Volunteers help us install thousands of native plants every year. Pruning, or the removal of dead and unwanted parts of a plant, is a crucial part of maintaining their health. Grassroots Ecology staff recently sharpened their pruning skills at a workshop led by our Nursery Director Deanna Giuliano and Ecologist Siena Watson. Follow their tips below to learn how to prune in your own garden.

Our August native plant of the month is California fescue (Festuca californica), a great drought resistant native plant that provides habitat for local wildlife!

Learn about the wonders of California native grasses and how to grow California fescue:

Cheyenne is a recent Grassroots Ecology college intern who worked at our Redwood City and East Palo Alto habitat restoration sites. Read her top plants to remove from your yard, as well as her favorite California native plants to include.

Driving around the Santa Cruz Mountains lately, I have noticed a trend towards denuding the understory, thinning trees, limbing up remaining trees, and chipping everything that can fit through an industrial sized chipper. As a native plant and wildlife lover, it is hard to see such a change in the landscape. But, with a little information, there are some ways to create fire-smart landscapes that retain some of the natural understory, protect property from fire and invasive weeds, and provide for wildlife.