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Institutional/Commercial Work
A mid-century Los Angeles church debates what to do with a decades-old memorial rose garden dying from lack of irrigation and care and from climate change. We reimagine it as a vibrant native pollinator garden buzzing with life that celebrates creation and California. A habitat that gives back more than it takes and helps mitigate some of the challenges of the sun-blasted, hardscape-bound site. As people walk along the planting strip to access entrances, it will serve as a native demonstration garden, teaching visitors about native plants, birds and insects and their beauty, functions and survival strategies.
The vision of toyon, sages, buckwheats, yarrow, baccharis, artemisia, milkweed, mallow, ceanothus and mondarella - all bringing life and movement with birds, bees and butterflies while restoring soil, sinking more carbon and water, reducing the ambient heat and air pollution from the pavement and building and adding beauty and scent while requiring no irrigation after establishment. Plant selection is skewed toward those from slightly more arid zones since climate modeling, both local and global, indicates hotter, more arid conditions at the pavement-bound site in the next couples decades. This is an example of planting for the future. An appropriate triad color scheme of orange, purple and green will communicate balance and joy.
The baby native pollinator garden, all cleaned up and ready to grow.
The south face of the building gets blasted with sun. While everyone loves a Magnolia, they don't feed native species and they may not survive in future decades without irrigation. We can do better.
Imagineering the south exposure with shade from Ceanothus trees (which help rebuild the soil) and the habitat, seasonality and color from native grape vines and other pollinating native perennials. Eventually the church may do an entire turf replacement, but they want to approach the project in steps so foundational plants come first. Since many native plants grow quite large, a few well-chosen specimens can transform a large space.
The front corner of the grounds. Without the budget to reimagine this area, and without irrigation, how can we tie it in with the pollinator habitat strip and make the grounds begin to look more cohesive and inviting to wildlife and people alike?
A native grape vine will soften this corner and wall and provide food for bees and birds (and maybe some people). This native variety, Roger's Red, has hand-sized green leaves that wave in the breeze and turn bright red in the winter. It will add an appropriate streak of crimson to the grounds of the church right at Christmas time. With native plants, sometimes just a little can have a big impact.
Another view of the walls. A lot of hard surfaces here and blasting sun. Without the budget to take up hardscape or plant large trees, how can we soften the edges and add habitat?
Reimagined with more natives, transforming hardscape into habitat.
And so the work begins. First, decades-old hedges and roses and weeds must go.
California natives look small now, but they get mighty!
From weeds and dying roses and non-native shrubs....
...to this...
...to a clean blank canvas, ready to become a vibrant habitat.
Native California plants look small at first, but grow large. Proper spacing is important to give the plants the air and light they need thrive and avoid pathogens. Often one gallon sized plants will catch up with five gallon sized plants within a year. Native plants grow their root systems first. While some natives grow faster than others, a helpful rule of thumb with growth expectations is the old saying: The first year they sleep, the second year they creep and the third year, they LEAP.
From a hodgepodge of dying rose bushes and hawthorn shrubs...
...to an orderly bed of hyperlocal and future-targeted California native pollinator plants, ready to grow into a thrumming habitat, bringing blooms and berries, color and scent, to each season. It will grow into a small but mighty example, for each passerby, of recentering nature, not people, in our landscapes.
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