About

A PRELUDE TO A NATIVE PLANT GARDEN DIARY

I’m not sure how well written this will be, as I ‘m not a trained writer and I haven’t done anything like this prior to my initial attempt here. But none the less, I will do it anyway, since all writing really comes from our hearts and hopefully I will inspire someone to create their own native plant garden, wherever they live, be it in a city, a suburb (me) or if they’re really fortunate, the countryside.

The other area that I need to address is my lack of talent with taking pictures. I’ve been telling myself for a number of years, geez…”just take a basic photo class”. I have a really great 35mm camera (Actually, I have two of them, but one is over 20 years old) and have since been given a Canon Power Shot SD600 that I’m currently using.

But as of this time, I haven’t done anything about it yet. It’s just a matter of making a commitment and doing it. Actually I have a wonderful friend who teaches photography. My only excuse for not following through with it, (as usual) is the lack of time.

The little Power Shot is easy but it’s really about luck when I take a photo. Some are quite good and well, the rest…aren’t. So in the course of this diary, I’ll be learning how to take better photos as I document what’s goin’ on in the garden!

LIVING IN CALIFORNIA

I live in Southern California and I think that my love of native plants started when I became separated and went through a divorce. I had been married for 18 years and like anyone that goes through this live changing experience, I needed to reinvent myself and look around as to who I was and where was I going and what was I going to do with this new life?

As a child our parents used to take me and my sister, Annette, on picnics to the beach, the desert and the mountains. Yes, those of us in California do have it all. You can be sitting on the beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the morning, hop in your car and be in Death Valley or in the Sierra-Nevada Mountains within a few hours!

Although our parents weren’t into camping, they did introduce us to the love of nature and we had many enjoyable adventures wading streams in the various canyons near where we lived and splashing in the ocean, picking up pine cones in the mountains and exploring the wonders of the desert.

DREAMS

As we grew up, my sister dreamed of traveling to Africa and working with wildlife and me? Well, I loved to climb up into our big Pine tree in our backyard and sing from the upper branches. The entire neighborhood was my captive audience as I dreamed about being a professional singer! Eventually, I did study Classical voice and piano, too, as well as Blues Style guitar but I never did anything professional.

CATS

And then there were the cats! We always had cats as pets, so they have been a continual part of my life since I was a child. And of course, I have cats now…three of them. Sparkle (Mom Cat), Chico and Biscuit her “boys”. Sparkle is a feral cat that I rescued when she was pregnant and she now has a home with me and two of her kittens (The boys). She is still quite wild, but she loves to be inside, especially sleeping on my piano. I digress at this time but they are part of this diary and there will be more about them later.

My sister went through a divorce as well and she never did make it to Africa but she’s involved in animal rescue and has volunteered many hours to the BLM, Santa Rosa & San Jacinto Mountains National Monument and other non-profit organizations. And she loves native plants, too!

ALONE, AGAIN

So, here I am, a single Mom after many years of marriage and not wanting to sit around my house, feeling lonely or depressed, I checked out the information for the local Sierra Club activities and I went on one of their hikes out of Los Angeles. And that’s where it all began. I met someone on that hike and for about three years, we spent many, many days together hiking the Angels Crest National Forest, the Santa Monica Mountains, the Sierras and the Los Padres National Forest…the Sespe Wilderness.

LOVE

My love for native plants developed from these hikes and I must have taken a gazillion photographs of them and the surrounding scenery. I really enjoy rocks as well, their colors, shapes and textures fascinate me and I’m always picking them up from somewhere and bringing them home. You would think that I’d be into climbing but I’m not, that was limited to the Pine tree of my childhood!

I started collecting books on the local hiking trails and plant communities and eventually took a Botany course through a local Jr. college. Whenever I was hiking, I would always take a “flower” identification book with me so that I could learn the names of the plants and flowers I would see that day along the trail.

At the same time, I was also fortunate to have my home back up to an undeveloped canyon that allowed me to just walk out my front door, right into the wildness. I spent a great deal of time in the canyon whenever I could and it was especially beautiful in the spring.

There was a great deal of wildlife and I’d always see Quail each time I was out. Sometimes I’d see deer and of course lots of rabbits, coyotes, rattlesnakes and all kinds of different birds.

And they are another love of mine. I really enjoy looking at birds and since I’ve put in the garden, there are quite a few more around the house. Especially the Hummingbirds…those little “dive-bombers”!

Many years ago for a brief time, I was a volunteer for the CA Condor Recovery Project out of Fillmore, CA. I met some really interesting people and seeing the Condors fly was quite a thrill.

Now the canyon behind my house is a memory….it’s a golf course and a large housing development.

OKAY, SO I’M ALONE, AGAIN

Eventually the relationship with the guy I had been hiking with, ended….And I stopped hiking althogether as I didn’t want to hike in a group of people as that’s not appealing to me. And going by myself wasn’t an option either, as it’s not safe to do.

