Paradise Hills Native Garden

Installing boulders in Phase 1 areas, February 1, 2021.

Paradise Hills Native Garden

In 2017 a group of Southeastern San Diego community members began advocating for improving the covered landfill at Paradise Hills Community Park with a native plant demonstration garden. The proposal was met enthusiastically by the City of San Diego, but no funds were available.

So we founded Paradise Gardeners, a California Garden Clubs, Inc. club to apply for grants and obtain tax deductible funds to make it happen.

In 2020, we began the project, to be completed by local community volunteers and allied groups. We have received several grants, and are continuing to apply for more throughout the project.

We need more volunteers for weeding, mulching, planting and planning – please contact us if you’re interested in this project. Your membership and donations are also vital to the garden’s success!

the covered landfill prior to project
The project site, a covered landfill at Paradise Hills Community Park, April 2020. The project site is accessed from the parking lot southwest of the intersection of Paradise Valley Road and Potomac Street, and north of the Paradise Hills Recreation Center, which is located at 6610 Potomac Street San Diego, CA 92139.
Wes' drawing/plan of the project site
Concept drawing shows Native Garden(s) layout.

Phase One-Fall 2020

We will begin work on the Pollinator Garden, including a kiosk so visitors can stop and learn about our native plants and their pollinators.  We will place benches so you may enjoy the beautiful birds and butterflies that come to the native plants.

California Gnatcatcher

Phase Two-Early Winter 2021

The pollinator garden will continue with another set of benches.

Phase Three-Fall 2021

An Ethnobotany Garden will be installed to share information about the Kumeyaay Nation that lived in, and traveled about, our area. The plantings in this area will share the many ways the Kumeyaay used the plants for materials, food and medicine.

native species
Lemonadeberry Sumac, Rhus integrifolia; California Holly (Toyon), Heteromeles arbutifolia; California Buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum; Black Elderberry, Sambucus nigra.

Phase Four-Early Winter 2022

This phase will be native plants that may be used for residential landscaping to create drought resistance in home landscape design. There will be a kiosk that shares the history of the Paradise Hills area from prehistoric epochs to European arrivals and the first U.S. settlers from the east coast. 

Project Completion Date- April-May 2022

Indigenous to the region are several species of sage and several species of scrub oak. So what separates the above two plants? Black Sage, Salvia mellifera, and Nuttall’s Scrub Oak, Quercus dumosa. These are the keystone species that respectively contribute the words “sage” and “scrub” to the term used to describe Southern California’s coastal ecosystem—coastal sage scrub.

Comments are closed.