California Native Plants Offer a New Way to See the Garden
In which I revisit favorite articles from 2024.
Originally published in the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch on August 6, 2024. The Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is part of MidValley Publications - committed to the power of the positive press. Reprinted with Permission.
Denair resident Jim Brugger is an engineer with a passion for native plants. For the last ten years, he has cultivated his own suburban garden through trial and error.
Through the process, Brugger has learned multiple lessons, which he will pass on to anyone with an ear to hear. Some of these lessons challenge the very basis of how most gardeners think their landscapes ought to look.
The State of California covers 163,696 square miles and has at least eight different climates, which complicates the idea of landscaping natives.
This time of year, some California native plants go into dormancy, or, as Brugger described them, “dry stick mode.” Some, like gooseberry yarrow, lead some gardeners to declare their demise, only to see them burst back to life when the first winter rains return, “pushing out green leaves in December and going to January fully flushed out with beautiful green leaves.”
Other plants like Desert Willow California Buckwheat and California Fushia will remain in full bloom all summer long.
“The trick of landscaping with natives is to allow things to go into dormancy but combine them with other plants that have that summer bloom to give you that year-round interest that a lot of people want. Allow the things to sleep, let them turn brown, and cut them back.”
“The biggest challenge is the inclination to water all summer,” Brugger said. However, to create a more authentic native habitat, the goal is to imitate what happens naturally.
Rather than considering only climate temperatures and rainfall, Brugger encourages gardeners to think of plant communities when they implement garden plans in their urban landscape. “Take a step back and be aware of how many different plant communities exist in California. In the valley, we are in the skirts of oakwood lands, riparian zones along rivers, and flat grassland of the valley,” he said. “Where we are having a lot of flexibility with a Mediterranean climate.”
When Brugger creates a garden design plan for someone, he narrows down the thousands of options listed when one searches California natives in their zip code on Calscape.org. He hopes they’ll use it as a jumping-off point to see what works in their garden, giving it time for trial and error. “My true hope is they’ll take that research the plants: what they do, what their requirements are, that they’ll change it based on need, try to understand why it died, and try again. Maybe it was just the wrong plant in the wrong place.”
Most gardeners recommend planting natives in the fall to give them time to establish themselves during winter rains. Spring planting is the next recommendation, but Brugger said plants may experience more stress as temperatures rise. How much water is the right amount? Brugger quoted Bert Wilson, who owned Las Pilitas Nursery, “Stick your finger in the ground about an inch. If it’s dry, water it. If not, don’t touch it.”
Most natives will do well with once-a-week water for the first year. “Depending on what you plant and what plant community you are mimicking, you adjust the water according to what it needs,” Brugger said.
Some “relatively bulletproof” plants Brugger recommended to start with are California Buckwheat, Santa Cruz Island Buckwheat, California fuchsia and Ceanothus. But whatever a person grows, Brugger emphasizes the process of learning what works and why.
“The whole idea of going native is that it would be low maintenance, not no maintenance,” he explained. Taking the time to understand why some plants thrive and others do not in a given spot creates “a deeper connection to our urban landscapes.”
And that deeper connection can have a lasting effect that goes beyond the pollinators it attracts that season.
“My yard has been a 10-plus year experiment to see what they do on their own. What plants can handle the valley floor that may not come from the valley floor? What can handle our area without me needing to add a lot of water or supplemental care?” he said. “It comes back to trying to balance the human aesthetic.”
He added, “We need to see our yards from a bug’s perspective more so than a human perspective.”
The human aesthetic might point to architectural structure, mass groups, and form, which a weedy-looking milkweed might appear to diminish.
But the typical look sought after in urban gardens, lush green lawns and hydrangeas, is not one easily acquired in California. Its English origin means high water needs competing against drought and well-draining soils.
When asked if that means giving up our gardening ideals, Brugger suggested there is another way to see what's beautiful.
Returning to that bug’s perspective, when Brugger goes out for just a few minutes and sees the variety of pollinators in the garden, he’s struck by the bigger picture, which he likens to people choosing what food they’re in the mood for and making a choice of where to stop on a road trip. Pollinators are this way, having their own food preferences.
Regarding that milkweed, “It looks weedy, but if we plant a stand of it, it may lose the human aesthetic, but it’s going to appeal to the monarch butterfly, provide a source of nectar and energy for its journey, and provide a food source for the monarch caterpillar,” Brugger explained. This brings the gardener to a multigenerational aspect of gardening: what one plants not only serves pollinators now but can support the next generation of pollinators.
“I want to see something chewing on the leaves of my plants if I did it right. That’s the next generation of butterflies or moths.”
It’s an idea that flies in the face of the most common gardening practices. But Brugger isn’t insisting growers convert it all to grassland. Instead, consider the natives’ shape, behavior and bloom time. “Try to strike a balance. Use some of those themes, like foundation plantings and height, and put mass elements together to provide aesthetic balance,” and add in native plants that fit the plant community.
For more information, visit the local chapter of the California Native Plant Society, Calscape.org, attend a master gardener course at your local library or contact Brugger directly at bruggerdesign@gmail.com.
Note: Maybe save for a reread in summer; and check out the print edition this month of the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch for winter gardening advice.
The cost for a one-year subscription to the Hughson Chronicle & Denair Dispatch is $89. The newspaper is delivered weekly through USPS. For a weekly dose of print media with positive, local stories, and written by humans, subscribe by calling our main office, MidValley Publications (209) 358-5311.