Front Planters are Done

Between trips to the Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley and the Grow Native Nursery in Westwood, I've finished by front planter boxes.

On near the ends, I've put in Western Columbine (Aquilegia formosa). This will get about two feet tall and wide, with three-foot high reddish-orange flower stalks. It only last a few years, but will reseed.


Closer to the front door, in the area that almost never gets sun, I've planted Canyon Sunflower (Venegasia carpesioides). This can get three to five feet high, with bright yellow flowers.


Here's the completed planter in front of the living room:


Here's the completed planter in front of the bedroom (I still need to mulch this one):


I put down wild flower seeds on the area where the UC Verde hybrid grass will go in the spring. Working with Kat at the Grow Native Nursery, I bought a packet of Clarkia Farewell to Spring (Clarkia unguiculata). This should mesh nicely with the grass, and fill in some of the gaps until the grass grows.


This means that I've planted wildflower seeds in all the areas of the front of the house, except the planters and the west parkway strip. In many areas, the seed has started to sprout. Here's a patch at the bass of the desert willow:


The hummingbird sage is a bit confused by the weather and almost all of them are in different stages of blossoming.

Here are two along the front walk way:



And here are the first ones I planted, in the planter between the side gate and the garage:


And here are some panorama shots of the front yard. I'm getting lots of compliments from neighbors.

Side Yard Done

I'm almost done with the external landscaping. I finished the side yard wild flower garden.

Yesterday, I prepared the soil and soaked the lupine seeds in boiling water overnight. Today, I finished the service path, sowed the lupine, poppy, and assorted wild flower mix, covered with a light dusting of soil, and then mulched. I didn't water since it will rain tonight and tomorrow.





The gaps are where I still need to plant some coyote mint.

I still need to finish the front planter boxes and put in the missing small penstemon, but after that all that's left is to wait, water, and pray.

Parkway Strips Done

I've made a lot of progress on the front yard, side yard, and parkway strips. Lets start with the right front yard. This is now effectively done until February 2011. I've put in all four borders.

First the walkway to the front door:


As you can see, I'm only missing two small penstemon on the right side to complete the border. I e-mailed the very helpful manager of the Grow Native Nursery on the westside and she's promised to let me know if there are any more at Rancho Santa Ana. If not, I'll have to order them.

For the upper border I went with coral bells again, but this time I used the "Rosada" cultivar.


After I put them in, I measured the area and tried to order the UC Hybrid Buffalo Grass. Unfortunately, this grass goes dormant in the winter and isn't available until February 2011, so for now, this will remain dirt. Here are two different panorama shots of the dirt:

[in morning sunlight]

[in afternoon shade]

I have a small spot in the corner of the house between my planter box and my neighbor, so I decided to try to plant a Verbena there. It's just an experiment.


I've mulched the north parkway strip and put in wild flower seeds. Hopefully in the spring there will be quite a show:



For the west parkway strip, I had to put in an inorganic mulch so I'm using decomposed granite. I bought seven 75 lb bags of the stuff, and I still haven't quite finished. I'm not sure how deep the coverage should be.




Opposite the parkway strip, on the west side of the house, I put in more coyote mint. I'm just three short of completing the border


So what's left besides the grass?

1. I need to fill in the two uncompleted borders.
2. I need to prepare the west side yard to make it into a wildflower garden. Before I can do that I need to finish the service path along the west planter box.
3. I need to finish the front right and left planter boxes.
4. I need to mulch the remaining borders of the right front yard.

In the meantime, I've got a few blossoms appearing.

California Fuschia:



Hummingbird Sage:


One of the Coral Bells has a flower stalk emerging:


And one of the monkey flowers:

More Progress

I finally was able to get back to the Grow Native Nursery on the westside and picked up a lot more plants today.

After talking to several people I decided to go for a symmetrical look on the front path. I put margarita penstemon at the corner, and then several small penstemon next to the path and hummingbird sage behind it, just as on the left side. Unfortunately, the stem of one of the sages broke in the car while I was transporting it, so I need to pick up another one. Also, I need two or three more small penstemons to complete the path. I think I will need to order them.




One of the hummingbird sages is preparing to blossom, so this is what the early phase of the flowers looks like:


Along the side walk, I decided not to mirror the front left yard and put in a mix of red and yellow buckwheats.

I put in three reds:


And two yellows:


I also edged the second flagstone path across the parkway strip with more blue-eyed grass:


I put in more margarita penstemon at the corner:


I read did the first flagstone path so it would be level. Here's how it now looks:


Some panoramas of the house with the now completed north parkway strip (though I still need to mulch it) and the right front yard with three of the four borders done:



I also finished the west planter box. I put in two shrubby monkeyflowers. These will grow over three feet tall and be covered in dusty coral flowers:


The last thing I did was begin to border the west side yard. This will be a wild flower garden, but I want to run a border of coyote mint along the sidewalk. I put in two, one at either end.


