After years of researching and working on converting my yard to California native, this is the best video I’ve seen! An amazing resource packed with great information.
Thank you for your kind comment. We really made our best effort to collect the most accurate information and pass it along. We hope it helps you in your work.
What a huge improvement and great job you folks did! I create these California native gardens all year round in the Riverside-inland empire area. I really wish more people were interested in California native plants like you are. They are so enjoyable and rewarding in the landscape.
We made the video to encourage and help people who are/were like us - enthusiastic about native plants and the benefits they provide to humans and creatures. I truly hope that we've encouraged at least one person or family to convert their ecologically dead lawn to a vibrant native plant garden with local plants that benefit local wildlife.
This is by far the best video out there about Southern California native plant gardening, from planting site, to selecting plants, to weed suppression, to installation, to watering and mulching. As a writer for the Ventura Botanical Gardens I applaud your fellas work, bravo!
We hope to inspire people to do this with even a small area of their yards. The habitat provided to insects, birds and reptiles in our yard is phenomenal. We also have a local skunk/s who visit us on a regular basis and dig around our mulch and decaying logs placed on the property. They've never been a problem and we realize they are present in our urban environment. We just like giving them a little extra food.
We plan on adding a video showing the insects, birds and other creatures living in our small native garden since the establishment of this habitat. Watch for it in 2021.
@@lirimeyer I'm sorry for the long delay. We've had a pretty busy schedule these last couple of years. We really want to show everyone our habitat and creatures who thrive in them.
@caifu88 I would also love to see an update! Even if it’s just shorts taken from your phone, rather than full production videos. (This video was gorgeous and really well done btw)
I love this! I always talk about how important it is to plant native plants especially since california is constantly in a drought and these native plants can handle it.
I enjoy how your native garden considers varieties and actual nativity of plants. Too many gardeners out there think "native gardening" involves letting native and non-native weeds grow. Mostly because I believe they assume that 1.) Native gardens are less maintenance if not completely hands-off, and 2.) All flowers benefit all native pollinators. I have 3 of these types in my neighborhood alone, and their yards are a hot mess under the guise of "for the environment" and "natives not lawns."
We've learned a lot after a couple years of growth. We did overplant somewhat. We've thinned out the garden in a few areas. We have opened up some spaces and added more native grasses. Our garden has matured beautifully. It gives us twelve months of changes and wildlife. It is ever changing and never boring. We also removed three trees after finding out that the tree nursery sold us trees that were not the specific species we requested. We will be adding a Southern California Black Walnut to our yard. This one we've grown from seed.
VERY helpful video!! I'm getting tired of my lawn and I'm ready to bring some California plants to my home. Thanks for helping me out with the pre-planning work!
Thank you for sharing this incredibly informative and accessible video! I’m hoping to embark on my own turf to native garden journey, and your video is both inspiring and practical. Thank you!
My husband is a biology professor and for years we lived in a little house quite close to the earth. No heat, no air conditioner, just us and the lizards, snakes, coyotes, bobcats, an occasional fox, and over 100 bird sp on the yard list. But we moved to suburbia, to a house abutting a hillside covered in coastal sage scrub plants and lots of non natives. So far in our part of the hill side we have planted Desert Willow, Palo Verde, a Elderberry, many ceanothus, toyon sp., coyote bush, coffee berry, black sage, white sage, and a small encelia farinosa from the hillside volunteered to grow with us. #1
We have an extraordinary amount of life that has come to us since planting the native plants. We live in an older suburban area. Prior to planting, with just grass and weeds we had a few native species of birds, mostly European honeybees and an occasional butterfly. Now we see new a varied life almost every day. We are collecting photos and videos over the winter to showcase the creatures in a new video later in 2021. Thank you for planting native plants!
4:25 That’s the common mistake I see in many residential yards with native planting: crowding as an result of underestimating mature native* plant sizes and growth habits. This is where taking the time to plan, including proper research helps. *Many native shrubs get much larger than most other garden plants.
I generally space plants now in the projects I work on at least 5 or usually more like 6 feet apart - except for things that stay smaller like native bunchgrasses, monkeyflowers, and the smaller buckwheats. Those can go closer together. I’ve done a bunch of projects and observed how big and how fast a lot of these California native plants grow.
Great job. Looks a lot like what Brad Lancaster has done, minus the irrigation, of course. I had no idea that California had a turf removal program like that. Sounds like a great way to get some of your tax money back!
Great vid, I’m trying to add some natives to my drought tolerant yard of mostly agaves and sage but seems like natives are not at most nurseries. So I’ve been resorting to finding a plant I like via UA-cam, finding out how big it grows, sun requirements, then trying to find where to get it.
We list some native plant nurseries at the end of the video. A solid resource for plants is CalScape.Org CalScape gives you all the information you need. It is very accurate in its description of plant size, water needs, sun exposure needed and soil needs for each species.
Sooooo thankful for discovering your channel. This is GOLD! Thank you guys! At a new development house in Visalia and paused for one year observing the yard. Now I'm mobilizing.
This was awesome to watch. I have an acre of ice plant and I'm currently designing new native landscaping. I hope iceplant will count at "turf" 🤣🤣 Thank you for naming all of the plants. Calscape is great but also overwhelming so this was really helpful! Beautiful yard!
This is so great! Thank you for the video- I am so inspired. Imagine if everyone did this how much better it would be!? I really love those Wooly Bluecurls.
Our yard had a seed bank of weeds that was probably there for many years. Letting them grow revealed just how many seeds were in the ground. Fortunately the mulch and removing weeds as they pop up has significantly reduced the weed population.
We did not take a permaculture design course but we did take a course offered by LADWP that guided us through native planting, irrigation, bio-swales and mulching to retain moisture and nutrients. We also used Calscape.Org to find plants that worked well in our specific region. I suggest looking at HomeGrownNationalParks.Org as another source of inspiration and information.
We live in Long Beach not far from Los Angeles and plan on doing this to our front yard. I too hadn’t thought about where the water goes in our yard before drawing up my landscaping plans. So I’ll go back to it with that in mind. It’s a daunting task to take everything out currently. Do you think it was easier to take out your old vegetation because it had died? We have been maintaining our yard even though we want it gone.
