Gardening In the Line of Fire

Manzanita's spring blossoms, of the Genus Arctostaphylos

December 4, 2017: California seems to be on fire.  Everywhere. It started last week when Santa Ana winds stirred up a wildfire in Ventura, California, just to the north of Los Angeles County. I was on my way up to Santa Monica to take care of some business at the courthouse there.  Everyone was talking about the fires. It was a warm, dry day, more like summertime than Christmastime. The sky was hazy and girls passed by with masks over their faces, so as not to breathe in too much ash and particulates. The golden sun took on a new color. It was just the beginning of what would become the week ahead.

My car radio was alive with chatter about how this was not the fire season: It is too late in the year and fires are supposed to be over.  "Newbies" to Los Angeles had to call into the radio station to put in their "two cents," annoying me with how they know all about living in LA.  "This is what it's like living in LA: you never know when there might be a fire and we are always living with this danger..." much like folks back East live with tornadoes or hurricanes or ice storms. I suppose that's what they meant. I wanted to call in and say, "No. This NOT normal for Los Angeles."

For one thing, we are in our 6th year of drought. Nothing is normal now. The trees are stressed. Aluminum has been sprayed on us day in and day out for weather modification... Ah, but that is a subject for another post.

As the car radio droned on, I started thinking about the backyard gardeners in Southern California. We all spend much time and money planning our landscapes: shopping for the right plants, learning where to place them, and how to care for them.  Then, should a fire appear out of nowhere and strike our neighborhood, causing evacuations, we have to leave our gardens behind. When we leave our houses, we leave our gardens, too.  And we don't know what we will come back to.

What a terrible feeling that is!  Even if the insurance companies reimburse you for your house, how do you replace the garden?  All that love and careful nurturing of your plants: they are like friends that cannot be replaced. The only choice is to start over. You assess the damages, decide what to keep and what cannot be saved, and you move on.  And that takes time and money.

So, now we come to why I am writing this blog post. There are things you CAN do to mitigate the destructive effects of wildfires on your garden and make the new garden stronger.  With a little bit of  research, you can make your new garden even more fire resistant!  I suggest you start with taking a look at which plants you choose to put in.

In Southern California there are native plants that are fire resistant and plants that are fire tolerant. There are a good many varieties of plants to choose from. You do not have to go with strickly a "cactus and succulent" garden if you don't want to.  I want to introduce you to some of the native plants I know of that would work well in your new garden.  Like the lovely Manzanita~ If you had a garden full of Manzanita, they would survive fires. Yes, they still burn, but they do not die. Instead, they grow back from a basal stump and eventually return to their enchanting pre-fire forms, producing sweet pink blossoms in spring that pollinators so enjoy.

After a fire, your garden will be void of much brush; it may look like a whole new palette to paint on. So rather than fill it with more plants that would be destroyed if wildfires should come again, consider using native plants that stand up to fire, plants that will be with you for a lifetime. It will make coming home after an evacuation that much less stressful. Your favorite plants might be charred and blackened. They might be smaller versions of their former selves. But they will continue to grow. And the wildlife that called them home will return, too. They will put out seeds that native birds rely on. The ecosystem will continue to thrive, and your garden will be reborn!

Remember, plant fire resiliant and fire tolerant native plants.  Look them up. Research your options.  I will post some great native choices in upcoming blog posts for you.  Because, I am a Southern California gardener, too.  I have lived in the chaparral & soft-scrub areas of the Santa Monica Mountains for most of my adult life. And I have seen what wildfires can do. I am no "newbie" to this place. And I am here to tell you, you can be strong. You can create a better and stronger garden that will last you a lifetime~ 

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Is It Time to Ditch Your Lawn?

iDeer Running through Wildlife Corridor in Toopanga State Park, CAPhoto by: venturacountytrails

It is so dry that deer have appeared on the Pepperdine lawn.  Anyone who has spent any time in Malibu or has just driven up the Pacific Coast Highway has seen that huge expanse of green-covered hillside that is the front lawn of Pepperdine University.  I try not to think about how much water it takes to keep it green throughout the summer!  Now, it seems that the Santa Monica Mountains are so dry that deer are bringing their families down to the Pepperdine lawn to drink the freshly watered lawn, even in January!

