How much time does it take?

One of my biggest goals at Wild Suburbia is to hone my lazy-gardening skills. I know that my family laughs when I talk about how little time I spend in the garden. Yes, it is true that sometimes a quick fifteen minutes in the garden is two hours by the clock. After all, I am a gardener; gardening is a passion, not a chore. Nevertheless, I recognize that you may not share my passion for outdoor, physical labor. With the help of a detailed garden journal, I hope that I can provide an accurate assessment of the amount of time needed to maintain a mature, native plant habitat garden like Wild Suburbia.

So neat that I hardly recognize it as mine. K is a good influence.

Unlike traditional landscape gardening I do not mow and blow each and every week of the year. To be honest, we did engage a service to do this task when most of the yard was covered with lawn. As the years passed, the amount of lawn requiring constant maintenance shrunk. Finally, only a small patch of lawn remained on the east side of the front yard. One day, my gardener came to me and asked if we still wanted his services. Usually two to three workers spent about 30 minutes each week mowing, blowing and edging the lawn. In addition to the 4-person hours of labor per month, there was the noise, air pollution and use of fuel that goes with this kind of work.

Spring 2012. Half of the front lawn (on left) was removed, actually covered over, following the Dec. 1, 2011 windstorm. Debris from downed limbs was chipped and spread . The front parkway was de-lawned (part 1, 2, 3) in the fall of 2011.

The mow-and-blow service has since been replaced with a gardener, K, who specializes in native plants. I hired K to help with the ongoing garden maintenance because, as most of you know, we are spending six-months in India this year. My son and daughter-in-law are living in the house during our absence. The likelihood that they would be spending much (any) time working in the garden led me to the decision to hire K.

K started working last February. At that time I began a detailed garden journal, both for K and me. I have never been good at these garden journals. Gardening is play to me. I usually do not plan what I am going to do. If I have some time, I just wander out and before I know it, 15 minutes – or two hours – have passed.
The following list of gardening activities include only those that would be considered general, ongoing garden care. I have not included things like new plantings, removal of large shrubs, or clean-up from major storms. The list begins with tasks that must be done all year. Next the year is divided into gardening seasons.

Gardening Seasons

Here in Southern California, the gardening season begins with the rains in late fall to winter. I know that Lowe’s and The Home Depot would prefer you to believe that our gardening season, like the rest of the country, begins in spring, but it just isn’t so. The wet winter season is followed by a tapering off of rain, as temperatures increase. An abundance of flowering shrubs and wildflowers make California springtime outrageously colorful. The year gets progressively hotter  and drier, occasionally with a slight respite in June, affectionately called “June Gloom.” Sometimes June Gloom occurs in July, and sometimes it does not happen at all. This is a weather pattern of heavy fog and clouds. Although it rarely rains, days are less hot and dry. Once June Gloom passes we are in for months and months of hot and dry weather. It can be foggy and overcast, and sometimes it is not all that hot, but it is unlikely (see July 2012 post) that we will see any significant rain for a period of six to eight months. Finally, the rains return in late fall to winter. Some years the rain starts as early as November, while in other years it may not come at all, save a few light sprinkles. Rainfall is very variable over the years, ranging from a soaking 35 inches down to just a few.

Gardening Fun

The following table covers the major garden tasks in Wild Suburbia. I have not yet calculated the actual amount of time spent on these tasks, though it is on my to-do list. This, though, can give you some idea of the kind of work a mature, native garden requires.

As you can see, much of the work is irrigating the garden properly. If there were no mature, non-native trees, this would not be so important. However, the avocados and deodar require year around irrigation. The vegetable garden and potted plants also require careful irrigation. Ridding the garden of both of these would greatly reduce the work load, but I love the containers, and garden tomatoes – well of course they are worth it! The parkway wildflowers are another source of garden fun. Sowing the seeds in the fall and winter is no problem. This, though, must be followed up with careful weeding, removal of the plants once they have finished their life cycle (died, that is), and seed collection, if desired. It is actually a fair amount of work.

I know that as my garden has matured (and I have grown older), the amount of attention and work required have decreased. Not a bad thing at all.

(Click here for Wild Suburbia Garden Calendar)

Season/Task

Frequency

All Year

	sweep paths and sidewalk	at least wkly
	mow and edge front lawn	every 3 wks
	weed new garden beds, be especially vigilant to get bermuda grass	apx. 1-2x/mo

Cool, Wet Season (Nov – Feb)

	Irrigation: depends on seasonal rain amounts
	parkway gardens, oak tree, woodland garden front yard, on irrigation system backyard avocado, lawn, citrus trees backyard veg garden, on auto drip pots	usually none; suppl if no rain as needed; apx. 1-2x/mo as needed;  apx. 1x/mo  as needed; apx. 2x/wk as needed
	Weed control: prostrate spurge and other winter weeds	1-2x/mo
	Sow wildflower seeds	2-3x/season
	Prune sage and monkey flowers before new growth begins (late fall)	1x/season
	Prune hard wild grape after it has gone dormant	1x/season

Spring (Mar – May)

	Irrigation:
	parkways, oak tree, woodland garden front yard, on irrigation system backyard avocado, lawn, citrus trees backyard veg garden, on auto drip pots	none; water wildflowers to extend bloom  apx. 2x/mo apx. 1x/mo apx. 2-3x/wk as needed
	Weed control: garden spurge, oxalis, warm season weeds, new beds	weekly
	Wildflowers: weed around them, thin, clear, collect seeds	2-4x/mo
	Groom large bunchgrass (deergrass, alkali sacaton) by raking dried blades with landscape rake	1x/yr
	Prune inflorescences from Ray Hartman ceanothus following bloom	1x/yr

Hot, Dry Season (June – Oct)

	Irrigation:
	parkways, oak tree, woodland garden front yard, on irrigation system backyard avocado, lawn, citrus trees backyard veg garden, on auto drip pots	none for oak; 1x/mo for wdld; 2-3x/season  apx. 2x/mo apx. 1-2x/mo daily as needed
	Prune coast live oak, late July to early Sept. Only remove branches for safety, those that are damaged or crossed or with narrow crotches, and those needed to develop good structure. (Hire a reputable arborist for mature trees.)	as needed
	Prune wild grape to control growth. Remove from nearby plants and structures as needed.	as needed, 2x/mo.