What’s all this, then?
This front yard is a native plant ecosystem. Almost all of the plants you see here have evolved in Southern California's climate of wet winters and dry summers.
Native plants support many more species of insects, birds, and animals than non-natives do. Compared to a typical lawn or ornamental landscape, native plants create an exponentially richer ecosystem of biodiversity and life.
These native plants use less water than a lawn does. They have deeper roots, which helps with water absorption, carbon sequestration, and creating healthy, living soil teeming with diverse insects, microbes, and fungi.
Most of the rain that falls on the house is channeled into a rain garden, allowing that water to be absorbed into the ground rather than running off into the ocean. This helps support a complex web of life belowground, and it also helps replenish the local aquifer.
To find out how you can help our planet regenerate the biodiversity we need to survive, visit homegrownnationalpark.org.
The oaks
This native ecosystem is supported by two oak trees. Oaks are a keystone species, supporting more species of insects—and the birds and animals that coexist with them—than any other species of tree.
Ours are Engelmann oaks (Quercus engelmannii), also known as Pasadena oaks, whose historical range stretches from the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles, south to Baja California. Suburban sprawl has eliminated most of these oaks from the LA area (most of the remaining trees are further south in San Diego County). With our climate shifting rapidly to higher temperatures, the range for Engelmann oaks may drift northward, hopefully allowing our oaks to survive and thrive here in the coming decades.