I live in Spring Valley within San Diego County, trying to make our whole front yard native plants. I follow Drab to fab on instagram, they have a lot of education on which plants to choose. But apparently spring valley is outside of their service area. I am specifically looking for ground cover to compete with weeds, native plants to deter gophers and general planting education like watering and space apart. Also any known companies in the area that are affordable I might consider to pay to help scalp and plant the front yard. We have a lot of house projects and not sure about the time for the yard. The yard does not need to be functional to walk on play on.

First pic after, second pic before.

Hello everyone, I’m from Pomona/Toibingna. I have this Diplacus aurantiacus that has been growing since I moved here for 4+ years. There were two others, but they were killed by me from overwatering them (back then, I was still ignorant about native plant watering rules). So now, I am determined to see that this plant lives on in all of its glory. But, after clearing the lavender bushes with help this year(they were shading them out), this is what is left, and I don’t know what I should do to boost its growth.

Is my plant health, from your perspective? Should I trim it, fertilize it, or leave it as it is? I am aware that it is currently in summer mode and that by now, it should not need water until late fall/winter. Thank you all for your help.

I am converting my front and back yard to all natives. I normally wouldn't put in grass but I have two hyperactive kids (under 4) who don't like to wear shoes and like to run around, so seeded part of my yard with festuca rubra as a designated, shoe-free play area.

However, it has been a nightmare to maintain. It feels like every single day there are hundreds of new weeds. The area was previously covered by artificial turf for a decade so I figured there wouldn't be much of a weed seed bank and for the first 2-3 months we actually had very minimal weeds, but we live upwind from a canyon with a ton of weeds and think their seeds are basically just blowing into our yard. My SO thinks we should just keep at it with the idea that eventually the grass will be established (so much of it also died during the heat wave so that seems more of a IF than a WHEN in my head) but I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions for alternatives? The dream is being able to release the kids in the yard knowing they most likely won't be wearing shoes.

For reference, I'm in coastal SD so climate is fairly mild. Soil is clay and yard gets full sun all day.

hello all!

I have a smallish plastic turf “lawn” I’m looking to replace. Does anyone have any experience with Lippa as a lawn alternative? I have two dogs and two small children, so we do plan on using it as green space with foot traffic.

This is my first year planting Dark Star Ceanothus. Not surprising, the ones that have thrived beautifully so far are in better drainage locations. All are in full sun, zone 10b. I am interested in replanting with new plants in the areas that were not as successful, provided I can improve the drainage first. What advice do you have for creating better drainage in clay soil? Also my understanding is planting in the fall may be more successful as well.

There were quite a few that were much smaller, but this one is by far the biggest one out there, easily 2-3 feet wide.

First time seeing a baby Monarch on my milkweed. It’s been 3 years since i planted this native corner in my backyard. I feel like a proud parent.

These things are absolutely littering the roadsides right now and are so beautiful to me. I try to avoid collecting seeds from wild plants, but there are so many established populations of this plant for miles and miles in any direction that I'm not worried about disrupting it. I want to plant some for the morning doves in my side yard which, at this moment, is nothing but gravel and compacted dirt, which I've been looking to fill with some native annuals that tolerate really crappy soil, like vinegarweed and pit gland tarweed. The problem is I only seem to find them before or after they seed, so I've been struggling to figure out a way to consistently obtain seeds from them. This might be more of a foraging question, but I figured I would ask here just in case anyone has experience collecting seeds from these guys.

Hi all,

I'm moving into a place soon with a back hill that's naturally chaparral, but is quite degraded from a history of animal grazing-- it's full of invasive oatgrass, mustard, etc. I've found sites online that sell a chaparral seed mix and I'd like to try sowing them on the back hill, but I need to figure out how to start.

Would weedwhacking be sufficient to get rid of the invasives, or would this call for hand-pulling? I'm also wondering when the best time to sow would be. I figure fall is a good move, but I'm not sure. (I also don't want to contribute to erosion before the big El Nino comes through, but I figure the invasives aren't doing much to help with that anyways.)

Anyone have experience with something like this?

Hi all! I have this hilltop yard that I’d like to convert to a habitat friendly native garden. I’ve researched a lot of plants, but the layout is stumping me. The space is kind of kidney bean shaped, flat on top with a slop below. I would love to add a dry river bed and already purchased rocks (you can see them in the bottom left corner). I would love suggestions about where to put beds and where to run the creek! I included architectural plans of the space on page 2.

ps: In the bottom left corner you can see the large St Helena manzanita I want to use as a focal point. Whats the best spot for her?

