ABC's of Native Plant Gardening

January 30, 2010 - still catching up on the lecture series:

Lil Singer was the second speaker of the Nopalito Lecture Series. Lili Singer is an L.A. Times garden writer and Special Projects Coordinator for the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants.

Lil brought us a plant list including ground covers, perennials, shrubs, trees and grasses; a resource book list; and an article about Natives in the Landscape - Pruning. Then she told us that she couldn't get to everything and dove in.

These were the highlights for me.
1. You can't change your soil. Find a plant that fits your soil.
2. Never plant a dry plant. Water your plant and the hole before you plant.
3. When planting dig a hole ONLY has deep at the pot it came in.
4. Dig the hole twice as wide as the pot it came in.
5. Water often the first year as needed. Give the native a chance to get established.
6. A one gallon plant will do better than a five gallon plant because it hasn't spent much of it's young life getting used to a pot.
7. Plan a green backbone for your yard and it will look good all year.
8. We live in a Mediterranean climate. Embrace it.
9. Read the plant labels. Believe them. The plant will be as big as the label says when mature. I know I never thought my children would ever become 6' men and 5' 9" women, but they did. Consider the sun or shade requirements of the plant. Honor them.
10. Once established these plants can die from too much water.

I planted my first native yesterday. A Roger's Red grape vine. I was thinking of Lil the whole time I was watering and digging and watering. I found a perfect spot for it in the front, where it has 20' of fence to grow along, unchallenged. The birds will find it, it will look great when it turns red in the fall. I feel confident. That's the best part. I had information. My decision was educated.