Save water
- Place plants with similar water needs together, and use drip irrigation
- Reduce lawn area
- Choose California native plants — there’s lots of help on the California Native Plant Society and UC California Garden Web web sites
![Nemophila_menziesii, Nemophila_menziesii, By Cliff hutson (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.sancarlosgardenclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Nemophila_menziesii_1.jpg)
Avoid chemical “solutions” that may harm beneficial insects or you!
- Get help on ways to handle garden pests and diseases from the UC Integrated Pest Management website
Plant wisely
- Some plants available in the local nursery can invade our wild areas and crowd out native species: acacia trees, iceplant, pampas grass, cotoneaster, broom, foxglove, eucalyptus, vinca, calla lily, and more
- Cal-IPC’s Bay Area “Don’t plant a pest!” list gives alternatives for some of the worst invaders
Help our oaks thrive for the next generation
- Never plant a lawn under an oak
- The California Oak Foundation has a section on how to care for your oaks, including what you can use to landscape around oaks, and other information to keep oaks healthy
