Gia Menchaca's 2024 Portfolio

PHILOSOPHY

My design philosophy is based in uplifting community and cultures in order to create landscapes that reflect and foster reciprocity, curiosity, and abundance.

01

NATIVE LANDSCAPES

Waterwise Community Center at Chino Basin Water Conservation District

+100 page public document

Analysis + Research

• Data Collection Design Strategies

• Analog Drawings

• Illustrator

SLOPES

Scale

•Steep : 20% +

Areas most Likely Found

•Paths

•In between homes

•Alleys

•Parks

Design Considerations

•Erosion control

•Clumping and deep rooted plants

•Room for large shrubs and trees

PARKING LOTS

•Large : Over 500 sqft.

Areas most Likely Found

•Businesses

•Public Spaces

•HOA O ces Scale

Design Considerations

•Oppourtunity for bioswales

•Trees for shades (evergreen)

CALIFORNIA NATIVE LANDSCAPES

for commercial, institutional, and municipal sites

• Objective : to create attractive and impactful designs that maintain relatively low maintenance and low water demand in comparison to tradition turf.

COMPACT COMMERCIAL PLANTER Perennials + Pollinators INSTITUTIONAL

STORM-WATER CAPTURE + FILTRATION

• Objective : to design an inviting and relatively low maintenance, landscape for an active public bike trail, while demonstrating storm-water capture using local native plants.

• Objective : this document was created to inform landscape professionals how to design, install and maintain native landscapes as well as their many benefits.

WHAT IS A CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT?

AND WHY DO THEY MATTER FOR BUILT LANDSCAPES?

When working with landscape professionals we often nd that there is a signicant amount of confusion about what exactly a California native plant is. For the purposes of this specic document, we are using the term “California native plant” as follows.

A CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT IS ONE THAT:

1. Evolved within California or the California Floristic Provence, which includes part of Baja.

2. Has been in California since long before Europeans arrived. European arrival began a period where many new plants rapidly began to be introduced to the environment both intentionally and unintentionally.

3. Is different than the general categories such as “California friendly,” “drought tolerant,” “low water,” or “waterwise,” which also includes many, many nonnative plants such as lantana, lavender, and rosemary. All plants in this document t into those more general categories AND are California native plants.

Note: In this context, when discussing built landscapes, the term “California native plant” is used as a shorthand to refer to plants that are both CA native AND are appropriately selected for the climate and micro-climate in which the built landscape area is located. For example, redwoods are native to California, but are not part of what we are referring to when we mention native plants for our local southern California landscapes. Similarly, alder trees grow locally, but along streams with consistent water availability. They are native but are also not what we are referring to for most built landscapes.

• Story boarding for package layout.

WHAT IS 1” OF WATER?

This refers to a volume of water being applied to an area of landscape equal to 1” of rain falling on that area. It is just like 1” of solid water was somehow suspended in the air over that area, then allowed to trickle down into the soil.

IMPORTANCE OF WATERING RINGS

Watering ring 1” to 2” above top of root ball

When 1” of water is applied, it will wet the soil further down than 1”.

Allen Chickering Sage

Salvia ‘Allen Chickering’

3 ft4

6 ft - 10 ft+ (if unpruned)

Plant Type : Shrub, CA Native Habit : Mounding

Growth Rate : Moderate / Fast

Foliage Flower color LEGEND

Sun + Soil Benefits + Uses

Sun Needs :

•Full sun

Soil Adaptations :

•Well-draining soil

•Clay soil Exposure Adaptations (once established) :

•Drought Uses :

•Fragrant foliage and flowers

•Slopes

•Foliage and flowering accent plant

•Borders Benefits :

•Bees, butterflies, beneficial insects and hummingbirds use

flowers

•Birds eat seeds

Watering the existing root ball and the surrounding soil (about 3 inches more or less)

Depending on your soil type the water may infiltrate deeper or more shallowly.

Care Guide

Allen Chickering Sage : Establishment Care ( 1 - 2 years )

How to shape your plant for the future?

•Pinch or prune back young plants regularly in the first year to encourage long-term development of a strong bushy structure.

•When newly planted plants reach appx. 12-18”, but before they flower, cut back each young stem by approximately 1/2.

▪ Don’t worry about sacrificing flowers the first year, you will be repaid with more flowers and a longer-lived better looking plant for many years in the future. Young plants allowed to develop too many long flower stocks without this pinching back commonly break apart under the weight of their own flowers

Plant Profile (over 30 profiles created)

Recommend Size to Plant

•one gallon

Tips /Advice

•In addition to the special pruning advice to the left, also be sure to follow the fall pruning

How much / often to water during establishment?

