12537 Barbara Avenue

This garden has combined California native palms, drought resistant plants and some roses. They have planted some interesting succulents, including a fire stick cactus with beautiful red and orange fire sticks. There are towering twin palms in the front as a centerpiece for the yard. The sky plants are a favorite with the butterflies and the hummingbirds. There are crushed rock and small pebbles to fill in the landscaping.
They began the project over 8 years ago, doing everything from scratch, designing the plan themselves. What began as a big job is now easy maintenance. Although they have an irrigation system, they find it uses more water than they need. Instead, they water by garden hose as needed.

3425 Inglewood Boulevard

This garden was created using a mixture of succulent and drought resistant plants with decorative boulders, pebbles and flagstones. Among the plants used are podocarpus to provide privacy, Pittosporum silver sheen as well as marjorie channon to give a subtle sense of separation. They have planted kangaroo paws which have beautiful flowers through the year, and many succulents such as westringea, pennesitum, agave atenuata, fire cracker, and lorespedulum. In addition they have also used groundcover ones such as lambs ear, sedum, dymondia, tymne and festuca.

The homeowners rebuilt their house using only natural materials and then worked with Raul Castillo who has a well-priced landscaping business (www.eco-nomicallandscape.com) to create the garden.

11430 Clarkson Road

This garden was just done in October 2008 and is a great opportunity to see the spacing that is needed to accommodate room for growth. It will also be fun to see the difference next year!
The front yard is divided into two areas. One is mostly in the shade year around and stays wetter and the other is sunny and the soil dries up faster. The homeowner removed a conventional lawn and replaced it with drought tolerant plants including cape rush, peter pan agapanthus, daylilies, succulents and foxtail fern.
The owner is a landscape designer and consultant and will be a great source of information about plant selection, sprinklers, composting and maintenance!

3412 Cabrillo Boulevard

This garden only requires watering by hand once a month! The homeowner is a member of the California Native Plant Society and will be a great source of information about what might be the best choices for your garden.

This drought tolerant garden includes succulents, yarrow, Calylophus, ceonothus (a California native holly, this white sage needs no for water in the summer and has a delightful botanical fragrance) Manzanita and Santolina. The small tree is a Western Redbud - one of the most beautiful natives – it’s a deciduous that completely changes with the seasons. Stripped bare for winter, it sprouts heart-shape leaves in the spring and then blossoms with pink flowers followed by pods.

There will be literature from the California Native Plant Society - check out this great planting guide!

3661 Coolidge Avenue

This is a great stop for those of you interested in developing a master plan that gets implemented over time!

This front lawn used to be covered with English Ivy until it was removed by the current homeowner. Over two to three years it was converted to a full drought resistant garden. Now, whatever thrives gets to stay and anything that requires too much nurturing fades away. This garden is composed of drought-tolerant plants, some Mediterranean with a trend towards adding California natives. There are purple fountain grass, a variety of sages, lamb’s ear, buddlea, butterfly weed and two prolific mallows. California natives include golden poppies and matilija poppies. There are also a couple of exotics: a New Zealand tea tree and a lion’s tail from South Africa are favorites. The tea tree is in full bloom now and the lion’s tail may be pushing for new bloom soon. It is watered with a soaker irrigation hose system on a timer and supplemented with a water filtration system that purges once a week into the garden.

The homeowners removed the backyard browned grass lawn from August through October 2009, as time allowed, patch by patch. California natives and drought resistant plants were put into the ground in November to begin to settle in for winter. Landscape cloth was laid down and drip irrigation installed before the winter rains and the weeds got established. The homeowners sat back and watched the plants have doubled and tripled in size, grateful for the plentiful rain!

11301 Rose Avenue

This garden is primarily California native and all drought resistant.

There are native grasses, Manzanita bushes, California lilacs, native fuchsia, snapdragon, Matilija poppy and coffeeberry. Also 3 trees: Toyon, madrone and red bud. In the Spring, the California poppies grow from reseeding and are a favorite. Matilija poppies are spectacular and if in bloom on the tour will be a real treat!

They water 0-2 times a week depending on the season, generally for 5 minutes or less depending on the zone and at 5 AM in the morning. This year they added a rain barrel!

In addition, they save the kitchen water from rinsing vegetables, etc, and use it to water the potted plants in the front and back.

This homeowner also has solar panels which are visible from the street or driveway. The inverters are visible from inside the gate and they are happy to discuss this with guests – their electric bill was reduced by approximately half.

3347 Wade Street

The homeowners will showcase both front and back property and will help you build your confidence to try out new landscaping and edibles ideas. Almost all work was and is done by the owners.

The new front yard was inspired by last year’s tour. It includes a thriving monarch butterfly habitat, succulents, natives, wildflowers, a kumquat tree and favorite plants from the prior palette. The backyard is a 5-year running year-round kitchen garden of raised beds – edibles and flowers to attract beneficial insects and birds. Worm bins are part of the family. There is a rainwater barrel. Plant experiments are everywhere and much of the palette was started from cuttings or seeds.

The homeowners will provide informational displays, handouts and lots of practical, low-cost tips to help convince you that you have an inner green thumb, and, in spite of the fact that there’s never enough time, you can successfully transform your earth spot one step at a time and have a lot of fun.