Stunning video and design!!!! I am going through this myself - a grant through the Conejo Valley Audubon Society for 200.00 of plants. Lots of costs for the hardscape for sure!
i am so glad this video came across my feed i have been looking for more southern california and los angeles native plant resources and was having difficulties finding what i needed. so many great sites and resources to check out from this video, thanks!
Thank you! It was hard work but we are now enjoying our yard nearly every day with something beautiful or interesting. And our water consumption is super low. We stopped all drip irrigation in 2020 and the plants have done well.
So Beautiful! I'm slowly coaxing the non-existent front yard of my Dad's home in the SFV into something like what you both have done. Soil is very hard and dry compacted clay.
When you plant in that soil there are native chaparral plants that do better in clay and compacted soils. Good nurseries and Calscape.Org can really help you determine which ones. Thank you for your kind words.
My soil here in my yard in Moreno Valley is the worst I’ve ever worked with or seen in my life. It basically becomes concrete when it dries out. And except for immediately after big rains it’s unusually very dry. I got rid of the lawn when I moved in back in 2020 and did nothing whatsoever to amend the soil. I regraded everything and created dry streambeds and it is absolutely gorgeous now. It’s been amazing to see how much some of these plants have grown. There are many California natives that thrive in very tough dry hard soils. Especially buckwheats, brittlebush, sages, and sagebrush. And elderberries, oaks, native grasses, sumacs, buckthorns etc etc. Best thing is to take a walk through any remaining natural areas that are around and see what’s growing there. Get a field guide and start identifying the native plants.
#2 We are in the process of turning about 2/3 of our new “back yard” into a native garden. since we never had grass in the first place, there was nothing to get rid of. We are looking forward to the time when our plants have some growth. You plants at the year mark look beautiful!
I've planning to commit to replacing our lawns with this particular landscape and have seen a lot of these diy videos. I must admit that this video is the best because not only the before, during, after, and "year-after" (which is very important) montage but the plant name overlays within each shot. I have a lot better idea of what a particular plant species will look like as it matures and how it incorporates within the overall design.
Thank you for your kind reply. We want to help people understand the process of planting a native garden in Southern California specifically but also help anyone living anywhere who is interested in native trees, vegetation and animals. Our yard has thoroughly enriched our lives.
We live near the Bay area in Nor Cal and our county doesn't offer any assistance for native gardens. With the cost of living being so crazy, most of us cannot afford to do this. Such a bummer to not have any resources here
I recommend checking with the water management district in your area. There may be rebates out there that require a little digging before you actually start digging 😊
Nice , much info in short video ! Good to let people know to observe sun, where rain sits in their yards... THought couldnt divert grey water , unless raised house to access drain pipes, as though all runs in or under cement foundation. Will try to access more info on that. Also wondering if my Salvias and Snowberries need pruning/trimming to stay healthy. TY excellent. Oh, do you have another updated vid on how plants changed and what awesome creatures visit. Wonderful scents, native bees, birds....
@@Caifu88 , a seasonal short vid or photos of each plant variety would also be interesting. Am finding how to manage plants, as some died if didnt prune back well or too much water. Learning how to prune Sage or gets over woody and doesnt live as long as naturally "pruned" by wild creatures or small fires. Am learning to make mini swales to hold water in areas. Trying to get vids/pics of local creatures, as lots of birds, lizards, native bee's. Is nice to hear the Quail ... An Audubon group in our county is awarding natives to some.
We don't have a yearly maintenance schedule. However, we do to keep the yard clear of weeds, invasive grasses and overgrowth by taking an occasional walk around the yard and then pulling weeds as needed. During the summer dormant period there are very few weeds that will continue to come up because our watering schedule is very light. We only water certain plants (plants that haven't matured) or natives that benefit from occasional summer watering. Mulch has really helped contain the weeds and retain moisture in the soil. During our rainy season (winter time in Southern California) the invasive plants and grasses will start growing in the later part of the winter. This is our heaviest weed control period. Once a week we will pull weeds before they get large enough to produce seeds. Over the course of a couple of years we've significantly reduced new weed growth. Generally in the summer and fall there isn't too much weeding or maintenance to attend to. We have been doing light pruning of the plants along our paths if the plant is growing into our path. Otherwise, we wait until the later fall to clear out any problem growth or to remove dead plant material. We like to leave plant material for nesting birds and beneficial insects that may nest in the dried plant stems. Invasive grasses will always be an annual and regular thing we will have to maintain. We've noticed that grass seed carried on the wind will spout up every spring and if you get at the grasses early enough they pull out of the mulch before they've even put roots deep into the soil. I hope this helps. Thank you for your interest in native plant species.
Your video has given me so much clarity about the process. Thank you very much for this! I stopped watering eleven months ago here in The Valley and my Bermuda grass is still hanging on in spots. I know those roots are mighty deep. I'm considering solarizing in anticipation of planting in late October, but I'm not sure that will get me the result I want (killing all the Bermuda). It is my understanding that solarizing only cooks the top 6-9 inches of the seed bank. Did you consider solarization?
We didn't use solarization because we missed our window of opportunity to do it in the summer. Solarization doesn't work well with Bermuda grass because the roots run so deep. We also elected to dig up as much of the invasive grass roots as possible before laying down cardboard layers in the infested areas. I hired a company to come in and dig out much of the grass down to about eight inches and then my wife and I continued to remove new growth for a few months. Our technique was to try to follow the root system of the grass for as far as we could and remove the roots. We built a screenier out of chicken wire to strain out much of the roots. We didn't want to use herbicide. This work, along with the cardboard and a heavy layer of mulch stopped most of the grass growth. Our yard is now mostly free of invasive and ornamental grasses but we still have two small areas of nut grass that is slowly being erradicated. That takes time and regular effort to keep denying the nut grass sun and growth time. We dig out the nutlets as much as we can when we remove the grass. I hope this helps. We have not watered our natives this summer and our yard is now entering summer dormancy. We did not water last two summesr either and all of our plants sprung back to life in the fall and winter. Our water bill is significantly less now.
