Showcase Features: The parking strip is full of wildflowers including blazing star, arroyo lupine, red ribbons clarkia, chia, and wind poppy. The front yard garden includes a small California melic grass meadow surrounded by a small dry creekbed and cow parsnip, seep monkeyflower, fuchsia flowered gooseberry, pink-flowering currants, blue flax, coyote mint, and meadow foam.

Other Garden Attractions: The back yard garden has a large molate red fescue meadow surrounding a pond and dry creekbed with a small island of scarlet monkeyflower and torrent sedge. The outer perimeter has Ray Hartman ceanothus, golden currants, California sagebrush, hummingbird sage, blue elderberry, bee plant, canyon sunflower, Bolander's phacelia, Hearst ceanothus, monkeyflower, and chaparral currant, and a small vegetable garden. Many of these plants were grown from seed or cuttings by the gardener, so this is an example of what can be accomplished on a budget.

Gardening for Wildlife: The native flora provide ample seed, berries and pollen for the wild critters. The visiiting birds include doves, house finches, mockingbirds, towhees, cedar waxwings, robins, and white crowned sparrows. Many insects, including native bees, visit the California phacelia and the naked stem buckwheat in the parking strip. Birdbaths and a pond provide year round, fresh water. Many dragonfly larva and a few damselfly larva have been found in the pond. Water skaters also lay their eggs on the water surface and have had numerous batches of hatchlings.

Years of CA Native Gardening at this Location: 8

Garden Size: 3034 sq. ft

Designer: Susan Sundberg
Installer: Susan Sundberg and sister Sandra (the homeowner) with help from family members.

Click here to display the plant list in a printer-friendly format (from year 2012).