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bahia_gw

Better live than photoshopped...

bahia
11 years ago

A lot of times, a "painted" photo illustrating planting choices is over the top colorful compared to the reality of the actual plant. On the other hand, there really are times that the particular plant lives up to the fictional depiction. Such is the case with this foreground planting of the Madagascar native Kalanchoe pumila in this photo. It may not be to everyone's tastes with the fluorescent hot pink flowers in mass smothering the powdery silvery white succulent foliage. I love using it in mild beach influenced gardens such as this one, or as a trailing plant along the rim of containers on patios. Shown here in a late winter scene right on the bay in the town of Alameda, California, adjacent Crown Beach State Park.

That park may spark memories of last fall's suicide of a man that waded out into the bay, and drowned in 4 foot of water while the local police and fire departments sat by and watched over several hours. All because there was no official policy allowing anyone to make an authorized rescue with the crew and facilities on hand. Typically things aren't quite so off kilter here in the Bay Area, you can bet that policies were adjusted accordingly...

Here is a link that might be useful: Almost too colorful...

Comments (17)

  • adriennemb2
    11 years ago

    Nah, the planting is beautiful and classic. It's that neon blue garage door in the background that sets one's teeth on edge...

  • bahia
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    That is actually the neighbor's house, but notice how I did use some blue flowers here to try and relate!! The mauve/purple/blue,(not really sure what color it actually is): Alyogyne huegelii or Blue Hibiscus from Australia and the Blue Marguerite Daisy, Felicia echinaceae. The house for this garden isn't any thing to write home about either, but it is a rather bland beige and brown.

  • whitecap2
    11 years ago

    I doubt the subject of your digression was simply a matter of local government "policy." There is, generally, no "duty to rescue," subject to the caveat that, if such an effort is undertaken, liability in tort will lie if the undertaking is performed negligently. In rational jurisdictions, the victim (or his estate) would have the burden of showing that the rescue attempt left him in worse shape than he would have been without the attempt. In "activist" jurisdictions, however, the plaintiff may be obliged to prove no more than that the attempt would have been successful, had it been performed without negligence. This leaves those undertaking rescue efforts "sitting ducks" for personal injury lawyers. One more triumph of the ideology that is loath to speak its name.

    I would not wish to be understood as claiming to be "skilled in the law."

  • bahia
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Community opinion has been that the city rescue squads should no longer be prohibited from acting even if there isn't a certified rescue professional and boat available. Additional training is to be provided on all shifts patrolling the island of Alameda which has popular beaches
    for swimming. The absurdity of
    watching a mentally ill man drown
    over several hours because the police
    and fire depts actively prevented the
    public from attempting a rescue was
    just too absurd to support, even if it is
    the preferred legal solution by
    persons wishing to avoid exposing
    themselves to liability.

    I am quite supportive of changes in policy that will prevent a repeat of this sort of situation. So is the local city council, community opinion and many people in the police and fire depts. I don't actually live in the town of Alameda, so I have no personal stake in the issue; but it doesn't make any sense to me to stand back and watch someone drown because they ate mentally ill, and police or firemen could have commandeered asurfboard to effect the rescue, there were several wind surfers around at the time.

  • adriennemb2
    11 years ago

    Does California then not have some form of "Good Samaritan Law" and the rescue personnel a "duty to rescue"?

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    11 years ago

    bahia - I just had a scroll through some of your pictures looking for one with flowers that appeal to me. I must say, Your foliage combinations look the best to me. As Karin said and as d-d illustrated in pictures she posted on one of the other threads, you folks out there sure have a wide range of great foliage plants while us northern folk have a relatively narrow range in comparison! Various architectural things (e.g. gates etc.) in your photos are also very interesting.

    The picture at the live link below really appealed to me - I love that dark red color and how it picks up on the similar color on the right (I can't tell for sure if the color on the right is from flowers or foliage or both...)

    I can't figure out how to make a live link for this one:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/20217462@N02/6581674217/
    It also appeals to me because of the way the yellow of the flowers and the yellow tones in the foliage glow nicely together. I have become fascinated with the idea of making a 'golden path' area leading under my white pines so yellows sort of grab my attention these days! I saw a few yellow flowers in your pictures that I wish were hardy! You mentioned somewhere that you like (acid?) yellow foliage. Is there a picture of a yellow garden in your gazillion pictures? :-) I gave up after scrolling through the first 20 or so groups of pictures!

    As you can see from the two pictures focused on, it's not just masses of flowers that I like; it's what you can do with flowers to make attractive pictures. In both the two picture, the foliage would have made a nice - but a bit bland - combination. It is the flowers that brought extra sparkle and life to them IMO.

    Here is a link that might be useful: red flowers

  • bahia
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    The city of Alameda had a law in place that if no trained rescue personnel with rescue equipment was available at the time, they were to call the coast guard rather than attempt a rescue themselves as first respondents. The beach is a state facility that has no lifeguards, and I'm not sure where the neatest coast guard station with boats is,but apparently it wasn't able to respond on a week day evening within the 2 hours this played out.

