Why Native Plants?

The Ivanhoe Path understory, Silver Lake Meadow Native Plant Garden, Armstrong Garden, and Tesla Pocket Park are all planted with locally native plants. We have planted these because these plants are uniquely adapted to our cool wet winters and hot dry summers, so they thrive with little extra care or water. They also provide habitat (food and shelter) for the birds, bees, moths, butterflies and other critters that evolved along with them. (Many trees are non-native, but these were planted before we got here.)

Once established, California native gardens can use 80% less water than conventional gardens and require less maintenance. They also reflect the Seasons. Some plants bloom in our cool, wet winters then rest during the long hot summers. Others love the heat and bloom then. Seasonal native wildflowers and bulbs come and go. All the flowers provide pollen and nectar for the pollinators, and leaves for their caterpillars. These caterpillars, and other insects you might see in the gardens, along with berries and seeds on spent flowers, are the base of the avian food chain and help feed the birds nesting in the trees above.

We’ve created a list of plants for your Silver Lake garden here! These are all native to our neighborhood (though they might be hard to find growing wild here, due to overcrowding by invasive plants and urbanization), and will best support our local biodiversity. They are also easy to grow, need less extra water, like our soil as-is (cool with clay! no fertilizer needed!), and just need a light haircut/grooming once or twice a year.

More? At calscape.org find information about individual plant species and ideas about how to create a beautiful and sustainable landscape in your own yard or container garden. Learn more about What Grows Here @ Calflora, find especially Bird Friendly Plants @ Audubon Society, and also plants that support Butterflies and Moths @ the National Wildlife Foundation.