Poppies! Poppies Will Make Them Sleepy!

There's been good news and bad news on the landscaping front.

The good news is that my poppies are finally sprouting and my wildflower garden on the west side of the house is finally taking off.

The bad news is that I've had some problems with school children vandalizing my plants.

But first the good news:

At first it was just one:


Then a second:


Now, it's a bunch:


More and more wildflowers are beginning to bloom.

This is a globe gilia:


These are chinese houses:


These are five points:


This is clarkia (it hasn't bloomed yet, but will soon start):


This yellow buckwheat nearly drowned, but it looks like it's coming back from the dead:


Meanwhile, a poppy has also appeared on my front parkway strip:


And I'm not sure what these small flowers are among the phacelia:


The wildflowers in the front yard are also blooming.

These chinese houses were the first to appear and are the best developed:


There are a whole bunch of tidy tips growing around the base of the desert willow:


Here's a close up:


The desert willow is finally showing signs of life:


The royal penstemon is also getting ready to bloom:


The pitcher sage is also blooming:


There's a really nice clump of baby blue eyes and five points:


Still, I don't think the front yard has fully come together yet. It's still less than the sum of its parts.

The coral bells on the east side are finally beginning to catch up with the ones on the west side. They're a slightly lighter color and have a different stalk pattern:


The mountain lilacs are blooming, but still not full yet:


The monkey flowers are also blooming:


Unfortunately, someone stepped on it and broke off about a third of it.

That brings me to the bad news. I get a lot of foot traffic from kids going to and from the elementary school and McDonald's. Many of them skateboard or bicycle through the yard.

Someone broke off the tallest stalk of this white sage:


Someone else skateboarded over two branches of this blue sage:


So, I'm not sure if this is legal, but I've fenced off a portion of my parkway strip. Just the ends of it and left it open to the street side:






My thought is to deter kids from walking through the parkway by blocking the two ends (and also shielding the most vulnerable plants).