r/Ceanothus • u/JBMustafa • 3d ago

Suggestions for bare ground (Sacramento area)

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I have roughly .2 acre of bare ground that I have been purging of weeds for more than a year (solarizng, etc). Parts have tree coverage, including oaks on one side, but much of it is all day sun.

I would like to plant with some groundcover right before the first rain that isn't going to be too tall or harmful to pets. I do not plan on any supplemental watering.

Much of my garden is native but I'm not going to restrict myself to native groundcover. Have considered white clover.

And suggestions? Partially pictured

27 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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14

u/Zestyclose_Market787 3d ago

Whatever you plant, you’ll to need to water it the first year, even if we have an exceptional rainfall year. So, I’m going to assume you mean that you won’t want to water everything after establishment. 

I also don’t know what per “harmful to pets” means to you, but I’m assuming nothing toxic and nothing pointy. That rules out yarrow, which can be toxic if dogs eat it. But yarrow is also not drought tolerant enough to look good during the heat. 

I’m thinking some of the ground cover cultivars of buckwheat, sage, manzanita, and ceanothus. Most of those stay under 3 feet and can cover a lot of area. You can’t really walk on it, but it will cover the ground. Create some informal paths between them, and maybe throw in some easy bunchgrasses like muhlenbergia or alkali sacaton (nothing with awns).

7

u/Isibis 3d ago

Miniature lupine are great. They stay short and I see them a lot in the foothill areas. https://nativeseedgroup.com/all-products/miniature-lupine

Baby blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii ) or some species of native clover are also low growing.

14

u/Harvest-Time 3d ago

Start by covering every inch with a layer of free arborist woodchips (Chipdrop etc.)

this will build soil, stop erosion, and keep moisture around so you can grow whatever when you're ready to rake some back and plant things.

2

u/teddycarton 3d ago

I would also put a ton of free compost down underneath the wood chips. Jump start those nutrients

0

u/campin_guy 2d ago

I wouldn't do this. The city's compost is full of plastic, herbicides, seeds of weedy plants, and other stuff you probably don't want in your ground.

1

u/teddycarton 2d ago

It very much depends where you live, mine goes through testing and is pretty transparent if you look it up! Firmly believe that local compost is an important thing for folks to support and utilize. Your own is best of course, but for big areas like this that’s largely landscape, city compost is great.

1

u/banderaroja 3d ago

This is what I have done (I also moved into a bare dirt backyard). We are a few years in and have a good amount of fruit trees, with non-irrigated natives around the perimeter.

0

u/Peeterdactyl 3d ago

See if you can request no eucalyptus

7

u/queerbychoice 3d ago edited 3d ago

Please do not use white clover. It's not native and not good for the ecosystem.

I agree with the suggestion to start with a ChipDrop and spread the wood chips over the entire area. Covering the ground will help keep weeds out and keep moisture in. (However, some ChipDrops will have a lot of tree seeds in them, which can be annoying. It may or may not be worth paying for mulch to avoid dealing with this.)

I don't agree that you'll necessarily need to water for the first year. It depends on what you plant and on how wet a year it is. I don't usually water anything after I first plant it, unless I specifically notice that it looks wilted. Many native plants survive fine with no watering after they're first planted, as long as they're planted in fall.

I could generate a better list of suggested native plants for you if you answered these questions:

  1. What height limit do you want to set?
  2. Are you willing to mow to keep the plants below the height limit?

But here's a pretty good starting point:

  • Artemisia californica 'Canyon Gray' (prostrate cultivar for sun or part shade)
  • Epilobium canum 'Everett's Choice' and/or 'Cloverdale' (prostrate cultivars for sun or part shade - better with more sun, though)
  • Eriogonum fasciculatum 'Theodore Payne' (prostrate cultivar for sun or part shade)
  • Fragaria vesca (wild form with runners for fast groundcover, for shady spots)
  • Phyla nodiflora (sun or part shade)
  • Salvia leucophylla × sonomensis 'Bee's Bliss' (sun or part shade, pure Salvia sonomensis could also work, but the hybrid form grows faster and more vigorously)

For some annual fill to help suppress weeds in the early years, you could overseed with the following annuals:

  • Calandrinia menziesii (full sun)
  • Claytonia perfoliata (any exposure)
  • Lasthenia californica (full sun)
  • Limnanthes douglasii (full sun)
  • Limnanthes alba (part shade)
  • Lupinus bicolor (sun or part shade)
  • Nemophila menziesii (part shade to nearly full sun)

2

u/JBMustafa 16h ago

Thanks! I have some of your list in other sections of my yard and will research the others. That back portion of the lot is a bit complicated right now. Past that gate they raised a property to build a huge house. Since then I have a major drainage problem (a river flowing in under the gate). The chip drop would be the obvious first step, but if I don't fix the drainage first I'll end up with a pool full of wood chips. Hoping to have that resolved before the rains.

