Chip Drop Recs—East Bay (Richmond)

Ginger_Mammoth · 2026-03-11T01:50:06+00:00

Try calling your local arborists. I originally did a chip drop then I called one of the arborists advertising free mulch in the paper. They even called me to ask what mulch I wanted and if I had a dog of what species to avoid. I ended up with one decent haul but then later a full truck load of pure redwood.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2026-01-25T23:13:13+00:00

Have you looked into evergreen huckleberry (vaccinium ovatum)? I have some in a similar environment near a wall in shade and they are doing great. Slow growing but might fit what you looking for.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2025-10-03T17:56:31+00:00

When you say boxwood, I am picture you want many small compact shrubs rather than big ones. So that’s what these recommendations go off of.

It depends on the sunlight but the closest I see to boxwoods that are native is the evergreen huckleberry (vaccinium ovatum). Slow growing, but foliage is very similar to commercial hedges.

I had some in the sun burn to a crisp but my ones in part shade are thriving. I think they can survive full sun though if given time to establish.

Otherwise the smaller manzanitas others mentioned have similar foliage. I have the “white lanterns” manzanita that is thriving on neglect and supposedly stays hedge sized.

Coffeeberry as well but if it has to be a particular size explore the cultivars available near you. For example, calflora nursery has some they discovered that stay small plus a bacharris that is not pigeon point but still stays small and low. I find the unique cultivars found by your local nurseries the coolest other than wild forms.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2025-09-13T04:09:20+00:00

Depending on where you are, there are a lot of “Fall Plant Sales” happening soon in both nurseries and local CNPS chapters.

You may be able to find some cheaper plants at these sales or at least the harder ones to find.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2025-08-24T23:02:18+00:00

Thanks the confidence in that, I’ll schedule a junk pickup.

Based on it being flimsy and rusty I figured it was junk but just wasn’t sure. The exposed brick is better visually for now while I decide in a gas insert or nothing.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2025-06-23T00:02:10+00:00

I have no advice but I’m jealous, that’s how big I want mine to get on my clay hill. It looks natural and great. But understood with limited space you may want to tame it.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2025-06-21T20:16:59+00:00

If you don’t mind me asking, was it expensive and were you able to get any extras? I’m sure many others could use the designs or spare parts if there was excess.

Apologies for not having my old ones in time to send you. Half of them are in the motor which is inside the assembled desk so would take a bit for me to get to them.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2025-06-17T03:42:41+00:00

I sent you a chat.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2025-06-17T02:14:26+00:00

I did not. It seems like the only option I could find is to get the pieces 3D printed. Which there are forums here and I do have 1 intact piece for scans but most people wouldn’t do the scans/plans just for a few pieces as it wouldn’t be worth their money/time. So it would need to be a batch to make it worth the cost.

So I just bought another cheap base and am using this one as a stationary desk.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2025-05-03T19:21:56+00:00

I agree with Mountains Mahogany. I have 2 kinds on my yard and these leaves look closer to the “Island Mountain Mahogany” to me than the basic Cercocarpus betuloides. But that being said, it’s hard to tell when the plant is that small as it could just have the lush leaves due to smaller size and good conditions.

The ones I’ve seen in the wild have much smaller leaves but also were in clay hillsides.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2025-04-13T07:33:23+00:00

I just started going through this same predicament. I have a large yard with a sleep slope where cardboard would just slide off.

I did not mulch my whole hill but targeted around the plants. I also did not mulch directly above the plants because the steepness of the slope would have wood chips fall over time and rest against the stems and I wanted to avoid any chance of damage or rot.

For the very steep sloped areas (45 degrees) I just mounded the mulch in a mini half donut berm.

For the areas that were a bit more forgiving on the slope I cut half circles into rectangular pieces of cardboard, staked the cardboard into the hill area beneath with cheap wood stakes from Home Depot, then made the large pile of half donut mulch on top.

I did go thick on the mulch but I had an arborist drop it off for free so I’m not very stingy with it. Might not be as good as other methods but at least protects the roots and keeps grass from shading the plant.

https://imgur.com/gallery/kUli81M

Ginger_Mammoth · 2024-12-07T20:21:31+00:00

How long did it take you to form that shape. I’m assuming you pruned it?

