So you’ve torn out your lawn and created a native plant garden to conserve water and restore habitat for struggling birds and insects. But summer is here, many of your beautiful plants are starting to shrivel and your neighbors are giving you the stink-eye.
That’s because invasive, nonnative weeds are tough, quick-growing and constantly competing for light, nutrients and water against slower-growing native plants, said Schwartz, who blogs under the name Eric Ameria at“This is actually a really good time of year to do remedial weeding, because the wildflowers have died back and you can actually see the weeds,” Schwartz said. “You can easily see the pernicious weeds now because they’re green when everything else is brown.
Most of the grounds were covered with refuse and thickets of common SoCal landscaping plants — jades, ivy, vinca and morning glory — and he’s been reshaping the garden ever since. Bruce Schwartz has immersed himself in a lush growth of California native plants at his Eagle Rock house. Tags identify the native plants in Bruce Schwartz’s garden, where the focus is on creating a natural habitat.