How to create a patio habitat in pots with native plants

Barbara Chung could have the tiniest habitat backyard in Los Angeles — some 200 principally native crops in pots on her 7-by-20-foot townhouse terrace — and she or he’s pleased to erase any doubts about whether or not patio habitats can actually help wildlife.

Proper now, although, all she needs to speak about is the hummingbird household nesting outdoors her lounge window. She’s arrange a ladder to raised watch their nest, and when she’s not perched there, she’s working to the again of her house to observe the mama hummingbird go to her habitat backyard for nectar to feed her two chicks.

Sea cliff buckwheat grows effectively in coastal Santa Monica.

(Christina Home / Los Angeles Occasions)

The mama visits a number of flowers, however her favorites are the thick magenta blooms of hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea) and the violet, deep-throated flowers of aromatic pitcher sage (Lepechinia fragrans).

These are Chung’s favorites, too, they usually develop significantly effectively among the many crops organized in neat rows on her south-facing patio. Each inch of the perimeter is roofed with plastic and ceramic pots brimming with buckwheat and verbena, dudleya, penstemon and black sage. There’s even a small manzanita with its dainty fairy bell flowers and a fats bush poppy erupting with lemon-yellow blooms. And there are extra crops on a ledge above.

It’s just like the entirety of her roughly 140-square-foot patio is a well mannered however defiant reminder that typically the “consultants” — like those who instructed her she wanted land to develop native crops — are improper.

Barbara Chung’s patio is lined with stacked rows of crops in pots.

(Christina Home / Los Angeles Occasions)

Barbara Chung grows peppers (at proper) along with dozens of various native crops.

(Christina Home / Los Angeles Occasions)

“I made a decision that couldn’t be proper,” she mentioned. “And I might discover a technique to have native crops thrive in containers.”

Chung works as a enterprise technique advisor, however she describes herself as a poet, author and naturalist on the bio for her two printed volumes of poetry, “Heart” and “Sunlight,” and lists her California naturalist certification on the identical line as her Renaissance literature diploma from Harvard and MBA from UCLA. One among her remaining tasks for her naturalist certification was writing brief poems about crops native to Southern California, which she included in a digital e book — “The Princess Troll’s Guide to Plants of Southern California” — a few princess who discovers her shocking affinity with the pure world after strolling barefoot within the woods.

Chung grew to become enamored with native crops in 2019, when she volunteered to assist with a TreePeople habitat restoration undertaking in Topanga. She was popping out of a interval of intense grief after shedding her beloved golden retriever, Ella, to most cancers in 2018. Volunteering was an enormous a part of her life with Ella; they used to make common visits to native hospitals to provide consolation to terminal sufferers. After Ella died, Chung couldn’t face going again into hospitals. She discovered one other technique to volunteer by serving to organizations restore habitat.

Lilac verbena, left, and a nesting hummingbird that continuously visits Barbara Chung’s patio habitat.

(Christina Home / Los Angeles Occasions)

She didn’t know a lot about crops, however the work sounded attention-grabbing and helpful, she mentioned. Then, the evening earlier than the undertaking was to start, she discovered herself transfixed by an article in The Occasions about efforts to resurrect the language of the Tongva, one in all Southern California’s native peoples.

“It was a good looking piece of labor, and I used to be so astonished I hadn’t identified about any of this earlier than. I’ve lived in Boston, traveled to Europe, however for the primary time I spotted how a lot historical past there may be right here, in Los Angeles; a really historical historical past that was almost worn out,” Chung mentioned.

“The subsequent day, I used to be telling all people about this text. One of many TreePeople employees heard me and identified one of many crops we had been working close to — big wild rye. He mentioned the Tongva individuals used the plant in a wide range of methods. The leaves are very sharp, so that they used them to chop issues. It took all that historical past that was so new to me and introduced it proper into the current with a residing plant. … I actually fell in love with native crops in that prompt.”

Chung started working with different restoration teams, such because the Santa Monica Mountains Fund, and the extra she realized about native crops, the extra she wished to attempt rising her personal. “Folks would speak about their native plant gardens, and I’d say, ‘I’ve no land, I simply have a patio,’ and they might say, ‘Properly, native crops actually belong within the floor.’ I believe they had been fascinated with oak timber and walnuts, with their deep taproots that want a number of area. I assumed, ‘I perceive what you’re saying; you solely need what’s finest for the crops,’” she mentioned.

Quite a lot of native crops make up Barbara Chung’s terrace habitat.

(Christina Home / Los Angeles Occasions)

Barbara Chung poses between two of her favourite crops, a Catalina cherry tree at left and aromatic pitcher sage at proper.

(Christina Home / Los Angeles Occasions)

“However the underlying assumption was you must have floor with a view to have native crops, and in a spot like L.A., to have floor you must have privilege. I’m not begrudging individuals with privilege, however most individuals don’t dwell like that in L.A. or most different city facilities. It simply felt morally improper to me that you must have land to have these crops. So I assumed, ‘I’m going to determine this out.’”

She started to experiment in 2020, and, as you might have already guessed, Chung by no means does something midway. She stored volunteering at locations the place she might find out about native crops, particularly after she discovered she might get three native plants for free if she spent not less than two hours volunteering on the Santa Monica Mountains Fund Native Plant Nursery on Fridays or Saturdays.

