What I Learned Planting My Native Garden

Are you thinking of replacing your lawn with a native garden? Turning your yard into a native landscape can be a powerful tool in protecting local habitat, saving you money on your water bill and lowering your carbon footprint. It can seem like a daunting challenge: where do you start, how hard is it to…

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HOW-TO: Install a Rain Chain

Rainwater is a precious resource in Los Angeles and the best way to harvest it is to start with your home. Many of our homes have gutters and downspouts installed that direct vital rainwater away from our gardens and directly to the street and storm drains. A great alternative to this is to install a…

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Tips to Share with Your Gardener

As your garden evolves from a typical lawn-centered landscape to one that is more sustainable and appropriate to our southern California climate, it is important that the maintenance of your yard shifts to accommodate the new landscape.  Sometimes this involves working with your gardener to better understand the needs of your garden. Some helpful tips…

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Keep Your Tools Clean = Keep Your Plants Healthy!

If you like to trim in your garden, there is nothing like a new pair of pruners when cutting flowers and pruning trees and shrubs.  They are so clean, sharp, and cut like butter! Oftentimes we don’t take care of our gardening tools—letting them get rusty, dull, and clogged with sap and sawdust, making you…

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Winter is Here – It’s Time to Plant!

Southern California winter months are the ideal time to install native and climate-appropriate non-native plants into your landscape. In Southern California, it rains in late fall, winter and spring with almost no rain in the summer. Rainfall in December is around 1.75 – 2” increasing to 2.75” in January and then begins to decrease after…

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Soil Maintenance – the Secret to Healthy Plants!

One of the keys to maintaining native and climate-appropriate plants in your sustainable landscape is the health of the soil.  Plant roots utilize and store nutrients in the soil environment, so it is essential that the soil contains what the roots need!    Can’t I Just Add Fertilizer? It is not necessary to spend your…

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Need That Fall Color Fix?

Contrary to popular belief, LA does, in fact, have seasons. They may not happen when or how you expect them to, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a fix of fall color in your life this autumn. Some of our evergreen natives color up in fall when the temperatures drop by getting a reddish or…

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The 4 D’s: Dead, Diseased, Damaged, or Deranged!

Dead, diseased, damaged, or deranged – think this is not the description of a horror film character? Guess again! At TreePeople, and in the field of arboriculture, they are known as the 4 D’s. It is the simple way to remember what to prune out of a tree to help ensure it is happy and…

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Time to Plan, Not to Plant!

Are you thinking about finally getting around to replacing that brown lawn in your front yard?  Thinking of taking advantage of one of the many rebates to help turn your non-functional turf into a California native plant landscape? Envious of your neighbor that already has a climate-ready garden? Well, take a breath… the hot, rainless…

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7 Perfect Native Additions to Your Garden

What’s your favorite California native plant? If you’re drawing a blank, then this blog is for you. Not only are these native plants a beautiful addition to any garden, they provide a sense of place. California natives are perfectly suited to our Mediterranean climate. They thrive in the cool, wet winters and dry summers– making…

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