I really like the way the coral bells look in the late afternoon sun, so I've decided to put in another row of them to border the top of the right front yard. I'll pick up as many as I can of them tomorrow. Once they're in, I'll be able to measure how many square feet of grass I'll need to I can order it and finish the front right yard.

Making a Path

After yesterday's marathon plantings, I took it much easier today, just putting in the slate stone path.

I put some sand underneath to cushion and then poured the rest of it over the tile pieces.


Then I sprayed water over it. I think that's supposed to lock it in place. I think I need to pick up another bag of sand to finish this.

Going Hog Wild (on Plants)

Today was a really big day for my landscaping: the start of the fall plant sale at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens nursery. I made two trips.

I arrived 15 minutes after it opened (8:15 am) way out in Claremont only to find that the main parking lot was full and they were shuttling in customers from Rt 66. Sales in the first three hours were limited to members, but there are a lot of members.

My first priority was to buy plants that I couldn't easily obtain elsewhere: mostly currants and woolly blue curls. Once that was done, I moved on to a whole set of really drought tolerant plants.

So here are the results from the morning expedition.

On the east side of the house, I'm planting pink-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum v. glutinosum). This can grow 12 feet high and 10 feet wide. It can also be trained to espalier. My goal is to create a screen that covers the cinder block wall that separates my house from my neighbor's. It also has a pleasant scent and beautiful flowers.



For the west side of the house, I wanted to plant chaparral currant 'dancing tassels' (Ribes malvaceum). I found two in five-gallon drums and bought them.



Then I moved on to the west parkway strip. My goal was to finish it this morning (which I have, though I still need to put down decomposed granite as an inorganic mulch).

On the far ends of the strip (which is 7 feet wide), I planted woolly blue curls (Trichostema lanatum). While they look like penstemon, they will grow much larger and have a strong and pleasant fragrance. They cannot tolerate any water in the summer, so I've only planted specimens that don't need water in the summer. They grow to around 3-4 feet.


Next to it (on both ends), I planted white sage (Salvia apiana). This is the sage they use to make sage wands, but I will be really pissed if people steal the flower stems for that. These can get 5 feet across.


The rest of the strip will be blue sage (salvia clevelandii 'Winnifred Gillman'). It can grow up to 8 feet wide and is very fragrant. It also can handle being pruned back if it becomes too unwieldy. For now, though, the plants are still quite small.


Here's the completed parkway strip:
(the northern half):

(the southern half):

(and the southern half at sunset):


I then turned to the northern parkway strip. This is slightly narrower and is also the side most people will park on when they come to visit.

I saw some Indian mallow (abutilon palmeri) and thought it looked nice for the far ends. It has fuzzy grey leaves and apricot yellow flowers for most of the year.


After lunch, I drove back to the nursery for round two. This time I wanted to find more plants for the northern parkway strip and to start to work out what I wanted to do on the border for the right front yard.

I really wanted to do a medium-sized manzanita in the front, so I settled on the Lutsko's Pink Manzanita. Here's its description: "One of the very best ornamental manzanitas, named for the landscape architect who introduced it: Ron Lutsko. Dense upright shrub 4 -7 ft. tall, with dark glossy green leaves and covered with blossoms in spring which are blushed pink. Good for dry sunny spot."

I put in two (on either side of the tree):


Between the mallow and the manzanita, I intend to put in a flagstone walkway across the strip. I picked up some slate this afternoon, but not enough. I also plan to line the stones with blue-eyed grass (sisyrinchium bellum). While this resembles grass, in fact, it's a type of iris. It has beautiful blue flowers that rise out of it.

This should give you a sense of how the stone path will look (the indian mallow is on the far left of the photo):


And in this shot, you can see the relative position of the mallow, the path with the blue-eyed grass, and the manzanita in the background:


I saw a small fern-like plant with pink flowers that reminded me of the maidenhair fern I put in on the side of the path to the front door. I put this on the opposite side, where it will get plenty of moisture and shade (though it will go dormant in the winter). It's a Pacific bleeding heart "Tuolumne Rose' (Dicentra formosa).


The final area I worked on was the eastern border of the right front yard. This borders my neighbor and her sprinklers cover that part of my yard. Instead of drought tolerant, I needed to find plants that were water tolerant. I went with some exotics: mexican sage and fern-leaf lavender.

Mexican sage is very popular right now and it grows very, very quickly. It will form a decent-sized hedge in no time.


As for the lavender, it was the only variety on sale at Home Depot, so I'm just going to hope.


Here's the finished border:


That's it for a few days. Later in the week, I'll try to pick up some more blue-eyed grass to make the second flagstone path. I also think I'll put some more penstemon at the corner. Then I need to decide what border I want for the right front yard. Once that's done, I can put in the UC Verde grass. I've pretty much decided what I want to put in the front planter boxes, so I'm actually getting pretty close to finished.

On the west side yard, I'm going to put in a wildflower garden. Once I settle on what goes in that planter box and if I want a border, I'll plant the seeds I bought.