California's Drought Emergency

Back in 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown officially declared a drought emergency in California. 2014 had been the state’s driest year on record, with reservoir levels dropping and no rain in sight. It was the third dry winter in a row, and the Dept. of Agriculture declared a natural disaster for 27 California Counties, largely because of the impact on agriculture throughout the State.

Now, fast forward to 2016. We have had 5 years of drought, and this year for the first time ever the Governor had to implement statewide water rationing. He urged us to take a moment to think about how we are all connected to each other in a time of water crisis, as well as being connected to the plants and animals that live here.

It is time to be a sustainable gardener in California. What better time to ditch that lawn? 

More than 50 percent of water use goes to landscaping, in particular lawns. Besides being waterhogs, lawns are unhealthy (to us, to our pets, and to butterflies) because of the high amount of pesticides used to keep them up.

Why not let your lawn go brown?  There are plenty of websites and videos that can show you how to lose your lawn, incl. what grass removal method would work best for you, such as the easy and popular lasagna style.

What will replace my lawn?

1. You can remove entire lawns and replace them with Zen gardens of big boulders and tiny rocks that are raked into designs.

2. Or, you can plant meadow seed mixes. Theodore Payne’s Nursery is an excellent source for California native wildflower seeds and grasses.

3. Make your lawn smaller and your borders deeper. Plant drought-tolerant native plants in your borders. I love Salvias for their drought-tolerance and variety.

4. Make a center island design for a native plant or pollinator garden in the center of your lawn.  

Other water saving measures without losing the lawn include:

5. Reduce your water use in the garden by keeping your topsoil from drying out using mulch in flower beds and small stones in garden paths.

6. Capturing gray water from laundry and showers to reuse in watering the garden. This made a huge difference in my Topanga Canyon garden!

California Gardens Don't Rest in Winter:

In most of the country, where snow falls and covers the lawns for months, the ground gets to rest, and the gardener gets to rest, too.  Out West, we try to keep things green all year long even in dry summers.  Now it seems we can’t rely on all that imported water from places like the Colorado River to keep our manicured lawns looking their best year round.  Instead, we need to make the best use of our precious resources: We need to be more sustainable gardeners.

Being a Sustainable Gardener:

What does that mean? To be a sustainable gardener means to use as little of nature’s resources as possible, and to create gardens that will take care of themselves for years to come. There is no better proven way to do this than to landscape with native plants.  Native plants are naturally adapted to the conditions in which they live. While some are more drought-tolerant than others, most native plants only require extra water when they are first planted and are getting acclimated.

If we Southern Californians are serious about living lightly on the land, we have to remember that the water piped in here is imported, every drop taking away from the water tables of other places.

Luckily, our mild autumn weather gives native gardeners an opportunity to still get out there and make some big changes right now.

Not sure where to start?

Look for native plants that do not need a lot of rainfall (drought tolerant).  There are nurseries that specialize in natives in your area  that would be happy to help you with ideas. Note: Plants called Xeriscape plants are drought tolerant, but are not necessarily native plants.  So if you want to bring a balance to the ecosystem of your garden, you want to opt for adding drought-tolerant California natives instead of plants from elsewhere.

Contact the CA Native Plant Society http://www.cnps.org/ for suggestions on choosing native plants in your region, where to find them, and where to see them.

Some of my all-time favorite native plants that are drought tolerant and also beneficial to pollinators include all of the Sages (Salvia): White Sage, Purple Sage, Black Sage. These are all bee, hummingbird and butterfly magnets, plus they stay green all year long, creating a nice backdrop for many other natives.

Have you ditched or reduced your lawn? Do you have any water conserving tips? If so, we’d love to hear from you~

© 2014, Kathy Vilim. All rights reserved.