Green construction, solar power, outdoor living and do-it-yourself landscaping are among the trends reflected in home and garden tours across Ventura county this spring.

Three garden tours, one home and garden tour, and one home tour/art walk are happening the next few weeks; all are fundraisers, and everybody's invited.

Included in the festivities: Santa Clara Valley Hospice hosts its 25th annual Home Tour and Art Walk in Santa Paula, and Ventura hosts an Earth Day Expo and Midtown Green Home and Garden Tour.

Many yards featured in the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce Garden Tour 2008 and Simi Valley Republican Women's Club Garden Tour are largely do-it-yourself, including a Polynesian paradise in Simi Valley and a still-evolving study in spontaneity in Ojai.

On the Westlake Village Garden Club's 35th annual Garden and Patio Tour, solar energy, a family memorial garden and a chicken coop merge in one Thousand Oaks home.

Ventura

Ventura architect Michael Faulconer grew up during the 1970s oil embargo, so he has always been acutely aware of the importance of energy-conscious construction.

The 3-year-old "green" house he designed and built is one of five homes and two gardens open to the public during the Earth Day Expo and Midtown Green Home and Garden Tour. Sponsored by the nonprofit Midtown Ventura Community Council, the event is designed to offer information on Earth-friendly building and gardening practices. The theme of Ventura's official Earth Day event is "Practical Sustainability, Going Beyond Just Changing the Light Bulb."

"We wanted people to be able to go out in the community and see firsthand what other people have done and what might work for them," said Dan Long, chairman of the midtown council's Historical Committee. "The key is to allow people to do a little or do a lot to be better stewards of our planet."

Long said tour coordinators found homes at all stages of "green," from new homes like Faulconer's to older ones that the owners are remodeling to be more energy-efficient. "We have a remodeled home with a second-story addition, one that has gutted the kitchen and added glazed windows and solar energy and denim for insulation," Long said.

Faulconer built the home he shares with wife Kristen and Labradoodle Nia in 2005.

"Making a green' home is much easier if you're starting from scratch," Faulconer said.

His architectural firm, Michael Faulconer-Firmitas Architecture and Planning, specializes in Earth-friendly or "sustainable" architecture, so he built the 3,100-square-foot Ventura home as a sort of demonstration home, he said.

The three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath home is almost entirely done with green materials, and uses both passive and active solar energy. An example of passive solar energy is the 4-foot roof overhangs that help keep the house cool. The home needs no furnace and no air conditioning.

The active solar energy includes collectors on the roof that heat the water and power the house. "It generates more than we consume," Faulconer said. "We get back a credit each year from Edison."

Faulconer said the house earns them about $10 to $15 a month in unused energy.

Other green features include concrete floors and dual-glazed floor-to-ceiling windows that block ultraviolet light in the sunny home, which has 240-degree views from the Conejo Grade to the tip of Santa Cruz Island.

The Faulconers can relax in their living room and gaze across the Pacific Ocean in front of their sealed glass-fronted fireplace, which burns natural gas. All appliances bear the Energy Star logo, a program backed by the U.S. Department of Energy to identify energy efficiency.

The steel framing structure is made from 98 percent recycled materials; the wood is from certified forests; the cabinets are made of wheat chaff; and all of the particle board, paint and insulation contains no VOCs, or "volatile organic compounds." VOCs are substances that can emit potentially harmful gases.

Another bonus for those who live in a state known for its wildfires is the fact that the house is made entirely of nonflammable materials.

The growing popularity of "green" home features has driven down prices on sustainable home elements, Faulconer said. "Because of the competition, prices are coming down," he said.

The tour day also will include an Earth Day Expo at the city of Ventura's Sanjon Maintenance Yard. There, guests can meet vendors and see exhibits featuring ideas of what they can do to make their homes more energy-efficient. The first step is actually pretty simple, Faulconer said: "I tell everyone to just change their light bulbs."

Simi Valley

Lazy strains from Hawaiian singer Iz swayed with the breeze as it ruffled the thatched umbrella in Dave and Pam Skaggs' Simi Valley backyard. The umbrella cast a rippling shadow on the pool, which was fed by rock waterfalls. It was all part of their "Polynesian Paradise" fantasy yard.

