Garden

NEWPORT BEACH – As rain continued to pelt the region, city crews pumped water off low-lying islands in Newport Beach and mud swept a private garden off a hillside Wednesday morning. Large concrete blocks and metal handrails tumbled onto Bayside Drive, landing a few hundred feet east of the Balboa Island bridge. On Balboa Island, city workers spend a third day pumping water out of streets. A 6-foot high tide at 9 a.m. prevented rainwater from flowing out of storm drains.

You will usually hear them before you see them. House wrens are small birds, but they are a great addition to almost any garden. I'm standing in my garden watching a tiny brownish bird streak from the orange tree to the fence top. Once there it pauses, looks around for a moment, then begins singing. The song is melodious and wonderful, the way a songbird is supposed to sound, not chirpy, but musical. After a brief recital the tiny bird flits over to the vegetables, broccoli leaves quiver and off comes a small caterpillar.

  In about an hour I am visiting a friend's garden in Newport Beach. I've never seen his garden, but after knowing him for a few years I certainly have a picture in my head of what I think it will be like. My friend is a landscape water conservation expert, one of the best in the West actually, and he invited me over to sit down for a few minutes and brainstorm some ways the city might encourage its residents toward even greater water conservation practices. But, he also invited me over simply to see his garden.

Visitors to my garden frequently comment that it must take a lot of time to care for such a large piece of property. Yet the garden seems much larger than it actually is, owing to the fact that you can't view the entire property all at once. Passing from one area of the garden to another, guests traverse varied surfaces consisting of gravel walks, grass paths, bluestone patios, the sisal carpeted floor of a walk-through garden room, a patio paved with 200-year-old bricks, and patches of lawn.

As a novelist and playwright, Ira Levin refused to be categorized or pigeonholed. He could produce such rollicking comedies as "Critic's Choice" and "No Time for Sergeants" or delve into more chilling fare like "Rosemary's Baby" or "The Boys from Brazil. " "Dr. Cook's Garden," now being revived at the Newport Theatre Arts Center, falls quite definitely into the latter category. It deals with a small-town Vermont physician and gardening enthusiast who prunes his roses and the village's undesirables with the same meticulous care.

The Orange Coast College Children's Center has offered daily education to the youngest of area students, often for free, for more than 35 years. If juggling schoolwork and a full-time job is difficult, then balancing the two with child care can be nearly impossible. That's why Orange Coast College's Children's Center has been a staple on campus for more than 35 years. Housed inside the 13,000-square-foot Harry and Grace Steele Children's Center, the program provides discounted child care and developmental instruction to children in the community.

As family legend has it, centuries ago, our ancestors were dwelling in Scotland during a famine. The local peasantry was starving in the countryside, while the local lord was cozy in his castle. With the help of his knights, he had taken whatever food there was from the peasants. In addition, he had a substantial garden within the castle walls, so he and his were eating well. The peasants would have been wiped out if it wasn't for one person within the castle walls ? the lord's gardener.

It's that time of year again -- we just returned from our semi-annual buying show. It was wonderful and so are the items we bought for the store. Since we specialize in gardens and 'garden rooms', our selection of plants and hand-painted country furniture is abundant. Lovely ferns of all types, beautiful flats of impatiens with shovel and garden gloves, pots of Iceland poppies, sunflowers and more are all available. Of course, no respectable garden would be complete without its share of frogs, squirrels, birds and more -- all are waiting to decorate your garden.

KAREN WIGHT It's time to hop on the Halloween bandwagon. Merely carving a jack-o'-lantern is not going to cut it -- not when there are bales of hay to stack and webs to spin. I won't bore you with pumpkin details; that's old news. My twist is in the garden -- adding plant "vignettes" to your walkway, borders and pots. There are some creepy combinations that will look spooktacular in your garden. We'll start with something simple: Pansies are available in flats called "Trick or Treat."

Jennifer Kho COSTA MESA -- Concern about the future of the Isamu Noguchi California Scenario garden has led to another delay for part of the Town Center project. "We're disappointed, but we're very confident we can find a way to put all the words together and make this nice project happen," said Phil Schwartze, planning consultant for Commonwealth Partners LLC, which is trying to develop the part of the Town Center project surrounding the garden.

