THE COASTAL GARDENER:

Seven o’clock in the morning, and “the gang of seven” left the parking lot in Newport Beach.

Our quest? To get a firsthand glimpse into the future of gardening in Southern California. Only one of us knew where we were going; the rest were captive victims for the next 12 hours.

Ten minutes later, we were standing with our toes in the sand near Crystal Cove State Park; a strange place to begin a gardening quest.

We were watching the stream of water that flows here, day and night. It’s not rainwater; we don’t have that in Southern California during the middle of June.

It is excess water that runs off our gardens, into this stream and into the ocean, but not before being mixed with fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and snail baits.

We looked to our left, where a once-wild canyon was now eroding. Its native plants and habitat for wildlife were now choked with exotic Brazilian pepper, Myoporum and giant reed, all garden escapees.

Next was a slow drive though Irvine’s Shady Canyon neighborhood to see the effort being made here to blend landscapes with the surrounding natural area. Out the eastern gate and onto the freeway, we headed south.

By 9:30, the gang was standing in one of Southern California’s most amazing residential landscapes, the garden of Patrick Anderson.

His garden in Fallbrook, San Diego County, has been featured in books, magazines and newspapers.

Twenty years ago, when it wasn’t a very popular idea, Patrick began a garden of texture, form, color and drama.

He incorporated hundreds of plants, little known at the time, into amazing and creative combinations.

His plant selections were not accidental, though; they were thoughtful — choice succulents, Mediterranean plants, natives and more. The result of Patrick’s foresight two decades ago is a garden spectacle today, perhaps a model for our future.

When I asked Patrick how frequently he waters, the answer was straightforward: “Almost never.” The “gang” took note. I followed up with, “How often do you fertilize?”

Patrick was concise; “Never,” he answered. There we were, standing with Patrick in a garden of incredible beauty, one of the most admired in Southern California, and he almost never waters and never fertilizes. Wow.

Fifteen minutes later, we were standing at the entrance to the garden of Wanda Mallen. A botanical treasure awaited us. Plants from Australia, South Africa and the Mediterranean basin were immaculately presented in her famous and well-publicized garden.

Wanda is a gardening addict. As we walked and talked, touched and sniffed, Wanda and I reminisced about our visit last summer to several award-winning gardens in the Seattle area. But Seattle and Southern California are about as far apart as peonies and plumeria.

Here we were, standing in warm, dry Fallbrook. Wanda’s garden is about as far away from Seattle as one could imagine. It is a California garden.

Wanda does all of her own planting and maintenance, and her immaculate, intensely planted two-acre garden is sparsely watered. With no lawn to mow, debris to blow, hedges to clip or pop-ups to repair, she has no need for gardeners. The “gang of seven” was impressed.

Farther south, we spent the next hour on a rooftop. Seven gardeners peering into the future of gardening, standing on top of a roof? Yup.

In Kearny Mesa, Jim Mumford has installed the largest “green roof” in San Diego County. A waterproof barrier, six inches of soil and some low-water plants have been assembled on the rooftop of this gardening pioneer. As I stepped onto the roof, I frightened a mourning dove that was feeding and soon noticed butterflies and honeybees going about their chores.

Jim’s cooling costs in the building have been reduced 23%, oxygen has been produced, wildlife habitat has been created, rainwater has been purified and the urban heat island effect has been mitigated. In Germany, the leader of the green roof crusade, one in every seven roofs is “green.” As the “gang of seven” stood on this rooftop oasis and looked around, it made us wonder.

Two more stops, at San Diego’s Environmental Services Department headquarters and at the San Diego County Water Authority’s head offices, were enlightening. Both buildings were surrounded by innovative plants, well designed to blend with the architecture and the environment. Here, the future was literally at our feet — techniques like low-flow irrigation, micro-sprinklers, “Smart” controllers, plant hydrozoning, green waste composting, surface mulching, water swales and, of course, innovative plants.

It was quite a day. For 12 hours, the “gang of seven” peered into our gardening future. We wish you all could have been with us — a “gang of thousands.”

ASK RON

Question: My tomatoes are almost ripe. Is salmonella poisoning a possibility, or are these safe to eat?

Kitty

Newport Beach

Answer: The FDA has declared that all home-grown tomatoes are safe to eat, free of salmonella. Instead of selling lemonade from a fold-up table to passersby, perhaps you could set up a tomato stand. With the current shortage of tomatoes in the markets, the kids could make enough money to buy a couple of gallons of gasoline for the family car.

ASK RON your toughest gardening questions, and the expert nursery staff at Roger’s Gardens will come up with an answer. Please include your name, phone number and city, and limit queries to 30 words or fewer. E-mail stumpthegardener@rogersgardens.com, or write to Plant Talk at Roger’s Gardens, 2301 San Joaquin Hills Road, Corona del Mar, CA 92625.

RON VANDERHOFF is the nursery manager at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar.