thank you so much for such an honor to be here to present about this today this is one of my favorite topics actually because when we were new and starting out it was really hard to suss out what would do well in our Oak Woodland garden and um having access to the material on your site Kathy Kramer um and bringing back the natives just was such a great resource for us to help figure these things out and especially your YouTube channel so I will jump right into this but I wanted to say first I'm going to talk fast cover a lot of information and there's a link and a QR code at the end of this that leads directly to not only this slide deck but also to the keystone species signs that Kathy and I worked on with Stephanie Prego this last year and um so it will all be available to you so I skip over something you can listen to it again or access that link um and I want to say too I'm going to do a little bit of repeat from my sun talk in a few places just for people who are tuning in only to this topic so um for those of you who saw Doug talamy's talk yesterday or before you know that he speaks of the importance of growing native plants so that life can thrive in our Gardens and um it really was an eye-opener for us to realize that the non-native plants that we were growing were really detrimental to the ecosystem if you miss Doug's talk this is it in a nutshell you know bird populations are declining the birds and insects are both declining and they need our help and um the imported plants create dead zones for nature and because the insects need to eat the native plants that they co-evolved on in order to reproduce and the birds need the insects especially the caterpillars to feed their young so you really make a difference when you plant Natives and especially the keystone species I'm going to talk about today that really are the ones that really boost ecosystems and create more habitat and um let's visualize how this looks for a moment so just a comparison here the green bars on the left are the California native plants that that grow in our area The Oaks and Native cherry and current many of the plants you've heard about today if you've been listening to other talks and these are just so many species of butterflies and mods can lay their eggs on these plants the caterpillars hatch and eat the leaves and um the the provide food for baby birds and so it's just a fabulous cycle in contrast the red bars on the right are the imported plants the caterpillars did not co-evolve with here in their native countries the caterpillars can eat them but here you have the acacia agapanthus eucalyptus ice plant Ivy the list goes on and these are creating a huge food deficit if you walk through our neighborhoods there's just not enough food to feed the ecosystems and I know about this personally because I used to be the person growing those useless native not native plants so here's um our garden back in 2021 we were so inspired by Doug talamy's talk actually we heard a cnps talk in 2020 November and then we also heard one here on bringing back the natives that was more oriented toward California and that just got us fired up and so we started by tearing out the lawn it's the largest crop in America it has we have 40 million Acres of lawn in the United States and it feeds nothing um then we took out our imported shrubs um our box hedge our Pierce hyponicus we even took out a few Japanese maples and um we also ripped out Heavenly Bamboo which by the way is poisonous to Cedar Wax Wings they gorge on the seeds and they are deadly um so if you want to take out your heavenly bamboo and plant Toyon perhaps instead those are beautiful red berries that are healthy for the birds um I also wanted to say we both work full-time and so you know we might run out of hours in the day here's my husband and in the middle of the screen ripping out a hedge on the weekend in that rainy January we had the rains provide a great opportunity to do that kind of thing because the ground is soft there I am at night after work planting some beautiful rabies in that space instead and we'll get to that plant in a moment but anyway and and because we lived um we have a giant oak tree we started planting uh plants per shade so um one of the ones we started with was coffee Berry it's such a beautiful evergreen shrub and it grows it can grow 15 feet tall but there are smaller varieties we're growing some Eve case and Mount San Bruno to create sort of a nice sort of uh Foundation of Evergreen in our garden and a little bit of a sense of seclusion they have adorable tiny little flowers that the bees flock to and little berries they're only edible to Wildlife they're not actually coffee so people get confused but this is something you can also grow in sun so it's very versatile and the key Point here is 33 different species of butterflies and mods can lay eggs on this plant and we already see some little bites and nibbles out of the leaves from some of the little caterpillars that are eating our plants so it's fabulous um also one of our real favorites is this beautiful righties also called a currant um it's kind of medium sized and it's deciduous but it really doesn't the sleeves aren't gone for too much of the year it starts in early very early spring late winter to get Leaf out and get some gorgeous blooms and it's a hummingbird magnet the hummingbirds come visit ours and um and the neighbors comment on it it's really a show stopper so I recommend planting those where you can enjoy them