Our instructor for this workshop will be Scott Kleinrock, Conservation Programs Manager here at Chino Basin Water Conservation District and the Waterwise Community Center.
Scott has been working in horticulture for almost 20 years, focused on both the design and ongoing care of sustainable native or edible landscapes in Southern California at the residential and public garden scales. He has a master’s degree in landscape architecture for Cal Poly Pomona and was previously the Landscape Design and Planning Coordinator at the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens.
Wondering what to plant? We will explore our top recommended plants for gardens and landscapes in southern California. These plants have it all! Beauty, color, habitat for birds or pollinators, and only need to be watered once or twice a month, even in the Summer!
These plants we will focus on will generally thrive in both inland and coastal SoCal landscapes. Some of them will grow well in the desert. Many will not tolerate the hard frosts of our local mountain elevations.
This class will be structured on providing great plant options for the different parts of a landscape people often need to fill. We will provide lists, detailed discussion, and tips about favorite plants for:
-Providing shade
-Full blasting sun, including super-hot areas, like along driveways and against walls
-Along walkways or paths
-Parking strips or parkways
-North sides of buildings that are shady most of the year, but then are in full sun mid-summer
-Shade, including under existing large trees
-“Transition zones” between lawns and low-water planted areas
-In and near dry stream beds and other water infiltration features
-Under and around fruit trees
-And more!
This class will focus on the plants themselves, and not design. If you can, we highly encourage you to also participate in one or more of our design-focused classes to best be able to plan how to use your new favorite plants together for a beautiful waterwise garden.
