- Two weeks ago in this exact same spot
stood a 30 foot tall jacaranda tree.
Now that jacaranda tree gave us plenty of shade
so we could hang out all summer long,
but also entirely shaded out the garden right over there,
while also sucking up a lot of the water from those plants.
So ultimately over time
we had an arborist come check it out.
Turns out it was full of termites,
and it was dead and dying and on the way out.
It was posing a huge risk towards the house.
So we decided that it was time to just remove it
and grind the stump out entirely.
But not everything is lost 'cause in his place
is going to be a wonderful re-birthed garden
and that is a native plant garden.
Now native plant gardens are really wonderful
for a lot of different reasons.
They look great, they're very low maintenance,
but most importantly to me,
is that they will attract and harbor
all of those beneficial native insect populations
that you want in your yard and garden.
The nice thing about a native plant garden
is that once you kind of set it up,
it's a perennial zone where you don't really
wanna mess around with it too much.
It doesn't require much fertility,
it doesn't require much watering.
So it's really quite a wonderful thing to have.
But before we do that,
we have to do a little bit of work on the soil here
'cause it was just not too long ago a stump
that was totally ground into the dirt.
And also we need to talk about placement,
different heights, and growing conditions
that these plants need.
So let's start off by moving all these plants out of the way
and talking about the soil in its place.
Before we start sifting, and don't worry,
I'll talk about that weird looking contraption
in a moment here.
We're actually going to move as much of this material
to one side as we can,
so that way we have a kind of clean soil area
with a woody soil area that we could separate from.
So I'm gonna just start by raking as much as I can
from that side over to this side.
(country music)
Now we have enough material to actually start sifting it.
And what I have over here is a sieve that I've built
to normally sit on top of my wheelbarrow.
I use it all the time to sift my compost out.
But what I've done is I've added a leg on each side
and a crossbar for support to keep it at an angle.
The idea behind this is that I want it to be solid
as I do something like this. (rake clatters)
And the other idea behind it is that I want
as much of the actual small material to fall through
and all the larger material,
which is hopefully mostly wood,
to kind of come out to the bottom.
So I'm gonna give it a shake.
And then everything that's at the bottom here
is actually mostly wood chips.
So I'm gonna leave it into this bucket
and I'm gonna take this bucket out,
probably just throw it in my compost at the end.
But for now, let's go ahead and sift this all out.
So that actually worked pretty well for that top layer.
But as I'm digging into this,
I'm realizing this is literally entirely wood chips
or essentially like 60% wood chips, 40% soil.
So I think in hindsight,
I'm going to actually just shovel off the top,
maybe six inches of this entire bed,
and just replace it with top soil.
So let's see what that looks like next.
Wanted to bring you up close to show you exactly
what happened so far.
So over here, this is the material that was sifted.
You could see there's a lot of big chunks of wood.
So I'm happy to have removed that.
This is the tailings or basically the stuff left over
after sifting it.
And I'd say it's a at least healthy balance
of wood to dirt, as healthy as it can be.
And then over here, this is the stuff
that I was just trying to dig out and sift.
And unfortunately, the grain size is too small on the wood
and it's just so mixed in there.
I can't really properly sift this out.
So like I said,
I think I'm going to opt to remove some of the surface layer
and just move it somewhere else
because this is basically 70% wood to 30% soil,
and I don't think that's going to be the best environment
for growing native plants.
After giving it some more thought,
I decided that the best move is actually to remove this.
(soil thumps) It's just too woody.
It's gonna lock out all the nitrogen,
and it's gonna be too soggy for these plants
to really thrive. (bird caws)
So I'm gonna go ahead and remove these top six inches.
It was 100% the right call to scoop away all this material
because as I was digging in there,
there were certain pockets of that soil
that were almost 100% wood shavings or at least 90%.
And that would've been a really bad time
for these native plants.
So native plants like well drained soil,
they're a little rockier.
If you think about where California native plants
tend to live, they tend to live on hillside slopes
like chaparrals,
where it's really a fast draining organic matter, poor soil.
