Greenbelt Growers in Riverside is one of California’s leading native grass nurseries, supplying drought-tolerant plants for landscapes across the state.

As California shifts toward water-wise and fire-conscious landscaping, native grasses have become a critical part of how the state builds and rebuilds its landscapes. Greenbelt Growers has grown alongside that demand, evolving into a specialized nursery serving large-scale projects across California.

The turning point came during a multi-year recession, when native grasses were among the few products keeping the business afloat. What began as a survival strategy became a long-term focus and eventually a defining niche.

Fifteen years later, Greenbelt Growers produces hundreds of thousands of plants each year, with Carl and Audrey Pongs helping shape the use of native grasses in modern California landscapes. As demand rises and fewer growers enter the market, operations like theirs are playing an increasingly important role in supplying plants for sustainable landscapes, fire protection zones, and habitat restoration across the state.

From Garden Center to Grass Nursery

Like many nurseries in Riverside County, Greenbelt Growers began as a general garden center before specializing in native grasses as demand for drought-tolerant landscaping grew. 

Carl Pongs was a nursery salesman before he was an owner. When the opportunity to buy the Riverside operation from his boss arose, he took it. The typical garden center life followed: a little of everything, customers who wanted roses and vegetables, the familiar rhythm of retail horticulture.

The recession changed all of that. As the customer base dried up and the staff shrank, grasses were the one product that still moved. Architects were specifying them for projects that needed to meet new environmental and LEED design standards. The economics worked too: grasses germinate quickly, grow fast, and reach marketable size sooner than most nursery stock.

“The market kind of blew up, and we followed it,” Carl says. What started as survival became a specialty. Today, Greenbelt Growers operates on 25 acres in Riverside, with 10 acres dedicated to starter plants (liners) and 15 to finished product in one-gallon containers. Liners ship to other nurseries. Finished plants go to landscape contractors and major projects. About thirty percent of the inventory is California native grass.

Sustainability Means Fire Breaks, Bioswales, and Wildlife Corridors

The nursery runs its own closed-loop sustainability practices. Non-potable water for irrigation. All dead or unsold plants are composted on-site and returned to the soil mix. Plastic pots are reused rather than discarded. Green waste from landscape projects is incorporated into the growing medium rather than sent to a landfill.

California native grasses show up in four major applications: bioswales for stormwater management, lawn replacements, wildlife migration corridors, and fire protection zones. The fire story is the one most people haven’t heard. Counties across California are mandating fire protection zones around buildings, restricting trees and shrubs within set distances of structures. 

Native grasses fill those zones because they burn more quickly and at lower temperatures than non-native plants. Short grasses don’t build up enough heat to throw embers onto a roof or ignite a wall. “Any embers that are there don’t have the opportunity to become this giant, roiling flame,” Audrey says. Grasses won’t prevent a fire, but they can reduce the devastation.

The native sedge Carex tumulicola has become one of Greenbelt’s strongest sellers, a California native that works as a direct lawn replacement. For a landscape architect who needs to plant thirty percent native species to meet state requirements, specifying Carex tumulicola checks the box and delivers a lawn that actually thrives.

And then there is the wildlife. Greenbelt Growers’ own nursery grounds double as a habitat. 

The nursery uses no rodenticide to protect those raptors and limits chemical inputs to preserve native predators. Walk the rows, and you’ll see killdeer birds controlling snails and slugs, owls and hawks hunting rodents, and butterflies visiting the flowers. 

Native Nursery Stock, A Growing Business

The numbers at Greenbelt Growers are big, even if the plants are small. Carl estimates that the nursery produces around 500,000 liners of native grasses alone each year. In California agriculture, “liners” are young starter plants grown for transplanting into larger containers or landscapes. Non-natives push the total past one million. “It sounds like a big number, but they’re little plants,” he says. 

Then he puts it in perspective: a single acre of landscape along Irvine Boulevard in Orange County plants 40,000 plants per acre. The numbers get big fast.

Greenbelt Growers’ scale is growing partly because the competition is shrinking. Well-known native plant nurseries are closing as their founders age out of the business. “Most of the people I know in our industry work almost till they die,” Carl says. “We don’t retire, which says something.” For a young grower without land, the cost of entry is nearly impossible. 

How Greenbelt Growers Is Redefining Native Grass in California

When Carl’s daughter, Audrey Pongs, came into the business in earnest, one of her first moves was a rebrand. New logo, new tagline: Grow More Grass. 

The previous tagline, Grasses That Work, had served the nursery well, but Audrey wanted to reframe the conversation.