@@Caifu88 Do you have any tips on the make and model of driplines you used? Heck, even the valves used? I have heard so much noise about using high end Netafim copper drip lines that prevents vegetation from growing in the dripline. I have also heard that I should plant a grid of drip lines 12" apart. But then I look at your lines and they seems to not be the high end (maybe I'm wrong) and also seem to just go directly to the plants - which makes sense to me. I would think that a grid would create problems in the future if one wanted to dig a hole for a new plant and accidentally chop through an existing line 11" away.
Lovely video, it's an inspiration! I have a very specific question: I also divert greywater to the yard, but I've come to realize it can be really harmful and inappropriate for most of the natives I tried it with. Would you offer some details about your greywater outflow, the riparian area that it irrigates, and what materials you use for the area, like mulch or gravel?
Hi T, We let our grey water flow into a river rock lined depression. We have to clean out some lint and hair occasionally from the water that comes from both our laundry and showers. We only use non toxic cleaners, bath soaps and shampoo. If we have to clean any area with bleach then we divert. The water to the city sewage line using the three-way valve. The plants we have around our grey water basins are black willows, scarlet monkey flower, some rushed and a few other riparian plants. We make sure we never use any toxic chemicals in the grey water. Most chaparral natives don't use water during summer and they go dormant. It's important to select native plants for around your grey water outflow that tolerate moist soil.
Yes, we intentionally did not use plastic fabric because of the plastic factor and the mulch is sufficient to smother most of the weeds. The garden still requires occasional weeding and tending but it is an hour or two a month at most. We have not been added mulch to the garden since the original install because the leaf layer is building up and the shading by the plants helps keep the weeds down to a manageable amount.
I’m pleasantly surprised that cardboard and mulch was enough to take care of your Bermuda grass. I’m planning to hire someone to dig them up, then I will try to get the remaining subsurface roots myself before sheet mulching.
We've managed to significantly reduce our weed and grass problems over the last two years. We still have nutgrass and some Bermuda grass that is trying to come back in our buckwheats. For the most part, a monthly sweep of the garden reveals most of the invasive grasses and we just keep after them but using a pronged digger that helps us extract the roots with the grasses. Each year gets better.
@@Caifu88 Bermuda grass has started coming through the 2-layer builder paper barrier and wood mulch I laid down. They sometimes show up in areas where I don’t have any irrigation so the very occasional rain and regular fog must be enough to get them started. I have resorted to middle-end residential strength Round-Up to get them down to their roots. I’m hoping the hot summer and lack of rain/fog will kill them naturally.
The garden/yard required about 30 minutes of light weeding once a month on average for the first two years. We find that the amount of time spent in the garden doing these tasks are well worth the effort. We make note of creatures making use of our plants. We have seen a large increase in mushroom and fungal growth, indicating a healthier soil. We enjoy the yard much more than the bit of simple weeding needed to keep it looking good. Our expenditures for fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides have been zero. Currently, we have gotten the unwanted plants (weeds) down to quite manageable levels, weeding for ten to fifteen minutes sporadically. The weeds that pop up now are mostly wind delivered, carried by rainwater or birds dropping seeds. We would never go back to a grass yard. The pleasure and enjoyment of a native plant garden is truly worth mentioning.
You can work with your county extension office or the biology department at a State University to get lists of plants and trees native to your area. There are nurseries in many states that specialize in native plants as well. In California we benefit from the work done by our many superb state universities and Calscape.Org
Beautiful garden! And very informative post. Now that the plants in your garden are established, are you irritating during dry winter months ( drought). If so, are you watering overhead or using your drip? Thank you!
We did not water at all over the winter months because this is our wet season. Our plants are near full size and looking quite healthy as of April. Our plan for this dry summer season is to monitor the moisture levels closely and only water just before any forecast of extreme heat. We have drip line installed throughout the yard. Our native trees will still get monthly deep watering via rings of drip line. Ultimately our goal is to let the native plants adapt to their natural cycles of wet and dry seasons. However, we do not want to loose any plants to extreme heat.
We used Garcia Ironworks. If you google them you’ll see the contact information. They made the picture frame fence out of 2” x 2” steel. I hired a carpenter to install the mangaras wood. We purchased FSC certified lumber from Anawalt.
This is exactly what I am wanting to do with our yards. Very inspiring! Gorgeous native garden. Did you do it all yourselves and do you recommend the cardboard and mulch?
We did most of the work and all of the planning and planting. I hired a company to remove a couple old nonnative trees and to dig the bioswales. I would recommend cardboard but with a caution. Make sure you don’t put it down where you may walk a lot. The mulch on top of cardboard is pretty slippery. We used a roll of Ramboard as our cardboard. We did not want to use any more plastic than absolutely necessary.
Hi, Thank you for hsraing the video. How do we take care of weed seeds which are burried, due to no watering of turn for more than 2 years. We could like to make our dry weedy frontyard into native garden. Is weed barrier a good choice? Any recommendations. thank you
We chose to not use a plastic weed barrier or solarizing our lawn with plastic tarps because we are trying to minimize the amount of plastic in any of our life choices. You could chose to do both of these methods to reduce new weed growth after planting your native garden. We cleared the weeds and invasive grasses away before planting and started with bare ground. Minimizing soil disturbances also helps keep old seeds from growing. How little you disturb the soil depends on how much digging and moving of soil you need to do before planting. We did put down a thick (3") layer of mulch to help suppress weed growth. That has helped a lot but we are still clearing new weeds and grasses each growing season. We spend approximately a day a month pulling the weeds and grasses before they produce more seeds. Over time we will decrease the weed seed bank. Moreover, by keeping after the invasive grasses we are slowly controlling their growth and spread. Plastic weed barrier is not entirely effective and also an expense. Some weeds push their way right through the barrier. No beautiful yard is free of maintenance.
How did you find out about the SunSeeker app and what it means for different parts of your yard? How did you know what to do with planning zones in your garden? Did you just randomly create zones? What about existing plumbing for your home or did you hire a plumber to do everything with getting your irrigation system in? I'm at the stage of weeds everywhere and want to understand how you picked the design/zones or is it just throwing darts at a board on what feels right?
