2022 Golden Arrows Winners

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2022 Golden Arrows Awards

Five residences are the recipients of South Pasadena Beautiful’s 2022 Golden Arrow Awards. These homeowners are recognized for their outstanding job of maintaining their properties with plantings that benefit our local birds, bees, and other pollinators, all while conserving water.

When Lacey and Tim Gostony moved into their home at 714 Fremont Avenue in 2018, they decided to make the most of living on a busy street by turning their barren yard into a beautiful, water-wise garden that would inspire the thousands of people driving past each day. They collaborated with John Trager, Curator of Desert Collections at the Huntington Botanical Gardens, to design a landscape that would be drought-tolerant and low maintenance, utilizing a palette of colorful plants that would provide year-round interest for people and pollinators alike. Pedro Frias (and crew), an expert gardener also employed at the Huntington, provided the installation. The main sidewalk is flanked by lavender (Lavandula 'dentata') and rock purslane (Calandrinia spectabilis) which are tended to by many happy bees. Russelia equisetiformis 'Coral plant' and Saliva greggi provide plenty of tasty snacks for hummingbirds. Rock outcroppings afford small raised sections for totem pole cacti, Queen Victoria agave, and other succulents that benefit from extra drainage. A unique 7' tall stone cactus fountain provides a place for birds to drink. Two new crepe myrtles were planted along the street to echo the mature crepe myrtle tree near the house. The rest of the garden is composed of a variety of other shrubs and herbaceous perennials, with something new and exciting blooming at various times throughout the year. Lacey and Tim are proud to use their garden to show that there are alternatives to grass that can be both low-water and beautiful.

Alice Bennett has created a wildlife haven in her garden at 1124 Fremont Avenue with a diversity of common and uncommon California native plants. The beauty is ever increasing with customized wildflower seed mixes applied each autumn for the past several years. Passers-by cannot resist pausing to enjoy her parkway garden full of mostly native penstemons, clarkias, poppies, and gilias, and the same can be said for a host of beneficial butterflies, bees, and beetles. There is now a tally of more than 70 species of native California trees, shrubs, vines, cactus, succulents, and annual/perennial wildflowers in the yard, planters, and pots all ‘round the house. The native birds have taken notice, with bushtits, scrub jays, California towhees, house wrens, oak titmouse, and the occasional Cooper’s hawk, all finding a little bit of Nature in the heart of South Pasadena. Alice has multiple water features for wildlife which she cleans and refills often to avoid unwanted mosquitos (and so should you!). This garden was previously recognized as Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.

Pascal and SooYoung Suh at 710 Adelaine Avenue re-landscaped their garden last year with help from landscape designer June Weems. Palo Verde ‘Desert Museum’ and Western Redbud grow among other plantings including Stachys byzantina (Lamb’s ears), Fynbos Aloe, Canadale Gold Wintercreeper, Sedum Palmeri, Sedum Nussbaumerianum, Agave Quadricolor, Peperomia galioides and Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’s’ (Black Rose). The plantings are framed by meandering paths of decomposed granite, stepping stones, and rocks. 

When Steve Zikman and Rob Fung built their new modern home in 2016 at 1104 Fairview Avenue, their goal was to create a soft, breezy, magical feeling in their front garden requiring minimal watering and using mostly drought-tolerant plants A catchment basin under the existing 35’ Monterey Pine tree captures water and feeds the groundwater.  An automated ‘smart’ drip watering system controls watering and accounts for seasonal differences. They also designed and constructed an 8’ circular deck under the Pine tree where they could sit and enjoy the view at sunset looking toward the city’s library which is directly across the street. Plantings include: Pencil Trees (Fire Sticks), Dwarf Clones (Senecios), Nodding Pincushions (Leucosporum), Tree Aeoniums, Pittosporum, Spanish Brooms (Spartum Junceum), ‘Sunburst’ Aeonium, Blue Fescue, New Zealand Flax (Phormium Tenax), Elephant Bush (Portulacaria Afra), Crimson Bottlebrush (Calistemon Citrinus), Copper Spoons (Kalanchoe Orgyalis), African Fountain Grass, Chinese Fringe Flowers (Loropetalum), Flax Lilies (Dianellas), California Fescue, Poverty Grass (Danthonia Spicata), Paddle Plants (Kalanchoe Tetraphylla), and a variety of Hyacinths (for a splash of springtime color). Lush Pampas Grass (Cortaderia) known for its tall creamy white feathery plumes line the parkway. The homeowners did all of the design and planting themselves, including countless trips to local nurseries and succulent shows.

Homeowners John and Sandy Gildersleeve desired more flowering, fruiting, and native/drought tolerant plants when they re-landscaped their front yard at 1623 Marengo Avenue in November of 2020. Working with landscape architect Amy Davis Jones, the lawn was reduced in size, irrigation was upgraded, and drip installed for all the new plantings. Flagstone, granite boulders, coyote bush, California poppies, and blue grama grass were installed in the parkway. The entrance beds contain Desert Willow trees, salvia bees bliss, California lilac, rock rose, creeping germander, and lavender cotton. Other plantings on the property, including citrus trees (Cara Cara orange, Eureka lemon, and Kumquat), California bush anemone, yarrow, aster, Mexican marigolds, leucadendrons, and boronia, help create a more natural, airy, free-flowing look with color and fragrance.