As California moves away from traditional turf toward water-efficient landscapes, Greenbelt Growers is helping redefine what “grass” means. California’s governor had issued a mandate to remove what the state called “nonfunctional turf.” Carl winces at the term. “I object to that a little bit,” he says. “We’re not really taking into account the benefits of grass.”

Those benefits are real. “When you see a new housing tract, everything’s denuded,” Carl says. “It’s just dirt. And now you really want to recreate an environment.” Turf, he points out, is the biggest part of any landscape, the way skin is the biggest organ on a body. And native grasses do all of that while requiring less water and fewer chemical inputs than conventional turf.

Audrey pushes customers toward the right plant for the right spot. If an architect specifies something that won’t survive a hot, dry location, she suggests a better-adapted native. “Our responsibility is to make our customer, in this context the architect, look good,” Carl says. “Succeed, right? And sometimes they don’t know why.”

Why Riverside Is Ideal for Native Grass Farming

Greenbelt Growers sits within a roughly 4,800-acre agricultural preserve in Riverside, a designation that protects the land from urban encroachment and keeps land values within reach for agriculture. The preserve helps maintain Riverside’s identity as one of Southern California’s historic agricultural regions.

The nearby Gage Canal provides a reliable water supply. Riverside’s climate, warm but still touched by ocean breezes, gives the nursery a year-round growing advantage over East Coast competitors who lose three months to winter.

“Riverside was created on ag, on the navel orange,” Carl says. “The infrastructure’s here, the vendors, it’s just an ag-friendly community.” Audrey puts it more personally. Her mother’s family has been in California since before the United States was a country. “California is literally in my blood,” she says. “I would be absolutely devastated if, because of marketing and politics, we lost agriculture, when it really is such a benefit to all of us.”

The Next Generation of Greenbelt Growers

As Greenbelt Growers expands its role in California agriculture, Audrey Pongs is also reshaping who represents the industry. Since 2026 is the International Year of the Woman Farmer, Audrey’s trajectory at Greenbelt Growers, from rebranding the company to steering its native plant strategy to representing the nursery on her own at national trade shows, is exactly the kind of story the designation exists to amplify. Her story shows why.

Two years ago, Greenbelt Growers exhibited at a trade show in Texas. Audrey almost didn’t go. At a previous event, she had attended with her father, she explains every conversation was directed at Carl.“I would ask a question, and they would address him.” She says, “I would try to start a conversation, and they would address him. I was like, I can’t go with you to this. We have to be separate. Otherwise, I won’t be acknowledged.”

She went to Texas on her own. The event included a Women in Horticulture social and luncheon, and it reminded her why representation matters. “Anytime I meet a woman in horticulture, I’m like, Oh my gosh, you can do this,” she says. “I want more of us here, and I want more of us to reap the benefits of this lifestyle.” In an industry where, as her father notes, nobody retires, the work is not something you need to escape. “It’s not a job you feel like you need to get away from.”

Plan Your Riverside Visit

Riverside is an agricultural city at its roots, and the greenbelt that gives the nursery its name is a beautiful place to walk. Stroll up and down Victoria Avenue through the open agricultural corridor, then visit the California Citrus State Historic Park to see where California’s orange industry began. 

For a broader look, check out our guide to what grows in Riverside County, or expand the trip to Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley for date shakes, desert hikes, and farm-to-table dining.

---

Need a new soundtrack for your next road trip? Check out this CA GROWN Spotify playlist:

Frequently Asked Questions About Greenbelt Growers

What does Greenbelt Growers grow?
California native grasses, sedges, and woody ornamentals, along with non-native ornamental grasses. About thirty percent of the inventory is California native. Key species include Carex tumulicola, Festuca californica, and a range of manzanitas and ceanothus.

Can homeowners buy native plants from Greenbelt Growers?
Greenbelt Growers is primarily a wholesale nursery, but they also sell native grass and plant liners online, making them more accessible to homeowners who may not find a wide selection at retail garden centers.

How do native grasses help with fire protection?
Native grasses burn quickly and burn cool, meaning they don’t generate enough sustained heat to throw embers or ignite nearby structures. Counties across California are mandating fire protection zones in which trees and shrubs are restricted, with native grasses filling those zones while still providing erosion control and ground cover.

Where is Greenbelt Growers located?
Greenbelt Growers is in Riverside, California, within a nearly 4,800-acre agricultural preserve. The preserve protects the land from development and provides access to reliable water through the Gage Canal.

This article was written by CA GROWN Content Creator Aida Mollenkamp, and images from Salt & Wind.