Lifestyle
He swapped his lawn for native plants after asking, ‘What was meant to be here?’
Water-hungry lawns are symbols of Los Angeles’ past. In this series, we spotlight yards with alternative, low-water landscaping built for the future.
When Christopher Smee welcomes visitors to his Glendale garden, he enjoys giving what his friends jokingly call “the botanical tour.”
“Would you like to walk through the native chaparral?” he asks, pointing out the California native plants in his front yard: a multi-trunk toyon, bright orange California poppies (Eschscholzia californica), lantern-shaped Bladderpod (Cleomella arborea) with yellow flowers that bloom most of the year, purple Arroyo lupines (Lupinus succulentus), fragrant Allen Chickering Sage (Salvia ‘Allen Chickering’), and tall, silvery white sage (Salvia apiana) at the center.
“I love the majesty and structure of the white sage,” he says, pointing out the dried branches he leaves for the birds. “I love the color, and when I learned about its importance to the Indigenous community, I felt it should be at the center of the garden.”
Before: Christopher Smee’s Glendale home when it had Bermuda grass and nonnative plants.
(Christopher Smee)
After: Smee’s garden today.
Like many newcomers to Los Angeles, Smee, a 45-year-old former flight attendant, was fascinated by the city’s landscape and its famous palm trees when he first moved from England.
As he spent more time hiking outdoors in Los Angeles, on the Mount Thom trail in the Verdugo Mountains and the Pacific Crest Trail in the San Bernardino Mountains, Smee started to appreciate the native plants that thrive in Southern California’s dry climate.
So when Smee and his husband, Ryan Tish, bought a 1925 French-style home in the Rossmoyne Historic District, he knew he wanted to redesign the traditional front yard.
“There was a privet hedge, a lonely juniper, a hibiscus, a large bird of paradise and a camellia bush,” he says. “The lawn was mostly dirt. In fact, it had been colored green with CGI in the online real estate listing.”
The new patio, or “wine terrace,” overlooks the garden.
A native of Newcastle Upon Tyne, where English gardens are as beloved as football teams, Smee found the Glendale front yard’s layout off-putting. “You couldn’t get into the garden because the plants were a barrier,” he says. “You had to climb over things to get to the garden. In the U.K., my family had a long front garden that we actually used, so having a front garden and not using it seemed silly to me.”
Even though Smee had never gardened before, he decided to remove the tropical plants and Bermuda grass lawn in 2021 and plant a native garden to honor the California plants that grew there before the homes were built.
“I asked myself the question, ‘What was meant to be here?’ ” he says, standing in his yard as birds, bees and butterflies floated through the landscape. “That was the key question. All these plants I see in gardens — are they original? My husband grew up in L.A., and he couldn’t answer the question himself. I learned that generally they are not. I wanted to make things right, so I went on a journey to find what was here originally.”
The only nonnative in the yard, a multi-trunked olive tree, pays homage to the Glendale neighborhood, which was once an olive grove.
He began by visiting the Theodore Payne Foundation’s demonstration garden in Sun Valley, where people can see native plants growing in their natural habitat. “They sell flash cards that are like the Farrow & Ball paint chips you get for home improvement projects,” he says. He also visited local nurseries such as Plant Material, Artemisisa Nursery and Hahamongna Native Plant Nursery, which offer native species.
Wanting a garden that was easy to use and colorful year-round, Smee contacted landscape designer Guillaume Lemoine of Picture This Land to help design a formal French garden using California native plants.
“I always had a vision of walking down the porch steps, turning straight into the garden, and being able to walk to the wine terrace,” Smee says. “You want to get some usage and joy out of your garden. Not just something to look at when you drive by.”
Like many design projects, the plan changed over time. “The French garden didn’t happen,” Smee says. “But one day I will do it.” Still, the cottage-style garden has a French-inspired look composed of four quadrants with a water fountain in the center.
Smee’s Glendale lawn before it was removed.
