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Soil related issues in California. Soil alkalinity, soil texture and soil fertility can vary significantly, one are may be 10,000,000 more alkaline than another, clay may drain 40,000 times slower than coarse sand, clay may be thousands of times richer in specific nutrients or heavy metals than sand.

First of all, let me say that your website is the best. I'm a scientist
and I appreciate that you delve into the science behind your advice. It
all makes sense when you explain things :-)

My current problem: a huge area of my garden has nitrogen levels so low
that so far only plants that fix nitrogen survive there. Survivors:
mature Monterey pines (yes, I know these aren't N-fixers but they were the
only thing already there when I started), ceanothus "Joyce Coulter",
lupines (various), burclover weeds (yes, I keep pulling the weeds up).
The ones that didn't make it: creeping snowberry, fremontodendron,
coffeeberry, lonicera hispidua, chapparal clematis, California poppies (a
few of these survived but they're not thriving), and most everything
(except the lupine) from Larner Seeds Hills of California Wildflower mix.
Huge areas have totally bare ground where not even the weeds try to
grow. My neighbors keep asking me when I'm going to pave it, it looks so
bad.

I've read your site enough to know it's a bad idea to add fertilizers to
the soil. Do I just keep planting nitrogen fixers and hoping someday it
will become more hospitable to other plants? Do I need to accept that
this may be all it can grow forever? Any recommendations on what
I should try? (Coastal Scrub/ Oak Woodland 94061 Redwood City). This
large area transitions from full sun into partial shade, soil is red and
rocky on top, hardpan clay deep down. I was thinking of Pickeringia
montana or Lotus scoparius... and more lupine and ceanothus. I especially
need ideas for a low groundcover to fill in between the lupine and keep
out those pesky burclover.

You were so right. My problems are all about drainage, evidently.
I did my shovel test in the fall, when everything was dry, and came up
with average drainage conditions. The top soil is fine.
But having now seen a winter and a detailed soil analysis where a tube
was cored out to 20 feet deep, things are bad. I have thick black clay
from 1 foot deep going all the way down to who knows where, the water
table is incredibly high during the winter and spring (I could dig a
well, I'd find water about 4-5 feet deep right now) and my
neighbor's lot was a vernal pond (and mosquito breeding ground) for most
of the storm season. The soil is saturated with water for much of
the winter. Lots of subsurface water flow, apparently there
used to be a braided river running through the area. We put in french
drains and surface drains and have done all we can to improve drainage by
creating appropriate slopes where we could. In the summer it dries out so
much that you can see the cracks in the top of the clay.

Once the vernal pond next door dried out, I started seeing blooms of
poppies, clarkia, gilia, etc from the wildflower mix I sowed in the fall.
So the poppies will grow OK after all, they're just a little late to start
blooming.
The ceanothus, lupine, and Monterey pines are still thriving. We have
mature (60 feet) native redwood and walnut trees, a California pepper,
wild plum seedlings, and a juvenile oak growing happily too,
it's just the understory that was taken over by weeds and ivy.

Any recommendations on what
I should try? (Coastal Scrub/ Oak Woodland 94061 Redwood City). This
large area transitions from full sun into partial shade, soil is red and
rocky on top, hardpan clay deep down.

I tried your plant finder, typing in a soil type of gumbo, hot sunny
southwest wall, and watering once a month in the summer and it only came
back with four plants. I assume this means I have a bad watering plan or
a fatal combination of factors.

Nearby I have planted monkeyflower, blue flax, needlegrass, calystegia,
and salvias; most made it through the first year. Penstemons seem to
hate it, though. Near the redwood a native rose and juncus sprouted from
nowhere. The place I'm planting now is more difficult because it's
hotter and has constant pine needle litter (too much to sweep away).

Do you still think I should try manzanita? What about rhus,
artimisia, carpinteria, toyon, coffeeberry, achillea, buckwheat, fuschia,
trichostema, eriophyllum, monardella? Other ideas?
I also have a 30 gallon planter here, I was thinking of putting some sand
lovers in it like Dendromecon rigida- something 6-8 feet tall and pretty.
Do you think it would survive well in a container? And how often would I
need to water that?

Thanks, sorry this is so long

It is NOT a nitrogen problem, period. 2-20 ppm is common in California. It maybe a nursery problem, sun in shade problem, sand lovers on clay,clay with no perk?The poppies intrigue me. Maybe the clay? When you dig a hole and fill it withwater, how long does it take to drain? Is there a spring there?

Low clay loving manzanita, maybe 'Carmel Sur', 'Sonoma', or franciscana.

Ceanothus thyrsiflorus repens , Heuchera micrantha, Aristolochia, Ribes san. glut.

try three of each, and next year or so plant more of the ones that work.

I live above Borrego Springs, elevation 4500. Our soil is all D.G. What will grow well in the shade areas and sun. Also is it possible to grow plants under oak trees?

Thank you for your quick reply. I didn't realize that D.G. was such a good soil. I do have a lot of natural plants on the property, we have 40 acres. I didn't know that Manzanita was availible at a nursery, and I love ceanothus! Also I have a lot of buckwheat growing along the driveway that we didn't mow down as they are so beautiful. I always thought of them as flowers,but most people think they are weeds. We had the Julian fire go through 20 acres last summer and we lost so many scrub oaks and sugar bushs. But this srping we had amazing wild flowers. The only area that is unplanted is where the house is. When I get ready to plant around our front yard I will be coming to your nursery

under oaks, Manzanitas, Currants, Coffeeberry, Ceanothus, monkey flowers and tons of other natives D.G. is the easiest soil there is for natives, you can grow almost anything in it, BUT your climate limits you to things that take the heat, do not be planting softies that are native along the coast while there are tons of cool chaparral and desert stuff to play with Look at making a sage garden with some buckwheats, Yuccas and maybe a desert willow to put a chair under

Hi, we really enjoy your website. We are planning to plant a coastal live
> oak on our back slope. It's about 30 degrees and was made 30 years ago by
> the builder scraping, filling, and compacting the soil so we aren't sure of
> its composition, that is, if the topsoil is any good. I have encountered
> several different soil types just digging around--clay, sand, and some
> hardpan. There were just mustards and dandelions growing until we had to do
> a clean-up for fire prevention.

>
> Your article said not to amend the soil before planting an oak--shouldn't we
> do this if the good topsoil was removed by the builder terracing?

> We're in
> Anaheim Hills (zone 24) and I have had good success adding clean sand and
> redwood compost when planting natives and non-native drought tolerants. The
> soil is so clayish, that is why I began adding sand to the amendment for
> better drainage. Thanks for your input.

why do some native growers/nurseries (like Tree of Life, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden) differ so much in the planting info from Las Pilitas? Namely watering, i.e. they say drip is good, you don't as it leaves water in one small spot (I agree as I've seen it with our existing non-natives that have that system), also they and others say overhead is not good but as you mention, that's what rain is...maybe we are just misunderstanding their info? Or are they not up to snuff?

I really like your info and find myself laughing quite a bit while reading it. L.P. is kind of a ways away for us but seem like it'd be worthwhile to go to.

you'll need to be better with weed control, the weeds will kill the
natives, or at least slow them way down.

nope, doesn't help, does cause problems.

you will see good results for the first years, but then the plants
decline and often die. We try to make the gardens live for at least 20
years, 50 would be better. Amended sites live for 3-5 years.

You're worrying about amending, spend the money on mulch(oak, cedar,
redwood) for the surface, it will help with the weeds.

I do not know, ask them. We've been doing maintenance, landscaping, mitigation, restoration, then growing and selling for 30 years and three of us with science degrees do it this way because it works.