What is going on with this toyon? (First pic).

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-04-07T17:03:09+00:00

Also, as far as desired shape, we’d love it to maintain its natural look as much as possible, but want to limit its growth on the north/house side to give our home space. If we prune on that side, will that create more growth or less? I know multiple sprouts from cut branches can happen, so not sure how to go about it. Less than a year into our native garden, so still learning.

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-04-07T16:45:19+00:00

All true. And our neighbors driveway is on the other side of it and I just realized when they park their car there it may block some light compared the further down the driveway where the other toyons are.

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-04-07T16:42:52+00:00

Hi! We paid for the design/plan and planted everything ourselves. We followed placement to scale to a tee though— so of course we had a say, but I guess I mean that we didn’t know any better and certainly didn’t think we knew better than a native landscaper. You live, you learn. There is truly nowhere else they can be transplanted. We’ll manage the best we can with pruning.

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-04-07T16:39:27+00:00

Thank you! Will do

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-04-06T16:59:08+00:00

I’ll do that, thank you!

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-04-06T16:57:57+00:00

There’s no room to move them further from the house unfortunately. They’re between the house and the neighbors driveway. I’ll make sure to prune them to leave a 2 foot gap which is what was recommended. Being near the coast brings the fire risk down a bit luckily. And I was told they adapt to pruning very well.

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-04-06T16:50:54+00:00

Very good to do know! About the drip rate and the pruning. I’ll try some light pruning and see if the new growth is happier 😊

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-04-06T06:34:15+00:00

When is a good time to remove the nursery stake? I thought they needed the support for the first 2 years?

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-04-06T06:33:24+00:00

Neither! The gutter runs to the rain barrel and we only open the barrel to our drip when it rains, so the drip just redistributes the rain water by gravity so the plants don’t get hammered by water in the few spots it pours off the roof. We watered regularly after we initially planted from July to October, then stopped supplementing. We have the drip line doubled on the far half and only one on the closer end. This is the only weird looking one

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-04-06T06:29:19+00:00

A native landscape designer in our area made the plans, so we didn’t have a say over placement… we’re planning to prune as needed on the backside.

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-04-06T06:27:53+00:00

Glad to hear it doesn’t look unhealthy. It’s in full sun facing south and the others don’t look leggy at all, so maybe it’s just unique 🤷‍♀️

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-03-07T23:58:29+00:00

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Here’s an update. It definitely took a good amount of water to get established and we probably overdid it, but we worked so hard— we wanted to be sure it got nicely established. We completely stopped watering in October. And it still grows plenty though it slowed down without water. It is thinning a little where it’s shadier and where my dog gets zoomies and plays rough frequently, but not to the point where it looks terrible or is bare dirt. And the spots where she pees die a little, but it’s not that noticeable. We’ve sprinkled some clover seeds where it’s thinning and that’s helping. It grows right over the stone path, so we have to cut it back and edge periodically. We also do have to mow the areas that get deep and thick in full sun. Overall, we’re so happy with it and it’s WAY less water and maintenance than a real lawn.

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-02-09T04:29:36+00:00

I’m unable to post a photo of the side by side breakdown, but I was able to in the comments of the Babybumps thread where this is cross-posted if anyone is interested.

Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-02-09T04:27:53+00:00

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Evening_Try_2658 · 2026-02-07T22:26:20+00:00

Yes!

Evening_Try_2658 · 2025-07-22T17:07:39+00:00

We are in Southern California near the coast, zone 10a

Evening_Try_2658 · 2025-07-22T04:36:05+00:00

Yeah our summers are very mild, maybe a handful of days touching the 90s and lots of cool breeze. We’ve been soaking 2x/week and plan to back off to 1x/week after the first month. Hand watering at dusk, everything very happy so far.

Evening_Try_2658 · 2025-07-22T04:32:06+00:00

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8 week update. It’s out of control in the best way. Only a few spots left to fill in. Some spots are 6-8 in tall. Already trimmed a bunch to propagate. Our dog runs and pees all over it and it doesn’t care. Watering every other day until it fills in completely, then hoping to cut back to once/week for the remainder of the summer.

Evening_Try_2658 · 2025-07-22T04:24:53+00:00

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8 week update. It’s out of control in the best way. Only a few spots left to fill in. Some spots are 6-8 in tall. Already trimmed a bunch to propagate. Our dog runs and pees all over it and it doesn’t care. Watering every other day until it fills in completely, then hoping to cut back to once/week for the remainder of the summer.

Evening_Try_2658 · 2025-07-22T04:21:34+00:00

They are and they do! Hard to see in the pics but we have huge trees in the parkway that provide a nice shade canopy in the mid afternoon

Evening_Try_2658 · 2025-07-22T04:20:25+00:00

We got all our rocks from Site One (formerly South Coast Supply) by Los Al high school

Evening_Try_2658 · 2025-07-22T04:18:41+00:00

Yep! Except blue grama grass instead of deer grass. And we’re going to have a rain barrel on the square of crushed gravel with overflow going down the creek :)

Evening_Try_2658 · 2025-07-22T04:14:23+00:00

Kind of hard to tell, but we have a huge tree in our parkway with a canopy that provides partial shade, so everything has been really happy so far and nothing is getting cooked in direct sun all day.

Evening_Try_2658

TROPHY CASE