The article may convince some people that natives can be grown only in wild, undeveloped spaces. Why don’t you come down to earth and show us the efforts of a single Valley family to convert their typical water-unwise lawn and other plantings to California natives? Real people, real gardens.

Chuck Petithomme Burbank

WARNING! A few years ago, a Los Angeles Times photo made me fall in love with the Matilija poppy. Nowhere in that article, nor in the one July 10, did anyone mention that like many love affairs, there are pitfalls.

The Matilija poppy spreads long distances underground. You will be digging it out of your rose beds or vegetable gardens for the rest of your life. I still love it, and it’s true it needs no watering at all, but one needs to be alert.

Alexa Maxwell Los Angeles

Keeping the bed ready for baby

I’M CERTAIN that a decorated nursery or dedicated nursery room serving another function pending future children can be a painful reminder of struggles couples face [“Nursery, Now or Never?” July 10]. They may consider a different kind of transitional room.

Most cribs today are “forever” beds in that they transition from a crib to a toddler bed to a full-size bed.

Why not design the extra future kids room in the reverse: Buy the crib, set it up as a full bed in a guest room.

Then, when baby makes three, convert it back into a crib.

As baby grows, you can convert the crib back into a full bed when the time comes!

Marta Allen Manhattan Beach

A citrus blight goes overlooked

IT IS irresponsible to publish an article encouraging people to grow exotic citrus without mentioning the blight of citrus leaf miner that has devastated exotic citrus in the last few years [“Citrus With an Exotic Twist,” July 3]. Although mature plants can withstand the citrus leaf miner, the young plants that the average homeowner would buy at a local nursery cannot.

I have been battling citrus leaf miner for two years and wish that I had never purchased my exotic citrus plants. The only sure method of eliminating the citrus leaf miner is by hand, and I have spent hours hand-cleaning my kumquat and tangerine trees.

Sofia Ames Los Angeles

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