Hi Alan, I knew about the SunSeeker app because I work in the film business and it is a tool we use for time of day, sunrise, sunset, where the sun rises on the horizon, etc. We spent almost a year planning and observing. We mentioned in the video that we were able to see where water collected in the yard after rain and which areas were quick to dry out (drainage). We knew we wanted to use grey water when we renovated our home so we had our contractor put in the grey water valve for the showers and the laundry room. As we landscaped we put in the pipes to direct the grey water to areas of the yard. After noting where the driest and wettest parts of the yard were, we planned our planting palette based on which native plants liked wet or dry areas. In all our plants are doing very well. We did have to remove some shrubs that were just too big for our yard. We've thinned out some plants and it makes the overall appearance better.
@@Caifu88 Thank you for sharing that this wasn't a project on it's own and it was integrated in part of a home renovation, as well. It seems like it was more than just a yard replacement. I think most people, including myself, won't be as lucky and will just need to rely on rain barrels instead of connecting to a grey water system from a house. I noticed that you said you pulled out some of your shrubs because they got too big but how are your trees doing? I feel like a lot of these lawn replacement seem a little low. I definitely want to include lots of trees if I ever pull the trigger on my lawn. It seems like so much work though.
@@trunksy The trees are all doing very well. We have ten trees on our small lot. They will get quite big but over many decades. We spread the tree plantings out based on the estimated sizes in CalScape's information. The shrubs we removed gave space for other plants and native grasses that we added to balance out our landscape.
@@Caifu88 Neat! Would you be able to share you final plan? Can't wait to see update videos on how things are going so far, what it looks like now, etc. I bet it looks great.
You were able to qualify for a turf replacement rebate despite fact you had previously let your lawn die out? I live just inside San Bernardino County, did that years ago (back yard) under water reduction mandate and thought I disqualified self because there was now no turf to replace. I don't know if I can do it without rebate.
We qualified because our grass was still alive after we trimmed the weeds and watered the grasses that were there. The root systems were very much alive and it didn't take much to return the grasses to green. Then we took photos and applied for the turf rebate. We had not sprayed the grass with herbicide nor did we solarize the grass with plastic tarping. I hope this helps.
@@Caifu88 Thank you for your response. It's a great help. Back yard died off from lack of water; my attacking regrowth with string trimmer/shovel. It remained clear until few days of rain last year, then grew back to surprising degree. In back I now water only area around two trees (apple/peach; 8 ft apart; feed birds) and regrowth of ?? beneath needs mowing. I'm sure same would happen if I watered whole yard as front is watered and needs mowing.
That's a good and fair question. The irrigation is for the plants when they are babies. All baby plants need water. In the wild, they would propagate when conditions are right for them (wet winters, for example) but we planted and wanted them to live regardless of Mother Nature's timetable. Also, we had to install irrigation as part of the requirements of the turf replacement program. More specifically, they required drip irrigation for the plants to minimize evaporation and water runoff associated with sprinklers. In an urban environment, the additional stresses of the heat island effect can push these plants beyond their adaptations to the natural environment. Automotive traffic in our neighborhood increases hot dry airflow around the plants. Additionally, our ground was disturbed by years of farm use so it will take our plants awhile to sort out nutrient and water needs. I hope this explains why we used irrigation in our garden.
Awesome video! Can't understand why CAL-TRANS doesn't adopt this system to landscape the edges of the urban freeways. In Los Angeles County, they are pathetic, cover with graffiti, debris and dead plants.
It takes completely rethinking how to grow plants to work successfully with California natives vs. the “conventional” landscape plants used for many decades now in southern California. You can’t just put them on irrigation with timers and then ignore them. They tend to be very sensitive to summer watering so you can’t keep them regularly soaked with sprinklers. Eventually everything ends up dying from being overwatered.
IMO, fewer plant varieties should have been used and repeated though the garden. It makes for a more effective visual appearance instead of one of everything. This is a common misstep planting one of everything by new gardeners.
I agree. We discovered this in the first year of growth. We've been thinning ever since. Also, we've been adding more annual flowering plants and native grasses to the mix. We are near a point where we can make a follow up video to this first video.
After years of researching and working on converting my yard to California native, this is the best video I’ve seen! An amazing resource packed with great information.
Thank you for your kind comment. We really made our best effort to collect the most accurate information and pass it along. We hope it helps you in your work.
Such an inspiration. Great job! Can you imagine if the entire Los Angeles region converted their yards to native plants?
Wow, that would be amazing!! And incredibly beautiful.
This inspiring and elegant in every sense. I plan on something similar with my desert back yard in Las Vegas.
You guys Made a great job,planning It,More people should be like that
This is really helpful as I'm planning out my own changes. Thanks!
Excellent video.
A great primer for anyone thinking of doing this.
Thank you!
What a huge improvement and great job you folks did! I create these California native gardens all year round in the Riverside-inland empire area. I really wish more people were interested in California native plants like you are. They are so enjoyable and rewarding in the landscape.
We made the video to encourage and help people who are/were like us - enthusiastic about native plants and the benefits they provide to humans and creatures. I truly hope that we've encouraged at least one person or family to convert their ecologically dead lawn to a vibrant native plant garden with local plants that benefit local wildlife.
This is by far the best video out there about Southern California native plant gardening, from planting site, to selecting plants, to weed suppression, to installation, to watering and mulching.
As a writer for the Ventura Botanical Gardens I applaud your fellas work, bravo!
Thank you for the kind words and encouragement. We truly love our garden and get enjoyment from it every day.
very inspiring! if only a small percent of houses did this, think of how lovely all the bird and butterflies around that we all could enjoy!
So true!
We hope to inspire people to do this with even a small area of their yards. The habitat provided to insects, birds and reptiles in our yard is phenomenal. We also have a local skunk/s who visit us on a regular basis and dig around our mulch and decaying logs placed on the property. They've never been a problem and we realize they are present in our urban environment. We just like giving them a little extra food.
thank you so much so much helpful info. wow thank you a million times!
Oh wow 😃 very informative , thank you !
You are so welcome!
We plan on adding a video showing the insects, birds and other creatures living in our small native garden since the establishment of this habitat. Watch for it in 2021.
Hi @Loren, excited for an update video!
still waiting ;(
@@lirimeyer I'm sorry for the long delay. We've had a pretty busy schedule these last couple of years. We really want to show everyone our habitat and creatures who thrive in them.
