I've been cleaning up the front yard and replacing plants that have died. Last year, I found that I had planted things symmetrically, despite my desire for asymmetry. As the plants died asymmetrically, however, I have been able to achieve some of what I desired.
By the way, even though it's October, I still have some summer wildflowers hanging on:
The centerpiece of the front yard (corner side) is the desert willow. While I feared this might have died, as you can see it was merely hibernating over the winter and has finally and fully come back to life. Not only is it growing by leaps and bounds, but it looks like I may even get some blossoms this year (check back in a few weeks to see).
Most, though not all of the small penstemon died as a result of the floods, so I've replaced them with "Cape Sebastian" seaside daisies. I need to pick up some more for the other side of the walk way. Once I get them, the front yard (block side) will be done.
I put in a lot of Margarita BOP penstemon last year, but most of them have died. The guy at the nursery said to think of them more as a long-lived annual. The ones that didn't get a lot of water have survived. I put in two new ones here. I'm hoping because I started smaller, they might live longer (the surviving penstemon is behind them).
On the other side, I decided not to go with more penstemon, but rather with an Alan Chickering blue sage. These have the most wonderful aroma.
Just behind it and a little over I planted a variety of lilac verbena. These will grow somewhat prostrate and have dark bluish purple flowers.
The small California fuschias I planted a month ago are doing well. The plant behind the lower one is the pitcher sage.
The surviving pitcher sage is still going strong. I may need to prune it.
Where the other pitcher sage died, I decided to go with something quite different. This is a monkey flower (
Mimulus "Dave").
Here's where I had several Margarita BOP penstemon die last year, so I replaced them with some small ones.
I put in some more Anchor Bay ceanothus a few weeks ago, and they seem to be doing well.
For a long time, the Carmel Sur manzanita just sort of lay there, but after a year of getting acquainted with the neighborhood, they've finally begun to grow (though a different rates). The new growth leaves are yellowish.
The Lutsko Pink manzanita in the parkway strip has also begun to grow (though these are slow growing plants, so they only gain between 6" to 12" a year).
On the west side of the house, I did some soil amendments to the planter box to lower the pH (it was 8, which is very alkaline). One of the monkey flowers had died, so I replaced with another one (
Mimulus "Jelly Bean Terra Cotta")
.
Instead of the chaparral current I put in a California mock orange (
Philadelphus lewisii "Covelo" ). This plant goes winter deciduous, so while it doesn't look that great now, it should take off in the spring. It may not bloom next year, but when it does it will have large white flowers whose smell resembles orange blossoms (hence the name).
The remaining chaparral current isn't dead yet (though it looks it).
The monkey flower behind it was planted 11 months ago, so you can see how big they get.
The chaparral current still has sap and has a few small leaves emerging. I've tried to lower the pH of the soil to save it, and I might yet. I won't know for a while if it will survive.
Meanwhile, the grass has come in nicely and the orange looks healthier. I'm hoping it will grow a bit more this year.
