planting my hillside vineyard

I am looking for a landscape designer for my backyard hill in Concord California. The hillside area is approximately .5 acre. I have a small vineyard of 100 plants planted in the center and would like to plant natives along the perimeter to help keep the weeds down. I don't want to attract additional bees as they already are enjoying my grapes.

Any help appreciated.

ThanksCathy</p>

Cathy:

Planting a screen of toyon, ceanothus, and manzanita might slow down airborne seeds a little. If you use a good quality shredded redwood mulch underneath, that would inhibit weed germination. Attracting bees is nearly unavoidable. Why don't you try www.mynativeplants.com, put in your zip code and site parameters, and it will spit back a list of appropriate plants for your site. Hope this helps.</p>

Cathy,Finding a landscape architect or designer up in your neck of the woods should not be tooo difficult. The East Bay has quite a few talented proffesionals who work with natives. I would contact the UC Botanic Garden in Berkeley and see who they recommend. Also Tilden Botanic Garden may know of some people, also in Berkeley. Even calling a few of the wholesale native nurseries up 'near' you for recommendations might be worth it. Who knows, perhaps Suncrest nursery in Watsonville or good old Yerba Bueana nursery in Santa Cruz would know of someone up near you? Also try looking into Pacific Horticulture magazine. They have small ads in them, some of which are for designers in the East Bay.

I live in the South so can't think of anyone but wish you luck,Dan </p>