Advanced California Native Plant Garden Maintenance

Join us for a completely outdoors class covering intermediate and advanced methods for planting, maintaining and making native plant gardens shine! Perfect for intermediate gardeners, those maintaining low-water gardens, or anyone who wants to take their California native plant gardening skills to next level! Specific topics to be covered include:

- Irrigation practices for established native plant gardens

- How and when to use fertilizers on various native plants

- Pests and other problems encountered in older native plant gardens

- Maintenance techniques to use in the rainy season, the green season, and the dry season

- Combining native plants with non-native edibles, other low-water plants, and high-water plants

- Examining why plants fail, and other troubleshooting methods in the native garden

Completely outdoors at the King Gillette Ranch Visitors Center, the class begins with a lecture covering the above native plant maintenance techniques and ideas. The class then jumps into the garden at the visitors center to demonstrate some of these techniques. Attendees are encouraged to wear comfortable clothing and closed shoe toes to help with installation, weeding, watering and other tasks. Folks should be prepared to sit and stand in a mix of sun and shade for the duration of the class.

The class will be led by Antonio Sanchez, nursery manager and restoration volunteer coordinator for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Antonio has over 15 years experience growing and killing native plants in nurseries and landscapes, and led the nursery at California Botanic Garden in Claremont and was co-owner of Nopalito Native Plant Nursery in Ventura. In his spare time he enjoys listening to the native plant band Sage Against the Machine on Instagram.

Host or Publisher Santa Monica Mountains Fund