Getting Native Plants Established

 In the 2021/ 2022 timeframe we relandscaped the vast majority of our property with California native
plants.  There were multiple driving factors for this effort.  First, I enjoy being able to identify plants and understand where and how they survive and flourish in their native landscape.  Being new to California, I knew very little about the native plants of  the area and especially those that are local to the southern California region.  The second primary driver was water conservation.  I have no interest in heavy irrigation required to grow most non-natives in this region.  And finally, when we bought this property many of the plants were prone to repeat bug infestations.  I knew from past experience that native plants are naturally much less prone to invasive insect infestations.

I am happy to write that our efforts are continuing to pay off and meet our goals.  Gone are the white flies and aphids.  We can now spot and name many native plants of California in their native landscapes.  Gone is the constant need for watering and irrigation!  We are shocked how little water the garden uses now.  My biggest regret with the mostly-native landscaping effort is all the time and effort we invested to install an irrigation system.  I did countless hours reading and researching to try to determine how much irrigation was necessary.  There is much conflicting information out there, and little that guides on just what to do for urban native-plant landscapes.  But, in the end I discovered that the real answer is next to no supplemental water is required.  Once the native plants became established in our yard, they required little to no supplemental water beyond what nature provides.

Getting the plants established is absolutely key.  Our experience is that it has everything to do with the time of planting.  When we planted in the December through February timeframe then the plants needed negligible water and survived the spring-summer-fall dry season with little to no additional water.  When we planted in the March through November timeframe, we found ourselves having to water much more with a higher likelihood of plant loss.  It all comes down to planting and letting them get established during the winter rainy season.

The good news is that our irrigation zones in the native plant areas are completely shut off year-round now.  The bad news is that we invested much time, money and effort to install all this infrastructure.  If I had it all to do over again I would skip installing irrigation in the native plant areas.  In the non-native areas, such as our vegetable garden, the drip/emitter water system works well and minimizes hand watering.  

Conclusion: If you are planting native plants,then strongly consider skipping the installation of irrigation in these areas.  For a higher rate of native plant growth and development, then plant in the winter months.

Happy gardening!

Gone Native!

 In 2021 we undertook a sizable project tearing out our front yard and reconcepting it as a native garden.  We have a small front yard of about 800 square feet.  The purpose of the project was to simplify, beautify and reduce water consumption.

The garden really leapt to life and has grown in quite a bit since planting in December of 2021.  We saw the rock swales flood a couple of times this winter which diverts less water into the storm drains.  We continue to water these plants for good root development and expect to be able to cut back on watering later this year once they're established.

We did this project using the Long Beach Lawn2Garden program, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to convert lawn to garden.  The process was straightforward and we experienced no challenges with the process.  

We kept the plant list to plan with few exceptions.  A full list of the plants used can be found here.

Lawn to Garden

 

After numerous walks around our neighborhood we have been considering a lawn to garden conversion.  There are quite a few people in our area that have done this.  Anyone else reading this blog been through this process in another city or in Long beach?  The city here offers a program to do this which includes a 3$ per sq ft grant.  The city recently replaced our street and curbs, and our front strip got pretty torn up in the process.  In addition, they took out the 40 foot tall eucalyptus tree that was located in the front yard along the sidewalk.  This has been an invitation for us to consider what to do with the small front-yard space.

I did a first draft landscape drawing of what it could look like should we choose to go this route.  Plants corresponding to the numerical identifier on the drawing can be found here.  I can't help but think that this would be much more visually interesting and require a lot less water.

Trying to convince myself not to do the conversion this year, but who am I kidding.  I might have this done next week :)

New Plant Babies

 Few things excite me more than new plants.  Just finished a trip to Tree of Life nursery and brought back the next batch of native plants to round out our landscape plan. Today's finds were:

• Juncus Patens
• Satureja douglasii
• Dudleya Brittonii
• Dudleya Hassei
• Ceanothus Julia Phelps
• Archillea Millefolium
• Festuca Idahoensis
• Baccharis Emoryi

We had a good lesson in patience and thinking out of the box today.  Many of our native wish list plants were not available.  Sometimes the nursery has propagation failures or the plants are not rooted well enough to put out into the nursery for sale.  This was the case for many of the plants on the list.  That's okay, as we plan to do this project in layers and who doesn't like repeat trips to get more plants.

Also, we discovered that there are many different Ceanothus varieties.  We were ultimately looking for a Joyce Coulter which is lower growing with a greater spread.  We decided to try a Julia Phelps which is a bit more upright.  Our plan is to train this plant into a larger spread with careful staking and weighting of the branches.  

All of this is a reminder to remain flexible, do plenty of research and be open to alternatives and other ideas.  The world of natives can be a tricky when it comes to sourcing.  There are far fewer nursery's specializing in these plants and therefore they can be more challenging to obtain.

