Have a look...... what would you do??

This is the house we took at the beggining of fall last year. I am in 10b but a lot of things grow just fine here in central CA.

I am looking for not expensive, easy to grow from seed is good too, hardy, easy, perty, drawing birds and butterflies would be nice, nothing cat toxic or thorny. I love Hosta, Ceoleus, some ferns, morning Glories, Poppies, Columbine, Bleeding Heart.

The house is very ranchy, so I don't want tropical, I want to keep the feel of the old fashioned home...without being messy or English gardeny...if that is a word. lol

We have a 1/4 acre to work with, I have no need to keep a lot of grass.

House faces South.

The chips you see here were already pulled up and in between figuring out what we wanted to do gladiolas started popping up like crazy between the agapanthus. We also have glories trailing up the two posts in front and in a long box towards that end of the patio to form a sun barrier late in the day to that office window you see.

Under that window is now red mulch bark, and I placed a small park bench directly under the window then put old creel on it filled with assylium and pansies and then a huge old yellow wash tub with another large pot of Irises went passed that between the window and tree.

I like container gardening...but in ground is good too.

In other pics you can see the large tree stump towards the front. That now has a half whisky barrel on it with Irises and the mailbox has been repainted barn red, an aluminum box and we set it down in a longer, thin barrel and filld with assylium and violas.

Let me know what you would do!

I am not sure if I can get more than one pic in a post, so I will just add them on.

back of house.

Front view

front view move in time

Back with me standing under porch looking out to both halfs.

Giddy--I really don't think you're in zone 10b--the only places in CA that hit zone 10 are right on the coast so I think at best you're in 9b, probably more like 9a or maybe even 8b if Carmichael is starting up into the foothills at all (I don't remember exactly where it is, just that it's around Sacramento somewhere unless there's another Carmichael besides that one?) Since you said you want things that are hardy I figured it's probably good to get this cleared up before people start suggesting plants.

I think the place to start is figure out what sort of purposes you want for the yard--do you want sitting areas, swimming pool, pond, barbecue area, etc and plan out where those areas will be first, then think about plants. Any thoughts on that yet?

And here's a good reference on plants that are poisonous to cats
http://www.cfainc.org/articles/plants.html

Hi Ecrane, well you may be right about the zone.

This is copied fromt eh Sac gardening site:

"Here's where you'll learn all about gardening in Sacramento, California, aka "Sacratomato"..."The Camellia Capital"... the "City of Trees". Our region spans Sunset zones 8, 9, and 14 and USDA zone 9. Our Mediterranean climate, native plants, valley location and rich agricultural heritage make gardening here unlike gardening anywhere else."

There are many cacti and such, or just things in general that may not fit a 9 but that do just fine here as well.


Well, I didn't mention a pool or barb q because I was asking about plants or ideas.

I may not even know what I want until someone suggests something.

Thanks.

Unfortunately when you have a huge area like that, it's very hard to make any recommendations without more direction around what you'd like to do with the yard. Do you need an area for kids/pets to play? Do you entertain a lot and want an area for that? It's really important to figure those sorts of things out first and that's something someone else can't figure out for you. If you have absolutely no idea what you want to do, flipping through some books and magazines and picking out things that appeal to you is probably the best place to start, then think about what it is that makes each one jump out at you at the same time as you're thinking about how your family would use the yard.

Ecrane,

if ideas are not coming to your head, no sweat. As already stated, I am looking for something I may not know I want.

yes I have kids, yes I Bar B Q, but both of those are already taken care of with the yard itself. As already stated, plant ideas were the main focus and I gave some examples of what I already know I liked. The space is not as huge as it looks. A pool would take up the entire first or half space.

Some people have the knack for looking at a space and seeing in their head what might look good here or there. I did not ask for major overhauling, I asked for plant ideas or ideas that other people might do with the space if they had it. Whether that be a coffee spot or kids garden or cement the whole thing..again, I may not even know I want it until someone says, " Hey, this would look cool"

Take care.

Just going to throw some ideas out there then.

For fragrance and usefullness you might consider an herb garden. Even if you do not cook with them that much the various herbs come in all kinds of shapes sizes and colors. Everyone seems to like lavender and you could really devote a whole bed to different lavenders or basils which would be pretty low maintenance but give you a lot of bang for your buck so to speak.

Another idea is to pick a color that you really like and get various plants that have foilage or blooms in that color such as a white garden or blue garden. Plants with white leaves or foilage just seem to "glow" right at dusk as the sun is going down.

Some public gardens have "tactile" beds for the visually impaired that contain plants that have a strong fragrance such as scented geraniums or are very soft to the touch such as lambs ears.