But I did do a few hikes by myself because I was “wounded” and I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts. And then at some point, I simply stopped hiking.

I was financially struggling and trying to support my two sons on very little income. Surviving each month on what I earned became my central focus and providing stability for my sons was hugely important to me.

I had been a homemaker during my marriage and I didn’t have any career to fall back on after my divorce. Financially making it and paying the bills every month was a big struggle and I wanted to be the best possible “Mom” to my sons, as they had suffered enough with all of the problems between me and their Dad.

But I really missed being in nature and having that connection with the natural world.

IT WAS MEANT TO HAPPEN

Then about three years ago I saw an article in the local paper discussing National Trails Day. There was going to be an event out of the Ojai Ranger District Office that represents the southern end of the Los Padres National Forest.

And the event was going to be taking place in my beloved Sespe Wilderness!!! I went, signed up and have been a volunteer ever since. We meet the first Sat. of each month and spend the day doing trail maintainence and other activities.

WHOOPIE!!!

I met all kinds of really great people who share the same interests and love that I do, plus they all have interesting backgrounds, education and experiences. Within this super group of people, I made new friends with Carol and Charlotte and Heidi who works for the F.S. and is in charge of the volunteers.

Carol is a professor of Astronomy at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula and Charlotte is a Navy SeaBee! We have developed a great friendship and I came up with a name for us, the Sespe Sisters! Thanks to my fortunate choice to volunteer on that first day, I have new friends, hike all over the Sespe area and enjoy good company, great scenery and ice cream afterwards in Ojai.

OBSESSION

And then the DREAM started, the obsession grew. I wanted a native plant garden and hated the ugly lawn in the front of my house; I dreamed of recreating a wild spot on my property, filled with plants and rocks. How to do it?

My backyard is quite large and has tremendous potential for an amazing garden. There are lots of wonderful possibilities for decomposed granite walkways and sitting areas but there would have to be an enormous amount of preparation which would include removing an extremely large and dangerous Ash tree in one corner. All of the surrounding walls would also have to be replaced since they are wobbly from the ‘92 earthquake and besides, they look ugly.

This would be an extremely expensive project, one that I knew I couldn’t afford at this time. My thought was, that if I couldn’t do it the way I wanted to, I’d wait. But believe me, it’s on my mind and I’m thinking of various designs and plants.

WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS BEFORE?

Then I realized, well…what the heck! I’ll do the front yard instead! Sometimes it’s just ridiculous to put off our happiness any longer. You know? “Someday I’ll do “X”, whatever that is…and most of us put things off for a variety of reasons. Typically we feel that the “timing” isn’t right, we don’t have enough money or we just can’t do it, blah, blah, blah into our brains.

MOVING FORWARD

Since I couldn’t afford to create the garden in the back of the house, I’d simply do it in the front. And I’d do it no matter WHAT! And with that decision out of my way and the annoying voices saying, “no, no, no, you can’t afford it”, I began to make my plans.

I attended a Home & Garden Show at the Ventura County Fair grounds during the summer of 07. I checked out a number of contractor’s who had displays there, asked questions and ended up meeting with on who I really liked.

He “seemed” to understand my goal but in retrospect he didn’t have a clue about what my plans were or the look I wanted to achieve. At this time, you will find that very few landscape contractors know anything about native plants but I’m sure that as the demands for them and their popularity grows, more landscape contractors will become specialized in their design and implementation.

And because of the general lack of experience and knowledge in this area, most will not be able to give you advice on different types of plants, where to place them, maintenance or irrigation. I think that he was a bit mystified by my plans and he did make some suggestions for plants that he thought would fit into my landscape goals.

But, they didn’t. He suggested the typical stuff for a Mediterranean garden. An Olive tree and Lavender, etc. Not too original and certainly no where near close to CA native plants. I quickly realized that he knew nothing about them but what I really appreciated about Erik was his honesty on this matter and his willingness to learn.

Erik wasn’t going to bluff his way through our project and he was totally open to learning about doing this type of landscaping project. He had a great eye for design and he understood the look that I wanted to achieve.

I envisioned a large, dry stream bed of rocks to down from the side of the house and end in the front yard. I also wanted a very low rock wall between my house and the neighbor’s and for it to gently curl along the front of the yard.

Meanwhile my neighbors are looking at all of this with curiosity, wondering what it was going to look like and asking quite a few questions, such as, “Would there be a lawn”? “Will there be water in the streambed”? I think that they were a bit concerned that it was going to be ugly and maybe rightly so, since most people’s idea of native plants, is all of that dry stuff you see on the hillsides.

After the Bermuda lawn and remaining bushes were removed, I had to continue to water the bare dirt to bring up the lawn in order to attack it again with RoundUp. I’m loath to use this toxic mix but I knew that it was the only way to eliminate the lawn and this process would probably have to be done several times.

