When Zamora, an art department coordinator for TV shows like "No Good Deed," bought the 1923 bungalow in 2009, the smallish backyard was filled with hard dirt and three junk cars, which thankfully were removed before he moved in in 2010. In the beginning, before he met Rojas, he focused more on the interior of the house and dabbled at planting just a few flower beds outside. He said his focus then was on showy drought-tolerant plants like statice and Pride of Madeira, a fast-growing perennial with giant purple blooms native to the Portuguese island of Madeira.

"I didn't realize these plants are invasive along the central coast," he said. "I was just planting things because they looked pretty, and I knew they would grow because I'd seen them in other places."

He added the leucadendron and grevillea for their showstopping, drought-tolerant blooms. But he also planted a white sage (Salvia apiana) because he admired the silvery green foliage of one of Southern California's most famous indigenous plants during a local hike.

After Rojas moved in in 2012, the couple got more serious about the yard, visiting plant stores and nurseries to get ideas. In 2015, during a visit to Potted in Atwater Village, they saw a flier for the Theodore Payne tour and decided to give it try. It was easy to buy tickets for the tour in those days, Rojas said — "They didn't sell out like they do today" — and the gardens they saw finally gave their landscaping a sharp focus: native plants.

"It was one of the best decisions we ever made," Zamora said.

But once they started adding native plants in earnest, the challenges started. They amended their heavy clay soil with compost and other additives, something you would normally do to plant traditional landscape ornamentals and food. But after many of the new plants died, they learned their yard had mostly heavy, slow-draining clay soil, and that native plants prefer well-draining native soils over enriched garden plots.

"I learned that from one of Theodore Payne's 'Right Plant, Right Place' classes that teaches you what plants do best in your situation," Zamora said. "And I also used Calscape to find out if the plants I'm interested in will tolerate clay soils. That's how we figured out a plan for adding plants we would love to have but don't have a place where they will work."

They grow plants that don't like clay in pots, such as the super-sweet smelling woolly bluecurls (Trichostema lanatum) near their side door; once established, it's easily killed by too much water. The white sage has thrived, along with a very happy San Clemente Island bushmallow (Malacothamnus clementinus) that has grown from a one-gallon container to a massive shrub covered with blooms along their east fence.

They never really had a formal design, Zamora said. They tried things, and if it didn't work, they tried something else. Initially they added two raised beds for vegetables but eventually removed one to create more space for paths and native plantings.

Adding pebble walkways helped solve problems with runoff and standing water in the backyard. "We do not have a bioswale [to capture rainwater until it drains into the soil] — I wish I had known about those when I was doing the walks," Zamora said. "But I leveled the area so the water doesn't pool now, and the rocks seem to help hold water so it doesn't run off; it just seeps into the ground through the pavers."

Another helpful resource has been regular visits to the California Botanic Garden in Claremont, the state's largest botanic garden devoted entirely to native plants. "It's a peaceful place and very inspiring to see plants in their habitat," Zamora said. "We went there lots during the pandemic because it was such a great place to walk around."

They're also regular customers of Hardy Californians, a pop-up native plant nursery in Sierra Madre. Rojas, an entertainment publicist, even volunteered there during the Hollywood actors' strike in 2023, and came away an even bigger convert to the versatility and beauty of native plants.

"Our neighbors have been very positive," Rojas said. "We got little signs for all the plants because people on neighborhood walks always ask us what we've planted, and what we recommend for a specific situation."

A large ficus tree in the parkway outside their front door has died, probably because of damage when the street was dug up for water-pipe repairs. It's a city-owned tree, Zamora said, so a city crew will have to remove it, "but we're definitely going to talk to them about replacing it with something native."

Over the years, they've gotten much more sanguine about the circle of life in their garden. "We've learned that gardening is a process and some plants do better than others," Rojas said. "We used to get so upset — 'OMG, this died!' — but at this point, it's more like, 'Oh, this didn't like that location.' Now we see it as just a new planting opportunity."

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