u/beetketchup

I’m wondering if anyone here is making design decisions or plant selections now with the expectation that the next few decades or so will be much hotter? My motivations for planting natives started with me wanting to reduce our water bill and create a pretty garden. In the past couple of years of learning about native plants, my motivations have evolved to include creating habitat for other animals and, with the increasing frequency of heatwaves in inland SoCal, CREATE MORE SHADE. Trees have become my priority. I used to be wary of trees (“they’re messy, they’re dangerous-they get too big, they bring pests”) but I’ve lost that cultural indoctrination and trees have quickly become my insurance against a future in which my local climate is much hotter and energy is much less abundant. Natural ACs. Anyways anyone else thinking of stuff like this?? Also shout out to coast live oak for being the best tree ever

Picture is of historical Google street imagery of a relatively young coast live oak near me.

hi everyone, this is my rough draft for my turf replacement rebate application for my front yard. i’m hoping to get approved and get to work asap with the intention of planting in sep/oct. i over planted in the plan because my hoa has rules about achieving coverage within a 1 year timeframe. some things such as the trees show a less than mature size for the same reason but the full mature size is accounted for.

is there anything you would move or change? swap out? i’m kind of unsure about the tree choices. i’m also thinking of replacing 10. abutilon palmeri with another manzanita so the bridge view from street is unobstructed.

i just wish i had more space because there’s so many plants i want that i’m leaving out 😭 (verbena de la mina, apricot mallow, ceanothus yankee point, etc)