I would never go through that much work of digging out sod. I would go with kimmsr's suggestion of covering with newspaper or cardboard and then some kind of mulch, chopped leaves, straw, hay, horse stall cleanings, coffee grounds from starbucks, all of the above is really good. Yes putting black plastic out will kill off the sod, will also in time kill off your soil. Next spring you will have a nice planting area. As you plant when you find rocks you can remove them. Other than that I would not worry about the rocks. Trust me it won't take for ever to kill the sod. If you so wish to get the good workout and pull up the sod then yes chop it up into smaller chunks, add to a mix of other compost materials(the sod is a green). The more you mix it over this winter/spring the quicker it will compost. You can also pull it up, pull out the rocks you want to pull out, turn the sod upside down then pile the above suggestions onto the bed. Again by spring you will have a great planting area. I have spent the day today laying out another layer of cardboard with leaves ontop of the cardboard and now this week I will do a couple runs to the horse farm for stall waste. I will lay that ontop of the leaves/cardboard and by next spring it will be a very rich area waiting for planting. Sandy

Hi Ingrid, Here are some of the books I've found very helpful and enjoyable. I'm posting the front and back covers of each. They're all different but still handy to have for various purposes. I bought them all in the garden shop of Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (which is conveniently quite close to where I live and within walking distance if I'm feeling adventurous and don't intend to buy any plants!). Bart O'brien who co-authored all 3 has long been on staff at RSABG and is a noted authority on California native plants, including one of my favs Rosa minutifolia. Carol Bornstein was the Director of Horticulture at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. She's a great advocate for locally appropriate plants, and champions one I'm still having trouble finding, the lovely grass, Bothriochloa barbinodis (Silver Beadgrass). David Fross is the founder of Native Sons Wholesale Nursery a source for many of the companion plants I've selected to grow with my roses. Btw, David Fross introduced a cultivar of a Calfornia native rose--Rosa californica 'Los Berros' (and yes I have it!). From From Gardening Books This one is arranged like an encyclopedia (by scientific names but with common names provided too, plus there's an index), showing many CA native plants in gardens or their natural environment. For each plant there is standard information provided such as what kind of plant it is, where it grows, light, soil, and water preferences, etc. Here's an excerpt from page 102 that describes California buckwheat: "Eriogonum fasciculatum California Buckwheat Plant type: Evergreen shrub. Geographic Zones: All except high mountains. Light: Sun to partial shade. Soil: Adaptable; well-drained preferred. Water: Drought tolerant to occasional. Natural Habitat and Range: Dry slopes and canyons in coastal scrub, chaparral, desert woodland, and desert scrub below 8000 feet; Alameda County south to northwestern Baja California and east to southwestern Utah and Arizona." Then there is a color photo of the plant along with information about the location of the photo, followed by 5 paragraphs of detailed notes, including multiple named cultivars. And that is the basic format for the whole book, with the amount of notes varying from plant to plant. There are in addition some excellent appendices that list places to see native plants growing as well as where to buy them. I consult this book all the time when considering what to add or not to add to my garden. It has saved me a lot of grief! 271 pages. From Gardening Books From Gardening Books This one has all sorts of handy data. There's a great plant list where the plants are grouped by form--trees, small trees/large shrubs, shrubs, sub-shrubs/perennials, vines, groundcovers, and cacti/succulents and arranged by watering needs--very low, low, medium, and high. There are sections on soil (including a neat quick test and table for determining the soil type in your garden), watering, climate, planting, care, pests, weeds, etc. 238 pages. From Gardening Books From Gardening Books This book is packed full of suggestions for replacing the traditional lawn and how to go about it. It is loaded with color pictures of examples of various options. Lawn replacements that this book covers include: greenswards, meadows, rock gardens, succulent gardens, carpet and tapestry gardens, kitchen gardens, green roofs. There is also an encyclopedia (like the one in California Native Plants for the Garden) of plants for those recommended. 154 pages. Melissa

I think the problem might be that song sparrows (at least on my property) seem to like the same type of shrub that house sparrows like. In my experience, the song sparrows like trees and deciduous shrubs as opposed to evergreens. They definitely like less tidy spaces.......but then so do house sparrows! Wish I could help you more. Good luck. P.S. Do you feed the birds? I've learned to never have millet in any birdseed I put out, since they like it so much. Actually, I quit feeding the birds because of a coon problem, and I have lots less house sparrows around.....so you might consider stopping birdfeeding for awhile.

We used metal fence posts and chicken wire, worked good. That was the least expensive option we could come up with that would work. However, after the season was over, I took some stuff over to our local "Habitat for Humanity" resale shop, and saw lots of fence posts there, along with some lumber and fencing materials as some have mentioned. So you might look around at some type of resale place first if you have that kind of thing in your vicinity. Here's our garden fence, designed to keep out chipmunks, groundhogs and deer. It worked for that. Curled wobbly top discourages climbing. Raised bed made out of treated lumber, which is much cheaper than cedar. We has a roll of this impervious black plastic sheeting stuff left in our garage from the home's previous owner. We don't use that kind of stuff normally, but we wrapped the inside of the treated lumber with it to discourage any leaching. Modern treated lumber theoretically doesn't leach that much but we had the stuff to use so it allowed us to save some money on the raised beds. Plus cedar boards are hard to come by where I live. We went with raised beds due to it being along the driveway and we didn't want dirt washing onto the driveway, among other issues. You might also check out some building demolition areas, sometimes I've gotten old bricks for lining garden beds in such places.