Late Summer Plantings

I had planned to wait until fall before doing the second round of plantings, but the Grow Native Nursery had a 35% off sale last weekend, so I decided to start a little early. I didn't go overboard, but picked up a few plants as I consider what I want to do.

First off, my UC Verde hybrid grass is coming in quite nicely. I was worried that it might not fill in before it went into winter hibernation, but I don't think I have anything to worry about.





Here's a close up of how the grass plugs are expanding and interknitting.


I've been trying to decide what to do about the path to the front door. Almost all the small penstemon died, either in the floods of winter or later in the spring. I think only three are hanging on and none of them are doing all that well.

In the end, I decided to go with seaside daisy (Erigeron glaucus Cape Sebastian)





These are looking a little ragged and need some pruning (they bloom mostly in the spring), but if you want to see what they look at when they grow a bit more, click here: http://www.yerbabuenanursery.com/viewplant.php?pid=855

I pulled out what was left of the silver snowflakes and decided to replace all of them with california fuschias. These have really been thriving in the side yard, but I picked a low growing variant (Zauschneria californica Mattole Select).


As you can see, they are pretty small and will contrast nicely with the larger, more established plants, like the pitcher sage and the Margarita penstemon.


If you want to see what they look like when the grow and bloom, click here: http://www.yerbabuenanursery.com/viewplant.php?pid=901

The pitcher sages are continuing to bloom and thrive.


All the low growing manzanita I planted have survived and begun to expand, but it will be quite a while before they fill in even part way, so I decided to move things a long a bit by mixing in some low growing ceanothus (Ceanothus gloriosus Anchor Bay).
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One thing that I really like about it is how it meshes in shape and form with the manzanita.


Unlike the manzanita, however, this will bloom in the spring. To see what it looks like then, click here: http://www.nativerevival.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=112:ceanothus-gloriosus-anchor-bay&catid=40:plant-list&Itemid=92

So here's what the front yard looks like in late summer. Several of the greyish green plants in front of the desert willow are blue flax and are actually in bloom (cornflower blue flowers), but they've already closed up for the day.


Here's what they look like in the morning:


And a close up of the blue flax:

In the Heat of Summer

Now that the hot summer days have arrived and the spring wildflowers have almost finished going to seed, it seems a good time to review and assess the state of the landscaping.

Let's start out with what has worked.

By far, the area and plants that have thrived the best have been in my west parkway strip, which gets the least water (once every 10 days). This, despite the fact that they have had to face kids on bicycles and skateboards, deliberate defacing, and a city work crew plus tractor.

The wooly blue curls and the white sage on the north end have done particularly well:


All the blue sages have survived and are blossoming.



The only blue sage not doing well is the one the tractor decapitated, but even that one is still alive.

Also doing well: the side planter by the garage. This area gets lots of sun and little water, but the California fuschias are doing great:


The Fuschia-flowering gooseberry is summer deciduous, so the brown leaves are to be expected. I need to learn how to train it to grow upwards:





I've also been very pleased with the Indian mallows, which are thriving and blooming:




The pitcher sages are also very happy and getting pretty big:




The desert willow, which had been doing such a great imitation of death, has finally begun to spring to life. No blossoms (yet), but that may take another year.



The mountain lilacs have lost their spring blossoms, but are growing:




The manzanitas are also (slowly) growing. Both the shrub-sized ones on the parkway strip:


And the ground cover ones on the front yard:


The heuchera (the coral bells) are also quite happy (though no longer in bloom):


That now brings us to the plants are doing so-so.

Of these, perhaps the best are the coyote mint. Those that survived the winter floods are doing alright. The blooms of spring are fading, but they've been rather overshadowed by the wildflowers (now gone to seed).




The mountain columbine are all blooming now, but I don't care for them. They have too much of a weedy look to them, like some exotic dandelion:


The Canyon Island Silver Snowflake have definitely been struggling. This one was doing great up until a week ago:


The monkey flowers are another plant that was doing great until recently. This one still looks good.


But this one looks like it's dying:


They get the same amount of water but the first is in more shade.

I have a similar problem with my showy penstemon. Up until a week or so ago, the two of them were happy and thriving. Now only one is:


Its companion, just two feet to the left, is starting to die:


I've also had problems had problems with the San Diego canyon sunflower. A few have done well:


Most have not


The red buckwheat is making a comeback, but others are dying


For much of the spring, my margarita penstemons were happy and flowering. Now, most are dead. There used to be three in this shot. Now one is dead, one is dying, and only one is blooming:


The dangling tassels currants were one of my great success stories of the winter: they grew and were happy. Not any more.

This one died in the middle of spring:


And now I'm worried about this one.


I've also had problems with the hummingbird sages. Some, like the ones by the garage are doing fine. This one in the front yard is also doing well:


This one is dying:


And this one is dead:


You may have noticed in the first picture of the hummingbird sage that I've planted grass. Yes, after spending 10 months removing grass from the yards, I've put some new grass in. This is called UC Verde hybrid buffalo grass. It's very drought tolerant (just 10 minutes of water, once a week, in the summer), and is sterile (no grass pollen). I've put it just in the yard opposite my bedroom window, with the orange tree.


In the back yard, the fruit trees are doing fine.

The Meyer lemon has lemons growing:


The pomegranate is growing nicely:


And the fig tree seems to have recovered from the rust mold:


The pink flowering currants on the back side yard are doing ok
The one opposite my bedroom is doing the best:


The one near my office is next best:


But the one by the guest bedroom is not thriving:


The sage in the pot by the back porch is also doing very well:


Finally, the tomatoes. Here's why I have so many:


I had them supported with metal frames, but they buckled under the weight and collapsed: