August 30, 2017
Yes, I plant California Native Plants in my Garden in Summer!
Yes, I Plant California Native Plants in my Garden in Summer!
Our native plant nursery in in So. Calif. in Moorpark. This area can get fairly warm in summer and there’s sort of a widely held belief that you don’t plant native plants in summer. We’ll many you can and they’ll do just fine. I like planting in summer because it’s still light after work. This give me a lot of time to work in the yard. It can get very hot during the day, by late afternoon or early evening it’s cooling down. Still, there are things you do to successfully plant this time of year that you don’t do in say, winter.
- Figure out where all of your plants should go…lay them out. And yes shady plants in the shady areas in sunny plants in the sunny areas and on… Now you know where things should go your ready for step 2.
- Dig the holes and water. Fill the holes up with water and the backfill too. Water the plants that are in their nursery containers as well. Don’t plant just yet.
- Come out the next day and repeat the watering of the holes, backfill, and plants in their nursery containers. When the water has drained out of the holes your now ready to plant.
- Take your new plant out of the pot without breaking the roos- place it in the hole and cover with the backfill around the plant – don’t burry it- let the area of the stem “breath”. Now water again heavily down to the roots.
- You’ve successfully planted your new plant. Now your ready to water your new plant down to the roots between 1x and 2x per week depending on conditions.
I’m working on an area in our back yard. I planted against our fence this time a year ago from 5-gallon containers and they’ve grown in very well. Now I’m planting a staggered row in from of them to give the areas more depth.
I know the new plant in front of the other plants is hard to see but in a year they will be just as big as the ones in front with lots of bees and hummingbirds. I’ve planted orange flowering desert mallows (Sphaeralcea ambigua) and red flowering sages (Salvia lemmonii).