So something like this
is probably the worst possible scenario
for a California native plant,
at least the ones that I got for this area.
So instead, what I'm going to do
is actually set this aside
and use it as a top dressing mulch.
once this is all planted out.
As you can probably tell,
it's starting to get a little bit dark,
and I won't have time to finish this entire plant out today,
but it is actually going to be raining tonight.
So we're gonna use that to our advantage
by spreading out all this top soil right now.
(bag crinkles)
And the deal is,
is that the rain will help settle this topsoil into the bed
and help really get it hydrated
and sort of properly mixed into the sub layer.
(bag crinkles)
If I were to just pour all this in and plant right into it,
there's a good chance it would settle a little bit,
and most plants don't like to be in settling soil.
So this might work out to our advantage in the long run.
Now, what is top soil?
Well, that's kind of a loose definition or loose question,
but it is essentially actually dirt.
And by dirt, I mean that it's made out of minerals.
Things like sand, salt, clays.
There's actually a little bit of rock in here
and very, very, very fine, small pieces of wood.
This is typically what you would find
sitting on the subsurface of an area
where nothing's really been growing.
It's just essentially soil or dirt.
So this is pretty close to mimicking
what a native plant here in San Diego or California
would expect to find. (bag thumps)
And I think it's going to work out quite well.
Now the thing is with native soil,
that's actually a plus for us,
is that it has very little actual nutrients
in the terms of NPK.
Now of course it is a mineral based soil,
(bag crinkles, soil thumps)
meaning that it's filled with rocks and things like that.
And over time, those will break down
to provide some sort of mineral element nutrients.
But you're not gonna get any nitrogen out of it,
and that's totally fine
'cause most of these plants
are not used to getting fertilized.
They're not used to getting compost applied.
They just live in native soils,
and whatever they could get is what they could get.
So they're not looking for high nutrients,
which is why we're using top soil
instead of something like a raised bed mix or a potting mix.
The other nice advantage
is that topsoil is actually a lot cheaper
than a lot of those other things.
So it's actually pretty cheap to plant a native garden
even if you have to bring in a lot of soil.
(country music)
If you're having trouble finding topsoil in your local area,
try calling around
to your local kind of landscaping or quarry yards.
(bag thumps)
I got this at a rock and gravel place.
They tend to sell things like topsoil
to fill in missing gaps
that landscapers might make if they remove a plant
or if they need to shore something up
for like, say, building out a paved patio.
So it's a great place to find something like topsoil
if you can't find it somewhere else that's more convenient.
(country music)
Looks like I actually got the perfect amount of soil here.
This should cover this area very nicely.
I'm starting to get very optimistic about this project,
especially since I removed all that woody material
'cause this topsoil is exactly what I would want
for my native plants.
So this is looking great.
I'm gonna finish spreading it out.
So that's all eight bags in,
and I think that was the perfect amount for this height
because I also have that wheelbarrow
full of that mulching material that I dug out.
It's going to be used
as the top sort of mulch or compost layer
for this planted bed.
So we're gonna let this get rained on overnight
and next time I see you,
we'll go over exactly what the plants are that I got,
how to care for them,
and how I'm going to arrange them in this area.
Here's the look of the material I removed from this hole.
It's very woody and very kind of clay rich.
Now for comparison, here's the topsoil that I've added in.
It's a lot looser, fine grained,
and it's definitely going to be better
at draining out any excess water.
It is now day two of the native plant garden build
and the rains have come and mostly passed.
We might get a little sprinkles of showers
throughout the day,
but it looks like I have a free moment here
to actually plant.
And I have to say, I'm pretty happy with this topsoil.
It has a nice mixture of rocks, good grain distribution,
so it's allowing water to flow through
while retaining a little bit of water
due to the amount of clay and sort of salt that it has,
which I think is just enough for these plants
to be quite happy.
So this is well watered,
and we're gonna get more passing grains,
which will be perfect for establishing this garden.