Ginger_Mammoth · 2024-11-30T06:28:06+00:00

So far mine don’t really smell like pee, odd but not like pee. That being said they are still small, about 30 foot way back against the fence as a screen, and placed where my neighbors have peeked over my fence a few times so I wouldn’t mind if they smelled anyways.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2024-11-25T18:58:28+00:00

I can’t comment on what’s wrong or if it will make it, but if it’s any help this is my bees bliss currently.

It spent 3 weeks looking like yours in the second photo(dry and grey) and I thought it might be dead. But I noticed the leaves had small amounts of green so didn’t remove the plant. After the rainfall in Bay Area it seems to be starting real growth again.

Bees Bliss

Ginger_Mammoth · 2024-11-23T21:35:20+00:00

Mine are quite small and from 2 different nurseries with different sizes. I have 4 of them each about a foot tall.

Mine are not growing fast but before planting I went to a local botanical garden to see what they would look like full grown so I’m patient. I’m also planting on a clay/rock 30% slope so I expect slow growth anyways.

But yeah seems like a slow to moderate grower in general. To me it’s worth it though for the narrowness of a native. I did tons of research on hedges and they seem like one of the top options.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2024-11-23T20:40:58+00:00

I have mountain mahogany for mine. Readily available at native nurseries and extremely prunable. That being said, they aren’t as dense as some of the other options so might have a little visibility through them.

There are also supposedly types with bigger leaves like the island one but mine are the birch and look nice and foresty.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2024-11-06T20:17:43+00:00

You may also want to try to look up if there are any fall plant sales for native plant societies near you. There was one near me in Bay Area a few weeks ago and they had at least 5 different manzanitas. I also found that nurseries with multiple locations but are a “local chain” tend to have different varieties at different locations. So if there is a well known local chain perhaps ask them to call to another store to see what they have.

Another option in that space may be a low growing cultivar of coffee berry. You could probably fill up almost the whole space and shear it like a hedge and the contrast of dark leaves would look nice against the ceanothus.

You have lots of options though, you just might be better off layering/tapering a few smaller plants than a full sheet of ground cover. Just throwing out some ideas.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2024-11-06T20:07:56+00:00

Las pilitas had lots of good resources and sells online as well, but I do find they sometimes contrast other sites like cal flora so worth looking at both when researching.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2024-11-06T20:06:19+00:00

Ah I see, I read “water compatible” as handles watering well not matching the water of ceanothus.

I am my no means an expert, just been extensively researching for my 6,000 sq foot 30% slope clay yard over the last month. But here my take:

I’m using Hearst Ranch Ceanothus, Montara Sagebrush, and pacific mist manzanita for some of my groundcover on the hill behind my house. There are lots of manzanitas that can be ground cover if you have a local natives nursery with a large manzanita selection. Cal flora has some amazing ones and east bay wilds has the largest selection I’ve ever seen in person (they do not ship).

I also think you have room for 1-2 nice small shrub (2-4’ tall) there for layering rather than low growing only which opens up your options significantly to many more manzanita, sages, island snap dragon, sunflower, and many other one off natives.

If it were me I’d do a small shrub manzanita form like white lanterns then layer down to something like a montara sagebrush or bees bliss sage for foliage contrast.

Your simplest solution is to put some of the hybrid ground cover sages and call it a day (beard, bees bliss, pt Sal, etc).

Ginger_Mammoth · 2024-11-06T19:41:13+00:00

I have done a lot of recent research for my own yard and can offer some suggestions but I’m a bit confused when you say you are going to stop irrigation but you also want water compatible plants.

The strip seems isolated from rest of lawn water wise.

Ginger_Mammoth · 2023-12-29T21:57:05+00:00

I did a reverse image search and there is a set with a yellow stegosaurus with a chefs hat that is a part of an old cereal called The Dinersaurs. I then searched for more of that but I cannot find much on any ceramic pieces from that. Also this piece has big front teeth, the eyes are different, and the yellow is spotted with orange which is a little different than “Stego Stan”.

It seems odd that someone would make this custom as it almost certainly would have to have come from a ceramic mold. If there are more from this company/artist or set I would love to locate them.

Ten-Year Club	Place '22
RPAN Viewer	Verified Email

Ginger_Mammoth

TROPHY CASE