(Christopher Smee)
Prolific self-seeding California poppies, lupine and Common Tiny Tips grow in the front yard.
(Kit Karzen / For The Times)
Before planting, Smee and his husband applied for a turf removal rebate from Glendale Water and Power, which gives homeowners $3 per square foot for replacing turf with drought-tolerant and native plants and for installing irrigation and a rainwater capture system. After the work was completed, they received a $1,596 rebate for removing 798 square feet of turf in the 2,000-square-foot yard. Smee estimates they spent about $20,000 in total on design fees, plants, removal and installation before the rebate.
Next, they hired Roger Ridlehoover and Maria Maturano of the Land Design Project to remove the lawn and plant climate-appropriate plants. The team started by cutting the Bermuda grass, turning it over and letting it sit to kill the roots. Then they added cardboard and a thick layer of mulch, using a no-dig gardening method called sheet mulching. “It worked,” Smee says. “We had a few strands of Bermuda grass come back, but that was it.”
Smee is backed by white sage, which he wanted to be the center of the garden. Note: This photo was taken with a 360-degree camera.
After setting up movable micro-emitters for irrigation, they planted native species that fit the site, soil and climate, focusing on their role in supporting a diverse ecosystem.
Because of a delay with their retaining wall, they ended up planting the garden in July 2021, which is usually the hardest time of year to start a new garden.
But the delay proved that you can plant in the summer, Smee says, at least if you use native plants.
“We only lost a few plants,” he says. “Of course, fall is the best time to plant before it gets too hot, but if you are working with a good landscape designer, it is not out of the realm of possibility. “
From the street, you can see the garden’s silver and green leaves shimmering, with bright bursts of California lilac (Ceanothus Yankee Point) spilling over the front wall. Toyon brings red berries in winter and white flowers in spring, while California sagebrush and Cleveland sage fill the air with an intoxicating perfume. There is now a new patio that looks out over the garden, just as Smee wanted. All the plants are native, except for an olive tree he planted to remember the neighborhood’s past when olive groves filled the area before homes were built in the 1920s.
Bladderpod (Cleomella arborea) flowers most of the year.
California poppies bloom in the spring.
“We wanted to honor the history of the area and the theme of the streets,” Smee says about the low-fruit olive tree, which is less messy than other varieties that often leave oily stains on streets and sidewalks. Smee thought about planting an oak tree instead but worried that a large tree might be too heavy for the retaining wall along the sidewalk, so he decided against it. “It’s still a lingering regret,” he says.
“I love seeing the deep, rich green of the toyon next to the pale green of the sage, dudleyas, sagebrush and the olive tree,” Smee says. “I wanted to make sure that even in the hottest part of summer, my garden wouldn’t turn brown.”
After years of working in his garden, the former novice has figured out what grows well in his yard’s different spots. California Wax Myrtle (Morella californica) couldn’t handle the summer heat. Salvia clevelandii ‘Winifred Gilman’ didn’t do as well as the other sages and was too aromatic for his taste. He also tried showy penstemons, but they didn’t like the shade near the house.
“Native plants are often described at nurseries with their sun preferences: ‘full sun’, ‘partial sun’, ‘shade,’ etc.,” he says. “But full sun in Glendale is very different from full sun in coastal Brentwood. Trying out different plants has helped me learn what ‘full sun’ means in my own garden, so now I can choose plants more confidently.”
An overhead view of the garden.
Smee learned a few things about himself along the way too. “I’ve always thought water fountains were a bit twee,” he says with a smile, but now he loves his. He found the clean-lined water fountain at Reseda Discount Pottery & Fountains, which he calls an “Aladdin’s cave” with hundreds of fountains running at once.
“It’s like in ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ where he has to choose the goblet,” he says, laughing. The birds and bees love it too, he adds. “The ravens have left Cheez-Its for us.”
Five years later, Smee’s dream is now a reality. He strolls along a stepping-stone path through dry chaparral and coastal sage scrub, with Mexican gold onyx boulders on either side, leading to the patio where he and his husband like to host friends during the summer.
