Our September meeting will be on Saturday, Sept. 22 in north San Diego County and features two fabulous gardens. The first garden has never been toured before and the second was last visited by our group about ten years ago. Eat before or between gardens as entering the second garden requires shuttling up a long driveway and bringing in food would be difficult.

Description of Shearson Garden
The garden of John and Terri Shearson began about five years ago and is a blend of magnificent palms, unusual tropical plants, water features and color. Featuring 60 specimen palms of 35 species, the garden turns John’s residence into a tropical paradise. You will see Howea, Roystonea, Chambeyronia, Veitchia arecina, Dypsis lutescens and decaryi, and Rhopalostylis, with accents of Chamaedoreas in shadier locations. Mixed in with all the palms is an abundance of color, featuring crotons, plumeria, michelia, gardenia, coccoloba, hibiscus and lots of cycads. John’s passion has been to push the envelope on what he can grow and it definitely shows. His garden is an inspiration as to what one can do with a residential lot in the suburbs.

      

Directions to the Shearson Garden:
11403 Fairwind CT, San Diego, CA 92130
From the 5 North or South:
While on the I5, watch for and enter the “local bypass” in the right hand lane.
Exit Carmel Mountain Rd from the new I-5 bypass lanes.
Go east after exiting the freeway.
Make a right onto Carmel Mountain Rd.
Go Approx. 1/2 mile, and turn left at the second light, onto East Ocean Air Rd.
Make 2nd left onto Longshore Way and then a 3rd right onto Fairwind Ct.
House is near the end of the cul de sac street on the right hand side.
From the 56 Freeway.
Head west on the 56 until you merge onto the I-5 South (you’ll be in the bypass lanes). Get off at the first exit, Carmel Mountain Rd. Follow instructions above.

Description of the Arnolds’ Garden
“Chip” Lyle and Helen Arnold’s Green Valley Garden is a nineteen-acre hilltop property, elevation about 1000 feet, that is a combination botanical garden and nature preserve. The botanical portion of the property is a diverse collection of hundreds of tropical and subtropical plants from around the world including palms, cycads, flowering trees, aloes, protea, orchids, bromeliads, and ferns including areas of undisturbed coastal chaparral. Lyle has emphasized a “balance with nature,” and careful attention has been paid to the use of the existing boulders, natural slopes, and native plants. In the main garden are more than eighty palm and fifty cycad species, featuring Caryota, Wodyetia, Sabals, Chambeyronia, and cycads. The garden also includes a koi pond built directly into the boulders. The more recently developed portions of the garden are established according to areas of the world, with one area devoted to South African proteas, aloes, cycads, and succulents and other areas under construction.

Directions to the Arnolds Garden:
15638 Boulder Mountain Rd, Poway, CA 92064-2144
(time to next garden 25 minutes)
From the Shearson Garden, return to the Bypass lanes of the I-5 North.
Stay in the right hand lane and immediately exit onto the Fwy 56 East.
The 56 East crosses Fwy 15. Continue straight forward across above Fwy 15 and the road changes into Ted Williams Parkway.
Continue for about 2 miles and turn left onto Pomerado Rd.
In 1.8 miles turn right onto Stone Canyon Rd.
In 1.2 miles turn right onto Martincoit Rd.
In 0.4 miles Martincoit Rd. become Orchard Gate Rd.
In 0.3 miles turn left onto Lime Grove Rd.
In 0.2 miles Lime Grove Rd. becomes Arroya Vista Rd.
In 0.1 miles turn left onto Boulder Mountain Rd.9:
Drive straight up Boulder Mountain Rd. through the electronic gate. Park about 1000 ft past the gate on the large drive and a shuttle will take you up the small drive to the house. There will be help bringing plants into the Arnolds Garden for our Auction/Raffle. All donations are welcomed.