A Spring walk through this garden strikes the senses with the buzz of pollinators and spice of sages and wildflowers.
This container and rock water fountain will soon be planted with bird loving Juncus and ground cover Fuschia offering seeds, nectar and a cool rinse to the neighborhood birds. The feature is placed to be viewed and heard in the house as the homeowner can relax in a cozy chair.
A young Dark Star Ceanothus explodes with color late Winter through Spring.
In the rock planter Salvia spathacea blooms amoung native Verbena and Poppies.
Beginning of Spring 2010 brings the annual return of wildflowers.
The garden is cutback for the winter rains making way for annual wildflowers to sprout.
Salvia apiana against the dried flowers of Eriogonum fasciculatum
The winter buds of Verbena lilicina in a bed of fresh Poppies.
Look closely and you can see a small butterfly larva.
Eriogonum arborescens Santa Cruz Island Buckwheat flowers along the border of a southeast facing wall.
The creamy pink flowers of Eriogonum fasciculatum foliolosum offer late summer nectar to butterflies as Nassella pulchra Purple Needle Grass goes dormant.
Muhlenbergia rigens blooms in a circle of non-native Mulhenbergia capillaris Pink Muhly.
By Fall 09', Carex pansa Dune Sedge has really filled in around the base of a raised rock bed as a drought tolerant alternative to lawn.
Calamagrostis foliosa Leafy Reed Grass
Late August 09', Lilac Verbena, Buckwheat, and Matillija Poppy bloom with the hot reds of 'Silver Select' Fucshia and Fairy Duster.
The flower of Calliandra californica.
An island of Andropogon saccharoides Silver Beard Grass
All sorts of bees bumble in the native garden.
Mid summer 09' Zauschneria 'Silver Select' rises with the heat.
A mix of native wildflowers.
Clarkia unguiculata takes the show as the poppies begin to fade. Several types of native grasses including Carex pansa slowly spread.
Salvia 'Bee's Bliss'.
A new path of Gold fines gives passage where once was a lawn.
Poppies are the first seeds to sprout in the raised rock bed.
Spring 09'
Fall 08', the first bloom of a young Romneya coulteri Matillija Poppy.
Here, the backyard is ready for planting. The old lawn was sheet mulched over once the irrigation and rockwork were complete and the concrete sidewalk was reformed and set as a natural looking permeable "Urbanite" path and planted with non-native Dymondia margaretae to soften the edges.
The backyard before.
A Ceanothus lights up the driveway in the front.
This Connecticut Bluestone path is a gradually stepped entrance to the front door. The path is anchored with rock and native plantings including Yarrow and Monkey flower, with Blue and Yellow-eyed grass and non-native Wooly Blue Thyme.
