Small Trees

I went to H & H Nursery in Bellflower this morning to buy an orange tree for the front yard and saw they had a small selection of California natives. In particular, they had Ceonothus "Concha" in five-gallon containers, so I bought two.

First, the orange.


I bought a standard Valencia Orange tree, in part because I've read that my soil quality is so poor, it will probably dwarf its growth anyway and a dwarf tree may remain in puny size forever. I chose Valencia because I'm more likely to juice or zest on orange than eat it. I didn't center the tree in the middle of the yard because of the sprinkler heads.

On either end of the house in the planter boxes, I've put Ceonothus "Concha," a California wild lilac. It's listed as a "medium-sized shrub," and here's the description: "Concha flowers heavily, beginning in late winter, and produces 1.5 inch-long clusters of luminous cobalt blue flowers. Its dark, narrow 1-inch-long leaves have a warty surface that glints appealingly in the such, and its graceful, arching branches form a dense 6-to 8-foot tall mound."



And, of course, for Halloween, I have to have a Jack O'Lantern.

Making a Path

The Grow Native Nursery is closed on the weekends, so today I worked on making a service path along one of the planter boxes. I'm using pea gravel.




I'm thinking of planting bulbs along the yard side of the path, but I will probably use non-native bulbs, since most native bulbs can't handle summer water.

Border Areas

I'm working my way around the border of the front yard on the picture window side. Today, I finished the area on the sidewalk and began working my way up the path.



I continued the pattern of alternating canyon sunflower with margarita penstemon and using the pitcher sage as a focal point.

Along the path, I talked to Kat at Grow Native Nursery and I've decided to go with a low matting penstemon (Penstemon procerus), which has the advantage of not having to delay gratification because they can be spaced closely together (the disadvantage is the cost of planting so many of them only one foot apart).


I've decided to run a row of hummingbird sage behind them, these need to be spaced three feet apart to allow them to spread (I had to go a little bit further than three feet with one when I hit a sprinkler line). Here you can see the juxtaposition:




I still need one or two more hummingbird sages and probably nine more of the small penstemon.

At the foot of the stairs I needed to find something that could grow in full shade and fairly damp soil. I went with the maidenhair fern.


Next week, I'm going to finish the border on the path and start the process of filling in the ground cover. This will be a low matting manzanita. Because there will be so many blank areas for 2-3 years until it fills in, I've been sprinkling wild flower seeds under the mulch.

Using Your Imagination

I started my second area of native plantings today (this will be a long, multi-week process), and I decided to focus on the area in the front on the corner. For now, I'm just putting in the border that will run along the sidewalk.

Since these plants will grow over time, it's necessary to leave a lot of space between them. You'll need to use your imagination to see what it will look like in 2-3 years when these spaces have filled in.

This corner gets full sun, but it was very late afternoon when I took these shots, and so they are almost shaded.


This border will get full sun, and a once-a-week watering after it is established. I'm using three varieties. In the middle and on the ends will be the Margarita BOP Pensetemon (Penstemon heterophyllus) (BOP stands for Back Of the Porch). These are extremely hardy and can survive almost anything, including being walked on.

Here are some shots of the penstemon in the ground:




On either side of the penstemon, I planted canyon silver island snowflake (Eriophyllum nevinii). It will grow to around 3-4 feet across and high, and has beautiful sulfur yellow flowers that turn chocolate brown.



Finally, Kat of Grow Native Nursery near the VA hospital (where I've been buying these plants) suggested that I put a "focal plant" in the middle of the strip, and she suggested pitcher sage (Lepechinia fragrans). I produces 1-2 foot long flower stalks in the spring and summer and the plant can reach a height of 6 feet. The flowers are a deep purple and the leaves and flowers have a strong, fruity fragrance. I've only planted one, but I will buy another one tomorrow to match on the other side.



Behind the penstemon on the corner, I will run a row of Royal Penstemon, but I can't buy that for another week when the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens nursery has its fall plant sale. The area behind that will have a green ground cover in the form of a low-matting manzanita and in the middle I'm going to plant a desert willow.

Native Plantings - At Last!

Now that the lawn has been removed, I'm finally ready to put in the new drought tolerant plants. The Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens' Grow Native Nursery has a branch on the West Side, so I stopped off and talked with the very helpful woman who runs it (Kat). I decided to start off small and just do the planter box and area along the sidewalk that runs between the side gate and the garage.



I've put two types of plants in the planter box. In the middle is a Fuschia-Flowering Gooseberry:


and on the sides I've put in Hummingbird Sage:


I wish I could convey how this sage smells over the internet. It has the spicy herbal smell of sage, but also a very sweet, almost berry/fruity smell as well. When it blooms, a tall spike of red flowers comes out the top, which should mix well with the red gooseberry in the middle (which can get quite tall over time).

In the area along the sidewalk, I planted California Fuschia. Its main blooming season is just ending, so I probably won't get flowers until next summer.


I scattered California wildflower seeds under the mulch around all the plants, so that hopefully will help fill in the gaps until the plants grow much larger.

Nearly Done

They've finished painting the doors and removing the lawn. Now all that's left is putting the house numbers back up, reinstalling some of the downspouts, and removing a few odds and ends.

Here's the finished front:




Here's the finished patio and garage:



And now that the picture window treatment is in place, I'm not on public display in the evenings:

Removing the Lawn

They removed over two thirds of the lawn today. They used a sod cutter and just rolled it up and put it the truck (which they filled). They're going to finish the removing the lawn in the morning.






It looks like they're close to finishing the patio wall, both on the outside:




and the inside:


and the garage and back doors:



and even the trim on the garage:

Black is the New Black

They've started to put the black trim up. All that's left are the doors and the patio wall frame.

"Shaggy Barked"

Yesterday, they removed the shrubs on the side of the house. Today, they repainted the house and the garage.


I chose the Dunn-Edwards color "shaggy barked."

Originally, the house was two toned: the wood was mint green and the stucco was pinkish beige. Now, it is one color:



In addition, they've painted the side wall and the garage.


The next step is to paint the trim. I've chosen a glossy black for the house trim and doors (except the garage), while the window trim will remain glossy white (the windows themselves are white and it would look jarring to paint the frames black -- I saw someone who did that and it just didn't look right).