MySoCalGarden
Find places to visit, learn the plants and ecological relationships that shape them, and bring those observations home to your own garden.
Garden Guide
Gardens, trails, waterways, and public landscapes to experience through their plants, habitat, history, and design.
Demonstration Garden · Rosemead
California American Water’s demonstration garden outside of their location in Rosemead, CA. Their garden uses a mix of cacti, succulents, and California native plants to demonstrate water tolerant landscaping.
Botanic Garden · Claremont
California Botanic Garden is the largest botanic garden devoted exclusively to California native plants. Its 86 acres contain more than 22,000 living plants representing approximately 1,170 taxa, with collections ranging from mature woodland trees and chaparral shrubs to desert plants, native succulents, rare species, and garden-scale compositions. This is not a compact demonstration garden that can be understood in fifteen minutes. It is a large, walkable landscape where visitors can compare individual species, see what native plants become at maturity, and move through planted environments representing different parts of California. It is worth making a special trip, particularly for gardeners, photographers, naturalists, and anyone trying to move beyond the vague category of drought-tolerant landscaping toward a more ecological understanding of Southern California gardens. [caption id="attachment_169" align="alignnone" width="3456"] A mature native tree creates a cool woodland room beneath its spreading canopy. The leaf litter and layered understory contrast with the garden’s more exposed chaparral and desert landscapes.[/caption]
Trail · Pasadena
The Arroyo Seco is a familiar river that runs through Pasadena, practically through my late grandfather’s backyard. I spent years driving past it without ever stopping. This weekend, I finally brought my family for a visit. There are a lot of different spots along the river where you can hike. After some investigation, this seemed like the best place to bring our four-year-old as we worked on getting him interested in hiking. The hikes we choose need to be simple, accessible, and not overly challenging. He will be on my shoulders for some portion of the hike, accompanied by my photo gear.
From the field
Visits and photo essays connecting plants with water, habitat, history, and ordinary public landscapes.
July 10, 2026
A morning visiting the LA River pocket parks in Frogtown and Elysian Valley became a lesson in how small public spaces, restoration, graffiti, and civ...
May 24, 2026
The abandoned cages of the Old LA Zoo are a reminder that progress is real, but rarely moves in only one direction.
At home
Gardening advice grounded in Southern California rather than generic rules.
April 13, 2026
Most seed catalogs do not really prepare you for it. They tend to show the more attention-grabbing forms, like the birdhouse gourds. Those can be drie...
February 8, 2022
If live in a house in Southern California there is about a 50% chance you already own at least one citrus tree. Here is everything you need to know to...
January 26, 2022
Hemp is an ancient crop, but there are a lot of myths about it. After about 100 years of oppression, the U.S. finally fully legalized the farming of h...
