Garden Progress - One Year

It is exactly one year after I started planting California Native Plants on my side yard, and I decided to a progress update.What's interesting, is that if you are planning on not watering during the summer, you should really plant in say, Feb/Mar so the plants can take advantage of the wet season and get well established before the hot, dry summer happens.

Also of interest is the fact that the plant you buy is usually a small little plant that bears little resemblance to it's retail nursery neighbor. However, these plants (not being overcrowded in the pot) actually grow like crazy once they are in the ground. Expect them to take a year to really establish though.

Note: While not every plant is a California native plant, they are all drought tolerant. I do NOT water this garden.

I am still in progress on this - I consider that I'm about 1/2 way there.

My first California Native plants, bought at Yerba Buena Nursery (which is totally worth the trip) - a lot of information on their website and their demonstration garden is great.











One of my first plants. This is a variety of California Fuschia, Epilobeum Canum Canum. There are a lot of varieties of this plant. Most are summer dry and it flowers late summer from June-October.

2011 - Before

In this pic, the plants on the upper left are planted, but it's still a sad lawn, not a garden.









 Below, side by side of before/after. 2011-2012

2011-Some plants, retaining rocks

2012 - Garden in progress

2012 - Same day, same spot, better view.

Some close-ups from the garden.

 One of the plants from the top pic. Summer dry. This plant started blooming when it warmed up a bit (in March) and is still flowering madly in June.

It's a California native penstemon, of which there are many varieties. This one is Margarita BOP.

Behind the plant is a native Salvia "Allan Chickering". It is in flower March through October, but it's not as exciting as Margarita.

(You'll find if you follow the links another great native plant nursery - Las Pilitas - and they do mail order!)













Same as above, only this one is an Apricot Monkeyflower.

 This is another spot with Red Yarrow and Sea Lavender. Yarrow is native (although in white, not red) and the Sea Lavender is non-native, but I just think it looks cool and coordinates well.












This garden has come a long way!

In other news... how to kill your grass

Time has moved on and while I am still not 100% pain free (knee/foot) I can at least walk now like a somewhat normal person. Walking normally doesn't seem like that much of a big deal until you can't do it anymore.

I've been spending a lot of time and effort latey, researching plants for my yard. I wanted a couple of things:
1) Drought tolerant
2) Looks really great without doing major hours of work every week
3) Supports the ecosystem (birds, bees, hummingbirds, etc.)

As I started looking at drought tolerant plants, I found out about Mediterranean climates (of which California is one of only a few in the world). Essentially, this is a climate that has hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. There are approximately 6,000 plants that are native to California. However, you can only find approximately 3 of them at your local. nursery. So, most of the plants that are available to the casual gardener are plants that have to be watered in the summer, fertilized (most of California has very poor soil compared to say, the east coast) and otherwise require a lot of work. If you do a California native plant garden, you have to do more work up front (finding the plants) and less afterwards. The idea is, the right plant in the right place. Also, you have to decide where you want plants that are ok with being watered and plants that are not. It seems obvious when I think about it. If you can kill a plant that needs water by not watering it, you can also kill a plant that is drought tolerant by watering it.

I also decided NO lawn in the front of my house, which meant I had to somehow kill off the pathetic grass that was already there. I researched on the web and found out about Sheet Mulching. I was trying to figure out where to get enough cardboard, when my brain belatedly kicked in and reminded me I had approximately 1000 boxes left over from moving. Basically, get whatever you want gone nice and wet (green if possible) this helps the composting process. Next, lay down cardboard. Finally, cover in at least 6" deep of mulch. Here's some pics of the process.

Here's the load of free mulch I got from a tree service I found on Craigslist. For scale, the retaining wall on the left is about 4 foot high. Yes. This pile of mulch is bigger than my car. (I started doing this a year ago, I have 1/2 of the pile left... mulch for a lifetime.)

Front Yard- Before with sad looking grass.

Front Yard- Some cardboard

Front Yard - All Mulched!