mikeevansexplaining Over the years, Mike Evans’ expertise in California native plants has become his profession, his pastime and his crusade. On November 10,  it will be his reason to visit Long Beach. In a presentation co-sponsored by Greater LongBeach and the Long Beach Water Department—and held at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the city’s Groundwater Treatment Plant—Evans will explain how and why our sprawling lawns ought to be replaced by gardens of indigenous plants. 

But if you think you know where Evans is going with this, you’d better be thinking beyond H20.

“We’ve been swallowed up by an overall appearance that we think of as ‘California,’ but really isn’t,”  says Evans, whose stocky frame and craggy face don’t prepare you for such a gently earnest voice. Or maybe it’s his knowing delivery that’s somehow got you thinking about the housing tracts that have turned so much of the Golden State landscape into a grass-and-asphalt checkerboard—because he hasn’t actually referred to  them until … now.

“Rather than a series of identical lush grass lawns that must be watered and mowed constantly,” Evans continues, ”the real California is a subtle and varied assortment of flowers and bushes and groundcovers that grow naturally and thrive on whatever rain happens to fall.”

Or happens not to fall, sometimes for years and years.

The real California would have gotten through the just-ended drought just fine. But the dreamed-up California was lost-in-the-desert staggering during the last couple years of dry-as-dead-dichondra rainy seasons, which prompted legal restrictions on the use of water for landscapes. The question is whether this was the wakeup call that dissolves the mirage of California-as-oasis and finally end what’s become a recurring nightmare.

 Evans leaves no doubt about his position.

 There should be laws against front-yard lawns,” he says. “Just say no to turf.”

That’s easy-as-in-money for Evans to say. He owns Tree of Life, a 40-acre spread of  Old California a few miles above San Juan Capistrano along Ortega Highway that he has worked and nurtured into  the state’s largest nursery devoted exclusively to California native plants.

But Evans was born and raised in Newport Beach, not exactly a place immune to the pressures of status, and the American lawn was well ensconced. 

It was 20 years ago, when Evans bought a place in San Juan Capistrano—a lot with a house, a tree, a fence and a lawn—that he showed how completely his priorities had been reorganized. Before even moving into the house, Evans did some major outdoor alternations.

“I sprayed the lawn with herbicide and yanked out the tree, and the neighbors thought, ‘Oh, my God!’” he recounts. “I tore out the dead lawn, turned over the soil, and put in plants and seed mixes. The first year, there were lots of flowers, and it’s been that way every year since. And the whole front yard has never taken much maintenance. I love it. But it might get you kicked out of Irvine.”

Although essentially a scientist and an activist who is trying to save California’s dwindling natural environment, Evans’ public addresses go easy on the botany and cataclysm. His style is conversational, practical, encouraging and humorous. His message appeals to people’s appreciation of beauty, responsibility and simplicity.

Evans’ presentations mix the structure of PowerPoint with a Night at the Improv to make the case that killing suburban lawns and bringing back native plants inevitably creates some kind of profit for everybody.

After listening to Evans forge hard facts, a bit of botany, some ethereal aesthetics, step-by-step gardening methods and higher-level idealism into a tool that helps repair the world, you might find yourself making your own case for greater-good-through-indigenous-gardening. For example, GreaterLongBeach.com just came up with this one: not pouring millions of gallons of water on the grass-covered ground reduces the odds you’ll die of thirst.

The Water Department has one, too—its Lawn-to-Garden program, which offers a significant financial incentive to Long Beach homeowners who kill their front lawns and replace them with drought-tolerant plants. Define significant?  They’re talking $2.50 a square foot, up to 1,000 square feet, and the kid we hired to do the math says that equals $2,500.

The front yards of more than 500 homes in Long Beach have been transformed through the Lawn-to-Garden program, and several participants will be on hand to offer their personal experiences and advice. Among them will be Jeanine Birong of GreaterLongBeach.com, who wrote a multiple-article diary on the challenges and rewards of environmentally upgrading her home.

Evans’ address not only provides the opportunity to benefit from the Lawn-to-Garden program, but coincides with the optimal planting season for California natives, which begins in October and continues through February.

To be clear, not all the plants on the Water Department’s approved list are California natives, and it accomodates this wiggle room by describing its plants as ”California friendly.” We happen to like California, and we’ve never had an argument with  friendly, so we think that’s … really nice.

Anyway, it doesn’t sound as though there’s much dropoff in benefits—replacing a flat, green lawn with these plants makes for a more-colorful neighborhood, creates habitat for wildlife like birds and bees, not only reduces rain runoff but also the pollutants (like grass fertilizers) that ultimately spoil coastal waters … and then you got your savings in money, water and time. Nothing wrong with any of that.

On the other hand, if the idea of replacing your lawn with a garden that’s … hmmm … let’s say, California Friendlier—well what say we just let Mike Evans talk about that. He puts it so much … nicer.