    I find it says quite a bit about Whitecap2 that he sees this whole thing as political manipulation rather than community led response to change a clearly inadequate city emergency response policy for an island community surrounded by water. I think the majority of the community as well as the local politicians realized additional emergency response training for the forces so that they could respond without that pesky concern of liability due to lack of training, might very well save some child's life in the future. In the situation I cited, to be fair, the suicidal victim was severely obese and might have injured public rescuers in any rescue attempt if he resisted rescue or panicked.

    As to yellow plants in particular for a shaded woodland path, surely there must be hardy winter deciduous perennials or low shrubs cultivars with golden or chartreuse foliage for your zone, and consulting the pertinent reference books or nurseries should point you in the right direction. Maybe Ink or Adrienne or Drtygirl could chime in. I don't typically design gardens of all one color myself, and the golden foliaged plants I use are unlikely to be hardy in your zone, except the Heuchera Creme Brule or the Oxalis spiralis 'Molten Lava' or 'aurea' form as an annual which Proven Winners does market across the USA.

  • whitecap2
    11 years ago

    You might have noted that I made no claim to particularized knowledge about the incident in question or the present state of California law. I was merely suggesting a likely alternative to the apparent implication that the local officials involved are simpletons. I have been involved in thousands of claims and suits against local governments in over thirty states (including California), several dozen of them predicated on "Duty to Rescue." I can also tell you that, as concerns this "pesky" preoccupation with liability, insurers will not generally bind a municipal account unless its policies and procedures pass muster with its Risk Management Department.

    Good Samaritan Laws have been subjected to such judicial cavil and qualification that they are only occasionally of any real value in the defense of a personal injury case.

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    11 years ago

    bahia - yes, there are lots of yellow plants for shade here - I just wanted to see if you had done something along that idea (for sun or shade) given that you like yellow plants and have lots of interesting ones to work with as shown in your photos... I was looking more for general inspiration and validation of the idea :-)

  • Brad Edwards
    11 years ago

    Bahia,

    I love that madagascar kalenchoe, its beatufiul. What kind of palm is that? All I can think of is a palmetto like in florida but they look really dark. Do you think Kalenchoe might be a better choice than the purple pixie loropetalumn for zone 8 east texas?

  • deviant-deziner
    11 years ago

    I'm going to have to give that Kalanchoe pumila a try. Especially like it when paired with that Dyckia ( Jim's Red or Red Devil ? )

    My all time favorite thing about that neighborhood in Alameda, besides many of your gardens, are the 2 ft dia. faux rocks with a pad lock located on the sidewalks. I think there are water meters under the pad locked faux rocks.
    They are hysterical , especially when seeing a whole street line with these pad locked rocks.
    I am easily amused.

  • adriennemb2
    11 years ago

    Ha, rock locks - WE are easily amused.

  • bahia
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    No palms in that photo with the Kalanchoe pumila, which would not like any part of the southern USA ; it isn't freeze tolerant and being a drought adapted succulent, would hate summer heat and humidity typical of most of the south. It might just be doable in coastal south Florida.

    As to all yellow gardens here in california, I don't do them because they don't look good given our hot dry summers and bright light. Better to use chartreuse or variegated white/green foliage sparingly as accents than an entire garden, IMO. I have lots of photos of such plants in such accent situations, but very few appropriate to a much colder zone. Not really worth even telling you which plants I typically use as they won't grow for you, and quite a few of my general landscape garden photos
    have such examples. Do a search on
    my Flickr site using Oxalis spiralis
    aurea or Cotinus coggygria 'Golden
    Spirit's or Acorus gramineus Ogon or
    Carex oshimensis Evergold or
    Phormiums Cream Delight/Yellow
    Wave or Lysimachia nummularia
    aurea.

    As to the reason for California's
    financial decline; Howard Jarvis and
    the 1978 passage of Proposition 13.
    This began the tax revolt that seems
    to be the national model these days.
    The results all these years later are a
    tax model that greatly favors the
    older and wealthier home and
    business owners at the expense of
    everyone else. People in similar or
    identical properties bought at
    different times, and receiving
    identical services, may be paying
    400% or more property taxes than a
    neighbor who hasn't moved since 1978, or hasn't remodeled to get .
    reassessed. I also benefit since I've been in my house 22 years now; but the current tax system in patently unfair to the younger generation just starting out.

  • Brad Edwards
    11 years ago

    Thanks for the heads up bahia, its actually fairly dry where I am at in east texas, its almost like 50% socal 50% south, really weird I know. I also have a ton of microclimates in the landscape, with a pool and surround its more like zone 9, while in the back and lower elevation its almost zone 7 "peaches, cherries, etc". Along the front of the house gets full sun. I am just trying to get a list togeather for the house build, and have a greenhouse in our current home to house/recover plants :). Thanks for the heads up.

    Brad

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    11 years ago

    bahia - yeah, I wondered if the strong sunlight would have an effect - the yellow photo of yours that I included the link to was clearly showing how strong the sun was. I'll continue to work on creating a yellow path here and see how it goes... experiment, experiment...!

  • deviant-deziner
    11 years ago

    Adrienn,
    A fitting analogy.
    {{gwi:26315}}From Last Import

  • adriennemb2
    11 years ago

    @ Michelle - hee hee hee