So now I'm gonna spend a little bit of time
laying these plants out exactly where I want them
based on their water needs, their sunlight needs,
how big they're gonna get,
what sort of textual contrast they'll offer.
And after that, I'll spend a little bit of time
talking about each one of these plants
and their actual needs and why I put them where I put them.
So now all the plants are laid out
and the only thing we'll have to do is plant them.
So the first one up here is a sunshine monkey flower.
This is an interesting one.
It's actually a hybrid of a monkey flower.
So it's semi-native
in the sense that it's not the true native monkey flower,
but monkey flowers are native
to essentially all of coastal California.
So I am in coastal California,
so this is actually quite ideal.
It's a vigorous grower compact.
It can get up to five feet wide if you don't prune it.
It has these big yellow flowers
that bloom all throughout the summer, I believe.
This next one is native to the Channel Island.
So it does well in any part
of coastal California, essentially.
It's called the island alum root.
And this is a cool one
because it doesn't require much water,
it does well in full sun,
and it actually makes
these like two foot tall flower structures
that have these big pink flowers
that hummingbirds, butterflies absolutely love.
So this should do really well up front here
where I just won't water it as much,
and it'll be right up against the rocks.
It'll be nice and hot.
So I actually have two of this nice plant,
which is the purple needle grass.
This is a really cool one
'cause it's actually the state grass of California,
and it's been actually noted to have a root system
that could go up to 20 feet deep,
which means it's very, very highly drought tolerant
and it only needs really water once a month
in the summertime.
Most of these plants that I'm planting together
will only need about water once a month in the summer,
at most twice a month.
Next one up is one that you might be familiar with,
which is achillea, AKA yarrow.
And this one is called terracotta.
Yarrow is sort of a native to all of California,
does really well in a wide range of environments.
They're extremely drought tolerant
and the deal is basically, they'll always survive,
but they will flower a lot more if you give them more water.
So they're very easy to care for,
and that's why it's gonna do great up here up in the front
'cause it'll get plenty of sunlight.
And I could choose to water a little extra
if I wanted it to flower more
or I could just let it produce foliage and look kind of nice
as a dormant plant.
As I'm digging here, I'm running into some of the roots
that weren't entirely ground out.
I'm not too worried
'cause the plants will be able to navigate
around those roots. (plastic scrapes)
But I might adjust some of these planting sites
if I run into like a big piece of stump.
This one is much like the other one.
It's a monkey flower hybrid,
and this one is actually called fiesta marigold.
And to me it looks a lot like those French marigolds
that a lot of people grow in their gardens.
So it should add a nice splash of color to this garden
because it's probably gonna have
(bird caws)
the most kind of complex coloration of any of the flowers.
Most native flowers, in my experience,
tend to be sort of monochromatic.
Either they're like very yellow or very pink,
whereas this one has a nice little pop of contrast
with the little frills of orange and yellow.
So I think that's gonna look absolutely wonderful
and does well in full sun or part shade.
So I think this little corner bracket's gonna be great.
It's a little bit compact
so it shouldn't spread too much and take over.
These two plants here are called San Miguel savory,
also known as San Diego yerba buena.
So it's actually a very native plant to our region,
and it's a relative of the mint family.
You could tell 'cause it has these square stems
and when you actually rub on the leaves and give it a whiff,
it has this like wonderful minty/sage aroma
that I'm really compelled by.
So this is a creeper and spreader,
but I should mention that actually a lot of these
spread through rhizomatic growth,
and they can creep and be invasive
(Jacques laughs)
even though they're native plants.
So in this case, it's really nice
that it's in this planted bed
'cause there's nowhere for it to really run to.
But if it did, I wouldn't really be too mad
'cause it is a native plant,
and it deserves to be a little bit invasive sometimes.
One thing I'll note is on this plant is that it requires
a little bit more water than the other plants.
(shovel swishes)
So we're putting it towards this corner here
'cause this corner tends to get the shade first,
but we didn't want to bury it in the back
'cause we want to be able to come by, rub the leaves,
and get some of that wonderful aroma.
