Saturday, September 5, 2015

Altadena Heritage’s Pours Out Water-Wise Landscaping Workshop Series

Altadena Heritage will be conducting a series of water-wise landscaping workshops on transforming your front yard into a beautiful and sustainable garden.

The series will have three sessions on September 12 and 17 and on October 24.

“Early sessions of workshops almost sold out, but we still have room in 11:30-1:30 sessions,” Michele Zack said recently.

The first and third sessions will be on-site workshops and the second session will be a free presentation by experts about designing your front yard using drought-tolerant plants. This presentation will be held at the Altadena Community Center, 6:30 to 9 p.m.

Horticulturist Debby Figoni is leading the hands-on workshop and is offering up her lawn as the main “classroom.” She will be providing quick reference design sheets focusing on water-wise plants and irrigation, and share her experiences with project changes and lessons learned.

Figoni is a water conservation analyst who practices what she teaches. She has transformed her lawn-dominated yard into an award-winning water wise wonderland. She has also created a variety of outreach materials to help residents create happy and healthy gardens.

Figoni teaches workshops around Southern California enthusiastically motivating people to create their own water-wise and sustainable landscapes.

The other featured speakers are Herman Quezada who has been teaching efficient irrigation and water-wise landscaping classes for 15 years, and Mark Goldschmidt, a retired landscape architect who will spell out the basics of landscape design and offer suggestions on how to get started transforming your home landscape.

Quezada has a landscape company that creates drought-tolerant landscapes and has installed automatic irrigation systems in the area.

The cost of the first and third workshops is $5 for Altadena Heritage members and $15 dollars for non-members.

Session 1 covers lawn removal and basic landscape design while session 3 covers on-site planting, plans and irrigation.

Space is limited and interested participants are advised to reserve space by sending an email toaltadenaheritage@earthlink.net.

For tickets to the paid sessions (1 and 3) and to RSVP for Session 2, visit www.altadenaHeritage.org/water-wise-landscaping-workshop. Upon payment, address of the on-site activity will be provided.

For on-site sessions, remember to wear comfortable shoes, bring water and a hat.