The only kind of gardens I can think of in remote northern California properties which are visited only monthly or so are usually under surveillance by the law.
No joke. Also, if your friend's property is truly that remote, he needs to check it carefully--preferably in the company of others (maybe a deputy sheriff?)--to make sure no one *else* has already set up some sort of growing enterprise on his property.
Many square
miles of federal and state parks have been turned into eco-wastelands by drug cartels using these remote areas for their own purposes, together with herbicides and who knows what, and diverting natural sources of water. Innocent hikers, completely unaware that anyone was even within shouting distance, have been shot dead within the past few years by sentinels of these enterprises.
I understand the desire to have a garden on remote property, but I've lived in the Bay Area for quite a while and have friends in more northerly counties who have given up favorite hiking trails and other "wilderness" activities due to the uncertainty associated with such cartels.
If his property is indeed secure, native plants would be the best way to go, unless he's looking for edible gardening. In that case, he might do well to look into agri/horticultural methods known to have been used in the Southwest by the Native Americans (First Nations) peoples (sunken beds, slanted beds just to name two), and ensure that his property perimeter is strong.
Two-footed garden thieves are much more difficult to deal with than the four-footed ones.
Sad but true.
Sorry to be the bearer of so much negativity, but as you're in Long Beach and I don't know where your friend lives, I'm not sure if either of you know how much of the parkland in the coastal ranges has been compromised.
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