@@Caifu88 Hope its soon. I'm eager to see :,)
@caifu88 I would also love to see an update! Even if it’s just shorts taken from your phone, rather than full production videos. (This video was gorgeous and really well done btw)
I love how you showed the steps and named the plants! So very helpful and inspirational. I hope they have a program like this in Northern California.
Wow, the native plants make that architecturally simplistic house into a beauty !!!!! They go perfectly together.
Just a fabulous job !!!!
This is wonderful!!
I absolutely loved your video! thank you
this video was so informative!!! thank you 😊
I love this! I always talk about how important it is to plant native plants especially since california is constantly in a drought and these native plants can handle it.
I enjoy how your native garden considers varieties and actual nativity of plants.
Too many gardeners out there think "native gardening" involves letting native and non-native weeds grow. Mostly because I believe they assume that 1.) Native gardens are less maintenance if not completely hands-off, and 2.) All flowers benefit all native pollinators. I have 3 of these types in my neighborhood alone, and their yards are a hot mess under the guise of "for the environment" and "natives not lawns."
Thank you so much for posting this. It's one thing to read about native gardens, it's another to see the process from start to finish!
We've learned a lot after a couple years of growth. We did overplant somewhat. We've thinned out the garden in a few areas. We have opened up some spaces and added more native grasses. Our garden has matured beautifully. It gives us twelve months of changes and wildlife. It is ever changing and never boring. We also removed three trees after finding out that the tree nursery sold us trees that were not the specific species we requested. We will be adding a Southern California Black Walnut to our yard. This one we've grown from seed.
VERY helpful video!! I'm getting tired of my lawn and I'm ready to bring some California plants to my home. Thanks for helping me out with the pre-planning work!
An update tour would be good to see
beautiful! I bought a 100 year old bungalow in Houston at the start of the pandemic, and i want to do something like this. :-)
You can do it!
Thank you for sharing this incredibly informative and accessible video! I’m hoping to embark on my own turf to native garden journey, and your video is both inspiring and practical. Thank you!
My husband is a biology professor and for years we lived in a little house quite close to the earth. No heat, no air conditioner, just us and the lizards, snakes, coyotes, bobcats, an occasional fox, and over 100 bird sp on the yard list. But we moved to suburbia, to a house abutting a hillside covered in coastal sage scrub plants and lots of non natives. So far in our part of the hill side we have planted Desert Willow, Palo Verde, a Elderberry, many ceanothus, toyon sp., coyote bush, coffee berry, black sage, white sage, and a small encelia farinosa from the hillside volunteered to grow with us. #1
We have an extraordinary amount of life that has come to us since planting the native plants. We live in an older suburban area. Prior to planting, with just grass and weeds we had a few native species of birds, mostly European honeybees and an occasional butterfly. Now we see new a varied life almost every day. We are collecting photos and videos over the winter to showcase the creatures in a new video later in 2021. Thank you for planting native plants!
Very informative. Thanks! I like the plant list at the end.
very good advice . never heard of sun seeker
Wow😄🌳🌼🌼🌺
4:25 That’s the common mistake I see in many residential yards with native planting: crowding as an result of underestimating mature native* plant sizes and growth habits. This is where taking the time to plan, including proper research helps. *Many native shrubs get much larger than most other garden plants.
I generally space plants now in the projects I work on at least 5 or usually more like 6 feet apart - except for things that stay smaller like native bunchgrasses, monkeyflowers, and the smaller buckwheats. Those can go closer together. I’ve done a bunch of projects and observed how big and how fast a lot of these California native plants grow.
beautiful
Its been two years! Please give us soooommmmmmething 😮💨
I apologize for the long delay. We're collecting photos, videos and data. Our lives have been quite busy. We will get to this as soon as possible.
Wow. It's insane you got this much growth in a single year! Well done.
Such a Fantastic video! A good guide for everyone!
Great job. Looks a lot like what Brad Lancaster has done, minus the irrigation, of course. I had no idea that California had a turf removal program like that. Sounds like a great way to get some of your tax money back!
Wonderful
love this
Great vid, I’m trying to add some natives to my drought tolerant yard of mostly agaves and sage but seems like natives are not at most nurseries.
So I’ve been resorting to finding a plant I like via UA-cam, finding out how big it grows, sun requirements, then trying to find where to get it.
We list some native plant nurseries at the end of the video. A solid resource for plants is CalScape.Org
CalScape gives you all the information you need. It is very accurate in its description of plant size, water needs, sun exposure needed and soil needs for each species.
Sooooo thankful for discovering your channel. This is GOLD! Thank you guys! At a new development house in Visalia and paused for one year observing the yard. Now I'm mobilizing.
I absolutely love this! This is so inspiring! Thank you for sharing your journey.
Holy smokes so many good tips in here! Ty!! :)
This was awesome to watch. I have an acre of ice plant and I'm currently designing new native landscaping. I hope iceplant will count at "turf" 🤣🤣 Thank you for naming all of the plants. Calscape is great but also overwhelming so this was really helpful! Beautiful yard!
I don't think they will accept ice plants as turf but you should certainly inquire before removing the ice plants.
Loren u folks really are pros! Thanks for sharing what a great improvement 👍
This is so great! Thank you for the video- I am so inspired. Imagine if everyone did this how much better it would be!? I really love those Wooly Bluecurls.
Our garden will be on the 2022 Theodore Payne Garden Tour in April. You can get more information through Theodore Payne's website.
What a delightful garden! Thank you for doing this and for sharing your journey.
So nice of you
EXCELLENT video!!! I was very surprised that when to let the weeds grow at the beginning, many of them were NOT native.
Our yard had a seed bank of weeds that was probably there for many years. Letting them grow revealed just how many seeds were in the ground. Fortunately the mulch and removing weeds as they pop up has significantly reduced the weed population.
amazing job! beautiful and thoughtful design. have y'all done a permaculture design course?
We did not take a permaculture design course but we did take a course offered by LADWP that guided us through native planting, irrigation, bio-swales and mulching to retain moisture and nutrients. We also used Calscape.Org to find plants that worked well in our specific region. I suggest looking at HomeGrownNationalParks.Org as another source of inspiration and information.
@@Caifu88 Nice. That homegrown website is totally new for me! Super cool work. Take care!
