The DO’s and DON’Ts of Compost

Compost is a climate-appropriate garden’s best friend! 

Compost offers tons of benefits for your landscape. It enriches the soil, delivers nutrients to plants and keeps water in the ground to help fight drought. Who knew healthy soil could do so much?

Compost is made from food scraps and organic matter, which contain lots of nutrients and water which would otherwise be wasted. In fact, 25% of our nation’s water is wasted on food that will be thrown out. Turning waste into rich compost is a great way to combat many environmental problems at once.… Read more >>

4 Gardening Tips to Fight Runoff

Water is precious.

Especially as temperatures rise and the rainy season takes a vacation. Often in the grips of the summer heat, people will douse their lawns with their sprinklers causing “dry-weather runoff” to rush onto the pavement, into the street sweeping up pollutants along the way, into stormdrains to be dumped in the ocean.

Want to learn how you can make a difference? Follow these climate-ready solutions to keep any runoff out of the street and help water your plants and trees all summer long instead.… Read more >>

4 Tips for Your Climate-Ready Yard

Do you feel the following symptoms?

  • Constant urge to be outside
  • An itch to dig in the soil
  • A need for a garden that turns heads?

If so, you could be suffering from Spring Fever!

Now is a great time to get out into your yard and plant! But before you get your hands dirty, watch this video and check out these four tips to grow the climate-ready garden of your dreams:

Buy native and/or climate-appropriate plants

Native plants are indigenous and support our local wildlife.… Read more >>

Mulching: Less Mowing, More Growing!

It’s that time of year! Winter rains have come, the air is fresh, flowers are beginning to pop, and the days are warm and crisp. It’s the perfect time to look out over your yard and wonder:

“Is it time to finally ditch the turf and bring on the mulch?”

Not only does ditching turf mean less mowing, it also helps keep soil healthy and is a great way to cut back on water use. Sheet mulching is one way to remove it safely without poisonous chemicals!… Read more >>

Three Reasons to Prune!

Trees are amazing living machines– they give us shade, beauty, and food! Some can live for hundreds of years. With a little bit of knowledge, care, and pruning, these trees can provide an abundance of benefits to us and the environment, and enable them to live to their full potential.

Understanding basic pruning principles and proper pruning cuts are helpful in caring for any tree. Remember, pruning, even though beneficial, is wounding the tree. So, be sure to have a reason for each cut that you make.… Read more >>

4 Climate-Conscious Gifts to Scratch off Your List

Down to the last minute for your holiday shopping? Not sure what to get that person who already has everything?

Look no further!  Here are some of our favorite beautiful, practical, and climate-conscious gifts for home!

Sustainable gifts help create a better future for us and  the lives of generations to come. Plus, who doesn’t want to be the envy of their neighborhood? Be a movement trendsetter!  

Here are four unique gift ideas to inspire the climate-fighter in everyone this holiday season:

Rain Chains

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Rain chains are a beautiful  addition to any garden to slow, sink and spread those precious drops back into the ground or a rain tank.… Read more >>

Holiday Trash: Unwrapped

It’s beginning to feel like the holiday season here in Coldwater Canyon Park! The staff here in the Yurt Village loves a good holiday party but year after year we can’t help but notice the needless waste made from all the merry making.

Fortunately, we have discovered some creative ways to have holiday fun without a trail of tinsel bringing us down. Here are some of our favorite ways to green the gifting season.

hanukkah-giftReduce, Reuse & Recycle Wrapping

Carefully unwrap presents without tearing the paper so you can reuse it later!… Read more >>

What is the Big Deal About Natives?

LA really is a special place, and so is its ecology. Our region’s Mediterranean climate brings dry, hot summers and cool, wet winters. This unique climate and landscape is what creates the special conditions that support our city’s animal and plant biodiversity.

Native plants use anywhere from 30 to 90 percent less water than other non-native plant species, and also provide animals with a habitat to call home.  Our native plants are beautiful, resilient and useful, and we should celebrate them!… Read more >>

Soil. Water. Life

Soil moisture: why is it important for you and and your garden? Why it is important for LA and its issues with the urban heat island effect and other challenges?

Soil, Water, Life

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Here at TreePeople, we sometimes wonder where the tree ends and the soil begins.  Fallen leaves and branches decompose and  create soil, which creates trees, which drop branches and leaves creating more soil.

We also love to think about the tree-water-soil connection. Where does water end and soil or tree begin?… Read more >>

Op-Ed: How Drought-Tolerant Landscapes Can Cool LA

Los Angeles is a very unique place with complex challenges when it comes to both water and climate. Moving toward a more climate-resilient LA is a complicated task with a multitude of paths towards a solution. Looking further into how water is used, either through landscape transformations or how water use will affect local temperatures in the future are a step in the right direction for LA. Thankfully, a study by Professor George Ban-Weiss from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering about how changing from traditional lawns to drought tolerant landscape could have an effect on temperatures in LA has been released to assess if changing to drought tolerant landscaping will change temperatures in LA.… Read more >>