Happy Native Plant Appreciation Week

Did you know it was native plant appreciation week in Washington state?  I didn't either until I saw our local Native Plant nursery Woodbrook post it on their Facebook page.  To celebrate, I submitted this years plant order to them and went and picked up the plants today!  We've been working on our native plant landscape for the 3 to 4 years now.  We've done it in phases because one, it is hard work, and two, it costs money.  This year, we're completing our backyard plant landscape.   (Is anything ever really done?)

Over the course of the winter, I put together landscape drawings that take into consideration our light and moisture levels.  There is an awesome resource made available by King County that helped us immensely.  The Northwest Native Plant Guide is an online resource that catalogs native plants in a searchable index.  It also provides sample landscape design plans, which is super helpful.  Hopefully one day Pierce County will provide something as comprehensive.  I found the website particularly useful to print their designs and use them as reference for my own design.  Once I got our design complete, I put together a shopping list of plants with quantities.  This makes getting and identifying what you need a lot easier, or at least it did for us.  I was able to provide this list to Woodbrook, and they pulled all of the plants in advance and had the order ready for us.

We chose native plants for several reasons.  First, they have low to no water requirements, which is a major objective for our landscape.  They also build great habitat, and provide food and shelter for wildlife.  In addition, native plants are in line with the Arts and Crafts design principles - which is to use local materials and design elements whenever possible.

Not all of our landscape is native, nor is that really practical if you are trying to feed yourself.  There are many edibles found in Washington, such as Miners Lettuce, Salmon Berries, etc., but it is our desire to grow a much more diverse edible landscape.  Therefore, I have found mixing lower-maintenance natives with fruit trees and garden annuals and perennials to be particularly useful.

Next up is to start planting, and then sit back and watch it all grow!

2010 Projects in Retrospect

Each year we share a list of all the projects we've worked on as a reminder of what we've accomplished. For me, the end of the year is signaled by the steady rains here in the Pacific Northwest, and by the falling leaves. For us life takes on a slower pace this time of year; one that makes more room for relaxing, enjoying classical music, eating hardy foods, and enjoying our home.

The following are highlights of our major accomplishments in 2010:



 Orchard

We started constructing the Orchard in the fall of 2009. In the spring of this year, we figured out we were going to have to raise the beds to prevent our fruit trees from floating away. The 9 fruit trees we planted this year are all doing great! We hope to have our first mini-harvest next year. Trees include: peach, pear, apricot, apple, plum, cherry, fig, almond and mulberry.

Before:

After:

From 2010 Landscape

Potager

Project: convert the former driveway into a kitchen garden. In 2009 we removed the driveway, and this year we cleared and installed hardscaping and fences. In 2011 we will install raised beds and plant. This was one HUGE project, and we're excited to almost have this complete!

Before:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

After:

From 2010 Landscape

From 2010 Landscape

House Painting

This is perhaps the largest house project we've ever taken on. We started this in 2009, worked on it throughout this year, and plan to finish the job next year. We've got all but the rafter tails and underneath the eaves painted. We're SO CLOSE!

Before:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

After:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Kitchen French Doors

The master plan for our craftsman home is to bring the indoors out. To do that, we're incorporating rooms into the landscape. Off the kitchen, we installed a set of french doors that will open out onto the outdoor dining room.

Before:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

After:

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Pond Expansion

Water is a powerful landscaping focal point. We enjoyed our first pond so much that we decided to add a second and join the two together!

Before:

From 2010 Landscape

From 2010 Landscape

After:

From 2010 Landscape

Native Landscaping

We brought in 100+ individual plants that we added to the backyard landscape, all of which are Pacific Northwest Native. Plants include: Deer Fern, Sword Fern, Ninebark, Spirea, Flowering Currant, Columbine, Bullrush, Cattail, Snowberry, Serviceberry, Coastal Strawberry, Oregon Ash, Cascara, Bald Hip Rose, Lupine, Slough Sedge, Bald Hip Rose, Rhododendron.

Before:

From 2010 Landscape

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

After:

From 2010 Landscape

From 2010 Landscape

From 2010 Landscape

In Reflection

The outdoor landscape plan really started to take form this year. Our plans are very ambitious, and the work we've put in is paying off! We've got a long ways to go before we're done, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm excited about the mix of Northwest Natives and edibles we planted this year. Once the fruit trees, kiwis, blueberries and other edibles we planted get established, we should start seeing a nice bounty of fruits and vegetables. The work we've done to integrate the house into the surrounding landscape seems to be taking shape.

Our indoor house plans are coming along, albeit a bit slower than what we had hoped for. The kitchen remodel is entering a significant phase now that much of the drywall is finished. Getting the plumbing and electrical work finished has slowed the process down a bit, but we're making good progress.


What's Next?

This winter we'll be focusing a lot of our attention on finishing the kitchen. We'll have more progress photos to post of that project soon.  In the coming months we'll start figuring out what projects are going to make the 2011 list. Next year is going to be the frosting on the cake for much of the landscape plan. We're also working on the plans for a very cool work/art studio addition to the front of our workshop. We'll be posting a rendering of our design plan, and hope to start getting bids for the project next year. 2011 should be another action packed year!