Smee didn’t think he wanted to install a water fountain, but now he’s glad he did because it attracts wildlife.
Last year, he welcomed more than 300 visitors during the Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour and had to set up a one-way path through the garden to help manage the crowd.
For maintenance, Smee says he prunes once each season, four times a year. He doesn’t have a gardener and rarely waters the plants. “There is a lot of ebb and flow in the garden,” he says. “I cut it back a lot every year to make space for wildflowers in the spring. I get sad when the wildflowers die, but then I chop them back and save the seeds, and before I know it, the California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum) blooms, adding red to the garden.”
After the first year, while he was getting the garden established, he saw a big drop in the couple’s water use. “When it gets hot in the summer, I turn on the water once a month,” he says. He tried not watering at all, but when he saw the California fuchsia, also called ‘hummingbird fuchsia’ because the birds love it, struggling, he turned the water back on.
“I’m not in the wild,” he says. “It’s still a garden, and I want to enjoy it.”
“It’s really been a joy to reunite the soil with the plants that belong here,” Smee says of removing his lawn and planting California natives.
Now that he has finished creating a native habitat at home, Smee looks forward to using what he has learned by volunteering at the Sunshine Preserve, a 3½-acre site owned by the nonprofit Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy on the eastern edge of the Verdugo Mountains in Glendale.
Working with other volunteers, Smee has helped remove invasive plants and plant native species, including 30 oak trees that attract local wildlife like the endangered monarch butterfly, mountain lions and bobcats. Smee and his group have planted 40 or 50 white sages to help rebuild the local population.
“At the preserve, I’m learning how things grow in the wild,” he says. “The ground is natural dirt, untouched by gardeners. Woolly bluecurls can be tricky for home gardeners, but at the preserve, it thrives because it’s in the right place. We’ve probably planted hundreds of native plants over the last three years. Come back in 30 years, and you’ll see what we’re working toward.”
Smee admits he knew little about California plants and soil at first, but he says he has since become more connected to the land. In the process, he learned there is real joy in bringing native plants back to the soil where they belong.
“I hope people can see that a California native garden can be joyful, colorful and full of life — that’s it not just about conserving water, but about enriching life through the biodiversity that the native plants attract to the garden,” he says. “Thoughtful plant selection can ensure a native garden has something of interest at all times of the year and doesn’t have to go brown in the summer.”
Many people can make a difference on the planet even with a small garden, says Smee. “Having a native garden brings a unique level of joy because you discover you’re doing something for the native wildlife that no other type of garden can do,” he says. “It’s a really special thing.”
PLANT LIST
Bladderpod, Cleomella arborea
Blue grama grass, Bouteloua gracilis
Blue grama grass ‘Blonde Ambition’, Bouteloua gracilis ‘Blonde Ambition’
Bright green dudleya, Dudleya virens ssp. hassei
Britton’s Dudleya, Dudleya brittonii
California Laurel, Umbellularia californica
California Buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum
California Fuchsia, Epilobium canum
California Goldenrod, Solidago velutina ssp. californica
Canyon Gray Sagebrush, Artemisia californica ‘Canyon Gray’
Canyon Dudleya, Dudleya cymosa
Yankee Point Carmel Ceanothus, Ceanothus thyrsiflorus var. griseus ‘Yankee Point’
Cedros Island liveforever, Dudleya pachyphytum
Chaparral nolina, Nolina cismontana
Chaparral Yucca, Hesperoyucca whipplei