Ever the coed, she additionally enrolled within the UC California Naturalist Program to be taught extra about California’s pure world “and the way all the weather hyperlink collectively — crops, geology, animal life,” she mentioned. “The second aim is you might have to have the ability to train others about it.” The certification “lends me some extra credibility, I hope. I notice I’m an newbie, however I’m a severe newbie.”

As for sharing her information, she’s been giving talks discussing her successes and failures in rising native crops in containers, at all times reminding folks that they’ll help nature with no yard.

“I’ve lived on this townhouse for 15 years, only a block from Wilshire, and I by no means noticed a monarch (butterfly) till I began placing in native crops in 2021,” she mentioned. “It’s simply been so neat seeing all of the pollinators and birds — dark-eyed junkos, home finches and a pair of mourning doves who nested on the roof and pecked seeds from the flowers. They got here to eat at actual particular occasions and flew over my head if I walked outdoors round 5 p.m. I’d by no means been bullied by a dove, however I beloved that they felt entitled to my area.”

A terracotta pot of thrift seapink, left, and the trailing magenta blooms of hummingbird sage, proper.

(Christina Home / Los Angeles Occasions)

Listed here are Chung’s ideas for beginning your personal container habitat backyard of native crops:

1. “Select crops which might be straightforward and forgiving,” — like frequent yarrow — that develop simply nearly in every single place, or choose crops tailored to your particular local weather. Chung mentioned she realized shortly that desert crops had been sad with the moisture in Santa Monica. “I found that something with ‘sea’ in its title did effectively right here, like sea cliff buckwheat (Eriogonum parvifolium), seaside daisy, thrift seapink and seaside heliotrope.” Her makes an attempt to develop small manzanitas failed with three completely different varieties till she realized about Large Sur manzanita (Arctostaphylos edmundsii ‘Large Sur’), a brief shrub found rising alongside the coast. Now it’s blooming fortunately in a pot outdoors her kitchen window.

2. “Select crops that imply one thing to you personally.” Sentiment is just not normally advisable in landscaping, nevertheless it’s been one in all Chung’s guiding ideas. One among her first crops was an island bush poppy, as a result of its vivid yellow flowers had been featured on the duvet of her poetry e book “Daylight.” She’s created an aromatherapy part of her backyard as a result of the extreme perfume of so many native crops makes her really feel good. And he or she’s holding a watchful eye on a wholesome 4-foot tree that sprouted in a big pot the place she had casually thrown a Catalina cherry pit. The tree (Prunus ilicifolia ssp. lyonii) can develop over 30 ft tall within the wild, however Chung mentioned she will’t bear to tear it out. “I’m hoping it’s going to bonsai itself.”

3. “Select a excessive share of evergreen crops that bloom at completely different occasions of the yr.” Many native crops go dormant in the summertime, which isn’t a very good search for a terrace, or useful to pollinators, she mentioned. And bloom occasions are particularly vital in small areas, so that you might be positive one thing is at all times offering meals for the pollinators and pleasure for the people.

4. “Use good high quality potting soil.” Native crops want native, nonenriched soils within the wild and might ship their roots deep into the bottom for water, however Chung found that containers dry out shortly and her crops did higher when she used potting soils that retained moisture. Be certain that the soil is damp whenever you plant, she mentioned, reasonably than placing the plant in dry soil and watering afterwards. And use mulch or rocks on high of the soil to assist protect moisture.

A hummingbird feeds her younger in a nest outdoors Barbara Chung’s lounge window.

(Barbara Chung)

5. “Amend the soil a few occasions a yr.” Native crops hardly ever want feeding once they’re planted within the floor, however in containers, any vitamins within the soil are being leached out with each watering. Chung mentioned her crops do higher when she provides espresso grounds, cinnamon and worm castings to the soil each six months or so.

6. Water deeply however occasionally — Chung says roughly each 10 to 14 days for her backyard — and by no means throughout a warmth wave. Many crops shut down throughout excessive warmth, akin to a number of days over 100 levels, and aren’t in a position to soak up any water, so leaving them in a pot of heat moist soil might result in root rot. Control the forecast, water your crops deeply earlier than a warmth wave after which depart them alone till the temperatures drop.

7. Volunteer with native plant organizations to be taught extra. “There’s no substitute for studying from actual native plant consultants and getting your arms within the soil,” Chung mentioned. “I’ve realized a ton from volunteering on the Santa Monica Mountains Fund Native Plant Nursery.”

8. A remaining observe about habitats: Nature can carry pleasure and heartbreak to your backyard. A few weeks after the hummingbird chicks hatched, Chung got here house to find the nest was empty. It was too early for the chicks to have flown away, she mentioned, and she or he suspects the crows lingering close to the nest devoured the infants whereas the mom was away. The loss was devastating, and Chung mentioned she’s needed to assume arduous in regards to the knowledge of making a patio habitat. “I’m nonetheless processing the teachings from this expertise,” she wrote in a textual content. “It was such a blow. However on the similar time, there was such radiant pleasure within the second. I wouldn’t commerce that for something.”

Daylight catches the fragile tendrils of frequent yarrow leaves on Barbara Chung’s patio.

(Christina Home / Los Angeles Occasions)