Are you treating your soil right? Do you give it the love and care it needs to support your California native plant garden? Many of us look at our Valley clay with disdain, yet in truth we are lucky. Santa Clara Valley has been highly productive through decades of agriculture and grassland, shrubland and forest ecosystems because of our soil. It is the perfect medium for growing native plants, though sometimes it needs a little help. California native plants have evolved in relationship with soil micro- organisms. Learn about the diversity of life in the soil, the relationships between plants and soil life, and how to encourage and grow beneficial microbes in your soil.

Brian Debasitis is the owner of Mauby Landscape Service and Mauby All Natural where he has been restoring soil ecosystems without the use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides for the past 14 years. He has been a board member of the Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening Coalition and a trainer in Santa Clara County’s Composting Education Program. Brian will share his experience of turning a typical South Valley lawn into a thriving native garden that uses very little irrigation water.