NEWPORT BEACH - Chanelle Sladics posed a question to second- and third-graders at Newport Elementary School Thursday morning. "Are you guys excited to plant some seeds?" Sladics, the pro snowboarder, asked the kids. "Yes," the 23 Newport El students responded. Sladics ended up being excited too, to plant the seeds, figuratively and literally. Sladics, 28, visited her former school, and taught the children about organic foods, as well as planting within plastic bottles to help the environment.

As a novelist and playwright, Ira Levin refused to be categorized or pigeonholed. He could produce such rollicking comedies as "Critic's Choice" and "No Time for Sergeants" or delve into more chilling fare like "Rosemary's Baby" or "The Boys from Brazil. " "Dr. Cook's Garden," now being revived at the Newport Theatre Arts Center, falls quite definitely into the latter category. It deals with a small-town Vermont physician and gardening enthusiast who prunes his roses and the village's undesirables with the same meticulous care.

The Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona del Mar is looking for docents who will provide tours. An orientation class begins at 9 a.m. Jan. 28., with six training classes to follow on Monday mornings. The training fee is $50 and includes six month's dues in a docent guild. Pre-registration is required. People interested can call Stefanie Kristiansen at the garden office at (949) 673-2261 or email info@slgardens.org . The Sherman Library and Gardens is at 2647 E. Coast Hwy. For more information, visit http://www.slgardens.org . — Bradley Zint Twitter: @bradleyzint

ANAHEIM - When Corona del Mar High wins CIF Southern Section football titles, the school does so in consecutive years. The top-seeded Sea Kings completed their back-to-back Southern Division championship run with a convincing 35-10 victory against No. 3 Garden Grove on Saturday at Angel Stadium. Under Coach Scott Meyer, the Sea Kings finished 12-2 overall for the second straight year. The previous time CdM won two straight section championships was in 1988-89. The Sea Kings opened the scoring on Garden Grove's first pass attempt, as Alex Moore took back an interception 30 yards for the touchdown, just 12 seconds into the game.

Scott Meyer never got the chance to play a high school football game in a professional stadium, let alone coach a high school game in one. On Monday, he pictured what it would be like to coach a game in a pro stadium. What better way to conjure up that image than to walk on the field at Angel Stadium. It was early in the morning when Meyer arrived at the stadium. Groundskeepers mowed the grass. Strings to line up the field touched the grass. Goal posts stood at each end zone.

CORONA DEL MAR - In the recent past, the Corona del Mar High girls' basketball team has won games with gritty play. In the immediate future, the Sea Kings will be able to win some games with their size. Two 6-foot-1 freshman post players, Natalia Bruening and Krista Anderson, have entered the program. They introduced themselves to Garden Grove in the first round of the CdM Tip-Off Classic on Monday night. Bruening and Anderson combined to score more than the visiting Argonauts, as CdM won going away, 49-22, in the season opener for both schools.

The folks at Roger's Gardens made this cool video featuring its transformation into Blackstone Manor for Halloween this year.  Have you checked out the Halloween boutique yet?  The video was posted on Roger's Gardens' official YouTube page last month.  For Daily Pilot photos of Blackstone Manor, click here . 

Roger's Gardens opened the 2012 Christmas Boutique last week, drawing crowds who were circling the parking lot and cramming the aisles for a sneak peak at the shop's holiday displays. "It's crazy," said Eric Cortina, Roger's Gardens' creative director. Cortina, who has a line of ornaments and decorations in the boutique, said he loved the shop's front room with its Victorian, H.G. Wells theme featuring clocks, gears and kaleidoscopes, and an enormous tree decorated in silver and gold.

It may still be summer, but the fall season is officially underway at Roger's Gardens, where shoppers previewed the annual Halloween boutique that opens to the public on Friday. “You can't have too many rats,” said Mike Ridenhower of Coto de Caza, who attends the sneak preview every year with his wife, Carolyn Ridenhower. “We usually come several times,” he said. “Every year, we add to our collection.” The rats, they said, line a spiral staircase at their home and always get a big response from trick-or-treaters.

When Kate Batstone came home from a service learning trip to Ecuador two years ago, she struggled to re-adapt to Orange County's culture of affluence. "It's really hard to come home when you're leaving behind so many problems," Batstone, 18, said. "You really want to stay. Orange County is so nice. There's unbelievable shopping and spending. I was so angry at the wastefulness. " Batstone, a student at the Jewish community day school Tarbut V'Torah in Irvine, is going on her second service learning trip with 23 other classmates next month.