Landscaping with native plants - San Diego

[nobertos]

Hi, I'd like to 'redo' my entire back yard's landscaping - a daunting task. I am interested in getting some tips on how to create a landscape 'design' and then carry it out to completion, mostly on my own on the weekends for cheap (I hope) and hopefully using native plants and a somewhat 'natural' look to the yard. I live in San Diego and my back yard was mostly just entirely overgrown with iceplant and this one nasty tree that had shoots coming up out of its entire root system which covered most of the center of the back yard. I have the tree entirely cut down and removed, except for the stump, which I'm still working on. I tore up all the ice plant and put it in a big pile... now i have to figure out what to do next! Hints?

The 50 foot wide by 60 feet deep yard has a mild slope that increases as you go further away from the house. I'm thinking of making several terraced levels so that there will at least be some flat space for kids to play in.

-c

[Mark and Kim Smith]

Wow! Sounds like something I did. Here are the pics. Maybe they'll inspire you.

Almost done!!

[Charles Spitzer]

contact the local state or county ag extension. they'll tell you what kind of plants are good for your area and that are low water usage. if you're looking for design help, you can either read and come up with your own plan, or hire someone to draw up a plan for you. they can either do none, part, or all of the work, depending upon what you're capable of.

no one here can see what you have, nor what you want.

[Sue]

you might want to check out these guys

good luck getting rid of the ice plant. You'll be double trashing for weeks, unless you bite the bullet and haul it all to the dump. let us know how it turns out. I too have a verdant field of ice plant that I'm itching to tackle.

[nobertos]

here are some pictures of the yard.

i believe the area i am in calls for 'coastal sage scrub' plants. i am inland a bit and it gets pretty hot in the summer.

the ice plant wasn't that hard to get up, actually. i just got angry at it and it all came up, hahhaha. i'm worried it'll come back, though, and i wonder if it has done anything to the soil composition, since it was really thick.

-c