Who Knew A Bike Tour Could Yield Such Fun? - GreenTown Los AltosGreenTown Los Altos

Apr 2016

This year’s Lawn-Be-Gone Bike Tour was a great success. Our group of almost 30 riders made seven stops to learn about drought-tolerant landscaping from local homeowners and designers.

This year’s GreenTown Lawn-Be-Gone Bike Tour was a great success. Our group of almost 30 riders made seven stops to learn about drought-tolerant landscaping from local homeowners and designers.

This is the 4th year with our first stop the always popular Living Classroom demonstration garden at Egan Jr. H.S. GreenTown’s Margie Suozzo told us about the program, pointing out the little signs with plant names and descriptions. This is a great place to see the beauty of mature plants.

Our next two stops revisited 2015 Tour stop, allowing us to see the year to year change. Both yards still look first rate.

First was Emily Thacker, who likes to keep her landscaping neatly trimmed and gave us some good pointers. Next was Debby Ruskin (ruskingardens.com) who discussed important design features including Netafim, a drip irrigation system.

Then we hit some new territory.

Look at those veggies!

John McShane showed off his property, pointing out that he has something in bloom 11 months of the year. Designer Bonnie Brock (bbrockdesign.com) showed off his extensive raised-bed vegetable garden.

Next stop was a brand new installation by Jeff Sheehan (confidencelandscaping.com) explaining the importance of leaving space for the plants to grow minimizing the need to do much pruning. The less pruning the better as it stresses the plants and they end up needing more water.
Then it was on to Redwood Grove Nature Preserve. Acterra has done a huge amount of work to restore the Preserve in the past seven years. More than 2600 volunteers, 2/3 of them students, have helped and the efforts clearly show. And guess what?

Thanks to the rainfall, there’s water flowing again in Adobe Creek! Next stop, University Ave. to meet Janet Wilson with a very full yard filled with variety and color, she says next year it could look completely different because she likes to keep trying new things!