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.

Designing Native Gardens

On January 16, 2010 Nopalito Nursery sponsored their first in a series of gardening with native plants lectures. The series included design, how to plant a garden with natives, Chumash Ethnobotany, grow your own fruit and then the all day Native Plant Symposium. Next up is "What to do with a lawn." These lecture classes have been just what I needed. Themes have been repeated and repeated. I'm beginning to get it. So here are some quick notes, so I won't forget.

What a great place to start. Design. The speaker was Carol Borstein.

Carol Borstein with David Fross and Bart O'Brien wrote California Native Plants for the Garden, a comprehensive guide to planning your own native plant garden. Pictures, pictures, pictures identified by plant type, geographic zones, light, soil, water and natural habitat and range. That's where I started. I skipped all the words and went straight to the pictures. Then I went back to the text.

Carol was the first to discuss the reoccuring themes of gardening with natives. The garden can be pretty all year if you plan. Think about color and seasons and fruit and flowers. Read the label on the one gallon plants you buy and believe them. If it says that little plant will grow to be 6 feet wide and 10 feet tall, believe it. She said horticulture is a mix of art and science.  The rewards of planting with natives are less water, less maintenance and less waste.

The Plan

"Before you can have a meadow, you will have to get rid of these weeds," Jackie said. So I'm pulling weeds. I am not listening to music or a book on tape through this task. I'm listening to my yard. I'm connecting. I'm thinking about if and where to plant a fig tree. I'm wondering what will grow against the back of the garage. I'm cussing at this stubborn weed that finally pulls up with a 12 inch root.

Brendon East from Channel Islands Landscape & Design visited my home on Wednesday Dec 16th. He was recommended to me by Nopalito Nursery in Ventura. I checked out his website and was impressed. They do it all.

Brendon listened to my vision for my yard. He walked with me, making comments about the soil, the gophers, the ivy growing up a pepper tree, my driveway that will need to be replaced, raised beds for my kitchen garden. He took some measurements. I told him that I would be interviewing Jackie Worden from A Water Wise Garden and he seemed pleased. They have collaborated on other projects and made a good team. Jackie draws up the plans and recommends plants, and Brendon and his crew concentrate on the “hard scape”.

Hardscape is irrigation, fencing, driveways, raised garden structures, walls, and other inanimate elements of the yard.

Softscape is the plant material.

I was looking forward to meeting Jackie. She came by on Dec 23rd. I liked her immediately because she couldn’t help noticing bird calls and named the birds. A hawk flew over and I got a lesson in the warning calls of the little birds congregating in a tree. When I described a snake I found in my yard, that dropped its tail, she told me it was a CA legless lizard. She knows her stuff. I want bougainvillea in the front, but it’s too shady in the front of my house. But she wants to please me and kept looking for the perfect spot for bougainvillea in the backyard. I like this.

I met Jackie at the Salmon Run in November. She was answering questions at the National Wildlife Federation table, featuring Bird-friendly Habitat. While talking to her in my dining room, I learned that she is a Environmental Biologist. She knows her stuff.

She liked my amateur yard plan and noticed right away the sticky notes I had pasted to the side that said things like, weather station, compost pile, worm farm, kitchen garden, outdoor shower. I had a stack of books from the library to show her pictures to illustrate my ideas. She sensed my vision. What cinched the deal was when I showed her a picture of a meadow in an LA garden in one of the library books.

“Can I have a meadow?”

“Sure, we could make a meadow area.”

“No, not an area, the whole backyard.”

“Oh better yet. You might be able to do everything in your budget if we postpone the driveway. But before you can have a meadow, you have to get rid of these weeds.”

No problem. I skipped. Maybe it was a hop.

Nopalito Nursery

My appointment with Antonio at Nopalito Native Plant Nursery was at 1pm on Tuesday. I left early. I have a reputation for taking the long way. Who was the wise man that said there is no wrong way? Well, I like that philosophy. I knew the Nursery was near Lassens, I had the map on the back of their business card and I had visited their web site. I was prepared.

I took the 101 N from my home, took the Telephone Rd off ramp, turned left onto Telephone, drove under the freeway and turned right onto Main St. I started looking for that view I saw on the website, of the benches and the wagons and the office kiosk. I saw Lassens, but no benches. I continued down Main St.

Plan B. Check the address. 4107 E. Main St. I had clearly gone too far. I turned around. When I got to 4100 block I knew I was close and pulled into a parking lot (now on the left). There they were. Over there. ACROSS from Lassens, sharing the parking lot.

(I made a second pass at the Nursery to give you better directions. When you turn onto Main Street from Telephone, you will drive 2 blocks and cross Donlon. Pay attention now because there on the right is the Lassen's sign - that's the driveway you want. Turn right into the driveway and you will see Nopalito Nursery in the back on the right.)

It's a tough find. But once you know where they are, you can't get lost again. I was early. I had brought my 3 ring binder. I felt like the first time I visited my accountant with my shoe box of receipts and papers, not knowing what to expect.