Allen Chickering Sage, Salvia ‘Allen Chickering’
Mound San Bruno California Coffeeberry, Frangula californica ‘Mound San Bruno’
Conejo Buckwheat, Eriogonum crocatum
Desert Agave, Agave deserti
Desert marigold, Baileya multiradiata
Eastwood Manzanita, Arctostaphylos glandulosa ssp. glandulosa
Fingertips, Dudleya edulis
Giant Chain Fern, Woodwardia fimbriata
Lanceleaf Liveforever, Dudleya lanceolata
Lemonade berry, Rhus integrifolia
Emerald Carpet Manzanita, Arctostaphylos ‘Emerald Carpet’
Howard McMinn Manzanita, Arctostaphylos ‘Howard McMinn’
Vibrant Red Monkeyflower, Diplacus ‘Vibrant Red’
Narrow Leaf Milkweed, Asclepias fascicularis
Wilson’s olive, Olea europaea ‘Wilson Fruitless’
Tall Oregon Grape, Berberis aquifolium
Palmer’s Dudleya, Dudleya palmeri
Margarita BOP Penstemon, Penstemon heterophyllus ‘Margarita BOP’
Red-flowered Buckwheat,Eriogonum grande var. rubescens
David’s Choice Sagebrush, Artemisia pycnocephala ‘David’s Choice’
San Quintín liveforever, Dudleya anthonyi
Tecate Cypress, Hesperocyparis forbesii
Toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia
De La Mina Verbena, Verbena lilacina ‘De La Mina’
White Sage, Salvia apiana
Woolly Bluecurls, Trichostema lanatum
WILDFLOWERS
Blue-eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium bellum
Arroyo lupine, Lupinus succulentus
California Poppy, Eschscholzia californica
Common Tidy Tips, Layia platyglossa
California Goldfields, Lasthenia californica
Lifestyle
Vintage-obsessed millennial parents are driving L.A.’s booming kids’ clothing resale market
Kids’ vintage clothing sales are experiencing a remarkable boom at in-person markets and online, where prices for clothes for little ones have shot up on websites including Depop and Poshmark. Millennial parents are looking to outfit their kids in the clothes and TV and film characters they loved (or coveted) when they were kids.
The result? There’s a new generation of kiddos hitting the playground looking incredibly cool. Take Amari Case, a SoCal toddler who spent a Sunday afternoon this spring ambling around a vintage market in a West Hollywood warehouse clad in baggy jeans and a ’90s-era tee emblazoned with the “Dragon Ball Z” character Son Goku.
When she wasn’t scribbling on a Lorax coloring sheet, she’d been cruising around the market with her dad, Aaron Munoz Case, snapping up new pieces destined to make her the flyest kid at the preschool playground.
Neil Wright, from left, Kristine Nite Scalzo and Brandon Rosenblatt, co-founders of Elemeno Kids Vintage Market.
Showing off Amari’s new vintage satin L.A. Raiders jacket and tiny teal Grant Hill Detroit Pistons jersey, Munoz Case, who was also impeccably dressed, noted that while Amari went through a phase at about 18 months where she wanted to dress herself, eventually she gave up and went back to letting her dripped-out dad dictate her wardrobe.
Munoz Case found Amari’s first vintage piece at the Rose Bowl Flea Market and got the bug, going back every month to pick up something to add to his little’s wardrobe.
Trendspotters and researchers say Munoz Case isn’t alone in his quest. The market for kids’ vintage clothing has heated up precipitously over the last few years, perhaps hitting a boiling point in January when an Eeyore romper from the ’90s sold for over $3,000 on EBay. (It was new with tags, but one without tags still went for almost a grand about a month later.)
The thirst for tiny throwbacks is so popular that first-ever, all-kids market Elemeno — named after the “L-M-N-O” bit of “The Alphabet Song” and where Amari was toddling and shopping — drew 17 vendors and over 2,000 attendees over a single weekend in March. (There are plans for another Elemeno Kids Vintage Market pop-up later this year in New York, as well as plans to bring the event back to L.A. sometime next year.)
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1. Cameron Scalzo, wearing a vintage McDonald’s T-shirt from the ‘90s, and mom Kristine Nite Scalzo. 2. Cameron Scalzo rocks an Avirex jacket from the ‘90s.
