🚀 go-pugleaf

        WHY LANDSCAPE WITH CALIFORNIA NATIVES IN LAKE COUNTY?

Practical reasons first

1: DROUGHT TOLERANT  Natives are already adapted to our dry summers
   and can survive in the home landscape with minimal water once
   established.  In my experience, with monthly soaks, many natives
   will bloom almost all spring, and with shearing of spent flowers,
   bloom again in the fall

2: LOW MAINTENANCE  Many natives do best in poor or rocky soil and
   will look fine without fertilization or pruning.

3: RESISTENCE TO PESTS  In my propagating and growing experience,
   and also in my plantings, the natives seemed the most immune to
   atacks by aphids, pillbugs and snails

4: RESISTENCE TO DEER BROWSING Many natives have adapted to
   centuries by browsing by deer by developing umpleasant resins or
   spiny leaves.  Some, such as Bladderpod (Isomeris arborea)
   actually seem to repel deer, while some can take light browsing

5: PROVIDE HABITAT FOR NATIVE BIRDS AND WILDLIFE  Natives are at
   the bottom, or base of the food chain in California. They support
   insect, bird and animal populations by providing nectar, seed,
   leaf and shelter. There has been a growing interest in the last
   20 years in actually landscaping with natives to attract butter-
   flies and hummingbirds.

6:  COLD HARDY  Again, in my demonstration garden, the native plants
    were the ones that survived the cold spells.  Even if the
    foliage was frozen, most sprouted back from the roots in the
    spring.  All my natives survived our Lake Co. cold spell of
    1990.  We had a recorded low of 8 degrees at night for a week.

7:  EROSION CONTROL AND FIRE RETARDENT  Many natives, my best
    example in Lake Co being Salvia sonomensis, can be used on
    banks for erosion control.  This salvia, and other natives
    are actually fire-retardent

8:  NATIVES ARE BEAUTIFUL I have come to enjoy native flowers far
    more than any other introduced or hybridized plants. I think
    most Lake County residents appreciate the blooming Redbuds,
    California poppies and Lupines in the spring. As equally lovely
    are our local Shooting Stars, Western Hounds Tongue,
    California Snowdrop, Fritillarias and Iris.  Beautiful
    ornamental shrubs native to Lake County include Toyon, Manzanita
    Fremont's Silktassel and Spice Bush. We have an extremely varied
    group of natives due to differences in soils, exposure and
    elevation, but with minimal appreciation or use in landscaping
    in the county. We are fortunate in having this magnificent,
    diverse flora and need to preserve it and promote interest
    in it as Lake County continues to grow.

NATIVES VS. EXOTICS

Many beautiful native wildflowers have become extinct or endangered
from a combinaton of destruction of habitat from development,
over-grazing, and the introduction of exotic plant pests and
destructive animals such at wild pigs.  Exotic plant species range
from weedy introduced pests such at Star Thistle, Bermuda grass and
Burr Clover, to invasive ornamental shrubs such as Pampas grass,
Scotch Broom, Vinca, and Cotoneaster, sold by the Nursery trade.

Much damage is done by homeowners who move to rural areas to enjoy
the local flora and fauna, then for some reason go out and landscape
with non-native exotic plants.  Some of these plants spread by
roots, and others have seed that is wind or bird dispersed.  They
can quickly naturalize over the countryside.  An area that once may
have contained 30 different species of native plants that supported
an intricate insect and animal community, can be taken over by one
exotic species (for example Vinca or Perriwinkle) with no food or
habitat value and essentially become an ecological wasteland.

Feral Pigs introduced into an area to provide hunting targets have
constituted another disaster on native plant populations.  Feral
pigs love to plow and root up and area and can destroy acres of
land.  They especially love to eat native bulbs, and have had a
serious impact on native lilies.

Please, when starting your landscaping, take a minute and ask
the question, is there a native groundcover, shrub, tree or
perennial I can use here?  The wholesale Nursery trade has made
natives accessable now to local nurseries nnd landscapers.  The more
interest and requests from the general public, the more natives will
show up in nurseries.

Some people have the misconception that natives are weedy looking.
Ironically enough, many of the plants that constitue weeds such as
foxtail, star thistle, burr clover, bermuda grass, etc, have been
accidentally introduced from Eurasia.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT KAREN SULLIVAN AT 279-2868