and they do well in partial shade and 122 species of butterflies and moths can lay eggs on this plant so it's really a very very valuable plant and this huge season of the sukmoth is just one of those many species I hope we get one someday um this is another plant that I just think is underused in in gardens um it's one of our favorite in our yard um this uh Gooseberry is actually um related to the ribies I just mentioned but it's it has thorns and so it's you know some people are nervous about planting it we actually planted it we mulched heavily underneath it so we don't get weeds and the hummingbirds just flock to it um I found some little caterpillars actually living in the ground around it I haven't identified them yet but um it's definitely bringing drawing in wildlife and I hope someday that we see a tailed copper which is one of the 122 species of butterflies and moths that can lay eggs on this plant so that's just a gorgeous little butterfly um this is a fabulous plant um that we just started growing in our garden this year it makes a lovely ground cover and it suppresses weeds when it does and the foliage is so Lush and just year round you have this lush green in your garden um beautiful white flowers our neighbors have commented on those and then little tiny strawberries that we just leave for the Wildlife because you know we really that's really what we're trying to build here and um but all parts of this plant are edible um and it's very versatile because it grows in Sun and shade so you can move you know have those around your garden and 58 different species of butterflies and moths can lay eggs on this plant including this two banded checkered Skipper which is mud puddling right here it's getting some nutrients from the mud and there's its caterpillar form this is a thimbleberry we haven't grown this yet but we're going to do this in our backyard in the coming year um it's just it's kind of related to the Blackberry and raspberry but it doesn't have thorns and so it's fruit ripens in summer it's edible very popular with like I said the birds and it does like shade and 94 different species of butterflies and moths can lay eggs on this plant including this amazing white line Sphinx Moth which is people call it a hummingbird moth because it's about the size of your hand it looks like a little hummingbird flying around equally beautiful I think is that caterpillar on the left and I hope to see them munching through my yard as well um here's another one um this is a Goldenrod and it has such beautiful attractive spiders of yellow flowers and it blooms through late summer into fall that's a time when most other flowers have stopped blooming and so it's really it really feels a nice Gap in the garden uh very showy and beautiful and it's also versatile we'll grow in full sun or part shade and 55 different species of butterflies and moths can lay eggs on this plant in according including the northern Checker spot um that you'll see in your Gardens in April and May so I want to note here that as a chrysalis a lot of butterflies and moths rest in the leaf litter underneath your plants so leave that so that they can thrive um we just ripped out some Chilean um Jasmine right next to our front door and we've put up this pink honeysuckle instead we've actually planted several plants to go up a big trellis it's perfect for a spot where you you need to go vertical maybe you have a small garden or you want to do something beautiful next to your front door um the hummingbirds love this plant and will come visit it as well these and the butterflies it's just a great pollinator plant so we have 30 different species of butterflies and moths can lay eggs on this plant and again this is another good one for the white line Sphinx Ma um here is Ocean Spray um and it's got a beautiful flower we haven't grown this yet but we're planting in our backyard um it thrives in shade and and part shade um and 38 species of butterflies and moths can lay eggs on this plant including this beautiful pale swallowtail butterfly um as was mentioned in an earlier talk we have a native Rose and it's just a gorgeous illuminous flower that because it's single petal like that is easily accessible to the bees and the butterflies for nectar and also is um not not an invasive you know it's a native and so 95 different species of caterpillars and moths can lay eggs on this plant including this variable Checker spot I don't know which is more beautiful the butterfly or the caterpillar but I hope to see those munching along in my garden soon we are growing a lot of these Asters in our front yard and our neighbors stop and ask what they are they're they're really beautiful and the bees flock to them um they're really uh what a really nice complement to other plants maybe some of your other shrubs and things like that it's a nice perennial and these do also live in full sun and 53 species of butterflies and moths can lay eggs on this plant and here's the northern Checker spot um just beautifully luminous butterfly that I hope you see in your garden um here's a hummingbird sage someone had asked earlier is there a sage per shade and I'm excited to say yes this it produces a beautiful green matte like like pictured below and also as host to 65 different species of butterflies and mods including this wavy lined Emerald uh moth that as a caterpillar disguises itself with pieces of the plant so very um we're very excited to have a lot of that growing in our yard and the hummingbird