California Gardening: Hello fellow Californians....let's introduce ourselves!, 1 by weatherguesser

weatherguesser wrote:
I'm Jim, from Salinas (near Monterey on the central coast). I've been a halfway gardener since we moved back to this area when I retired from the Navy 15 years ago, and my wife and I have just bought a house that came with a beautiful garden. So now I'm trying to figure out what everything is that's planted here and how to take care of it, in addition to adding a few touches that make it truly "ours".

The picture shows me and my granddaughter and one corner of the back yard, with our big Japanese maple in the back corner.