This garden designer was inspired by taking tours of sustainable gardens given by the city of Santa Monica starting about 13 years ago, led by Suzanne Jetts. Also by a visit to the Theodore Payne Foundation in Sunland.
The garden contains California natives and sustainables which are both drought tolerant.
They have Pride of Madera (Echium), rockrose (Cistus), Ceonothus, Tacoma Capensis, Westringa, Manzanita, Lavender, California Poppies, and coyote bush. They have recently planted succulents. The favorites are all the plants that have survived over the last 10 years!
They originally planted with no overall planting plan and the plants have gone through a lot of changes with some parts being 10 years old. Now they are trying to incorporate the survivors into the new plan. The plants that are still growing have endured very little watering in compacted soil.
They combine hand watering and manual sprinklers. They do not water in the winter unless something has been recently planted. In the summer, they water twice a week with the sprinkler and maybe one more time with hand watering in extreme heat.