"We had sort of a French garden look and we wanted to go with something different," said Skaggs, who has lived there with Pam since 1990.

Dave and his twin brother, Phillip, did a lot of the work on their own, which was part of the reason that representatives from the Simi Valley Republican Women's Federation chose the garden as one of the six on its 10th annual Simi Valley Garden Tour. "People really like to be able to view the yards and get ideas," said Margy Ochsner, federation publicity chairwoman. "Especially in our economy, they want to do it on their own."

He's a mortgage broker, so Skaggs is well aware of the economy. Business is slow, so he was able to find the time to gut and redo the yard with Phillip and some subcontracting. It was quite a job. When they demolished the existing landscape, they were amazed at how much detritus there was. "We had eight 40-foot bins filled with concrete and brick," he said.

With some imagination and a lot of careful shopping online and around the county, they pieced together their paradise. They surrounded the pool and yard with tropical and native plants; they added their own touches, such as wooden masks nestled in the foliage, and whimsical signs reading, "Aloha, Welcome to Paradise."

A sign arched over a thatched gazebo reads "Tiki Bar." Inside the open-air, prefabricated hut is a conversation area and TV attached to an upper corner.

Skaggs mailed away for the unit from the Philippines. After it arrived, it took workers just three hours to assemble it.

In the end, the entire project cost them about $75,000.

"If you can find the time to do it all yourself, you can save a bundle," Dave said.

Westlake Village

Paul and Sara Flick live in Paul's childhood home, but the Thousand Oaks homestead has changed just as surely as families change. One of the biggest changes has been in the backyard, now adorned with a pool, a spa tub, an outdoor kitchen, a memorial garden, a chicken coop and dozens of plants.

"We started basically with weeds and dirt," Flick said.

The Flicks' garden is one of five on the 35th annual Garden and Patio Tour, sponsored by the Westlake Village Garden Club.

Paul's dad built the home in 1958. Paul and Sara bought it from his parents in 1997. The couple decided that it was time to make better use of the nearly full acre surrounding the home.

With the help of a landscape contractor, a gardener and a water feature specialist, the Flicks created yards in front and back mirroring the newest trends in landscaping, according to Richard Williams, the water feature specialist. "This is the outdoor living concept," he said. "It's going green and solar."

The outdoor living concept is to create a seamless look that brings the indoors outside and vice versa.

"Bringing the indoors out and the outdoors in doubles the footage of your home," Williams said. "It gets people away from the TV indoors and gets them out and talking to each other. These are the directions the (landscape) industry is headed."

The Flick garden dovetails the indoors and outdoors with a rock waterfall that starts in the yard and tumbles into the covered patio, right by the granite-topped cooking area and pizza oven. An outdoor covered seating area allows guests to look out on rolling grass bordered with day lilies, crepe myrtle, roses, lavender and dozens of other plants.

The green and solar trends are reflected by a 16-square-foot solar panel over the patio, which powers all the electricity both inside and outdoors. The cost of installing the solar panel was about $110,000, Flick said, but he saves on his power bill every month.

Crushed gravel pathways lead visitors past vegetable gardens and a five-chicken coop that the Flicks installed to entertain the grandchildren.

"In the middle of this job, they got out and we were chasing chickens all over the yard," Williams said.

Up on the highest point in the yard, shaded by two red Japanese plum trees, is a memorial garden. Two benches rise above a small concrete slab imprinted with the palm prints of Paul and his two siblings when they were children.

One of the tragic and unexpected changes in Flick's family was the loss of his sister, Camille, to breast cancer at 46. A plaque in the garden honors her.

Flick, a semi-retired computer engineer, and his wife, a nurse, say they planned the yard to be a sanctuary to enjoy for the rest of their lives.

Ojai Valley

Randy and Sherry Smith used to live in an upscale home, complete with Italian tile. About 19 years ago, they sold it and moved into a more rustic home near Casitas Springs.

"It was a rental for five years," Sherry Smith said. "It was just barren."

The backyard was overgrown, with just a few neglected fruit trees.

"When we moved into this place, my husband's mother cried," Smith said.

