A YARD APART
Homeowner replaced her lawn with an ever-evolving wonderland of plants
A monarch butterfly caterpillar visits Lee's garden.
A lady bug sits on a dill plant in Lee's garden.
Native Clarkia flowers
Non-native borage plants
Julia Lee, a professor at Loyola Marymount University, stands in her garden May 14 in Los Angeles. Lee decided in 2022 to remove her front lawn and replace it with native and drought-tolerant plants.
An aerial of Julia Lee's garden at her home in the Cheviot Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Julia Lee had no need for a new garden when she and her husband purchased their Los Angeles home eight years ago. The traditional 1950 home came with mature tropical plants in the back and a sprawling grass hillside lawn in front, and it suited them just fine. But as drought and wildfires dragged on in California in recent years, she started to question whether keeping the thirsty lawn made sense.
"Our water bill was insane," she said as she offered a tour of the former lawn, which is now filled with colorful native plants and drought-tolerant plants. "It was a waste of space. Our kids were getting older and didn't play on the lawn. There was just no reason to keep a big green lawn."
After reading a Times story about Georg Kochi, a retiree who swapped his lawn with plants suited for California, Lee was inspired by Kochi's wild, wabi-sabi-style garden, which embraces the art of imperfect beauty.
"I'm into chaos," Lee said, bending down to smell the minty fragrance of a native Woolly bluecurls (Trichostema lanatum) shrub. "It's an accurate reflection of my personality."
So in 2022, Lee decided to replace her lawn with a drought-tolerant landscape.
Walking through Lee's garden, as birds, bees and butterflies zoom around the yard's bright flowers, it's obvious she loves color. With help from her friend Ben Liou, who replaced his lawn with native plants, Lee filled the space with a lively mix of sages and flowering perennials, including yellow bladderpod, pink Palmer's penstemon and blue California lilac. Also in the mix, there are California poppies, Channel Islands Tree poppies and tall Matilija poppies that look like fried eggs.
Lee was surprised to find that working in her garden helped her connect with her neighbors in unexpected ways.
"I was worried the neighbors would complain," she said. "But I've met so many people because I'm out here every day. Other gardeners are curious and often ask me, 'What's that interesting yellow plant? Oh, Palmer's Indian mallow?' I even know all the dogs' names now."
Lee says plants help her connect with people. One neighbor who knew the home's previous owner gave her succulents. Another brought her some aromatic California sagebrush, also called Cowboy Cologne. "I really like the fact that I can point to certain things and remember who gave them to me," she said. "That's really nice."
She's especially proud of the large white sage she grew from seeds that a friend gave her. "It's so happy over there," she said, clearly excited by its growth. "Look at how big it is. I am so proud of it."
Not all the plants in the unamended soil are California natives or even drought-tolerant. Lee kept some plants that have been growing in the yard for decades, like the jasmine climbing around the front of the house as well as the white roses. "I really don't like lantana," she said, "but I hate killing things."
Someday she hopes to set up a free seed library, and she's excited to see bluebird hatchlings in the bluebird house that Venice beekeeper Ian Kimbrey installed in her tree.
"I just need to be patient," Lee says about the bluebird box, which is still empty. "I've entered that phase of my life where I just love to see so many birds and bees and other animals in my garden. It's good for my mental health."
Lee, who grew up in L.A. and teaches English at Loyola Marymount University, says her unkempt garden reminds her of Los Angeles in some ways. "Everybody just wants to look young and perfect all the time, and that's not healthy," she says. "My garden is beautiful in the spring; then it goes dormant in the summer. And that's OK."
The project was ultimately about more than just saving water. It gave Lee a chance to connect with her community while experimenting in what she calls a "test garden." She calls her garden a work in progress, and though she has suffered failures along the way, she values the friendships she's made outside her front door. "My garden doesn't look designed because it isn't. I've learned it's OK if things aren't perfect."
Actually, she says, an imperfect, always-evolving garden is "a good lesson for life."
A garden of many plants
Julia Lee’s garden includes the following:
California native shrubs/flowers
■ Coulter’s Matilija poppy
■ Pigeon Point coyote brush
■ Twin Peaks No. 2 dwarf coyote bush
■ Lilac Verbena “De La Mina”
■ Armstrong California Fuchsia
■ Marin pink California Fuchsia
■ “Bert’s Bluff’ California Fuchsia
■ Catalina California Fuchsia
■ Hummingbird sage
■ California sagebrush
■ California buckwheat
■ Red buckwheat
■ “Warriner Lytle” buckwheat
■ Ashyleaf buckwheat
■ Sea Cliff buckwheat
■ Ceanothus “Julia Phelps”
■ Yankee Point Carmel Ceanothus
■ Coyote mint
■ Woolly blue curls
■ Golden currant
■ Bush monkeyflower
■ Jelly bean red (and pink, orange and fiesta marigold) monkeyflower
■ Canyon Prince giant rye
■ Island alumroot
■ Santa Ana cardinal alumroot
■ California bee plant
■ California huckleberry
■ Common snowberry
■ Fragrant pitcher sage
■ “Whirly Blue” Cleveland sage
■ “Celestial Blue” Cleveland sage
■ Winnifred Gilman Cleveland sage
■ Allen Chickering Cleveland sage
■ “Bee’s Bliss” sage
■ “Mrs. Beard” creeping sage
■ Russian sage
■ Santa Barbara Mexican bush sage
■ Deer grass
■ California bush sunflower
■ Margarita BOP penstemon
■ Palmer’s Indian mallow
■ Island mallow
■ White sage
■ Black sage
■ Butterfly bush
■ California yarrow
■ Oregano
■ French lavender
■ Bush Anemone
■ Channel Islands tree poppy
■ Manzanita
■ Blue grama
■ Showy Island snapdragon
■ Bladderpod
Wildflowers (Native and non-native)
■ California poppies
■ Blue Globe Gilia
■ Elegant Clarkia
■ “Farewell to Spring” Clarkia
■ Cornflowers
■ Theodore Payne’s Rainbow Mix wildflower seeds
■ “Indian Summer” black-eyed Susan
■ Cosmos
■ Various breadseed poppies
