Native Plant Garden Tours by Theodore Payne Foundation

Today’s Garden Tour has already started, but better late than never, I always say (if I get around to it).

However, there’s another one tomorrow. Read about it here.

Longtime SMBAS member, native plant maven/activist and sometime Snowy Plover census-taker Connie Day alerted me today to the garden tour and the fact that her home is (or by the time you get this, was) on the tour. So you can’t visit it yourself, and the live tour is over, but you can see some photos of her yard here. Plus another twenty-one homes. See what others are doing with their native plants. Get inspired!

The Day garden on the Garden Tour 3-28-20

Most birders in the Los Angeles area have become aware (or soon will) that native plants are extremely important for our native birds. As the dictum goes:

Native plants attract native insects; native insects attract native birds.

I don’t know who first said that, but I’ll credit it to Margaret Huffman, longtime SMBAS and California Native Plant Society member, who was the first to say it to me.

Theodore Paine has a plethora of native plants for reasonable prices. Due to the novel Coronavirus outbreak and ensuing zombie apocalypse, they adapted to the situation (far faster than our federal administration branch) with a new plan. Want plants? Call them up (818-768-1802 ext 25), place your order, pay the bill and they’ll assign you a time slot and your very own parking spot to come and pick up your new friends. Instructions and list of plants are here.

We love our native California plants in our yard. They grow, they leaf out and flower, they look bright and beautiful, they need far, far, far less water than did our boring – and now a distant memory – lawn with the bottomless thirst, the insects and lizards love them, we get Praying Mantis’ of all sizes, Painted Ladies and other butterflies, busy busy native (stingless) bees, and all sorts of interesting bugs and birds.

Stuck at home? Plant some native plants.

[Chuck Almdale]