UC Davis Russell Ranch gets a visitor entry makeover

The Russell Ranch Sustainable Agriculture Facility recently received a front door makeover including a new facility monument sign in addition to landscaping provided by a horticultural team from the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden.

Faculty and researchers at the facility were interested in a small landscape that served many functions—it had to highlight and balance their new signage, be low-water, low-maintenance, and attract pollinators. As it happens that type of plant selection is a specialty of Director of Public Horticulture Ellen Zagory and GATEways Horticulturist Stacey Parker.

The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden provided the plants while members of the UC Davis Agricultural and Sustainability Institute provided the irrigation and planting power, not to mention future maintenance needs. The result is a small landscape that, once established, will require very little water or maintenance while simultaneously helping attract and keep pollinators on the site.

Here’s a list of what was planted:

  1. Quercus lobata, valley oak
  2. Aster chilensis ‘Point St. George’, native aster
  3. Solidago californica ‘Cascade Creek’, Cascade Creek California goldenrod
  4. Muhlenbergia rigens, deergrass
  5. Ceanothus maritimus ‘Valley Violet’, valley violet maritime ceanothus
  6. Isomeris arborea, bladderpod
  7. Fremontodendron californicum ‘San Gabriel’, flannel bush
  8. Baccharis ‘Centennial’, Centennial coyote brush
  9. Eriogonum fasciculatum, California buckwheat
  10. Eriogonum fasciculatum ‘Theodore Payne’, Theodore Payne buckwheat
  11. Eriogonum fasciculatum ‘Warriner Lytle’, Warriner Lytle buckwheat
  12. Arctostaphylos densiflora ‘Howard McMinn’, Vine Hill manzanita

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