•If hand watering: provide 3-5 gallons once per week

Roots begin to grow and spread outside of the root ball to the surrounding soil )KAEP(GNIRPS REMMUS WINTER FALL Bloom Cycle

Foliage + Bloom

Foliage Character :

•Evergreen

Foliage Color :

•Pale green

Flower Color :

•Purple Flower Season :

•Spring

•May get small

rebloom in fall

•If on a sprinkler or “drip grid” irrigation system, provide 1” of water (equivelant to it raining 1”) once per week.

Ongoing Care For Established Plants

Fall Pruning (Recommended)

•Remove dead seed heads in the Fall, cutting each branch not only below the dried flowers, but also removing 1/3 to one half of that stem’s leavy growth. This helps control size, promotes bushier growth, and leads to more flower stems.

Early Summer Pruning (Optional)

•If desired, after spring / early summer flowering, can be headed back by removing as much of the new-ish growth as desired

•Doing so immediately after the first bloom encourages a potentially larger late-summer / fall rebloom, but sacrifices the development of seeds for wildlife to eat, so decide which is your priority!

•Watering

•We

Guide for further details, including how to provide 1” of water.

waterwisegardenplanner.org/wateringguide

•Recommendations are a baseline - adjust to your site based on your observations

Tips /Advice

•Avoid fertilizer (organic or synthetic)

•Consider leaving some of the pruned dry seed heads in the garden for bird food.

• Story boarding for profile layouts.

02

ECOLOGICAL + CULTURAL RESILENCY

CAL POLY POMONA CAPSTONE THESIS

partnership with the Nature Conservancy at the Dangermond Preserve in Lompoc, CA

Precolonial Timeline of Chumash Tribe

PALEOINDIAN PERIOD

13,000 to 8,500 Before Present

Seed-milling stone, chert tools, beads, and a fish-like stone

Climate was cool and moist, supporting extensive pine forests

Oak Grove Era also know as the "Millingstone Horizon" due to the abundance of milling stones

Small groups, collecting shellfish and harvesting wild seeds

Shellfish-gathering continued to supply most protein, and hunting and fishing were relatively unimportant.

INITIAL EARLY PERIOD

8,500 to 6,500 Before Present

pygmy mammoths

Most rock art found today was created during this period

Use of shell bead money

Population increase and changes in the tool kit

Fishing and sea mammal hunting became more important

Selective burning

Invention of atlas (spear, throwing stick) allows for hunting large animals

TERMINAL EARLY PERIOD

5,000 to 3,200 Before Present

Two-thirds of the Chumash population lived near the coast Use of tomols (canoes)

MIDDLE PERIOD

3,200 to 800 Before Present

LATE PERIOD

800 years Before Present to Missionization

People speaking begin a "Proto-Chumash"

Climate of the Santa Barbara region became warmer and drier

DESIGN WORKFLOW

• Based on gathered research from the timeline and ethno-botanical studies I began brainstorming ideas of spacing, planting and programming.

Conceptual Drawings

• All design and programming is based upon ecological education and interactive learning. The following diagrams explore the cultural uses of native plant communities found on site

ECOLOGICAL + CULTURAL PROGRAMMING

• Objective : the end result of this design includes a nature center. One of the primary goals of the Nature Center is to uplift and highlight the indigenous people’s of the land, the Chumash, rich cultural and ecological history. Programming for such is based off of the previous research displayed.

URBAN RESTORATION

CAL POLY POMONA CAPSTONE THESIS : CASE STUDY

Interior Greenbelt Park in San Francisco, CA

Structural Habitat Requirements

Rhino 3D Modeling

BUILDING NATIVE HABITATS WITH LOCAL COMMUNITY

• Objective : to redesign an existing park, in a highly dense urban setting, in a way that prioritizes local native species and habitat.

• This collage depicts how the local community can interact and learn from the redesigned site with the uplifted native species (from diagrams to the right)

Bird species like the Brown creeper wild let local residents know the health of the forest

Nearby university students can conduct research on water contamination levels and see how natural ecology helps with filtration

Visitors can sit upon reused wood stumps to observe and study the environment through artistic endeavors like sketching Revived creek provides home for lost biodiversity like the endangered red legged frog.

The basis of the design stems from the restoration and re-wilding of the Woodland Creek. Using information from the native species diagramming native plants (both existing and introduced) were selected to optimize biodiversity and build habitat for habitat indicators and endangered species.

THANK YOU