Here's another bunch of that purple needle grass,
which will I think contrast the manzanita
in the center quite nicely.
This sage in the back looks quite dramatically different
than most sage that you're used to seeing,
and it's called hummingbird sage.
It's actually native to the oak forests of California
and that means that it tends to do best
when it has a little bit of shade,
which is why I'm burying it in this back corner.
The other reason why it's back here is that when it flowers,
it produces these three foot tall flower stalks,
which will look absolutely wonderful
as they come up from the back here
and give this nice pop of lilac color.
And as the name suggests, hummingbirds absolutely love this,
which means that butterflies do too.
So along this back section here
is where I'm going to put my sages.
No native California garden's complete
without some white sage and black sage.
Now these are both very culturally important plants
in California and they are very prolifically native
across all of California.
They tend to do very well in chaparral environments,
(bird chirps)
which are a lot drier and hotter, more sunny,
which is why they're on this side,
which is the north-facing wall.
So they will probably get the most sun on this side
and they'll give a nice little kind of ghostly look
with the white sage against this much darker black sage.
And now the black sage tends to be a little bit wider,
and the white sage tends to be a little bit taller.
So I think together,
they'll form a nice little patch of sage here.
It's going to be also very fragrant
and also all those flowers are great for a hummingbirds,
butterflies, et cetera, you name it.
So this one over here is the white sage
and I have two of the white sage,
and right behind me is the black sage.
I also have two of those, one here, one there.
I think it dried out a little bit,
but it still has plenty of growth,
and I think it'll do just fine.
So now we need to plant the centerpiece
of the native garden.
This is the one that got us the most excited
and actually really got us really hyped to plant
more native plants. (birds chirp)
This is the Austin Griffiths manzanita.
It is one of these manzanita hybrids.
It does really well in the garden.
It has a moderate growth rate,
can be a little bit wide and also tall at the same time
and it tends to flower earlier than most manzanita,
which makes it a great source of nectar for all those birds,
bugs, insects, you name it, in the wintertime.
So it's really wonderful for that.
And on top of that,
it will eventually produce berries
which can be forged by birds.
So it's a really great plant all around.
It'll form a nice dark maroon bark
(birds chirp)
and have this nice twisted, gnarly branches.
It'll look absolutely wonderful once it's fully grown in.
I'm hoping it'll establish quickly
and really put on a lot of growth in this next year
because I'm really excited to see a nice manzanita.
They're one of my favorite plants by far.
(country music)
I think I'm going to just have to plant this
a little bit high and mound soil around it
'cause this whole section is basically
where the main stump was.
I'm running into a lot of roots.
Now these roots should be breaking down over time,
which will be totally fine for this manzanita,
but for the time being, I can't really dig down into them.
Could go get a Sawzall and try to cut them out.
(tool thumps)
Couple nice pieces.
(country music) (tool thumps)
(Sawzall whirs)
So that was a huge fail.
I could not get rid of the stump for the life of me.
But what I'm going to do
to help accelerate the breakdown of the stump,
is actually add
some of the Espoma bio-tone starter to it.
(bag crinkles)
This is pretty deep down
where no other native plants' really gonna get to
for a while. (soil falls)
And the idea behind this is that
providing some sort of nitrogen to help speed up
the breakdown of that stump.
Because what happens is
when you have wood buried into your soil,
it'll actually starve the nitrogen from everything around it
because the bacteria is trying to take everything it can
to break down that lignin,
that tough woody material,
and it just needs a lot of nitrogen.
So by burying in some fertilizer,
I'm hoping that'll help speed up
the process of breakdown and kill the stump.
So what we're gonna do
is move this purple needle grass over.
And this sounding bamboo stake here
has indicated that it is deep enough
to go unobstructed with this manzanita.
So we're gonna shift plans a little bit,
and I'm gonna plant some native bulbs here actually.
So we're gonna go ahead,
bury this in, and then move that plant around.
