Birthday season is mid March. My brother, Cas, his mom and I all have birthdays between March 19th and the 24th. It makes for a fun time of bingeing on birthday cake... but this year brought something far better for me... the beginning of phase II of our front yard project!
For my birthday, I got boulders and money to buy more native plants. This time, however, I bought plants and not just seed.
Our front yard had a planter box right under the stairs and the backdrop was a big, ugly stucco wall that lead up the stairs to the house. I have been jonesing to get rid of those bricks ever since I painted our front door bright orange and decided it clashed terribly with the brick. Birthday present to me was 1.6 tons of Napa field stone, covered with lichens, mosses and what I am going to guess are liverworts or hornworts. They are beautiful and I had a vision of making a dry stack wall.
Dry stacking means making a wall that does not have morter. It really is just a pile of rocks that are stacked at an angle to hold the dirt in place and hold each other up. After watching a couple of YouTube videos, I deemed myself a sufficient expert to build such a wall as a replacement for our brick planter.
What more could anyone want for their birthday than to use a sledge hammer and a crowbar to take out bricks and then spend the day moving 25-50# rocks into a pile? Clearly we all know the answer is NOTHING!!!! I had a blast and only smashed my finger into a bloody pulp once!
The dry stacking wall is not just to look good, but it is also to provide better habitat for the lizards who frequent our yard. We have Western Fence lizards (Sceloperous occidentalis) as well as Alligator lizards (Elgaria sp). (I am not sure the species of Alligator... Northern or Southern... I have been too afraid to catch one after I got a chunk of knuckle taken out by a big one. Next time I see one, I will catch and ID it though.)
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| Brick planter as I took it out. |
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| My Napa Field Stone- ready for placement. |
Once I got the planter rebuilt, I built a trellis along the wall and then I had a shopping spree on native plants. I highly recommend the Berkeley Horticultural Nursery in Bezerkeley... they have a fantastic natives section. It is a very very expensive nursery, but they have so many cool and unusual plants there that it is well worth the trip. Just plan on bringing cash only so that you can limit how much you will spend before getting there! It is dangerous! I also went to Bay Natives on the way home which only sells natives and is a great resource but not nearly as much fun as BHN.
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| New dry stacked wall and trellis |
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| Cas and I just took out the railing. Didn't need it and now it looks much better. |
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| Close up of the beautiful rocks! |
Thankfully I went with a preplanned list of plants that I was looking for so that I didn't impulse buy. The plants for this planting strip are not limited to locally found species as the meadow is. Instead, it is our place to showcase beauty, fragrance and edibles! The plants that we selected for here are all low water to drought tolerant. I did put in drip irrigation for some of them so that we can supplement water to specific plants.
THE PLANT LIST- & why they were selected.
Large Shrubs and Vine to cover the stucco wall, provide fall color, food for birds, give spring flowers and provide fragrance.
Native Grape (Vitis californica)- I went with Rodgers Red as a variety and so it is not strictly a native. Although we have a true native grape, this one happens to be a hybrid of our native and an European grape. It was originally collected along a creek in Sonoma Co and stood out for it's particularly brilliant red fall foliage. Genetic tests have revealed that it is actually a hyrbid, but it is still often sold as a "native". I picked it because I wanted to have truly brilliant fall color, food for birds and a visual screen for our stucco wall. I forgive it for being a hybrid. Takes full sun to part shade. This exposure only gets morning sun so hopefully the grape will like it and will make short work of my ugly wall in no time.
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| Native grape- Rodger's Red |
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| CA Bush Anemone |
Spicebush (Calycanthus occidentalis)- This is a deciduous big shrub that I picked as another part of our visual screen and it also produces beautiful and fragrant flowers, but these flowers are red and have a spicy red-wine fragrance. It can take some shade and little water. Again, like the others, it is on drip.
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| Spicebush Flowers |
Pink Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum glutinosum)- I fell in love with these after seeing them bloom around this time of year in Palo Alto. It has spectacular pink flowering clusters in early spring and beautiful fall colors. It is a plant that does great in shade and can take little water. After it is done flowering, it sets fruit that will provide food for the birds.
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| Pink Flowering Currant |
Low growing perennials and ground cover- to provide food for birds (& people), give spring flowers and protect soil.
Beach Strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis)- YES, we have a native strawberry! This is actually often planted as an ornamental strawberry for ground cover and that is what I am using it for. It can take traffic, shade and very little water. What more could you ask for in a ground cover?! Oh, pretty white flowers and tiny little red berries (bird food). This ground cover can even be mowed... you really can use this as a lawn substitute in the right settings. This is a fast growing and aggressive ground cover that I expect to beat back into submission as the years wear on, meanwhile it is protecting the soil underneath without wood chips. I do not have this irrigated and do not plant on supplementing water-Bonus!
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| Beach Strawberry |
Red-Flowered Buckwheat (Eriogonum grande)- Buckwheats are a great drought tolerant flower, but they are not always my favorite. I was able to find the Red-Flowered, which is a bit harder to source, because it is one that I am more drawn to. I am planting this for spring flowers, but also as a filler to bring in some height to the lower part of the planter. Buckwheats can usually take some part shade, but I am not sure how well it will do in this spot with only morning sun (eastern facing), so it is a gamble. No irrigation needed for this guy.
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| Red-flowered Buckwheat |
Foothill Penstemon (Penstemon heterophyllus)- Penstemons are great plants for neglecting... they take full sun, dry soil and are a favorite of hummingbirds. They are wonderful and should be a staple in any native garden. I adore Penstemons and this is a particularly exciting one. HOWEVER this is probably not the best spot for it since it doesn't get a whole lot of sun. I know that it would do great planted in the meadow... but I have committed myself (for now) with trying to keep those plants local and this one is not found at Edgewood preserve. I don't really have many full sun spots in our yard that are not part of our "local" meadow so I am trying the Penstemon in the front planter. It is a gamble but one I hope pays off since it is great for beautiful flowers, hummingbirds, and bees. Fingers are crossed that it will like it there... ya never know until you try! No irrigation needed.
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| Foothill Penstemon |
Island Alum Root (Heuchera maxima)- I love the Heuchera and this is a particularly fun one because it is HUGE (for a Heuchera)! I planted this one to provide some height to the lower part of the planter and to bring some fun spring flowers. The flowers are not showy, but a sweet little white dainty flower. It likes to have a little water, so I did put it on a drip.
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| Island Alum Root |
Chaparral Clematis (Clematis lasiantha)- I planted this to help cover the front of our garage and for it's unusual flowers and seed pods. It is a dynamic plant that will change throughout the season.
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| Chaparral Clematis |
Huckleberry (Vaccinum ovatum) (Native blueberry)- I was super excited to find this at Bay Natives. It is not always an easy one to find, nor, apparently, an easy one to grow. We love eating wild Huckleberries when we go hiking in the Redwoods, so I was excited to try one in our front planter. Not only are the berries tasty, but the flowers are really pretty as well. I have it on drip and it takes partial shade. It will be getting morning sun and afternoon shade. I plan on also feeding it coffee since it likes acidic soils. I typically dump my dregs on my blueberries but now will give Huckleberry some too!
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| Huckleberries |
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