JOIN / RENEWGIVE

HEAT  AND  DROUGHT  IN  TRABUCO  CANYON
LESSONS LEARNED FROM VERA'S GARDEN with ELIZABETH WALLACE

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 12
6:45pm Doors Open, 7:30pm Presentation Begins
Norman P. Murray Community Center – 24932 Veterans Way, Mission Viejo

Join us for an update on the progress in the native landscape that Elizabeth Wallace and her 'Oak Tree Gang' of volunteers have been creating at Vera’s Gardens, a 12-acre landscape rehabilitation project in the foothills near Cleveland National Forest. 

PRESENTATION 

Much has happened in the last year since Wallace provided our Chapter with an overview of the progress at the Trabuco Canyon gardens. The fierce sun and drought conditions (along with hungry deer and gophers) are causing adjustments in the plant palette – reducing the number of non-local natives and even changing the planting methods.

Wallace will show before and after pictures of the changing landscape at Vera's, including the successes and failures along the way. She will share the newest native plant palette and discuss how the landscape design has been evolving toward evergreen, local native plants for the front garden areas. Vera's new native landscape is not only healthier for all but is more likely to withstand the increasing temperatures and reduced rainfall at the high ridge top site. 

VERA'S SANCTUARY 

This 12-acre site is owned by a non-profit, The Teen Project, that shelters women who were subject to human trafficking and homelessness. The site was first viewed by Elizabeth Wallace and her team in December 2018, when the Teen Project folks were busy getting the homes repaired and ready for residents to move in. They were considering using artificial turf to solve some of their landscape problems. Wallace stepped in with a couple of partners to offer an alternative: Plant a natural landscape using local native plants instead. The natural landscape would be healing for the land and for the future residents. Since starting the project almost four years ago, Wallace and her volunteer gardening team have rehabilitated much of the landscape of the five-home cul-de-sac in Trabuco Canyon. Join us to see the amazing progress on this worthwhile project on the edge of Orange County wildlands.

ELIZABETH  WALLACE

Besides leading her volunteer crew (The Oak Tree Gang) in transforming Vera's Gardens, she has been gardening with native plants for more than 30 years. She is a board member for OC-CNPS. Wallace works with homeowners associations to help them install native plants in their common areas and is the author of the blog BuckwheatBringsButterflies.com. In 2019, Wallace led A Buckwheat in Every Garden where the chapter gave away more than 1,500 'Dana Point' buckwheats to residents. She is currently leading a similar campaign, A Sage in Every Garden, to provide 2,000 four-inch white sage plants free to Orange County homeowners.

A SAGE IN EVERY GARDEN CAMPAIGN

We are partnering with event holders to add 2,000 native White Sage plants to Orange County Gardens. One FREE plant/household. Goals: increase nature-beneficial gardening, conserve water use in cities, and protect white sage in public wildlands.  CLICK THE TITLE OR PICTURE FOR MORE INFORMATION. 

With Local Nature

In Your Garden
In Nature
  • Go for a walk
  • Share photos of the native plants you see to iNaturalist or Calflora
  • Learn to identify new native plants along a trail
  • Hunt for high priority invasive plants, in secluded areas, and report them
With CNPS and our Orange County Chapter