Inspiration

Something I read in this month's Sunset Magazine lead me to check out rogersgardens.com and there is a nice "Inspiration" section. I just found it, well, inspiring! Actually, these photos were way more inspiring thatn the actual gardens entered in their contest. We should have had some DG gardens entered, Palmbob and DrDon come to mind off the top of my head though there are plenty of others whose gardens I envy. Anyway, check it out:
http://www.rogersgardens.com/GardenContest/GardenFriendlyInspiration.asp

Thanks Stella, now you got me wanting to rip my yard apart!!! Those are beautiful. Why wasn't drdon's ranch featured! You're right, alot to envy. Thanks for the link.
I love those driveways with the rocks and plants, and that long walkway surrounded by trees, ideas, I get ideas!
Thanks again.

Have you checked out http://www.Landscaping.com yet? It's a good place for inspiration, and if there are people whose gardens you love, you could always encourage them to post theirs over there.

I have ecrane, thanks. I just haven't found anything that works for me there. Maybe I'm not using the site properly but I don't find much in the way of west coast gardening there yet. I saw someone mention DrDon but sure didn't see his entry. Maybe you can help.

It amazes me that they keep talking about "California Friendly" gardens with bio swales, etc., and there is not one mention of native plants. :-(

There are a bunch of CA gardeners who've posted stuff on Landscaping.com--if I counted right, 14 out of the 81 landscapes that are there were submitted by fellow Californians. Here's the link to DrDon's: http://landscaping.com/ls/view/67/
Since there aren't that many landscapes in the database yet, the easiest way to find things if there's not a specific landscape element you're looking for is to click on the "view all photos" link, then scroll down past the discussion threads at the top, and you'll see a thumbnail for each landscape along with the name of the person who submitted it and in most cases their location.

And Kathleen, you're right about the native plants on that other site--I hadn't paid attention to the exact plants the first time I glanced through there, but you're right, there really aren't any natives at all! I think you can have a "California friendly" garden that has some non-native plants, but if you're going to use that name California friendly I think you ought to include at least a few natives! I think a lot of people just don't appreciate how pretty they are--the best looking part of my garden right now is where I've got all my natives, I've got a couple different Eriogonums blooming right now along with Salvia clevelandii, and my Zauschnerias are starting to come into bloom.

Thank you for showing me the way, ecrane. I was obviously doing something wrong, I kept coming up with the same dozen or so and they weren't that interesting to me. I just love drdon's. Sure do. I'm moving to a whole new place this next month and get to design anything I have the energy, time and money for. Very exciting.

Liz, our big Zauschneria started blooming way early this year and is now covered in red. Our salvias were a bit sad this year, as they didn't really bounce back from the frost in January and then I think I over watered them. :-( Normally we have perfumed air all summer. The Romneya is huge and covered in blossoms, as are our trees. One new plant that I'm really enjoying is the Eriogonum gianteum we planted this spring - it's just beautiful. And in the winter our toyons will be covered in red berries.

There is a landscaper in our area that can do just about anything - including Japanese gardens - in natives, so I wish some of the magazines and gardens would showcase some of these places. He got us started, but we're on a tight budget and do it all ourselves, so it is kind of a hodge-podge of styles - not the stuff of magazine layouts, for sure - but we love it. And I do have roses (native and not), passifloras, clematis, etc., too. Natives have so much to offer and we have a lot to lose if they are not given a chance to survive.

OK, I'll get off my soap box! lol

My Romneyas aren't blooming this year--my whole garden was newly planted last fall so I figured they might wait until next year to bloom. My salvias are gorgeous and huge, but unfortunately I think it's because they're in an area that gets some runoff from my neighbor's lawn watering, so I'm guessing they won't live as long as they would if they were kept a little drier. But it helped them get huge quickly! My red & orange Zauschnerias haven't started blooming or even showing buds yet, the ones that are blooming are the pink and white ones. And the Eriogonums are looking gorgeous--I'm going to have to run over to Annie's Annuals and get some more to put in some other areas in the garden (right now I just have them in my "totally natives" bed, but I'd like to mix them in some of my other beds too). My Carpinteria is still blooming too--it's still very small but has still put on a pretty good show this year. I love natives!

I want a Carpinteria, but the nursery tells me not to try until I have a little shade for it to hide under, so maybe next year. I forgot to trim the Romneya last winter, so it's trying to eat the yard, but the flowers are beautiful and we have another growing. One of our neighbors who lives on a hill above us, called to ask what that beautiful flowers were - so that's evidence of the impact they make. Do you have any Galvezia speciosa? I have one and it's so graceful, I would like to try some more in other areas.

Good growing,
Kathleen

My Carpinteria actually gets a fair amount of sun--I had it in a shadier area, but then I discovered the runoff pattern from my neighbor's lawn sprinklers and had to move it because it was getting overly soaked when they were in one of their "let's water the lawn every single day" phases. So I think it gets a little more sun than it would like, but it's looking OK and has been blooming like crazy for a tiny plant. I think as long as you can give it shade during the hottest couple hours of the day it should be fine. I have some Galvezia's too--I planted them in the spring rather than the fall so they haven't taken off as well as the stuff that went in during the fall and I'm not sure if they'll bloom this year or not.

The hot part of the day is the problem here. We're on a slope with southern exposure. We have some trees growing, and some large manzanitas and toyons, but they aren't big enough to provide any protection yet. You don't realize how slowly some things grow until you're waiting for shade!