We live in Long Beach not far from Los Angeles and plan on doing this to our front yard. I too hadn’t thought about where the water goes in our yard before drawing up my landscaping plans. So I’ll go back to it with that in mind. It’s a daunting task to take everything out currently. Do you think it was easier to take out your old vegetation because it had died? We have been maintaining our yard even though we want it gone.
I like the engelmann oak. If you have space try a nevins barberry. they are a rare species and a avian magnet.
It looks great. What a project!!
Thanks so much!
So beautiful, made me tear up
Thanks for posting, great info
Looks great! Excellent video. Please make more!!!
Thank you! Will do!
Stunning video and design!!!! I am going through this myself - a grant through the Conejo Valley Audubon Society for 200.00 of plants. Lots of costs for the hardscape for sure!
i am so glad this video came across my feed i have been looking for more southern california and los angeles native plant resources and was having difficulties finding what i needed. so many great sites and resources to check out from this video, thanks!
This is awesome! Thank you for sharing!
Great video, thanks for sharing. This was really informative 👍🏻
Excellent video idea! I am a newer landscape designer and this is so so helpful, congrats.
Beautiful! Everything is beautiful! Thank you!
you did a great job. it looks difficult without the help of a professional
Thank you! It was hard work but we are now enjoying our yard nearly every day with something beautiful or interesting. And our water consumption is super low. We stopped all drip irrigation in 2020 and the plants have done well.
Wow is all I can say! INspirational!!! You made it look easy!
So Beautiful! I'm slowly coaxing the non-existent front yard of my Dad's home in the SFV into something like what you both have done. Soil is very hard and dry compacted clay.
When you plant in that soil there are native chaparral plants that do better in clay and compacted soils. Good nurseries and Calscape.Org can really help you determine which ones. Thank you for your kind words.
My soil here in my yard in Moreno Valley is the worst I’ve ever worked with or seen in my life. It basically becomes concrete when it dries out. And except for immediately after big rains it’s unusually very dry. I got rid of the lawn when I moved in back in 2020 and did nothing whatsoever to amend the soil. I regraded everything and created dry streambeds and it is absolutely gorgeous now. It’s been amazing to see how much some of these plants have grown. There are many California natives that thrive in very tough dry hard soils. Especially buckwheats, brittlebush, sages, and sagebrush. And elderberries, oaks, native grasses, sumacs, buckthorns etc etc. Best thing is to take a walk through any remaining natural areas that are around and see what’s growing there. Get a field guide and start identifying the native plants.
Fantastic job you guys! Gorgeous garden
super epic
Thank you.
#2 We are in the process of turning about 2/3 of our new “back yard” into a native garden. since we never had grass in the first place, there was nothing to get rid of. We are looking forward to the time when our plants have some growth. You plants at the year mark look beautiful!
I've planning to commit to replacing our lawns with this particular landscape and have seen a lot of these diy videos.
I must admit that this video is the best because not only the before, during, after, and "year-after" (which is very important) montage but the plant name overlays within each shot.
I have a lot better idea of what a particular plant species will look like as it matures and how it incorporates within the overall design.
Thank you for your kind reply. We want to help people understand the process of planting a native garden in Southern California specifically but also help anyone living anywhere who is interested in native trees, vegetation and animals. Our yard has thoroughly enriched our lives.
Future inspiration! Looking forward to following along
We live near the Bay area in Nor Cal and our county doesn't offer any assistance for native gardens. With the cost of living being so crazy, most of us cannot afford to do this. Such a bummer to not have any resources here
I recommend checking with the water management district in your area. There may be rebates out there that require a little digging before you actually start digging 😊
Check next door and see if there is a native plants group. Master Gardner programs may also be helpful.
Very cool. I admire the commitment.
That was awesome.
Great video, thank you.
Looks nice! This is what I’m trying to do
Nice , much info in short video ! Good to let people know to observe sun, where rain sits in their yards... THought couldnt divert grey water , unless raised house to access drain pipes, as though all runs in or under cement foundation. Will try to access more info on that. Also wondering if my Salvias and Snowberries need pruning/trimming to stay healthy. TY excellent. Oh, do you have another updated vid on how plants changed and what awesome creatures visit. Wonderful scents, native bees, birds....
We haven't created the followup video yet. We have been gathering photos and videos but we have not complied the video yet.
@@Caifu88 , a seasonal short vid or photos of each plant variety would also be interesting. Am finding how to manage plants, as some died if didnt prune back well or too much water. Learning how to prune Sage or gets over woody and doesnt live as long as naturally "pruned" by wild creatures or small fires. Am learning to make mini swales to hold water in areas. Trying to get vids/pics of local creatures, as lots of birds, lizards, native bee's. Is nice to hear the Quail ... An Audubon group in our county is awarding natives to some.
Would love to see an update
Could you kindly post your yearly maintenance schedule and how you maintain the plants? I’m inspired. Thank you!
We don't have a yearly maintenance schedule. However, we do to keep the yard clear of weeds, invasive grasses and overgrowth by taking an occasional walk around the yard and then pulling weeds as needed. During the summer dormant period there are very few weeds that will continue to come up because our watering schedule is very light. We only water certain plants (plants that haven't matured) or natives that benefit from occasional summer watering.
Mulch has really helped contain the weeds and retain moisture in the soil. During our rainy season (winter time in Southern California) the invasive plants and grasses will start growing in the later part of the winter. This is our heaviest weed control period. Once a week we will pull weeds before they get large enough to produce seeds. Over the course of a couple of years we've significantly reduced new weed growth.
Generally in the summer and fall there isn't too much weeding or maintenance to attend to. We have been doing light pruning of the plants along our paths if the plant is growing into our path. Otherwise, we wait until the later fall to clear out any problem growth or to remove dead plant material. We like to leave plant material for nesting birds and beneficial insects that may nest in the dried plant stems.
Invasive grasses will always be an annual and regular thing we will have to maintain. We've noticed that grass seed carried on the wind will spout up every spring and if you get at the grasses early enough they pull out of the mulch before they've even put roots deep into the soil.
I hope this helps. Thank you for your interest in native plant species.
