...brought to you by the CNPS San Diego Chapter's Native Gardening Committee.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Thank you Carrie for sharing this on the listserve, another great example of why iceplant is horrible:"Here's an area previously covered with iceplant. During rainstorms, iceplant notoriously inflates like a water balloon, the extra weight pulls the loosened soil down the hill with it, causing a mudslide. This mudslide traveled more than 100 feet down the hill. A few more of these, and the city will be replacing the guardrail, sidewalk, and street. West-facing slope of 30th Street, north of Laurel. BTW, no mudslides were noted on the same slope in the area renovated with native plants, directly north of here......"

For (extremely) detailed information about what to do (and what not to do) with your slope and a list of appropriate plants check out the following article by Bert Wilson of Las Pilitas Nursery: Slopes   or visit Las Pilitas Nursery in Escondido for a printed list of appropriate slope plantings for San Diego County.

While the rainy season is usually a great time to plant it may be wise to wait until the current torrential downpours have ended before disturbing the soil on your slopes, and remember, mulching your slope is crucial to preventing erosion and keeping moisture in the soil while your baby plants are growing!  The ideal mulch is shredded redwood bark or similar because of it's ability to knit together and stay in place on even steep slopes.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Native Totes!

Reducing our dependence on plastics and saving space in our landfills is now even more fun with the new native plant totes from Where's My Bag?

Our own Mary Alice Kessler (website author and technical guru for the chapter) is turning used banners, dogfood bags, and other materials into whimsical and fun tota bags that are great for groceries, a trip to the yoga studio, or even for toting native plants themselves back from the nursery!!

Check out her website by clicking here and see all of her fun designs and help out a local artist and CNPS volunteer!!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The Designer is IN

Landscape Architect, Jeremy Sison of Artemisia Landscape Architecture will be at Las Pilitas Nursery in Escondido on November 6th and November 20th from 9AM to 3PM.
He will be providing design consultations for $20 per 1/2 hour (more than half the normal consultation price!!)
To reserve a time slot call Jeremy at 760-936-6534 or send him an email at jeremy@artemisia-la.com .

Monday, October 18, 2010

Post Plant Sale Sale!!

As if you needed another reason to be sure not to miss this month's chapter meeting here's another one!!!

There are lots of leftovers from this year's plant sale and they are all available for HALF PRICE from 5pm until dark this Tuesday in the grassy area in front of the Casa del Prado patio (where the plant sale was).

 
Bring your checkbook (checks only will be accepted) and come early to load up on Manzanitas, Bush Poppies, native grasses, and lots of other great landscape plants!!

Visit the chapter website for more info!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Kill Your Lawn!

For any of you who still have one or who haven't yet convinced family or friends to get rid of theirs now is the perfect time!    The Olivenhain MWD is offering a $1/sq ft rebate for all clients who remove turf and install drought tolerant gardens!!

The rebate is only available until December 1st though so don't delay!!

For more information and to fill out the application click here or visit the Olivenhain MWD website and scroll down to their Lawn Removal Rebate link under "Headlines".

Applicable Service Areas:
Olivenhain Municipal Water District (OMWD) includes portions of the cities of Encinitas, Carlsbad, San Diego, Solana Beach and San Marcos, as well as the communities of Olivenhain, Leucadia, Elfin Forest, Rancho Santa Fe, Fairbanks Ranch, Santa Fe Valley and 4S Ranch.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Nursery Profile: Tree of Life Nursery, San Juan Capistrano

Nothing is worse than planning your native garden only to find that your local nursery doesn't carry the plants you need (or worse doesn't carry natives at all!!).  With our Nursery Profile series we hope to introduce you to some of Southern California's greatest native plant specialty nurseries so that you can not only find the plants you are looking for but hopefully become inspired to plant even more natives (that parking strip would sure look nice with some native grasses in it!)
Our first nursery is one of Southern California's landmark native nurseries, nestled in the foothills of San Juan Capistrano, Tree of Life.

A wholesale as well as retail nursery Tree of Life not only has a great supply and variety of native and drought tolerant plants but they also have a great bookstore located in Casa 'La Paz' and display gardens throughout the nursery.

Check out their website for more information!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Welcome!!


Hello and welcome to the CNPS San Diego Chapter's new Garden Blog!!!


This blog will be dedicated to the concepts and design of native gardens in and around San Diego.


From garden style to plant selection, irrigation to maintenance we will cover every aspect of native gardening, introduce new nurseries and suppliers, and expand the horizons of native garden design and style.