Winter 2025 Newsletter

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Planting For Slopes Resource List

GROUND-HUGGING PLANTS (for surface soil retention):

• Achillea millefolium (Common Yarrow)
• Clinopodium douglasii (Yerba Buena)
• Epilobium canum ssp. canum (California Fuchsia)
• Eschscholzia californica (California Poppy)
• Monardella villosa (Coyote Mint)
• Stipa pulchra (Purple Needlegrass)
• Penstemon californicus (Beard Tongue)
• Phyla nodiflora (Common Lippia)
  Salvia leucophylla ‘Point Sal’ (Pt. Sal Sage) and ‘Bee’s Bliss’ Sage
• Sisyrinchium bellum and S. californicum (CA blue-eyed and yellow-eyed grasses)

SMALL SHRUBS (for soil retention and limited hillside stabilization):

• Encelia californica (California Bush Sunflower)
• Eriogonum fasciculatum (California Buckwheat)
• Grindelia stricta (Oregon Gumweed)
• Mimulus aurantiacus var. aurantiacus (Monkey Flower)
• Salvia sonomensis ‘Mrs. Beard’ (Mrs. Beard creeping sage)
• Trichostema lanatum (Wooly Blue Curls)
• Hesperoyucca whipplei (Chaparral Yucca)

LARGE SHRUBS AND TREES (for hillside stabilization):

• Aesculus california (California Buckeye)
• Arctostaphylos spp. (Manzanita) (firewise if maintained, dead wood removed)
• Ceanothus thyrsiflorus (Blueblossom)
• Cercis occidentalis (Western Redbud)
• Frangula californica (Coffeeberry)
• Fremontodendron californicum (Flannelbush)
• Heteromeles arbutifolia (Toyon)
• Quercus agrifolia (Coast Live Oak)
• Rhus integrifolia (Lemonade Berry)
• Romneya coulteri (Matilija Poppy)
• Sambucus mexicana (Blue Elderberry)

RESOURCES TO CONSIDER:

• Plant & Tree Spacing (Fire Safe Marin)
• Landscaping – Guide to Plants (Diablo Fire Safe Council)
• Erosion Control – Native Plant Database (Theodore Payne Foundation)
• Erosion Control for Hillside or Garden Slope (Las Pilitas Nursery)