But to Randy, who enjoys metalwork, and Sherry, a mosaic artist and gardener, the backyard represented a delicious blank canvas. They could experiment with plants and homemade yard art to their heart's content. "It unleashed the creativity in us because you're not ruining anything nice," Sherry said.

The study in spontaneity that is the Smith garden is one of six on the Ojai Chamber of Commerce Garden Tour 2008 on May 4.

"Her garden is very creative. The artsy, craftsy part is what I like," said Brenda Farr, Garden Tour 2008 co-chairwoman. "Landscaped gardens by professional people are gorgeous and beautiful to look at, but nobody relates to it. We want gardens people can relate to and take home ideas."

The yard, which is roughly an acre, supports several vegetable, succulent and flower gardens. Some climb the fence bordering the yard; others are content in flat little beds. Among the plants are delphiniums, irises, chrysanthemums, Mexican marigolds, roses, gourds, cilantro, squash, arugula and tomatoes.

"I don't start with a plan," Sherry Smith said. "It just sort of evolves. A lot depends on what wants to grow there."

The yard also contains a playhouse for the couple's four granddaughters and a chicken coop that holds a dove and a couple of Rhode Island Red chickens. "We got them as baby chicks for the grandkids," Smith said.

Tucked in corners around the rambling yard are areas of art expression that the Smiths call their "garden galleries."

"We like to make these out of found objects," Smith said.

One area is marked by a door they found and liked. Smith decorated the door's window with glass mosaic, which she once taught in Ventura.

Another area next to the home is defined by a pair of pillars they found and liked. A few feet away is a fountain they created out of a discarded wrought-iron coffee table base and a lamp. "The hummingbirds just go crazy," Smith said. "They take baths."

Another fountain grew out of a rain chain that Smith saw at a thrift store and liked, and half of a wine barrel. They keep their eyes open at thrift stores, but mainly the objects find them. "People give us stuff," Smith said.

Plants that want to be in the Smith garden tend to thrive. Those that don't tend to die. That's the way it works, Smith said. "I think plants are like people," Smith said. "Some are just happy, happy, and others are weak."

At least one master gardener will be on hand at each one of the gardens on the tour, Carr said. Emphasis will be placed this year on drought-tolerant and Earth-friendly pest control. All are welcome to stop in also at the Ojai Community Demonstration Garden, where refreshments will be served.

Santa Paula

Elvis Presley's sweat, Pez dispensers and swords are among the draws in the Santa Paula home of Brenda and Ray Padgett. The Padgetts' view home is among five open April 27 at the 25th annual Hospice Home Tour, which includes an art walk and plant sale.

The floor-to-ceiling picture windows in the Padgett home offer sweeping views of the valley, all the way out to the ocean and the islands. Most of the floors throughout the 5,800-square-foot home are Brazilian hardwood.

But the quirky collections inside the home could draw equal attention. Inside one glass case near the expansive living room is a faded brown and white stuffed hound dog with heartbreakingly sad eyes.

"See that dog?" Brenda Padgett said, pointing. "It has Elvis sweat on it. He wiped his forehead with that hound dog."

Brenda's mother was at an Elvis concert in the 1960s and tossed the dog onstage. Elvis wiped his forehead with the stuffed toy, then tossed it back to Brenda's mom.

Brenda isn't sure why she's been collecting Pez dispensers for 25 years, but when she had enough of a variety, she framed them and hung them around the house.

"I just liked them," she said.

Then she began hunting for unique Pez dispensers in antique stores. Among the finds she's most proud of is a plastic Wonder Woman Pez dispenser from the 1980s. She rarely shops on eBay because she enjoys the thrill of the hunt on foot.

Ray is a collector, too. Antique and vintage knives with wickedly curved shiny blades are secreted inside glass cases. Swords frame the stone mantel over the downstairs fireplace.

"He's probably got 500 knives," his wife said.

Hanging on the mantle with the swords are antique banjos and a saxophone, evidence of Ray's other passion, musical instruments.

Guests on this year's home tour also are invited to stroll down Holly Drive in Santa Paula and check out the art walk, which features creations from local artists. The plant sale, which is adjacent to the art walk, offers plants from Santa Paula's Do Right Nursery. Ice cream also will be served on Holly Drive.