Why Use California Natives?

The benefits of using California native plants in landscaping are economic, aesthetic, and ethical. First, planting California natives will lower your water bill, eliminate the need for fertilizing, and reduce the time and energy spent maintaining the landscape (less mowing, hedging, and trimming). Second, California native plants will enliven the landscape, whether through colorful blooms, aromatic foliage, or the hummingbirds, butterflies, and other wildlife this vegetation attracts. Finally, too much of our world is becoming homogenized, and the landscaping in one part of the country (or the world) is largely the same as in another. Let's keep California's unique identity by using our state's natural abundance.

This site will have its primary focus on plants that will grow in Bakersfield and surrounding environs.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Bakersfield Before Bakersfield

What was the original native vegetation of Bakersfield?  Unfortunately, due to invasive species like the tumbleweed and cheatgrass, truly native landscapes are rare in the Bakersfield area.  Originally, the native vegetation would be a California Shadscale or alkali sink plant community.  In other words, as CSUB Biology professor David Germano argues in his paper "The San Joaquin Desert of California: Ecologically Misunderstood and Overlooked," Bakersfield was originally part of The San Joaquin Desert.

If you're looking for remnants of this landscape, you can see it in the lonely sentinels of Honey Mesquite, and patches of Saltbush and Quailbush.
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