South Los Angeles Pollinator & Habitat Garden
Carrie and Rick contacted me wanting a drought tolerant native pollinator and habitat garden for their front yard. Living in a highly urban area, one of their main priorities was creating a sense of privacy so they could relax and enjoy their space without feeling on display - yet they didn’t want to simply ‘fence themselves off’ from everyone either. The four foot picket fencing around the yard was already charming and lends a homey cottage feel in keeping with the house. It was clear that a diverse, living, native habitat privacy screening was the way to go.
Other priorities were incorporating foraging edibles, attracting birds and pollinators and loads of plants! Rick said he wanted people to walk by on the street and say “I know there’s a house back there somewhere”. I wanted to give them that without the yard feeling cluttered in the long term, so I created a park like feel with movement and spaces to wander and sit, bringing structure and flow to all the bountiful life.
The photos below are from just 2.5 month’s of growth, so they are well on their way!
2.5 month’s of growth. The plants are growing exceptionally well and the yard is already filled with butterflies!
About a year prior, they had already done a solid layer of cardboard sheet mulching and topped it with a thick layer of mulch, so that set the soil up really well for planting by the time I entered the scene. I started by designing and installing the privacy hedge that runs all along the fence line of the yard. Most of these I planted on the larger side and the rest of the interior plants were installed small and strong for good root development, rapid growth and healthy plants long term.
For the privacy hedge, I wanted different heights, shapes and textures to create an undulating natural feel that would create privacy and habitat and play off the long-range tree views in the neighborhood. I always go with a certain amount of repetition in all of my plantings to create calmness for the eye - you almost never see just one of any plant in nature right?
The privacy hedge I created has multiple California Bay Laurel trees (great bird habitat and an abundant forageable cooking plant that can be shared across the fence with all the neighbors), native Blue Elderberry (also an edible plant), native Ceanouthus/California Lilac, native Tecate Cypress to bring in a needled woodsy feel, native Davis Gold Toyon. native Coyote Bush and native Lemonade Berry.
Next I created flow and divided the yard into zones/garden beds to break up the monolith of space by putting in meandering paths and establishing a space for a flagstone patio under their big shady laurel tree.
The interior plant islands are filled with native California grasses, shrubs, perennial flowers, herbs and ground covers and a handful of Mediterranean varietals mixed in.
installing paths and a shady patio.
Organically shaped flagstone patio. A trellis with fast growing shade vines along the fence behind the patio will enclose the space from behind creating a really private, calm feel.
BEFORE - just empty space waiting for life!
BEFORE
A native Desert Willow centered in the front island here. It’s in it’s winter dormancy but about to explode into blossoms come Spring.
Repeating coastal rosemary, seaside daisy and blue fescue anchor the pathways. Native Roger’s Red grape vines (edible) are planted on either side of the front porch and will trellis gracefully over the peak there. Saint Catherine’s lace, white sage, chalk dudleya, wild flowers and a small manzanita tree are planted in the bed under the big front window. Plants that are big enough to fill out and watch hummingbirds zipping about from inside but not so tall and big that they obscure views of the whole yard. The privacy comes from the long range/fence line hedging.
Carrie and Rick were so fun to work with and I’m loving how excited and engaged they are with their yard. Carrie has been keeping a photo and written garden journal, documenting all of the birds and butterflies that have been visiting, noticing the tiny self-seeding yarrow starts popping up already…and measuring plant growth after the rains! Ha! I love that. They’ve met some neighbors they didn’t know before too. Gardens have a way of bringing people together.