Common name:California Buckwheat
Botanical name:Eriogonum fasciculatum
Eriogonum fasciculatum is a fast growing, woody perennial with tiny narrow leaves and pink-white flower heads that dry to a rust color. This is a highly combustible plant.
Common name:Douglas Iris
Botanical name:Iris douglasiana
Douglas iris is an evergreen perennial for shade or partial sun with blue violet spring flowers. It is a California native that is drought tolerant.
Common name:Blue Fescue
Botanical name:Festuca glauca
This ground cover/grass will grow less than 1' tall and has small, blue green leaves.
Common name:Sentinel Manzanita
Botanical name:Arctostaphylos densiflora 'Sentinel'
This Manzanita grows 6'-8' high and 5'-8' wide; it has rose/white flowers and is upright. It needs good soil drainage for best performance.
Common name:Valley Oak, White Oak, Roble
Botanical name:Quercus lobata
The Valley Oak is a large deciduous tree that grows 60'-80' tall. It develops a rounded canopy that spreads 50'-70' wide with leaves deeply lobed and rounded. The Valley Oak is very heat tolerant and drought tolerant. It is a native to California and attracts butterflies.
Common name:Mueller's Fescue
Botanical name:Festuca muelleri
This Central European native fescue has shiny, dark green foliage that is slightly bluish green. It is a cool season grass that grows up to 8 inches tall and equally wide. If massed together it can become a lawn alternative.
Common name:Creeping Red Fescue
Botanical name:Festuca rubra
Creeping Red Fescue is not red but dark green. It is a great ground cover kept at longer lengths for banks. It is very shade tolerant and lush looking.
Common name:Toyon
Botanical name:Heteromeles arbutifolia
Toyon is a California native evergreen shrub that grows 8'-15' high and spreading 2'-3'. It has leathery toothed leaves, white summer flowers and clusters of red winter berries. It tolerates full sun or partial shade, heat, smog, wind and heavy or light soils. It is drought tolerant, attracts beneficial insects and hummingbirds.
Putting the right plants in the right places in the right groupings is both the challenge and art of good landscape design.
Click in the green box for more information
Designer: Joshua Carmichael | Hillside Wonder |
Photographer: GardenSoft |
Maintain a two to four inch layer of mulch on the soil surface to reduce weeds, infiltrate rain water, and reduce compaction.
Attract, or buy beneficial insects such as ladybugs and lacewings to control pest outbreaks in your garden.