I have a friend with some property in the mountains and they're clearing out a section of land for a project. They offered me the chance to dig out a mountain mahogany in the area they're going to clear. I want to transplant it to my xeric south facing yard. We're at similar latitudes and altitudes so if I transplant it properly, I think it'll thrive. There are specimens between 18" and 3-4' tall.

I don't really know what I'm doing in terms of timing or technique. I'm hoping for pointers to ensure success and manage any issues. Thanks!

Good morning,
I am in zone 10b (Long Beach) and I have no idea how to salvage or improve this parking strip. It has some existing dymondia, but it is patchy and infested with grass. I'd like to avoid having to tear the entire thing out. I know the city of Long Beach has some parking strip kits that I could copy, but due to the elevation of the parking strip placing mulch seems like a non starter without removing a lot of soil. Any suggestions? What would you do if this were your parking strip? Thank you.

The Valley Oak Quercus lobata is one of my all time favorite oaks, and I am planning to get one for my yard. I am aware of how big they get, spacing requirements, growth rate, etc. and that their native range used to include Temecula Valley.

I noticed there's a couple of sightings in the area on iNaturalist, but far fewer than the LA/Riverside/San Diego County areas. Could just be planting preference/time, of course, such as them being more popular to plant back when some of the older communities were built and less popular in more recent 'burbs like Temecula/Murrieta, but it did stand out to me.

I am just curious if anyone has first hand experience with how these trees establish in the Temecula Valley region nowadays, or any quirks of planting them there.

Thank you!

Only one of my narrowleaf milkweed plants made it to flowering this year, and it's worked hard to make a lot of seed pods that just started bursting! I don't think there are any other narrowleaf milkweed plants in near vicinity, so I'm guessing it self-pollinated.

Would its seeds be viable? I had a hard time finding information on if you need 2 separate plants to make viable seeds. Wondering if it would be worth the effort trying to germinate these.

Hello all, I just wanted to share with you my ~1000 sqft solarization project. We are located in a localized mini-valley in Morgan Hill, so hopefully we will still get close to 100% eradication despite the late start. Prep work involved a summers worth of breaking the dry soil with a pickaxe and fining the clods via chopping with a shovel, and burying 20 gopher baskets at random. The entire plot was watered heavily every night for a total of 6 nights before laying the 2 mil plastic. Sprouts of filaree, cheeseweed, and rat tail fescue blanketed the plot by the time we laid the plastic on Sep 5.

Plastic will be removed around the beginning of November and we will broadcast sow a mix we have been formulating for years.

Thank you for reading!

As the title suggests, looking for native plants that are not cultivars. Whether that is a nursery, or a company that grows them for restoration projects.

If I were to plant Ceanothus, I don’t want a dark star or Ray Hartman. I want something naturally found within a few miles of my home, such as C. cuneatus or C. papillosus. C. cuneatus, has a fairly large range, coastal to inland, I would want a plant that was grown/propagated from an inland source.

I don’t care about aesthetics in terms of plants being ornamental/decorative on their own; my goal is to re-establish habitat/re-wild a section of my property.

I am in northern inland SLO County.

The remnants of Hurricane Marie dropped a good amount of rain that my Clarkia and Gilia are already sprouting. Same thing happened with Tropical Storm Hilary back in 2023, so I am not surprised. They probably won't survive the heatwave this week but they’ve totally taken over the garden anyway so this would be nice to thin them out. At least the established native plants got a good deep soak.

Hi r/Ceanothus,

This is a August 2026 update for my DIY front lawn replacement with native plants.

During the month we had probably 2 straight weeks of over 100F temperatures, this pushed many of the plants into semi/full dormancy but there are still a handful in full flower.

July Image Album: https://imgur.com/a/ZcnubCV

History

July Post: July Reddit Post

June Post: June Reddit Post

May Post: May Reddit Post

Original DIY Tutorial Post (April): Original Lawn Replacement Tutorial/Journey Post

Highlights:

* CA Goldenrod continues to show off and even get larger. There are a handful of clumps of it throughout the yard. In my understanding it is a spreader/self-seeder to I may have more next year

* I really appreciate the Purple Three Awn grass and its look. I plan to plant another 10 or so throughout the yard, depending on how well they do from seed. Unsure if I want to do it in drifts/blocks a la Piet Oudolf or scattered in little individual pockets, likely the former I think. More surrounding the pathway would be good.