I was pretty sure that Antonio was the man in the kiosk helping customers. I decided to have a look around. I was greeted by Kenji. Seeing my 3 ring binder he had me pegged for a sales rep. I was feeling like a bumbling amateur gardener and he thought I was a sales rep. What about that? We talked about my yard a little, about their business a little. He told me that they would be having classes and speakers in the building adjacent to their business, beginning in January. Kenji, being the gentleman that he is, stayed with me until Antonio was free.

In my notebook I have some photos of my yard. An empty canvas I call it. And I have a plan I made in a landscape design class years ago. I had a wild list of my wants. A weather station, a compost pile, a little worm farm, an outdoor shower, a small orchard, a little propagation house, a vegetable garden, a reading room, a fire pit ...... Antonio was able to see right to my most immediate need. FIRST I needed a landscape designer to make the big plan. And then they can help me with the plants. Before we were finished, Rick dropped by. So I got to meet all of the owners. Antonio gave me the business card of a couple in Ventura that do landscape design. I signed my name to their email list so I would be informed of their classes and lectures and went on my way.

I left Nopalito Nursery content. I had what I needed. Kenji, Antonio and Rick are professional. They know their product. They have been in business since late October but it feels like they are long established. I'll be back for sure, for classes, lectures and plants. And I'll be bringing my neighbors.

Drip, Drip, Drip

Water

Drip, Drip, Drip. Hear it? That’s the faucet in my kitchen sink dripping at the rate of 30 drips per minute into my 1 quart Pyrex measuring cup. I’ve set the timer to see how much water I collect in an hour. Before I fix the faucet, I want to know how much water I’m wasting. I don’t want to waste water.

Water is a big problem for me. I come from the area of the US where rain takes care of the yard. I’ve been in CA now for 40+ years and like those foreigners that never lose their accent, I can’t learn to water my yard. The only solution will be to finally have a system that waters efficiently with little effort from me

My faucet drip collected 2 ¼ C of water, that’s 18 oz., in one hour. Little by little a tiny drop became 2 ¼ cup of water. Imagine that. I’m thinking a drip system will be my yard choice.

The Yard

I have some ideas about my yard. I want a sign in my front yard before the end of 2010 that tells my neighbors that I have a Certified Wildlife Garden and I want a year round vegetable garden. I want my granddaughter to love the yard. When I take her to visit friends with interesting yards, she says, “I wish we lived here.” I tell her, “We can do this too. We can create a garden.” It makes her smile.

Education
On Saturday November 20, 2009, I took a class called, “Winter Gardening” through Ventura College’s Adult Education. Our instructor was John Windsor. When I got home from class on Saturday, charged with renewed resolve, I went to my bookcase. There I found:

A children’s book, Gardening Is Easy When You Know How published in 1974. The book is full of ideas for children to learn about seeds and planting. When I opened the cover, two torn pages from an unknown magazine titled, “Electronic garden journal” fell out. In 1974 I knew that I wanted to journal about gardening, to have a record I could use yearly, the intense work done in year one, then enjoying subsequent years making adjustments. 1974 is 35 years ago. I don’t have a garden journal.

Also on the bookshelf:
Sunset Western Garden Book Copyright 1973
Growing California Native Plants 1980
Sunset Waterwise Gardening Copyright 1989
The City Gardener’s Handbook from Balcony to Backyard Copyright 1990
Rodale’s Successful Organic Gardening HERBS Copyright 1993
Sunset Landscaping and Garden Remodeling Book Copyright 1994.
6 old The Herb Companion magazines I picked up from the giveaway basket at my favorite yarn shop.
Creative Concrete Ornaments for the Garden Copyright 2005

Finally, the goldmine. My 3” three-ringed binder of collective attempts to garden, landscape, and plan. See. I put them in reverse order. Plan should come first. My brain doesn’t ever start there.

In the Binder I found instructions and notes from another class I took. 13 steps of Landscaping your yard. 1. Measure the site and make a plot plan. That’s a big step. And I found the drawing I made of my yard.

Now is a good time to say that it’s paramount that you have a sense of humor about the journey of life. “Be gentle with yourself and if you didn’t get past step one then, you can start on step 2 now,” I tell myself.

Step 2 should be: Know when you need help.

That brings me to other recent events. On Sunday November 8, 2009 I participated in the 16th annual Salmon Run to benefit the Matilija Coalition. In the Patagonia parking lot an information and walk/run support community was set up. There I found the Nopalito Native Plant Nursery. They were busy and I didn’t yet have a plan, except that I wanted native plants in my yard. I grabbed their business card and put it into my pocket. That same day I went to the Ojai Farmer’s Market to visit my Dutch flower grower friend and there the Nopalito Nursery was again. I made a mental note to visit them soon, after I took the Winter Gardening class.

Step 2 might also be: Establish a budget. Yes, first a budget. Then get help to make a plan, then a priority list.

“Know thyself,” Socrates said. I know watering is my number one failing. Water will have to be at the top of the list. Drip, drip, drip. Can you hear it? Sounds like an analogy is coming. Drip, drip, drip may become my new mantra. Make a consistent effort in the yard and it will become your dream yard. I’m counting on the youthful energy of Nopalito Nursery to answer my questions and guide my way.

I hope you’ll join me and learn along with me about gardening 52 weeks a year in Ventura County.