actually makes a circuit between all of our plants now and this is one of her favorites that she that she visits um as mentioned in an earlier talk the holly leaf Cherry is a fabulous tree we plan to grow it as a hedge across our back where we want to have a little bit more privacy and I've seen this growing at the Woodside library near us as both a tree and a shrub and it's it is really you see a lot of insects attracted to this and we do see these Western tiger swallowtails flying around in our area because they Feast on this plant and some of the um other trees that are listed here and then finally I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the oak the PowerHouse of the ecosystem which hosts 270 species of butterflies and mods um I want to say about the Coast Live Oak this is a good Oak along with the scrub Oak for um Gardens even though this particular specimen this picture taken by Kathy's husband Mike um even though it looks very large there's one in our neighborhood that is mature it's probably about 30 feet high but the trunk really fits nicely into a small space in a corner of a garden and we were amazed to see how well it works as a as a street tree um the California sister dines exclusively on Oak so you must have Oaks if you want this beautiful butterfly and I think the most beautiful caterpillar I've ever seen that is the California sister caterpillar um so you may say you know oh well this is all great about these native plants but I have lots of butterflies coming into my garden and um what's wrong with all of these uh Cosmos and marigolds And Shasta daisies that they visit and I like to point out this is like a bar they're drinking nectar and they can drink nectar from a wide variety of different flowers but there's no restaurant there's no food for the Next Generation there's no place for them to lay their eggs the native plants are the restaurant and that has also has nectar but has the bonus of having the food to grow the caterpillars that feed the birds and the entire ecosystem so we really really need to help them by growing our natives um here's our garden now we've taken out all the lawn and hedge it's still a young Garden but already we have Manzanita blooming we have a beautiful golden uh flowered rabies in the middle picture there to the right of it is the red flowered currant that we mentioned earlier Below on the bottom row we have the coffee Berry and we have the Asters and we have the strawberries and we have so many more we're actually growing every single plant I mentioned today with a few exceptions that I called out and we are leaving the leaves this is the most important thing that we did besides growing natives we allowed the the acorns and the leaves to nourish the ground to create cover for the the pollinators that nest in the ground insulation for the plants and you know some butterflies and moths like this morning cloak actually overwinter in those leaves and so when we sweep away the leaves in the acorns we're destroying all those chrysalises and all of those insects that would provide life and the acorns themselves I just saw a squirrel dig up an acorn yesterday that it buried in December so we really really need to leave the leave everything on the ground where it lands and nature is exploding in our yard I can't emphasize this enough we are seeing so much more life now that we ripped out our lawn and hedge we are seeing all sorts of butterflies we're seeing more bees not pictured here hummingbirds salamanders have moved in it's just a whole ecosystem and we've done the whole front yard we're looking forward to doing the back and I just want to take a quick moment to say we're saving money on water this bottom line here this blue line is California um it's precipitation the natural precipitation pattern and above it is the green line that's the native plant natural um pattern for consuming precipitation for their water needs but above that the yellow line are the quote drought tolerant natives from the Mediterranean and from places like Australia that get like Sydney gets occasional uh monsoons and certain downpours that don't map to California weather so we really need to grow the things that really map to our natural precipitation um of course as I mentioned earlier that red line up there is lawn and it's the most thirsty crop of all and as I said it's 40 million Acres of the United States and growing more people are planting Lawns every day it feeds nothing and the chemicals that a lot of people use on it are actually very detrimental to not only the environment but to their own health so don't use pesticides or herbicides and if you can remove or reduce your lawn um and we felt like we were doing our part but what could we do beyond our own garden well we could take some action so one thing that um we I did recently is Kelly as Kathy Kramer mentioned um we designed some Keystone plant signs and these this these slides are based on those so if you love these beautiful pictures of the plants and the butterflies then download them and put them up in your own garden to inspire your neighbors or use them if you work in a public pollinator garden they're great signs for that school Gardens classrooms it's a great learning tool for kids you can put them up in nurseries and um you can also use them at different events so you can download these I have a link again on my very last slide and you can also take action by going on the actual um bringing back the natives Garden Tour so the day