Eye Speak Vintage’s Kristine Nite Scalzo, who co-organized the event and is opening an all-kids vintage store in Pasadena this month, says she fell under the kids vintage spell in 2020 when she was pregnant with her son. She’d always been a vintage shopper for herself, so she knew she wanted to pass the passion down to the next generation. She started filling up her son’s closet, and soon enough, she found herself selling her other finds out of a bodega in her garage.
She has a by-appointment space in Pasadena now, where she draws everyone from Rihanna’s stylist to out-of-town moms who make a point to stop by on their way to Disneyland. “The community around kids vintage has really skyrocketed on Instagram over the past six years,” Scalzo says. “We want to know who we’re buying from. We want to know that we’re doing good with buying secondhand. And it’s a hobby for people that can turn into a possible business on the side. Because knowing there’s a big group that’s interested in vintage kids clothes, you can always pass an item [your kid outgrows] to someone else or resell it.”
Scalzo says some parents are out digging through bins at the Goodwill Outlet looking for the perfect piece, while others are content to pay up for, say, a ’90s Simpsons T-shirt or a mini-size Harley-Davidson jacket. Scouring the racks at the Elemeno market, most pieces cost $15 to $40, though there were special pieces pulled to the side in some booths with price tags that could make a parent’s eyes pop. (Think $275 for a set of well-worn Spider-Man overalls from the ’00s or $150 for a pair of Cross Colours denim shorts from the ’90s.)
In kids and adult vintage alike, mint condition is highly valued. No matter the era in which they were raised, kids tend to be messy. They get strawberry juice on their shirts or scuff up the knees on their Bugle Boy jeans. Vintage kids clothes that look pristine are more expensive, and while plain kids clothes do sell, items with characters on them or cool prints tend to draw more attention and dollars.
Brandon Rosenblatt, another of the Elemeno organizers, says he’s had his eye on a specific kids “Back to the Future” shirt for some time, but notes that it typically sells for about $1,000. He’s partial to McKids clothes for his daughter, from McDonald’s short-lived kids clothing brand, noting that he’s even snagged her a vintage official McDonald’s-themed aloha shirt from Hawaii, something he says he’s never seen anywhere else.
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1. Siblings Amora and Milo Castilo wear vintage cowboy hats, jackets and chaps. 2. Thalia Castilo and her kids Amora and Milo.
Other collectors, he says, might be a little less obscure, leaning into mainstream characters such as Strawberry Shortcake or from ’80s and ’90s properties including “The Land Before Time” and “Rugrats.”
“A lot of millennials are having kids — like everyone who’s in their 30s and 40s — and they all want to put their kids in the same IP they grew up in,” Rosenblatt says.
“It’s the thrill of the hunt that gets everyone so excited,” Scalzo says. “Once you find that perfect nostalgic piece, you’re like ‘Holy s—,’ and you just want to chase that feeling again and again.”
Mia De La Rosa, a reseller who was at the Elemeno market, says that like Scalzo, she started buying kids vintage clothes when she was pregnant with her daughter, Liv, who’s 6 now, very into everything on PBS Kids and has a closet full of thrifted vintage garb covered in characters such as D.W., the annoying little sister from the ’90s show “Arthur.”
Everything Liv wears is “completely her style,” De La Rosa says. “She dresses herself every day and she gets compliments on what she’s wearing at school all the time.”
Other vintage-wearing kids — and in particular younger ones — might simply be sporting what their parents like or might just like the look of the shirt even if they don’t know what it’s advertising. (An 8-year-old boy at the Elemeno market, for instance, chose to wear a pristine T-shirt highlighting the ’90s Jim Carrey movie “The Mask” because it featured his favorite color: green.)
Derrick Broaster, a vintage enthusiast turned full-time reseller, says that while he chooses to put himself in clothes from the ’60s and ’70s, he outfits his two sons in clothes from the 2000s. (“How Bow Wow used to dress when he was a kid,” he says.)
