----- Original Message -----
From:
y*@sfo.com
To: T*@plantsoup.com ; m*@ucdavis.edu
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2007 4:59 PM
Subject: Re: interesting...
It's magical when that happens.
One of the gardens on the first Going Native Garden Tour had been a weedy
half-acre front yard for over 50 years, burned or mowed annually for many
years to control the overgrowth. Then, about 8 years before the tour, the
owner started weeding selectively (before the weeds went to seed) instead of
burning or mowing, and native wildflowers started to flourish! Early-spring
carpets of native yellow buttercups and purple johnny-jump-ups, with scattered
purple sanicle and other wildflowers, were followed by brodiaeas, mariposa
tulips, purple needlegrass, wild rye, and soaproot. The overstory was blue
oaks, coast live oaks, and buckeyes, and it had never been rototilled. Woody
shrubs native to the site included blue elderberry, coyote brush, toyon,
fuchsia-flowering gooseberry, and (of course) poison oak. Each year took less
weeding, so she started working on her neighbor's yard as well. Here are the
other plants that were native to the site (in Los Gatos, Calif.):
Snakeroot sanicle, Sanicula crassicaulis
Purple sanicle, Sanicula
bipinnatifida
Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium bellum
Yellow mariposa lily,
Calochortus sp.
Wavy soaproot, Chlorogalum pomeridianum
Woodmint,
Stachys sp.
Wild cucumber, Marah fabaceus
Miner's lettuce, Claytonia
(Montia) perfoliata
California buttercup, Ranunculus
californicus
Ithuriel's spear, Triteleia laxa
Harvest brodiaea, Brodiaea
elegans
White hyacinth, Triteleia hyacinthina
Yellow johnny-jump-up,
Viola pedunculata
Yampah, Perideridia sp.
Douglas iris, Iris
douglasiana
Sticky monkeyflower, Mimulus sp.
Oak mistletoe, Phoradendron villosum
Native rye, Elymus glaucus
Purple needlegrass, Nassella (Stipa)
pulchra
Sedges, Carex spp.
Goldback fern, Pentagramma triangularis
One can really wonder why many suburbanites
feel happy about abadoning all this beauty and replacing it with their meger
unimaginative plantings, so often not even suited to the local
conditions.