Your video has given me so much clarity about the process. Thank you very much for this! I stopped watering eleven months ago here in The Valley and my Bermuda grass is still hanging on in spots. I know those roots are mighty deep. I'm considering solarizing in anticipation of planting in late October, but I'm not sure that will get me the result I want (killing all the Bermuda). It is my understanding that solarizing only cooks the top 6-9 inches of the seed bank. Did you consider solarization?
We didn't use solarization because we missed our window of opportunity to do it in the summer. Solarization doesn't work well with Bermuda grass because the roots run so deep. We also elected to dig up as much of the invasive grass roots as possible before laying down cardboard layers in the infested areas. I hired a company to come in and dig out much of the grass down to about eight inches and then my wife and I continued to remove new growth for a few months. Our technique was to try to follow the root system of the grass for as far as we could and remove the roots. We built a screenier out of chicken wire to strain out much of the roots. We didn't want to use herbicide.
This work, along with the cardboard and a heavy layer of mulch stopped most of the grass growth. Our yard is now mostly free of invasive and ornamental grasses but we still have two small areas of nut grass that is slowly being erradicated. That takes time and regular effort to keep denying the nut grass sun and growth time. We dig out the nutlets as much as we can when we remove the grass. I hope this helps. We have not watered our natives this summer and our yard is now entering summer dormancy. We did not water last two summesr either and all of our plants sprung back to life in the fall and winter. Our water bill is significantly less now.
@@Caifu88 Do you have any tips on the make and model of driplines you used? Heck, even the valves used? I have heard so much noise about using high end Netafim copper drip lines that prevents vegetation from growing in the dripline. I have also heard that I should plant a grid of drip lines 12" apart. But then I look at your lines and they seems to not be the high end (maybe I'm wrong) and also seem to just go directly to the plants - which makes sense to me. I would think that a grid would create problems in the future if one wanted to dig a hole for a new plant and accidentally chop through an existing line 11" away.
will you be doing an update video soon?
We’ve been pretty busy but we hope to start compiling our photos and videos soon.
Lovely video, it's an inspiration! I have a very specific question: I also divert greywater to the yard, but I've come to realize it can be really harmful and inappropriate for most of the natives I tried it with. Would you offer some details about your greywater outflow, the riparian area that it irrigates, and what materials you use for the area, like mulch or gravel?
Hi T,
We let our grey water flow into a river rock lined depression. We have to clean out some lint and hair occasionally from the water that comes from both our laundry and showers. We only use non toxic cleaners, bath soaps and shampoo. If we have to clean any area with bleach then we divert. The water to the city sewage line using the three-way valve.
The plants we have around our grey water basins are black willows, scarlet monkey flower, some rushed and a few other riparian plants.
We make sure we never use any toxic chemicals in the grey water.
Most chaparral natives don't use water during summer and they go dormant. It's important to select native plants for around your grey water outflow that tolerate moist soil.
🍃Beautiful garden and film making. I noticed that you didn’t use black fabric for weeds and wonder if you have been happy with that decision.
Yes, we intentionally did not use plastic fabric because of the plastic factor and the mulch is sufficient to smother most of the weeds. The garden still requires occasional weeding and tending but it is an hour or two a month at most. We have not been added mulch to the garden since the original install because the leaf layer is building up and the shading by the plants helps keep the weeds down to a manageable amount.
I’m pleasantly surprised that cardboard and mulch was enough to take care of your Bermuda grass. I’m planning to hire someone to dig them up, then I will try to get the remaining subsurface roots myself before sheet mulching.
We've managed to significantly reduce our weed and grass problems over the last two years. We still have nutgrass and some Bermuda grass that is trying to come back in our buckwheats. For the most part, a monthly sweep of the garden reveals most of the invasive grasses and we just keep after them but using a pronged digger that helps us extract the roots with the grasses. Each year gets better.
@@Caifu88 Bermuda grass has started coming through the 2-layer builder paper barrier and wood mulch I laid down. They sometimes show up in areas where I don’t have any irrigation so the very occasional rain and regular fog must be enough to get them started. I have resorted to middle-end residential strength Round-Up to get them down to their roots. I’m hoping the hot summer and lack of rain/fog will kill them naturally.
it takes a whole lot of weeding for a few years to make this garden a success that you did not mention
The garden/yard required about 30 minutes of light weeding once a month on average for the first two years. We find that the amount of time spent in the garden doing these tasks are well worth the effort. We make note of creatures making use of our plants. We have seen a large increase in mushroom and fungal growth, indicating a healthier soil. We enjoy the yard much more than the bit of simple weeding needed to keep it looking good. Our expenditures for fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides have been zero. Currently, we have gotten the unwanted plants (weeds) down to quite manageable levels, weeding for ten to fifteen minutes sporadically. The weeds that pop up now are mostly wind delivered, carried by rainwater or birds dropping seeds. We would never go back to a grass yard. The pleasure and enjoyment of a native plant garden is truly worth mentioning.
I want to do this for our home in the mid west
You can work with your county extension office or the biology department at a State University to get lists of plants and trees native to your area. There are nurseries in many states that specialize in native plants as well. In California we benefit from the work done by our many superb state universities and Calscape.Org
Beautiful garden! And very informative post. Now that the plants in your garden are established, are you irritating during dry winter months ( drought). If so, are you watering overhead or using your drip? Thank you!
We did not water at all over the winter months because this is our wet season. Our plants are near full size and looking quite healthy as of April. Our plan for this dry summer season is to monitor the moisture levels closely and only water just before any forecast of extreme heat. We have drip line installed throughout the yard. Our native trees will still get monthly deep watering via rings of drip line. Ultimately our goal is to let the native plants adapt to their natural cycles of wet and dry seasons. However, we do not want to loose any plants to extreme heat.
Very nice work! I'm curious about who built your steel and wood fence. Are you happy with their work? Would you share their name here?
We used Garcia Ironworks. If you google them you’ll see the contact information. They made the picture frame fence out of 2” x 2” steel. I hired a carpenter to install the mangaras wood. We purchased FSC certified lumber from Anawalt.
@@Caifu88 Thanks very much Loren! It looks very nice as does your entire garden. Enjoy watching all your hard work and planning grow! :)
This is exactly what I am wanting to do with our yards. Very inspiring! Gorgeous native garden. Did you do it all yourselves and do you recommend the cardboard and mulch?
