Right plant right place for Southern California landscapes

Low Water Use Plant for Erosion Control

We get a lot of requests for slope plantings and how to manage soil erosion in landscaped areas. Erosion can be mitigated with plantings of various types of material with differing rooting depths and structures. Ideally a mix of trees, shrubs and ground covers will grow in to stabilize soils on slopes. Renovations to replace aging plant material on slopes offers an opportunity to update the plant palette [...]

What Should We Plant in Our Landscape?

Wondering what plants to choose for your associations renovation? Register here for our seminar focusing on landscapes for HOA sites! Topics include plant choices for specific areas, risk management in the landscape, landscape specifications and maintenance contracts, and a landscape walkthrough on site with Tiffany Faulstich of Botanicon and Brad Brown of Tree Life Consulting. Fri. Nov. 15 11am-4pm at Stonecrest Village Recreation Center, 3110 W. Canyon Ave., [...]

What Size Container Stock Should I Plant in my Landscape?

Bigger Plants Are Not Always Better Because we are coming upon the best planting season of the year, fall, let's talk about container plant sizes. Plant material comes in a range of container sizes, 1, 5 or 15 gallon, 24", 36" 48" boxes and up, and some species come bare root in the winter. The natural human instinct of instant gratification leads many clients [...]

By |2020-02-14T20:32:52-08:00October 10th, 2019|Planning, Plant Selection, Trees|0 Comments

Fall is the Best Time for Landscape Planting

Establishing new landscape plantings is most successful if timed right Here in San Diego and Southern California, we are coming up on the best season for planting landscape trees, shrubs, perennials, turf and ground covers. On large homeowner association, estate and municipal sites, it is difficult to have a good new plant establishment rate without extra care like additional watering and monitoring. That extra care takes time away [...]

Want to Learn More About Plants?

I'll be teaching OH 170 Plant Materials: Trees and Shrubs again Fall Semester at Cuyamaca College. Class starts August 21. We will be having some of our class meetings at Balboa Park, the best place in San Diego to learn about woody plants! Please email me with any questions. We hope to see you there! OH-170-Promo-FlyerDownload

5 Takeaways From Our Garden Tour

A couple weeks ago Botanicon led a tour of the Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon, CA. Our focus was educating HOA Board members and Property Managers on low maintenance, water wise plant choices for their communities. And who doesn't like to get outside and look at beautiful plant specimens? Thank you to all who attended and sponsored our event. 5-Takeaways-from-HOA-Garden-TourDownload Weeping bottlebrush - Drought tolerant tree with [...]

What is Wrong With My Plant?

Diagnosing Landscape Plant Problems All landscapes have plant health issues which arise. A question I am often asked is what is going on and how do I fix it? Some landscape plant health concerns are easy to identify, an aphid infestation for example. Often times issues have more than one causal agent. Abiotic factors many times will lead to biotic issues. Right plant, right place is applicable here. [...]

Nice Plant Selection #2

A Great Small Tree Selection for Spring Blooms Tired of seeing the same trees being used over and over again? Tree species diversity is important to the urban forest, so let's mix up the planting palette. Chionanthus retusus, or Chinese fringe tree, is blooming here in San Diego, and what a show! I took these photos about a week ago when I hit the brakes at the [...]

By |2020-02-14T21:09:52-08:00May 14th, 2019|Plant Selection, Trees|0 Comments

Costs of Over-Planting

People love lush landscapes and instant gratification. Clients of landscaped sites want that full garden look from day one. Property owners, contractors and landscape architects achieve this by densely populating the ground with plant material, regardless of species size at maturity. It sells and leases properties, plain and simple. But what are the long term costs? And is this sustainable? When asked to review site planting plans or [...]

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