Why English gardens don’t work for SoCal

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Tuesday, Aug. 30. I’m Jeanette Marantos, a features writer for The Times’ Lifestyle section, and I write mostly about plants, landscapes and gardening.

Yesterday I waxed poetic about growing up in the Inland Empire — Riverside, to be exact — where my parents labored tirelessly to create an oasis of lush lawn and water-thirsty plants better suited to the moist climes of the tropics or merry olde England.

We get rain in Riverside in the winters — or we used to, anyway. I especially remember the week my mother died in February 2011 because we were gathered around her at home while the rain fell outside in torrents, a perfect mirror of our grief. It rained so long and hard that it created shallow ponds in their hard-packed backyard, where their repeated efforts to grow dichondra — a tender groundcover — ultimately failed.

Some people talk about Southern California as desert living, but I’ve learned that, actually, most SoCal residents live in one of the world’s five Mediterranean climates, marked by long, hot, dry summers and wet, cool winters, and I have come to love the diversity and tenacity of the plants that have evolved to grow in these conditions. They adapted to long periods of searing heat by pushing their roots deep into the soil to find water far below. Some even go brown and dormant during the hottest periods to wait for rain.

These are not the water-hungry tropical or English garden plants we have long tried to cultivate in Southern California landscapes. Many of these so-called drought-tolerant plants come from the Mediterranean Basin (think rosemary, thyme and lavender), Australia and South Africa (gorgeous examples are found at Taft Gardens near Ojai), and Chile (check out Ventura Botanic Garden’s Chilean and South African collections). These are wild and wonderful plants with shockingly bright colors and forms reminiscent of Dr. Seuss creations.

I am most fond, however, of the plants that grow natively in Southern California. Most are deliciously fragrant with just the slightest touch, and like the coastal live oaks and sycamores that dot our dry hillsides, these flowers, shrubs and trees can provide shade, colorful blooms and, most importantly, food and shelter for our threatened birds, butterflies and wildlife.

The California Native Plant Society makes no secret of its agenda to change our landscapes from lawns and non-native ornamentals to native trees and plants. They created the Calscape database to help people easily explore the many options for native plants that grow best in their region. The Times has articles about how to remove your lawn and examples of how some have done so successfully. Other helpful resources include the Theodore Payne Foundation, the Tree of Life Nursery, California Botanic Garden and Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.

Native plants grow huge and rangy in the wild, so they can look unkempt in yards where gardeners trim shrubs into perfect squares and blow away even the slightest leaf left on the ground. But there are hybrids now of native plants, such as the Pigeon Point Coyote Brush, a brighter, tamer version more suitable for yards. Can’t we learn to appreciate the sometimes raggedy beauty of meadows in our yards (with precautions against wildfire)? I’ve learned that leaving leaves on the ground makes a mulch with multiple benefits to our gardens: It provides shelter for insects and lizards who feed our threatened songbirds, helps retain moisture in the ground and protect roots from the scorching heat, and when those leaves break down, they provide valuable nutrients to the soil.

I fervently hope we get more rain this winter, after three years of drought, but our temperatures are only expected to climb as the Earth grows warmer and our hot, dry seasons continue to lengthen. That’s why we need to rethink the way we landscape in Southern California, adding more native grasses, shrubs, flowers and trees to our yards and making room for food too. Even fruit trees provide shade, and we’re going to need as much shade as we can muster in the coming years with the changing climate, which is also affecting the way we garden in SoCal. I’ll talk about that more tomorrow.

And now, here’s what’s happening across California:

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L.A. STORIES

Median rents increased nationally in July, but they dropped in L.A. and the Inland Empire. The decline shows a cooling market, some economists say, even though rents continued to increase in the San Diego, San Jose and Bay Area regions — the three most expensive metro areas in the country. Los Angeles Times

Expect some serious heat this week, starting Wednesday ... Meteorologists are predicting triple-digit heat throughout inland Southern California this week, and even cooler coastal areas could see temperatures above 90. Don’t leave home without sunscreen and water. We also have tips for keeping your pets cool and keeping plants alive in this scorching heat too. (Tip No. 1: Give your trees and other outdoor plants a long deep drink before Wednesday, if you can.) Los Angeles Times

... But stay away from these beaches because they could make you sick. L.A. County health officials have found high bacteria in the water off four of the county’s most popular beaches, so if you want to stay healthy, avoid swimming or other activities in those waters, at least for now, and find another place to cool off. Check out our list of 20 shady spots around L.A. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

The Fast Food Recovery Act is on track for approval by the governor. The California Senate approved a bill that aims to improve working conditions for fast-food workers by creating a state Fast Food Council to set standards for wages, working hours and conditions. The council would set aside seats for worker and business representatives. Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles city employees delayed their scheduled raises during COVID-19; now they’re getting paid back. City officials have struck deals to restore those wages to police officers, firefighters and other city employees that will total about $148 million, using money from the city’s $1.3-billion federal relief package. Now the final agreement on the list — $44.5 million in police officer bonuses and other benefits — is going to the City Council for approval. Los Angeles Times

CRIME, COURTS AND POLICING

Antisemitic banners at UC Davis prompt a campus police investigation. UC Davis police are investigating a suspected hate incident in which four white men in black clothing reportedly put up banners on campus Sunday with messages such as “The Holocaust is an anti-white lie.” “We are sickened that anyone would invest any time in such cowardly acts of hate and intimidation,” Chancellor Gary May said in a written statement. Los Angeles Times

HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

COVID-19’s latest victim? California’s once stellar life expectancy numbers. In 2021, “California ranked second for having the highest life expectancy rate in the country, behind Hawaii,” The Times’ Melissa Hernandez reports. But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest National Vital Statistics Report, the state’s mortality rate took a deep dive, with Californians “losing, on average, two years of their lives.” Nationally, the average life expectancy dropped from 78 to 77 years. Most of the blame goes to more than 1 million COVID deaths in the U.S. since 2019. Another contributing factor is an increase in “unintentional injuries,” mainly from drug overdoses. Los Angeles Times

Valley fever is on the rise in California’s Central Valley, thanks to global warming. The disease comes from Coccidioides, a fungus endemic to the soil in Southwestern regions of the United States, including Kern County, where cases have increased from about 1,000 in 2014 to more than 3,000 in 2021. The Guardian

Free COVID tests going, going .... gone by Sept. 2. Californians have just a few more days to get in on a nationwide program that allows residents to order up to three batches of free home tests for coronavirus, delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. I just checked it out, and it literally took 30 seconds to fill out the form. The holidays are coming, which traditionally has meant a surge in COVID cases, so here’s a golden opportunity to stock up. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

These days, San Francisco’s foggy, chilly summers are looking mighty good. Even Seattle joined the nation’s heat wave this summer, with temperatures pushing 95 in late July. But thanks to a “complex interaction between the atmosphere and ocean,” San Franciscans can spend the summer in puffy jackets and boots while the rest of us are sweating it out in shorts and flip-flops. And in an increasingly toasty world, this kind of weather might be just the ticket for overheated tourists. “A lot of people escape to the heat,” said college student Anderes Westlund. “We’re escaping to the cool.” New York Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: sunny, 88. San Diego: partly cloudy, 80. San Francisco: mostly sunny, 68. San Jose: partly cloudy, 81. Fresno: sunny, 104. Sacramento: sunny, 97.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory is from Janet Gordon:

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.