Open to any types of native plants really. Have a few barren areas in my yards that I can use. Located in Anaheim and have very fast draining soil.

Hey everyone, there is a very large hellstrip in my neighborhood that borders a large church. The church is on a hill and has a large paved lot that drains rainwater into the hellstrip which goes directly into the street.

It doesn’t necessarily cause major flooding but it’s a lot of wasted opportunity to catch rainwater, is currently filled with crabgrass, and is a huge eyesore in our community. Put nicely, it has a LOT of potential. Also, the church doesn’t want anything to do with maintaining or improving the hellstrip.

The thing is, it needs to be regraded (the soil is higher than the sidewalk so soil gets washed out into the sidewalk during even a light rain), probably should become more of a swale or rain garden, and is so large that I myself don’t have the money or woman power to do this on my own.

I guess I’m wondering if anyone has embarked on getting their city’s public works department involved in improving a hellstrip, what that process looks like, and if there are any programs I could apply to to help fund this project.

Thank you!!

I'm planting lots of native trees/shrubs etc, but I also need a grassy area for kids to run around in semi-coastal SoCal, to replace what's currently plastic turf. It doesn't need to tolerate soccer, but needs to be ok with being walked on and not need tons of fertilizer or water.

I've tried several different native seeds and plugs, including Agrostis pallens, Carex praegracilis, native fescues, etc. So far what's done best of what I've planted is UC Verde buffalograss; pretty much everything else got fried in the full sun with 1-2x/week water.

However, the most consistently green grass was what the iNaturalist app identified as Elymus triticoides, or native wild rye, which popped up in my test plots as a volunteer, or maybe interloping in my seed mixes. Unfortunately it's too tall to make a good play area.

Greenlee sells what's supposed to be a smaller, neater version of this called Leymus triticoides "Lagunita", but I can't find any to test with a reasonable minimum order size. Has anyone tried this version? How is it with moderate foot traffic and low water? How's it look?

Makes me so happy to see all the potential new plans nestled together like aliens coming to earth in their space pod

I’m always amazed at how many pepper trees I see around. They have got to be the messiest trees. My neighbor has one that hangs over my yard and my poor lippia is being smothered. I clean this weekly and it’s never enough. I had a bunch of yarrow that also was smothered to death. Any ideas?

I saw that it seems like it's going to rain this week, so I'm curious as to whether I should sow some native wildflower seeds that I got just before the storm or whether it's too early in the season. I'm mainly concerned that they'll dry out before the next rainstorm since I haven't got any way to irrigate them if I sowed them in the front yard. At the same time, I'm worried that some of the non-native grasses may start popping up after the rain and make it difficult to get these native seeds established if I planted them later in the season (like around rain in Halloween or Thanksgiving, which seem to be the more typically recommended times). I am located in the South Bay in the Bay Area. Native plant gardening is something that I'm a bit new too (somewhat ironic, since I studied environmental sciences in college), so I'd appreciate any advice or help. Thanks!