Tranquill Gardens

Commensalist | Future proof landscape design 4 likes. "Food Forest Podcast: Brad Lancaster – Regenerating Life in the Driest Landscapes"

Take a look at your garden tonight. Do your outdoor lights really need to be that bright? Upward spill can disrupt nocturnal wildlife, migrating birds, and even plant cycles. We shared a few simple dark-sky lighting fixes in our recent 1/15 newsletter.

Homeowners and gardeners can help reduce energy usage and the effects of light pollution by using dark sky friendly ideas. Here’s how:

-Use low-glare lighting fixtures that are shielded and pointed downwards.
-Pick LED technology or lower wattage to reduce brightness.
-Limit the amount of light output with fixtures that have smart technology features such as timers, dimmers and motion detecting sensors.
-Think about where lighting is needed and only place lights where they are most used.
-Position lights as low as possible and aim them downwards to minimize glare and light spillage.
-Outline garden pathways for safety with solar lights or efficient LED lights that are not overwhelmingly bright.
-Turn on porch lights when coming and going, and avoid leaving them on all night.
-Use decorative lighting such as string lights sparingly.
-Place and direct lights away from areas where wildlife is likely to feed, nest, and seek protection, such as hedging and tree canopies.
-Design areas of the garden to rely on natural moonlight rather than artificial lighting (learn more about moon gardens).
-Preserve dark areas of the yard where possible.

Read more: https://www.gardendesign.com/lighting/dark-sky.html

Pictured: A single strand of string lights provides enough ambiance without excess brightness. Hanging lights against a wall helps contain the glow and reduce light spill. Photo by Ami Dushkowich.

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🌸 A Sweet Pea with a 300-Year Love Story 🌸

Lathyrus odoratus ‘Cupani’ — the original sweet pea, and quite possibly the most romantic flower in the garden.

Discovered growing wild near a Sicilian monastery and sent to England in 1699 by a monk named Father Francis Cupani, this beauty became the very first sweet pea ever grown in cultivation. And the fragrance? Deep, rich, old-fashioned, and unforgettable — the scent modern sweet peas have been trying to recapture ever since.

Its velvety bi-colored blooms swirl in tones of wine, violet, and smoky blue, looking like something straight out of a 17th-century painting. Unlike many sweet peas, ‘Cupani’ is also surprisingly heat-tolerant and happy in containers. Even better, it often self-sows, returning like a living heirloom passed down through generations.

One plant, centuries of history, and a perfume that stops you in your tracks. 💜

https://www.groworganic.com/products/lathyrus-odoratus-cupani

Big Fat Deal here...

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I found myself explaining the Urban Heat Island to a Cop a few days ago, after I had the cops called on me (for the second time) while planting street trees on public property. When he asked me why I was planting trees (but didn't tell me I couldn't do it), my reply was first and foremost "shade". As I explained what "thermal inertia" was and how concrete and asphalt had a *high thermal inertia* (or thermal mass), his eyes wandered like a bored highschool student and his interest faded off like a fart in the wind.

Though the cop wasn't interested, maybe you are, and maybe you can use this info to help convince your city and county to plant more street trees. Street trees are not a "Feel good" symbol, and I'm not planting them for "beautification"...they are an essential piece of URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE and help mitigate both the urban heat island and - along with native shrubs - help reduce the potential for flooding. I'll post a synopsis here:

THE URBAN HEAT ISLAND EXPLAINED:

If you go out with a laser thermometer and measure the temperature of the surface of a parking lot in South Texas just before sundown, it'll be around 141° F.

For a 6-inch thick asphalt slab starting at 141°F (60.6°C) on a calm, clear summer night with a low of 75°F (24°C), it would take approximately 12-14 hours for the surface to cool to within about 10°F of the ambient air temperature.

Asphalt doesn't cool like a cup of coffee. It's a solid slab losing heat from its surface. The interior heat must conduct to the surface before it can radiate away. This internal resistance is why cooling is slow.

This long cooling time reveals the severity of the problem:

The Night is Not Long Enough: With only ~10-12 hours of darkness in summer, the asphalt never reaches equilibrium with the night air. It's still actively radiating significant heat at sunrise.

Cumulative Heat Build-Up: On multi-day heat waves, each day starts with the pavement already pre-heated from the previous night, leading to even higher peak temperatures.

The "Space Heater" Metaphor : This 12-14 hour cooling time means the asphalt is indeed a vast, low-temperature radiator from sunset until just before dawn, directly causing the elevated nighttime urban temperatures.

Every new parking lot, road, and stretch of asphalt that is not somehow blocked from the sun, whether by trees or by sheet metal pergola structures and carports, must be seen for what it is : a layer of material that will effectively become a night-time space heater during the summer.

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