We did most of the work and all of the planning and planting. I hired a company to remove a couple old nonnative trees and to dig the bioswales. I would recommend cardboard but with a caution. Make sure you don’t put it down where you may walk a lot. The mulch on top of cardboard is pretty slippery. We used a roll of Ramboard as our cardboard. We did not want to use any more plastic than absolutely necessary.
Hi, Thank you for hsraing the video. How do we take care of weed seeds which are burried, due to no watering of turn for more than 2 years. We could like to make our dry weedy frontyard into native garden. Is weed barrier a good choice? Any recommendations. thank you
We chose to not use a plastic weed barrier or solarizing our lawn with plastic tarps because we are trying to minimize the amount of plastic in any of our life choices. You could chose to do both of these methods to reduce new weed growth after planting your native garden. We cleared the weeds and invasive grasses away before planting and started with bare ground. Minimizing soil disturbances also helps keep old seeds from growing. How little you disturb the soil depends on how much digging and moving of soil you need to do before planting.
We did put down a thick (3") layer of mulch to help suppress weed growth. That has helped a lot but we are still clearing new weeds and grasses each growing season. We spend approximately a day a month pulling the weeds and grasses before they produce more seeds. Over time we will decrease the weed seed bank. Moreover, by keeping after the invasive grasses we are slowly controlling their growth and spread. Plastic weed barrier is not entirely effective and also an expense. Some weeds push their way right through the barrier. No beautiful yard is free of maintenance.
How did you find out about the SunSeeker app and what it means for different parts of your yard? How did you know what to do with planning zones in your garden? Did you just randomly create zones? What about existing plumbing for your home or did you hire a plumber to do everything with getting your irrigation system in? I'm at the stage of weeds everywhere and want to understand how you picked the design/zones or is it just throwing darts at a board on what feels right?
Hi Alan, I knew about the SunSeeker app because I work in the film business and it is a tool we use for time of day, sunrise, sunset, where the sun rises on the horizon, etc. We spent almost a year planning and observing. We mentioned in the video that we were able to see where water collected in the yard after rain and which areas were quick to dry out (drainage). We knew we wanted to use grey water when we renovated our home so we had our contractor put in the grey water valve for the showers and the laundry room. As we landscaped we put in the pipes to direct the grey water to areas of the yard. After noting where the driest and wettest parts of the yard were, we planned our planting palette based on which native plants liked wet or dry areas. In all our plants are doing very well. We did have to remove some shrubs that were just too big for our yard. We've thinned out some plants and it makes the overall appearance better.
@@Caifu88 Thank you for sharing that this wasn't a project on it's own and it was integrated in part of a home renovation, as well. It seems like it was more than just a yard replacement. I think most people, including myself, won't be as lucky and will just need to rely on rain barrels instead of connecting to a grey water system from a house. I noticed that you said you pulled out some of your shrubs because they got too big but how are your trees doing? I feel like a lot of these lawn replacement seem a little low. I definitely want to include lots of trees if I ever pull the trigger on my lawn. It seems like so much work though.
@@trunksy The trees are all doing very well. We have ten trees on our small lot. They will get quite big but over many decades. We spread the tree plantings out based on the estimated sizes in CalScape's information. The shrubs we removed gave space for other plants and native grasses that we added to balance out our landscape.
@@Caifu88 Neat! Would you be able to share you final plan? Can't wait to see update videos on how things are going so far, what it looks like now, etc. I bet it looks great.
You were able to qualify for a turf replacement rebate despite fact you had previously let your lawn die out? I live just inside San Bernardino County, did that years ago (back yard) under water reduction mandate and thought I disqualified self because there was now no turf to replace. I don't know if I can do it without rebate.
We qualified because our grass was still alive after we trimmed the weeds and watered the grasses that were there. The root systems were very much alive and it didn't take much to return the grasses to green. Then we took photos and applied for the turf rebate. We had not sprayed the grass with herbicide nor did we solarize the grass with plastic tarping. I hope this helps.
@@Caifu88 Thank you for your response. It's a great help. Back yard died off from lack of water; my attacking regrowth with string trimmer/shovel. It remained clear until few days of rain last year, then grew back to surprising degree. In back I now water only area around two trees (apple/peach; 8 ft apart; feed birds) and regrowth of ?? beneath needs mowing. I'm sure same would happen if I watered whole yard as front is watered and needs mowing.
If they are perfectly adapted to your local annual rainfall, why the need to install irrigation?
That's a good and fair question. The irrigation is for the plants when they are babies. All baby plants need water. In the wild, they would propagate when conditions are right for them (wet winters, for example) but we planted and wanted them to live regardless of Mother Nature's timetable. Also, we had to install irrigation as part of the requirements of the turf replacement program. More specifically, they required drip irrigation for the plants to minimize evaporation and water runoff associated with sprinklers. In an urban environment, the additional stresses of the heat island effect can push these plants beyond their adaptations to the natural environment. Automotive traffic in our neighborhood increases hot dry airflow around the plants. Additionally, our ground was disturbed by years of farm use so it will take our plants awhile to sort out nutrient and water needs. I hope this explains why we used irrigation in our garden.
Awesome video! Can't understand why CAL-TRANS doesn't adopt this system to landscape the edges of the urban freeways. In Los Angeles County, they are pathetic, cover with graffiti, debris and dead plants.
Excellent point!
It takes completely rethinking how to grow plants to work successfully with California natives vs. the “conventional” landscape plants used for many decades now in southern California. You can’t just put them on irrigation with timers and then ignore them. They tend to be very sensitive to summer watering so you can’t keep them regularly soaked with sprinklers. Eventually everything ends up dying from being overwatered.
IMO, fewer plant varieties should have been used and repeated though the garden. It makes for a more effective visual appearance instead of one of everything. This is a common misstep planting one of everything by new gardeners.
I agree. We discovered this in the first year of growth. We've been thinning ever since. Also, we've been adding more annual flowering plants and native grasses to the mix. We are near a point where we can make a follow up video to this first video.
I wonder if TX has a program like this lololololololololololololololololololololooo loo llllllloooollloll🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
If Texas or your local water district has a program to conserve water you should be able to Google it and find some rebates and guidance.