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.