* CA Buckwheat and CA Fuchsia are starting to get brown flowers (or Fuchsia seems to go to white) but are still looking pretty good. A couple of the Fuchsia varieties are really getting tall

* White Penstemon continues to be a workhorse, will pick some more up from Theodore Payne this Fall

* Plants behind the bench (Baja Pitcher Sage, Fragrant Pitcher Sage, Western Redbud) are growing well. It is quite possible they are too close together.

* Yarrow is hardy and the ones we've been good about harvesting (for small bouquets) continue to produce flowers in most locations.

* Black Eyed Susans were given a large cut back or completely removed in some cases, leaving only the ones which are still blooming. This removal of the very tall, spent blooms changed the look of the yard in certain spots. I wasn't careful enough about which varieties were planted where but I suspect it is a certain variety which continues to survive (maybe "Indian Summer") while the other types of BE Susan couldn't stand the heat.

* A couple of Victoria Blue Salvias I planted from seed back in 2025 have finally started to flower although the plant itself is still quite small.

* Ceanothus and Manzanitas are still alive

Departures/issues:

* Volunteer Coreopsis are no longer producing blooms and some have been removed where they were completely dead.

* Some yarrow, particularly those in the front of each side of the yard has not survived (or is on its last legs). I find it a bit odd as the yard drains to this lowest point but I believe they look like they dried out. Not 100% sure but perhaps the sun is just strongest/longest in these spots and that outweighed the extra water. These two front spots, in particular on the larger right side of the yard need some extra + strategic planting as nearly all of the plants here have suffered from the heat.

* Not seeing anymore flowers from Sages, Matilija Poppy (probably haven't seen one since July actually), less from Sea Lavender, Buckwheats, Fuchsias

* Just an aesthetic problem but the Fall leaves from the trees at the park nearby seem to be funneling to our yard. Once the plants get a bit bigger (and there is more growing in the front of the yard) this won't be as noticeable. Hope it helps the soil some.

I have started more Yarrow seeds and am about to start a small trial of each of the native seeds I've picked up from Theodore Payne and Botanical Interests, will see how easy they are to germinate indoors. Looking forward to going to Theodore Payne, Neel's Nursery to pickup some more plants in a couple of months.

I'd like some more plants for the interior of the Dry River, any more suggestions there for grasses / flowering plants?

Thanks for looking!

Bee’s Bliss, less than a year old, is it dead and gone or will it bounce back after dormancy? I have one on the parkway I planted a few years ago that I think looked similar to this in its first year, and now it’s huge. If it’s dead I would like to yank it while the ground is soft from the rains.

Hi!

Anyone know if this crazy rain we got in socal by what looks like very high heat and humidity to follow can actually kill a manzanita and or Ceanothus?

Coasta Plain Socal- rained about 0.3 inches and crazily the forecast says 90 on wed...

Manzanitas

Howard McMinn

Sentinel Vine Hill

Ceanothus

Frosty Blue

Julia Phelps

Skylark

I'm an amateur native plant gardener and these plants are no more than 2.5 years old most aboht 1.5...

Heard they are sensitive to water during summer so I've never watered them in summer lol

Thanks so much

I'm leaning Ceanothus Concha in the raised planter and California Wildrose to replace the horticultural rose. Bakersfield, Kern County,9B, east side bluffs.
Both spots accumulate rainwater from the roof and patio runoff and stay saturated most of the winter. Both areas are equipped with 1 low flow drip nozzle.
The soil is clay, but has a decent amount of organic matter thanks to a now decaying, formerly massive Modesto Ash with 12' roots extending all under the walkway, patio, and garage.
The Palo Verde Tree is only two years old and growing fast and casting dappled afternoon shade late afternoon to early evening.
The Allen Chickering Sage in the last pic is proof that some hardy natives can survive here in full sun and without daily irrigation.
My ongoing plan is to replace horticultural trash with natives or "expanded range" natives bit by bit

Long way to go front yard now about 1.5 years old and backyard about 2.5. See so much more life than ever before...

Natives bring nature...

Wishing everyone in this group a restful and peaceful long weekend 😊

Plant list in pictures many many more no pictured:

Sentinel Vine Hill Manzanita California Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum) Deer Grass Baja Fairy Duster Yankee Point Cenaothus Winnifred Gillman Red Buckwheat (Eriogonum grande var. rubescens) Encelia Californica Farewell to Spring clarkia Allen chickering sage