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Sage Offers Wisdom to Cope With Weather

Sage Ecological Landscapes & Nursery / Photography : Grant Sukchindasathien
Sage Ecological Landscapes & Nursery / Photography : Grant Sukchindasathien

By Camas Frank ~

Chances are a quick Google search for “ecological landscaping” in San Luis Obispo County will land you at sagelandscapes.net.

That wasn’t always the case, but after a decade in the business, Sage Ecological Landscaping and Nursery, a Los Osos based company run by a Cal Poly alumnus, is a local leader.

“Our focus has always been on the ecological component,” says Todd Davidson, Sage’s owner and nurseryman. “We want to build up gardens and properties that are in tune with our surroundings.”

Aside from being happy to dole out some sage advice to whoever stops by for help at the Mediterranean-climate arboretum they’ve built at the corner of Los Osos Valley Road, and Fairchild Way, the Sage name also comes from the hummingbird sage. Davidson explains it’s a local varietal that requires some wisdom to tend, growing under the native oak trees on the Central Coast.

“It takes dry gardening,“ he says. “If you try to grow a water intensive lawn under the trees you can give them root rot. What we do is deep, long term design.”


It’s not exactly news that the drought is causing issues for gardeners and lawn owners who continue a style of property maintenance made popular in the post war property boom of the 1950s. However, the idea that there are other options that can be just as attractive, even cheaper to maintain, doesn’t always come without education.

Landscape-Todd-Davidson-Headshot-1-of-2020120501-untitled-shoot-untitled-2653-680x1024-copy“My grandfather, Ray Houston, was a horticultural professor at Cal Poly from 1957 to 1983,” says Davidson. “I’m a local boy through and through and ended up at both Cuesta and Cal Poly.”

Much of what the company does now, at least in their display garden, which was installed in 2008 at one of the oldest continually operating nursery properties in the county, is to emulate the five regional gardens that Cal Poly uses to teach students about the climate that the Central Coast shares with parts of South Africa, Chile, Western Australia and of course the Greek Mediterranean.

“Mediterranean plants evolved with wet, cold winters,” Davidson explains. “They’re very drought tolerant but everything we’re installing now will also do well in the deep watering of an El Niño winter.”

In short, while business has already been booming, with Sage’s crews ripping out thirsty lawns and their design teams coming up with tailored replacement plans, both the business and their clients stand to benefit from the kind of weather California is expecting.

“A wet winter will get all our new drought gardens established for whatever comes next year,” Davidson says. “As long as we remember drainage. That’s some of what we’re reminding people right now. Drainage tends to be forgotten, while everything is dry but keeping 2-percent slopes and using mulch to prevent erosion make the difference.”

The sage knowledge that the staff offer visitors to the nursery, especially how to care for any of the plants bought there, is free, but the manpower and yard redesigns do cost.

For a typical suburban front yard the company estimates an $8,000-$12,000 price range to take out a non-functional garden and replace it with an ecosystem that will suit the property.

As with a kitchen remodel, the sky is the limit on accessory options but the figure is a good base measure.

Davidson, or one of the designers who, chances are, will also be a Cal Poly graduate building a family on the Central Coast, can be reached by phone at 574-0777 or dropping by the nursery at 1188 LOVR in Los Osos.

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