IT’S TIME TO PLANT CALIFORNIA NATIVES—MIKE EVANS TELLS HOW ON NOV. 10
By Greater Long Beach
With summer’s heat waning and the rainy season on its way—fingers crossed on that one—now is the time to start your garden of California native plants.
Right on time, California native plants expert and missionary Mike Evans, founder of the famous Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano, is coming to Long Beach to explain in simple-to-understand language exactly how to do it—and why you should—in a presentation we’re calling “A Greater California In Your Front Yard.”
Evans’ presentation, sponsored jointly by GreaterLongBeach.com and the Long Beach Water Department, is on Nov. 10 beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Groundwater Treatment Plant, 2950 Redondo Ave. (corner Redondo & Spring), Long Beach, 90806.
Evans is a remarkable speaker, his talks tethered loosely to a PowerPoint presentation, from which he wanders into all manner of anecdotes and insights, which ultimately make the installation of California native plants at your home seem like the most natural thing in the world.
Of course, it is.
“Rather than a series of identical lush grass lawns that must be watered and mowed constantly,” Evans says, “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.”
This brings up a possible problem: One of those green grass lawns pretty much has your house surrounded, leaving no room—not to mention money—to install a garden of California natives.
Right on time, again, the Water Department has restocked its Lawn-to-Garden program with step-by-step instructions for removing your lawn and a $2.50-per-square-foot incentive (up to $2,500) for replacing it with drought-tolerant plants.
More than 500 homeowners in Long Beach have participated in the Lawn-to-Garden program. Several of them will attend “A Greater California In Your Front Yard,” including Jeanine Birong of GreaterLongBeach.com, who published an extensive diary on the transformation of her Long Beach home’s front yard from a flat, green lawn to a textured display of flowers and walking paths.
Admission is free, but please let us know if you plan to attend by writing to this e-mail address: RSVP@greaterlongbeach.com.
