The annual Residential Demonstration Landscape Open House and Vendor Fair is set for Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine. The facility is located at 7601 Irvine Boulevard. This is the fifth consecutive year that UC Extension and Irvine Ranch Water District cooperated on this event.

Included in the daylong event are guided garden walks, discussions about gardening and irrigation practices, and plant sales. Fifty percent of all household water use is in the yard, so residents can find out how to cut back on watering and save money.

There is no charge for admission to this event. Here is a sampling of what customers can expect at the Open House:

• A discussion about edible landscaping
• Home ant control, easy as 1,2,3
• Irrigation product information
• A demonstration on self-watering vegetable garden containers
• Composting – learn how to turn yard waste into black gold
• Children’s activity – planting seeds
• Sample varieties of fruit grown at the South Coast Research and Extension Center
• Free tool sharpening by OC Blacksmiths
• Random opportunities throughout the day

Visit the South Coast Research and Extension Center website, or contact Tammy Majcherek at (949) 733-3970 for more information.

California appropriate plants are perfectly suited for our mild winters and warm, dry summers.

They are low maintenance, use little water and don’t need soil preparation or fertilizing.

Visit www.IRWDcalscape.org for a one-stop shop with garden tours, garden galleries, a searchable plant database and a garden resources section.

You can also take a tour of two dozen CALscape gardens found throughout the IRWD service area. If you are looking for even more of an incentive to renovate your garden, you may receive up to $1 per square foot of grass removed with our turf removal rebate program. Visit our website, or contact the Water Use Efficiency Department at 949-453-5581.

At first, the black, coiled item lying on the side of San Diego Creek resembled a snake. It turned out to be a flattened and weathered bicycle tire.

That item, along with construction debris that might have fallen off trucks on the freeway, was pulled out of the creek during Inner-Coastal Watershed Clean Up Day on Saturday, September 21. IRWD has hosted this site for the past 13 years in conjunction with Trails 4All, the event’s founder. The clean up coincides with Coastal Clean Up Day.

Unlike that clean up event, the goal of Inner-Coastal Watershed Clean Up Day is to clean trash from creeks and streams that empty out into bays and beaches.

“Grab it before it gets to the beach,” says event founder James Meyer.

Around 80 volunteers turned out to clean the creek of all manner of trash and recyclables and that they did. Both three-yard bins were filled.

Zach Simpson, 16, a Northwood High School student, would receive field service hours for his advanced placement environmental science class. Most of the volunteers were from the high school, but a Girl Scout troop and some private citizens participated as well. Over the years, more than 28,000 volunteers have cleaned up one million pounds of trash and recyclables at sites in Orange and Riverside counties.