A Manual of California Native Plants
3.1
Copyright 1995, Bert Wilson The
online Catalog of Las Pilitas Nursery, Santa Margarita -
Escondido
Guidelines for native landscaping and native plants.
Some people think native plants are the plants that were on there hillside before their house was put there. Some people have told us 'it's native somewhere in the world'. Some people think it is only what is still native on that slope, in that town, within ten feet of the site to be planted. Some are worried that there will be cross poliation with the natives that are left in the area, a 'pollen free zone'.
We want what is best for nature as a whole. And native plants that are close to proper are a lot better than no native plants. We're losing butterflies, birds and other species because there are a whole lot more weeds and exotics than natives. We need to be encouraged to put native plants in. I'm happy with State specific, even Pacific time specific for California, Rocky mountain specific for the mountain time zones, the central and eastern time zones can use their own native plants. The birds and butterflies fly those routes and commonly drop those seeds along those routes. The plants will not establish out of their normal plant communites within those zones. BUT, drop a plant from a completely different system, such as a California Native in Australia or an Australian plant in California, and you might have a nasty weed.
Whole areas of the Western United States have been overrun with weeds. Most native wildlife cannot use weeds. Native rodents can sorta use some of the weeds.
It's ironic that the suddividers clear the chaparral, create all sorts of fear and distain for native plants, covert thousands of acres to weeds and end up with rare rats along with the rare foxes and rare owls that live on them. So the native plants are gone, the weeds result in more frequent, larger fires and soil erosion. While the developer can't do the subdivision because they made habitat for rare and endangered rodents. (Once you introduce weeds into a native system it becomes lesser of evils. All your choices are bad, which is less bad?)
Native wildlife like the native plants they are familiar with. They have evolved together. Nutritionly they probably need some of the native plants for their health.
Section 1 contains many ideas and methods to
accomplish a successful native landscape or restore a native
site. Ideas to incorporate native plants in with other plants in
a garden landscape are included. Conventional gardens can also
benefit from the information even if native plants aren't used.
We hope this 'manual' will fill you with environmental awareness
and give the answers to many of your garden and landscape
questions.
The manual\catalog is based almost wholly upon our
35 years of experience with California native plants (the manual
was started in 1980 with true cut and paste, typewriter and
scissors). In various gardens, from lettuce to manzanitas, these
ideas have worked.
Without much thought many of our plants will
perform for 3-7 years beautifully. With thought they will perform
even better and last for 30-50+ years with no care.
This
manual has been separated into 3 levels of difficulty. (Pretty
squirrely huh!)
1.
Real
easy section
For those
that have no time, or interest in learning this stuff, run here.
Or, those of you, that are just interested in planting a little
front yard, don't worry too much about it, the landscaping won't
be perfect, but it should work and look as good as most
'designed' yards.
2.Easy
section
If you want to know the basics but aren't real
interested in the science of how things work this section is for
you. The easy section is an attempt to give you enough
information to understand the concepts, without being too hard.
I've made many a person's face turn into this Native gardening
and landscaping should be fun! Who needs stress? If you're not
into squirrel yoga, try figuring out your yard and the wildlife
you can(do) attract.
3. Advanced
Section
This
section is for those of you who not only want the car to run but
want to now why it runs. This section is good if you want some
good, well documented amo for your no it all neighbor or
mother-in-law. Or if you just like to fill your brain with
useless facts.
Our customers range from botanists to book
writers, from people that have planted California native plants
for 40 years to people who have no clue what a native plant is.
Some of you will find parts corny, (witless?) Others will get
stuck in the easy section. We know everyone of you will be
thinking we should have made it different for you, but this
represents most of the questions put to us over the last 25
years. Hopefully we've answered yours and created many more
questions and answers for you.
HAVE FUN with your California garden!
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