Quick Update- New Sign!

I am woefully behind in chronicling our garden as the kids have taken all my resources lately.  As spring blooms- things are really starting to pop here and then there are a few flops that we are working on fixing.

FLOP- our back hillside project was just not filling in the way that it should have.  We had some great germination and our flowers were a delight- five spots, baby blue eyes... then the tansy leaf phacilia, birds eye gilia, lupines, clarkias, chinese houses, rancheria clover- they were all beautiful in the clumps where they did well but the plants were stunted and didn't fill in well.  I finally got around to testing my soil and looks like we are nitrogen deficient.  I had hoped to not amend the soil and get the plants established to start building the hill- but I think that we will have to do some amending.  I have sprayed a bunch of fish emulsion on the hill (stinky and messy business) and we will see if it has any effect.  It might be that we have to revise what we plant back there but fingers are crossed that they just need a little bit more food.  I am still revising how we plan the long term strategy- definitely some challenges back there.

POPS- the front yard (meadow) is really thriving and starting to draw a lot of attention from the neighbors.  The smothering approach to getting rid of the lawn has worked great and it is pretty enough that we finally put in our permanent sign to brag about how cool natives are.  The red fescue has filled in almost completely and the purple needlegrass is starting to stand out.  Purple owl clover dots the meadow and swaths of tidy tips, poppies and five spots really stand out.  The front planter is starting to establish with the big shocker being that the foothill penstemons who normally like full sun are doing well with the afternoon shade (so far).

Just a few pics- kids are in the background demanding attention.  Sigh- twin toddlers make blogging hard!

These are pics from a couple weeks back- but gives a better idea of what the yard looks like now.

Tidy Tips just beginning- the kids LOVE to hide in them
so they have gotten some trampling. 

Need an * since we still are converting!

NOW you know why we painted the front
door orange!

Purple owl clover was planted as a larval
butterfly food- turns out to be one of
my favorites in the garden!  Yarrow coming soon.

Five spots planted to cascade over the low wall.  Never mind
the slight toddler trampling.