In 2018 Preserve Calavera and the Center for Natural Lands Management (CNLM) began working on coastal sage scrub restoration in an area at the end of Gibraltar St. in Carlsbad. It took a year to remove all the weeds, trash and pet waste at the site to prepare for planting with native California Coastal sage scrub species. After adding over 50 plants, this area serves as a demonstration garden for planting with native California coastal sage scrub species.
Demonstration Garden in 2024
We spent an additional 3 years preparing the hillside on the east side of the Gibraltar area for native grass restoration. A lot of grunt work went into preparing the site—restoring the land to what was naturally there always takes longer and is harder than one expects. Site preparation included chain sawing out acacias, and hand chopping fennel and other invasives.
We held 3 major planting events on the hillside:
Phase 1: In November of 2021, we held a special event to plant the initial 107 native plants (8 native grass species). We had help from 27 volunteers. Initially the plants needed weekly watering, so we installed a water tank on site that is filled monthly. Every week volunteers hand watered the new plants until they were established.
Phase 2: In December of 2022, with the help of many volunteers, we planted 100 more native plants and scattered 218 seed balls containing native grass seeds.
Phase 3: In December of 2023, again with the help of many dedicated volunteers, we planted an additional 103 native grassland plants and scattered 106 seedballs. We also spread 40 cubic yards of mulch on the site to help keep the invasives at bay. Our volunteers worked extremely hard spreading the mulch along that steep slope.
We continue our efforts to maintain and water the site as needed, scatter seed balls and remove invasive plants. If you would like to join our efforts, check our activities calendar for our monthly event at this site.
Phase 3 Planting