I personally am very partial to water features. Depending on how sophisticated you want to be it can be anything from a fairly small container of water with a bamboo "drip" fountain or a pond deep enough to provide a home for goldfish and koi. My first pond just sort of happened. I started to dig a hole to plant something and then the hole got bigger until it was about a foot and a half feet deep and six feet around! I keep goldfish in there all year and have several water plants and enjoy it very much. It also attracts butterfiles, dragonflies and songbirds to the garden.

I noticed that this post was getting kind of long so I will stop now. I hope that it gave you some of the ideas that you were looking for to get started. :^)

tetle,

don't stop!

That is exactly what I want to hear.

I have had bubble eye goldfish for years and adore them, I love water too and I picked up some lambs ear yesterday. lol

I have a barrel fetish and I am trying to talk my better half into building me a barrel fountain and I also found this..which I know we could figure out:

http://www.composters.com/docs/bins_p3.html#selm

So the thoughts are swirling away. lol

You have some very good thoughts...keep them coming if you feel like it!

If you've got full sun somewhere, you might like a butterfly garden/flowerbed. Your front entrance might be a good place, since you'd see it often as you walk by it. I have several butterfly attracting plants in my flowerbed. My favorite is the Butterfly Bush. Butterflies love it! And it is very pretty. You might also like coreopsis, salvia, and shasta daisy. All easy to maintain and drought tolerant after established. Artimisia is also a good silver green foliage--it looks nice behind blue or purple flowers.

Here's a pic of the Butterfly Bush.

Calm down Giddymoon, Ecrane was only trying to get a feel for what you want by way of structure and form in the large bare area that you want to change, one thing any gardener needs, is patience, that costs you nothing, but you can nurture it and it grows with time.
Getting back to your Ideas, if I were you, I would get a long hose pipe out and curve it around your garden to show you shapes, get back into the house and look out to check it curves, flows or if it needs widened or more curve etc, when you are happy, cut out the shape and (ONLY THEN START TO PLAN WHAT TO PUT IN IT) get down to your garden center and group together what plants you like, the shapes, textures and leaf colour, at least then you will know what YOU really like, only you, will live with it and care for it, you dont have to buy all the plants, but you then see what looks good beside what.
It is always a good idea to begin with structure plants, I note that you can grow Camilias with ease in your area, so make that a start, if you can grow them, then you can grow Rhododendrons (Tall, Small or open) come in all colours from white, yellow, pink to the deepest red, along with them, you can grow also magnolia, none of these need any great attention exept a slight acid soil, you can fill a long bed with them inter planted with evergreens, again tall, cone shaped, round, or drooping, again with all colours of foliage, shrubs like Eucalyptus, (you will have to prune that or it will become a tree) Thuja, Hollies, etc, can you grow ornamental cherry trees, you get blossom in spring, some have wonderful bark on the trunk, things like that will add hight instead of everything being flat on the ground, within that area, you can grow bulbs, annuals, shrubs like Choisya, Potentilla etc, too many to keep going, also on your Back porch that looks like it needs some colour, if you get enough sunlight, I would get a Wistaria growing up and over, it has long bunches of lilac, cream or white flowers, some of which hang about 8 to 12 inches down and some have a perfume, once it gets going, it is quite spectaculer, you will need to prune it but a good gardening book should help you, one that has pictures is better as you then see what the mature plants will look like, go walk or drive around your neighbourhood and see what is growing well, the shapes and landscaping will fill you with more ideas, your area is so full of landscaped areas, big and small so you should have no trouble finding ideas either on a large scale or smaller, you just have to get out and take notice, ask questions, keep a note book to hand, garden planning is not a mystery, all you need is patience, trial and error, AND, determination,, some of the plants I have sugested are not the cheepest to buy, but you dont have to have them all at once, you get them as you go along, just keep a wish list and add to the garden as you go along, some plants take time to find, unless you have lots of money, you will never have a garden in one season or a year, better slower and less costly mistakes than spend, spend, spend and wonder where the hell your money went. I think curves are better than straight
lines, it is always nicer to walk around your garden and find a surprise tucked into a bend in a border than to see everything all in one line.
Hope this helps, good luck with your planning.
WeeNel, from Scotland.

It is too warm in her area for Rhods but she could try azaleas.

Anniebelle,

very good points. We have started groinwg a few things are attracting the butterflies and such. I do a lot of things from bulbs or seeds...like to watch them develope.

Aiken,

I have an Azalea starting to grow on the side of the house...we will see how well it does!