Dan Songster of the Orange County Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (OCCNPS) contributed this article for the March/April Native Gardener’s Corner-Member’s Tips, Tricks, and Techniques. Tips and Tricks offers chapter members and local experts a chance to share information on the many things related to gardening with native plants.

This month’s request was:  How much time (on average) do you estimate you spend maintaining your native garden and what chores always seem to take the most time and energy?

Susan Krzywicki-“I try to do a quarterly schedule of tasks, based on Tree of Life’s monthly (I don’t always manage the monthly part of things), and Helen Popper’s book about month-to-month care of the garden. With half an acre and 80 percent natives, I have steep slopes – more like cliffs. I have a lightweight ladder and I always hook myself to something and have not had any mishaps yet! The slope is covered with Tecate Cypress, Cleveland Sage, Saint Catherine’s Lace and much more. Really, the best I can manage is a quarterly sweep of my property and it equals to about 50 hours, if I am able to.” 

Ed Kimball-“I spend about an hour per week, and by far most of that time is weeding the grass out of our front yard native garden.” 

Amy Litton-“Our yard is on the wilder side, so it’s mostly weeding, and if I stay on top of it I’m good. There’s seasonal stuff – pruning & planting – then the investment is significant, about 8 hours a month for a few months. Keeping the Lemonadeberry and Prickly Pear off the driveway is ongoing kind of fun.”

Rama Nayeri-“My garden is 100 sq. ft. pad of concrete.  I can only garden in pots, so I don’t do much maintenance besides bi-annual trimming if needed. Lately, I have not even been watering due to mother nature doing it for me.”  

Jake Hoffman-“I like to spend 2-3 hours per week, mostly on weeding and touch up to keep plants in check. Twice yearly tasks such as pruning take about 8-10 hours per year and thinning out deer grass takes 15-20 minutes per plant– I have ten in my yard.  Mowing and raking out the sedge 3 times a year takes a couple of hours each time. Plus, there is the ‘lounging and nap time’ when the weather is nice.” 

Alan Lindsay-“In general, I spend a lot of time on cleanup. Most of it is weeding but at the same time I’m removing leaf drop and other storm debris. Once that is done, it becomes obvious that some trees and shrubs need pruning. Then it’s back to weeding.”

Robin Huber-“That’s easy, fall pruning and clean up takes the most time. I start in late December and am just putting the finishing touches now in late February. I don’t log hours– I do 2-3 hour sessions and only when the spirit moves me. I estimate 20 hours total. My garden is made up of 90 percent natives in the front and back yards.”

Greg Ruben-“Most of my maintenance time used to be spent on weeding, until I got the Argentine ants under control, after which I only spend about 8 hours a month for a fully landscaped 1/2 acre.”

(Note: For more info from Greg’s perspective regarding the relationship between Argentine ants and weed proliferation click here.)

Dan Songster-“It would be unfair/inaccurate to compare an average home garden with the large Golden West College Native Garden, where I do most of my native gardening with a fine group of volunteers. But I will say that weeding there takes the largest amount of time with our only respite being in the fall when the soil is dry and weeds have mostly taken a break. With the first rains of course, the weeds roar back despite our efforts. Second place in time and effort goes to various pruning efforts involving deadheading perennials, removal of dead branches, taking off unsafe weight from extended branches, or lifting, shaping, thinning and other aesthetic pruning.”

End note from Dan: Two things I would like to spend more time on include keeping my garden journal up to date and making a serious attempt at reducing the many Argentine ant colonies in the garden.  

Our question for the coming for the April newsletter: “If money were no object, what feature(s) would you include in your dream native garden?”

Email your responses to Dan Songster at songster@cox.net. Please attempt to keep replies brief so we can include most of the responses.