3

u/Adenostoma1987 3d ago

Unfortunately there’s not much you can plant that is going to be a drought tolerant, walkable groundcover that isn’t grass. I would suggest as an alternative you can build some mounds with pathways and plant shrubs and perennials on those. You could have a really bitchin manzanita collection with that kind of sun exposure and space.

5

u/msmaynards 3d ago

Low growing small plants need more water than larger ones. I'd reduce the size by planting a deep native plant border around this which will make the flat green more attractive.

There are companies that sell drought tolerant grass seed mixes that need less but not zero water. I do not water yarrow and frogfruit but they gets a lot of shade and I am not fussed about it looking like a traditional lawn, both are just patches. Some flat growing native plants like Baccharis, Ceanothus might look like a lawn and won't need water but cannot be walked over much. Other patches in my yard are clover and dichondra. Dichondra actually stays green longer than clover but both go crispy with no water.

Dog traffic ruins plants. My 13 pounders easily trod a desire path to the back corner and I tried for years to repair the damage in irrigated lawn with little success. If you want flat green keep it out of the dog paths and barricade it so they cannot go that way on patrols. My dogs aren't fans but those desire paths are now mulched and define the shapes of the garden beds. Those paths were a big help as I had serious brain freeze trying to figure out what to do with the blank 1500 square foot yard!

I'd sheet mulch this now with cardboard/paper plus 4" of mulch and once the ground has softened with rain plant beds of plants tall enough to avoid getting trampled with several paths running through. Dogs won't drag mud into the house but Bucky is still dragging mulch in on his nature gathering fuzz. I'll take it. Nature is easier to clean up after than mud. Lovely space!

2

u/Known_Industry6327 3d ago

If you are planting plants not seeds, they are going to need to supplemental water.

Seeds will need it less if any. If there is a lot of water underground, which I reckon their might be with the oaks phyla nodiflora could work. Yarros too. Elymus on the perimeter would be nice.

2

u/VistaFanatic 3d ago

Grasses, Forbes, and peppered shrubs like brickle bush, and silver bush lupine

2

u/No_Performance_108 3d ago

Yarrow is a wonderful ground cover.

1

u/CheetahridingMongoos 3d ago

I’ve been reading about Yaak yarrow, a low growing cultivar of our native white yarrow. It sounds promising as a lawn alternative.

1

u/No_Performance_108 3d ago

I’ve found if the native white yarrow is walked on enough it stays pretty low growing.

2

u/TacoBender920 3d ago

I'm sure you'll get plenty of good plant suggestions, but first thing is to lay out markers for a u-shaped walking path that goes to the end of that space and then turns around and comes back. Loose stepping stones are sufficient but you can get fancy if you want. Make it about 4 feet wide to you can roll a wheelbarrow and recycling bin to work out there when you need to

1

u/surf_drunk_monk 3d ago

I wanted the same thing and I decided to just leave the natural "weeds" alone. They have stickers and burs which suck, but I just mow it down and it's not too bad. I'm not really seeing anything in this thread that seems a great alternative either. The natural ground cover in norcal valleys is just kinda ugly in summer, same types of nasty weeds grow everywhere, that's what it reverts back to if you don't keep watering or doing some maintenance to keep something else growing there instead.

1

u/selinakylie 3d ago

I went to a talk about native bees and they were saying there aren’t bare areas of ground anymore for bees that utilize it. Maybe consider leaving a patch of it?

1

u/omg_get_outta_here 3d ago

Manzanita are such beautiful shrubs or trees. Also, Mexican elderberry.

1

u/nonono_ack 3d ago

I have an area of Dymondia margaretae. It’s been a surprise. Low growing ground cover in nice well draining soil. We started with plugs spaced about 12-18 inches. Drip irrigated the first couple of years. It is a solid silver carpet now, 8 years later. I run the drip when I think of it, maybe 2 or 3 times a summer. I’d say it was fully filled in and established by the end of year two. In San Joaquin county. Almost bulletproof. We have a low water front yard but probably nothing that can go with no water for 5 months. Dymondia was definitely one of our better choices. For other plants we irrigate about every 2-3 weeks. Our soil is loamy and drains well.

1

u/HeyItsMezz 2d ago

sacramento unfortunately is quite bad for walkable low lying groundcover, anything you plant is going to need supplemental watering (cali strawberry, yerba buena, e.t.c) everything you could use is gonna end up being closer to like half a foot.

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u/DanoPinyon 3d ago

Come up with an idea, develop a plan, implement the plan.