Front strip native plant project

Here’s the strip in front of our property. It stretches 70 ft from our driveway down to that 2nd mailbox on the left, and from the street to our retaining wall + fence on the right.

I moved here in April 2013. Historically there was Bermuda grass embedded in and under the asphalt plus patches in the strip. Other native annuals also came up seasonally. Up until a few years ago I simply mowed it in the winter and spring. But Janet got the idea of installing a long bed of native perennial flowering plants adjacent to the fence and a parking area with pavers between the present driveway and telephone pole.

So two years ago I started feeding the bermuda grass a mixture of Triclopyr + Glyphosate + LI 700 penetrant – because I’ve seen many installations of pavers destroyed by bermuda grass. I just sprayed all the volunteers again today and no bermuda grass was present. Hurray! I believe by the end of March I can start installing the planter.

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I would use that strip to add a couple of citrus, a fig and a persimmon :blush:.

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I can’t plant trees there because I share it with the city and 4 gophers. Also, I already have 7 different Citrus, 1 Jiro persimmon, and 600 different fig cultivars. :rofl:

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It is a nice size lot. I would put some kind of bricks or nature stones as pavement. so grass will not grow. And build two flower planters to plant two trees.one is michelia alba, one is sweet olive. Also install a bench near one tree and a bird bath near other. you could sit there enjoy bird watching/neighbor watching meanwhile breath in intoxicating fragrant.

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I cannot plant trees there due to city ordinance – it is spelled out in my right-of-way. Even if I could, the gophers would kill them. I am going to install brick pavers in a 4 ft wide path adjacent to the street starting at one neighbor’s property and finishing at the other’s. There will also be pavers from the existing driveway down to 4 ft from the telephone pole and within 3 ft of our fence. The remainder will be planter bed

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@Richard

Would concrete it and add a couple of really long raised beds in the middle. Are there utilities there? Would only really worry about what’s behind the security fence. If there are utilities that idea wont work.

@clarkinks
We need the additional parking. Pavers are actually less expensive here and do not crack.

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@Richard

That’s perfect and they are removable if they need to dig it.

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Google Photos
Google Photos
Your property looks desert/Mediterranean, would these grow as trees or shrubs there?

No. The gophers would kill them in less than a year. Further, the city would not permit it and they are here annually to inspect my licensed botanical repository.

On the other hand, there are native perennial flowering plants which I’ve observed in the wild that the gophers leave alone – for the most part. These include coastal CA fuchsias, foothill ceanothus, and riparian mallows. So I’m going to let my neighbors feed the gophers and hopefully they’ll ignore these plants.

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What do they look for in that inspection? Do you get tax breaks for that repository?

Compliance.

Not from the city, nor anyone else. The IRS requires I have separate business licenses for each separate business activity: scientific research (100% expenditures), family estate sales/divestment (on Etsy), nursery stock sales (also online). I list them on schedule C.

What are the rules you have to comply with? How different are you from any avid backyard grower?

@Ahmad
Our home is in residential-zoned neighborhood.
Compliance includes:
No signage
No products (incl. nursery stock) visible from street
No persons on site for purpose of sales
No business employees on site for work activity
No business commercial vehicle on site
No commercial deliveries or shipments at site excepting standard residential carriers
etc.

I’m so happy I live in an unincorporated area, with no city clerks to tell me what to do and what not to do.
My front strip looks beautiful, with a lot of various plants, including a rare pink-blooming oleander, many types of succulents, date palms, acacias, agavas, and arbutus. Big piles of compost and wood chips (inside the property, behind the front fence) may not look nice to somebody, but I don’t care. :wink:

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I believe if you took out a business license with the county for an operation like mine you’d have the same requirements to deal with.

My county has a right-to-farm law, and no license is needed for most agricultural activities with a few exceptions (mostly related to pest control businesses and a couple others).

Also, the county has no supervision over what I plant on my front strip, they don’t have any regulations for that.

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What benefits does the license provide for you? was it optional or compulsory to get that license?

The requirement is a domino effect from my federal tax filings. Historically I declared my income and expenses under one name in schedule C. I was audited about 4 years ago and received a notice that business licenses were required for what the IRS perceived were 3 separate business activities. So I became a diversified sole proprietorship!

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Hey I am brand new here(first post) so if I am messing something up please let me know but. It looks like your in grow zone 10 for native plants maybe a blue berry or Muscadine setup would be good for that spot. Lots of nice muscadine filled vines would look really cool there I think.

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