I think since the needle grass has 20 foot deep roots,
it should be able to work its way around the stump.
At the very bottom of this stump area,
there is actually a rotten cavity from the old tree.
So I'm not too worried about this purple needle grass
getting around that because it's got such adventurous roots,
shouldn't have any problem.
So now let's go ahead and place this manzanita here.
I might scoot some of these a little bit,
but they're actually fine as ground cover,
especially since they like a little less sun.
Maybe the manzania will even help them grow a little better.
(shovel swishes)
It's actually probably gonna do a lot better here
'cause it's all native soil without any wood chips mixed in
'cause the primary grinding was over in this area.
So this might actually end up being a net positive
that I should have accepted (Jacques laughs)
much sooner on in that process (shovel swishes)
of trying to kill that stump.
Oh yeah, this is straight native soil.
This was definitely the right move.
All right, let's get this in the ground.
There it is.
That ended up working out all right.
I might have to go get a couple more bags of fill dirt
(Jacques laughs)
because stomping all over this area
did compact it a fair amount,
and I wanna make sure these guys have enough soil.
Since we opened up some space in the back here,
I'm gonna plant these two native bulbs
that I got at the same nursery I got most of these,
which is the Theodore Payne Foundation up in Northeast LA.
And we happened to be driving through the area
and we looked it up,
we looked up some cool nurseries 'cause we're plant people.
(bag tears) And we found this place
which was an absolute gem.
If you're in the LA area or if you're ever passing through,
(bag tears) I highly recommend
you go through there because they have
such a wonderful selection of native plants.
(bag tears) And they also have
like a walking area where they have
a lot of those plants planted.
So you could see what they actually look like
when they're fully mature. (bag tears)
Really cool spot, highly recommend.
So we're gonna go in with this one first,
which is the splendid Mariposa lily.
(bag tears)
It says it's,
so in the coastal area, it'll want full sun.
And inland, you'll probably want a little bit of part sun.
I'm gonna redo that.
So we're gonna go in over here
with the splendid Mariposa lily.
It's a low water requirement, not too big of a plant,
maybe two feet high at the most.
I'm gonna go ahead and throw that bulb right over here.
And then in this area
I'm gonna go in with the second bulb,
(bag tears)
which is the Catalina Mariposa Lily.
Now the only thing left to do
is to cover it back up with that mulch,
(bag tears)
which is going to be all that woody soil-y material
that I dug out of this area to begin with.
I think that'll actually do just fine
in shoring up this missing soil
and also provide a little bit of mulch
through that use of wood,
which should be already inoculated
with all sorts of soil microbes and things like that
since they've been buried in the soil now for a few weeks.
So let's go ahead and mulch this area up.
Well, I am absolutely filthy,
but I've gotta say I'm really happy with how this came out.
This mulched up material
that was left over from stump grinding
really looks fabulous on top of this bed.
I think it makes it look much more native
with the blended rocks, little chunks of wood,
and the dirt all exposed.
To me, it looks fantastic.
Now, in terms of maintenance and care,
I'm not gonna actually do much.
I'm not gonna fertilize,
I'm not going to prune,
I'm not gonna deadhead,
'cause I wanna leave as much of this intact as possible
for native insects and things like that
to actually live here and create a natural habitat.
So the more you mess with it,
the less likely you are to actually get it to function
like a native landscape. (bird caws)
So that's the plan
and that's also why it's offset for my garden.
I don't really want to spend too much time in here,
wanna let it go wild as much as I can.
And the last thing I'll say is that,
if you run into a stump like I did,
don't take out the pickaxe and the Sawzall
and try to actually get rid of it.
Just change your plans.
And actually I think this is going to look even better
than the original plan.
So I'll put all the links in the description
for all the plants that I used here
so you could see what they look like
when they're fully grown,
what sort of requirements they have,
and maybe inspire yourself to also plant a native garden.
But thanks for watching,
and I'll see you guys next time,
and I'll be sure to include this
in all future tours and updates
so you could see how my native garden progresses.