Although his younger son tends to rebel against Broaster’s vintage picks, opting for whatever Spider-Man shoes happen to be in his eyeline, his older son has leaned in, letting his dad advise him on what vintage pieces could work and what would be the most stylish.
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1. Julian, left, and Javier Gutierrez show off their vintage clothing. Javier says his mom always tells him to keep his vintage outfits clean. 2. Mom Priscilla Guzman, clockwise, Dad Javier Gutierrez and sons Julian and Javier Gutierrez enjoy the vibe of vintage clothing. Guzman says she’s been buying and selling kids’ vintage since her oldest son was born eight years ago.
Rosenblatt says a good portion of what vintage finds he sees in the market now has returned to the U.S. from places in Central America and South America or Asia where those pieces were likely sent decades ago after they were donated or given away.
“There’s a real underbelly of this vintage game with rag houses getting access to bulk product overseas and letting people sort through it,” he says. “There are companies now that rip through 20, 30 or 40,000 pieces of vintage clothing a week. It’s a really interesting ecosystem.”
For many kids vintage sellers, finding their stock is just as fun and interesting as getting it back into consumers’ hands. “Anywhere we can find clothes, we’re there,” says Matthew Carlos, owner of Long Gone Youth. He started selling vintage clothes 11 years ago, when he was 15, switched to kids vintage at 20 and has spent the last six years scouring flea markets, websites and swap meets.
“The kids market is definitely growing,” he says, “but I still feel like we haven’t even gotten close to where we can go. It’s just getting popular now, but the more events [like Elemeno] we can do, the more it’ll go mainstream.” Even now, some major brands like Gap and OshKosh B’gosh have recognized the interest in some of their styles from the ’80s and ’90s, moving to re-release the looks in limited runs.
Jackie and Frank Oropeza with daughter Rumi Mae shop at Elemeno Kids Vintage Market.
Kids resale is also leaning into streetwear culture. Rosenblatt, who worked in the streetwear industry, says that he’s noticed that a good portion of those interested in kids vintage — particularly, male shoppers — tend to be fans of streetwear brands like Supreme, Fear of God Essentials and Bape. At Elemeno, for instance, a good portion of the parents we saw pushing strollers were well-dressed dads seemingly on solo missions, something you don’t always see at kid-centric events.
“I just want my son to feel like I did as a kid,” said Justin Nguyen, while watching his toddler, Jayden, play with bubbles. “I want him to be happy, carefree and joyful, and I want to be able to spend time with him. My mom and dad were always working, even on the weekends. Now that I’m a dad, taking my son out on weekends to do stuff like this just seems like a blessing.”
Author Julia Elliott won for her short story collection Hellions.
Forrest Clonts/Tin House
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Forrest Clonts/Tin House
Writer Julia Elliott has won this year’s Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for her short story collection Hellions. The award honors work by women and nonbinary authors in the U.S. and Canada.
Elliott, who also authored the novel The New and Improved Romie Futch and the short story collection The Wilds, is known for blending elements of Southern gothic horror, surrealism and fairy tale. Hellions, published in 2025, includes stories set against backdrops like a plague-stricken medieval convent, a feminist art colony, and small Southern towns.
“This eerie, eclectic, genre-leaping collection takes no half-measures; every sentence of Hellions crackles or crawls,” wrote the prize jury in a statement. “Here, human folly moves against a backdrop of horror and magic … But for all its wildness, there is tremendous control.”
The prize, named after a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, awards $150,000 to one winner each year. Novels, short story collections, and graphic novels by women and nonbinary authors are eligible.
This year’s finalists included Quiara Alegría Hudes (The White Hot), Lee Lai (Cannon), Megha Majumdar (A Guardian and a Thief), and Sonya Walger (Lion). They will each receive $12,500.
The Carol Shields Prize went to writer Canisia Lubrin in 2025.
You can listen to actor Donna Lynne Champlin read Elliott’s story “Hellion” on the Death, Sex & Money podcast here.
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