it's here I know you've seen them before but May 6th are the Bayside Gardens um on Saturday and then Sunday May 7th from 10 to 4 are the Inland Gardens so start growing these Keystone plants today and revel in all the life they bring to your garden and balcony I had one more quick thing Kathy about taking action I'm not going to go as long as I had planned to on this slide but I did uh Kathy you asked me yesterday about ways that I've taken it beyond my own garden and I just want to say being on social media getting on next door sharing information and seeds um I even started a next-door group and so we share seeds and plants there and then developing local Partnerships with California Native Plant Society we're doing something called The Wildflower ambassadors where we also at events are giving away seeds and promoting this and I just hope that you all will explore creative ways that you can connect with others and bring back native ecosystems and here's my information and I welcome any questions um hold up your phone for a QR code to either my slide deck or to the Keystone plant signs and I know I went kind of quickly past those but I really hope you'll explore each and every one I think we have over 40 now there so they go Way Beyond this talk and they're just a great resource and that's it for me all right well thank you Jennifer so Jennifer did make the keystone species signs that are on the bringing back the native card into our website under keystone species so if you're wondering what are the best plants for wildlife there they are and they're just beautiful and you'll see some of them in the Gardens on May 6th and 7. I see that Jennifer's husband has put a link to the um to the signs uh in the chat if it's easier for you to download from there um let's see a question from YouTube Jennifer does the fire department give you any grief for leaving the leaf litter in your yard um well you know that is a consideration I see that come up a lot what is interesting to me is the leaves fell in mostly November and December then we had torrential rainfall which started to break the leaves down and they grew a lot of interesting molds and things that the soil actually needs to make it more robust and then um they got kind of moved around by the creatures and the acorns got eaten and so in our garden right now it's not really it's not really a fire hazard they've really been kind of absorbed into nature and then we've also added in some places we put a little bit of dirt over areas where we wanted to plant something new or whatever so no grief so far and um not the kind of fire hazard we have with some of the plants like eucalyptus that are very flammable so I want to say it was just a pleasure working with Jennifer she was a brain the brain and Brawn behind the development of those signs and she did a beautiful job Jennifer do you can people get hold of your next door group oh there it is the MD yeah next door so I didn't spell that out but yeah the next door group is here and so I really welcome you to join it it's even though it's next door they allow you to join groups from anywhere so um really um it's a great place to have a conversation to ask questions I know we were running short on time so you know if people um want to ask questions there and also I will monitor the chat as your next uh talk comes up Kathy okay can you talk for just a moment about your uh the wildflower seeds and then we'll pop off and let you take the rest of your questions in the chat yeah yeah so um you know I realized that with our own garden we weren't it was it was great impact but it wasn't enough we were so fired up but we started giving seeds to our neighbors we had a big bag of wildflower seeds we just started packaging them up in little packets and then we thought wow what about the the bigger neighborhood so we started giving them away on next door got invited to go to some libraries and so as an individual just and I work full-time so I was doing this at night and weekends you know just giving away seeds so that people and information that's the most important thing is we give you a handout that would have all sorts of resources like bringing back the natives or some of these talks people could access the information and the resources and um learn about the different websites like yours Kathy and um and then we realized you know as we were doing all of that we gave out just on our own about 3 000 packets but then we realized we I was invited to partner with California Native Plant Society for Santa Clara Valley and we've been doing it at their events and so they've been funding and they have their own brand and we do see giveaways with a group called The Wildflower ambassadors and so that's really been a way to leverage um you know we probably will give away a thousand or more packets at their upcoming Wildflower show in April so that's the cnps SCV is the group Santa Clara Valley so um yeah just a word about they can be a powerful tool for starting conversations with people okay well Jennifer thank you so much for giving this talk again so before we go on to our next talk I want to ask if you are watching today and haven't had a chance yet to make a donation if you'll please support the tour you can do it on the tours uh website under please donate you can uh venmo a contribution to at bringing back the natives um we depend upon donations to keep going and we hope that if you've enjoyed our our uh presentation you all help us to keep this event going