I have since taken a course through the Theodore Payne Foundation called “How to Kill Your Lawn” and learned of other methods that are more environmentally safe. I will be writing a separate post on that a bit later.

Once all of this was complete, Erik came in with his crew and began the construction of the walls and the stream bed. The day that a huge dump truck arrived with the rocks for the stream bed was pretty exciting for me! I loved seeing those rocks in my yard, yeah I’m a bit crazy but it sure made me happy!!!

DEENA

It was during this period of time that I had the fortune to meet Deena. We were both at an event and met each other for the first time. During the course of our getting aquainted with one another and discussing wildlife, environmental issues and art, I mentioned to her that I was going to be installing a native garden.

And as it turned out, she’s an expert on native plants! My gosh, I was so surprised and thrilled. She asked me a lot of questions about what I wanted and we talked about my project for the rest of the day. We agreed to meet at my house the following week and she did a consultation for me and the rest is history.

I really don’t know much about native plants and I just couldn’t believe how fortunate I was to meet her. As it turns out, we share a great deal in common and she’s been just a jewel to help me. Without a doubt, if I had not met her, I really don’t think the garden would have turned out nearly as well as it has. It was through her experience and passion for plants, that my dream became a reality.

DESIGNING THE GARDEN

She reviewed the site, checked the soil type and looked at the surrounding area as to other trees and bushes and noted the shady and sunny areas and taking into consideration the time of the year, etc. She took a copy of the previous plan that I had had done, as it gave the measurements of the property and came up with a design.

She discovered that the soil is heavy, something the plants don’t like….well drained soil is preferable and created a list of plants that she felt would work in the area. Of course, there were plants that I wanted as well…some of my favorites such a Wooly Blue Curls and Sages.

Prior to meeting Deena, I had been doing some research on my own and I did have some ideas what I wanted for the garden. I had referred to the two following books that can be ordered through the Theodore Payne Foundation.

California Native Plants for the Garden

Carol Bornstein, David Fross & Bart O’Brien
Cachuma Press, Los olivos, CA

NATIVE TREASURES

Garden With the Plants of California
M. Nevin
Smith University of California Press
www.theodorepayne.org

FALL & WINTER

Fall and winter are the proper seasons to install a native plant garden and typically the few nurseries that specialize in the plants will have very large selections to choose from. I’m fortunate in that I live very close to two native plant botanical gardens plus two growers. I purchased plants during the plant sales from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont and also the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden in (where else?), Santa Barbara.

Deena and I met at Rancho Santa Ana and she selected the plants for me. I’m guessing (I forget) that I purchased around 80 plants that day and because I don’t have a truck, we split them up between the two of us. She had also bought some plants and it was hilarious to look at the two of us because it looked like we had bought out all of the nursery stock.

The trunk of my car was full, the back seat and every space in the interior of the car had a plant on it. Driving home was quite a fragrant experience but I was also sneezing along the miles as I returned to Simi Valley that day.

In additional to the plants from Rancho Santa Ana, I drove up to the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens and bought at least another 30 plants. The garden is truly beautiful and anyone that is considering a visit to Santa Barbara should really include a trip to it, as it’s setting is gorgeous with its location at the base of the local mountains.

The Theodore Payne Foundation plant nursery is only about 30 minutes away from me, so I was a frequent visitor to them as well and of course, I bought plants from their nursery. I also purchased plants from Matilija Nursery which is a bit closer to my house.

The owner of Matilija is a wholesale grower but he has his site open to the public. He’s really helped me quite a bit and is very knowledgeable about native plants. He has a really nice web site, check it out.

www.matilijanursery.com

The final tally of plants was about 200. With the exception of 6 flats of Seaside Daisies and the 15 gal. Manzanita, (Arctostaphlylos) Howard McMin and a 5 gal. Mallow, all the plants were in 1 gal. containers. And I learned that it’s best to purchase them in that size as they stand a better chance of surviving after being planted.

AT LAST, READY TO GO!

In the Fall months, here in southern California, we have a windy condition known at the Santa Anas. These are very hot, dry winds that come from the northeast out of the higher deserts and they can be very dangerous. Because they are so hot and dry, the suck all of the moisture out of the brush that covers the hillsides in the area.

The Fall months used to be considered our fire season but that is now debatable due to global warming. We certainly have seen some really terrible fires at other times of the year other than the Fall and it appears that “fire” season is now all year long.

When the Santa Anas arrive, they can be really strong winds and very, very scary. Everyone is on edge with them and worried about the potential for brush fires. Last year was one of the worst that I had ever seen that I could recall and I was a bit worried about a fire occurring here in Simi.

I am backed right up into the hills and as a matter of fact, a number of years ago, a brush fire did burn down through the canyon and fortunately missed my neighborhood. It’s something that I never want to ever experience again.

So, now it’s windy every day and very dry. I’m doing my best to protect my plants, watering them often and checking them daily until we are ready to start planting.

And now the garden diary begins…..