The Manzanita Miracle, or, why you should love native plants if you live in a dry climate

...place up even in the heart of a drought. All we have to do is treat these plants right. Native plants have a reputation for being tricky, and it’s true, in that they don’t act like typical imported landscape plants–the lawns and the boxwood hedges. They don’t need even a fraction of the water as exotics do, so they are almost always overwatered, and die as a result. I think it is hard for us to even imagine that plants can be so profoundly unthir...

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Our new front yard, part 2: theory

...wild” looking. We don’t like too many shrubs. We don’t like over-exuberant plants–plants tall enough to loom over us. We don’t like plants which block our views. In one of his books (and unfortunately I don’t remember which one) the great plant designer Piet Oudolf talked about how he quite likes to use big looming plants for the air of mystery and drama they can add to a garden, but admits that most clients feel threatened by them, and recommends...

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The Wonder of Worms

...out 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) of castings on the surface of the soil of your house plants and container plants. Add them to your seed starting mix. (If you keep a worm bin, you’ll know how readily seeds sprout in castings!) Top dress established plants, be they vegetables, flowers or established perennials Mix them with bagged nursery soil to get your potted plants and raised beds off to a good start Apply a thin layer of castings to the top of your garde...

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Native Plant Workshop

...Americans in your area used. 3. Southern California is a desert and native plants are desert plants. Coastal Southern California has a Mediterranean climate not a desert climate and native plants adapted to this region do not look like desert plants. Coastal natives can be very lush and attractive. Note: the workshop listed below has been postponed due to rain. See the Green Beacon Foundation website for more information. In order to dispel these...

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Mulch, mulch, mulch!

...an an annual chore. MYTHS AND RUMORS ABOUT MULCH Some kinds of mulch kills plants: Use some caution with leaves or wood from plants known to be allelopathic–that is, hostile to other plants, like eucalyptus and black walnut. It’s not as big of a problem as you might think. They haven’t been able to prove that cedar chips, for instance, actually inhibit plant growth, despite all their bad press. But it’s a nuanced situation, and this article by Lin...

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