After oak falls on her house, Auburn teacher turns once-shady space into pollinator paradise
Christina Bickley of Auburn was one of six "Summer Strong Yard" winners in the Regional Water Authority contest this year. Courtesy BeWaterSmart.info
The transformation of Christina Bickley’s Auburn frontyard started with a boom – literally.
“We ripped out our lawn after our oak tree fell on our house,” she says. “So much sunshine, so we decided to go native to reduce water use and support native pollinators.”
Bickley teaches 7th- and 8th-grade science and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics); she’s familiar with botany. She knew her oak tree was in decline, but its sudden collapse was a shock.
“It was a beautiful tree,” she recalls. “It was near the middle of the lawn. All that lawn – and all that watering – made it susceptible. It was a very vigorous lawn, and the tree got unhealthier and unhealthier.”
A wind storm in 2019 was enough to push it over.
“When it fell, it clipped the front part of the house; the garage and the cars took most of the impact,” Bickley says. “We discovered the oak was infested with ants that had hollowed it out. Without the tree, it made it quite sunny. It was a drastic change."
And an opportunity; it was time for a makeover.
“That definitely got us started,” she says. “It was during the drought; we didn’t want to water anything that wasn’t food.”
For her efforts and her garden’s transformation, Bickley was named a “Summer Strong Yard” winner by the Regional Water Authority. Her garden was featured in an ongoing campaign to inspire other residents to tackle their own water-wise makeovers.
While rethinking her yard, Bickley also became interested in pollinator-friendly native plants and helping wildlife. “My longtime goal is to support bees.”
After the demise of the tree, she suddenly had plenty of sun – a must for tomatoes and most native plants. “Losing the tree tipped the scale,” she says.
Bickley sheet-mulched the lawn with cardboard and wood chips -- a slow process that allows the turf to decompose in place. She installed drip irrigation and did lots of research on native plants.
“We did it all ourselves; it took a year,” she says. “The biggest investment was an earth mover and a big dumpster.”
As for going native, Bickley recommends Calscape.org (an online resource from the California Native Plant Society) and the “Gardens Gone Native” garden tour, hosted by the Sacramento Valley chapter of CNPS. “That tour was a real eye opener; all the different colors and combinations.”
Her new favorites? “I’m just in love with Matilija poppies, the fried egg plant. I also love coyote mint, elegant clarkia, California buckwheat, woolly sunflowers, a ton of sage. The self-seeded poppies are fabulous. I plan to have something blooming year round.”
Bickley is now tackling the rest of her landscape. She’s looking into rebates from her water provider, Placer County Water Agency. “It’s nice to have incentives out there.”
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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