Julie and I are both California natives. I was born in San Diego, Julie in Taft.
Growing up here, I was always amazed at the landscapes of the canyons and mountains. The manzanitas up in Julian, The grasses of the coastal mountains and hillsides, and the plants of the Anza Borrego Desert. Many day trips and camping trips took place over the years to these special places.
I was also struck at the beauty of the Danish islands covered with lingberry. One of the favorite beverages during our frequent stays at our Danish summer house was lingberry Aquavit that we would make ourselves.
The California Natives comprise the majority of our landscaping, we do have a rose garden and a herb garden that are non native, and a future vineyard.
Our goal at Herons' House in our landscaping is best described in this page from a prior post. A new look at landscaping It will be fun to look back in a few years and compare these pictures of young landscaping.
This is the entrance to the guest house "the Egret" The California native plants in this picture are , Deer Grass, Island Snapdragon, and white sage.
We used the deer grass to soften the copper capped pilasters.
Toyon or Hollyberry is the plant that gave Hollywood its name. When we planted this guy it was about four inches tall. It has grown to 16 in in a short time and will be ten to twelve feet tall at maturity. We planted seven Toyon
This is the San Diego Monkey Flower, a Native of the Torrey Pines State preserve and Otay Mesa.
White Sage
Red Fairyduster, yes, that is a weedus-tobe-removedus right next to the fairy duster.
This is the outdoor kitchen with raised herb garden beds on both sides. Plants in the herb garden are Basil, onion, peppers, strawberries, thyme, rosemary, and others.
Dr. Hurd
Manzanita, This is one of the biggest manzanitas and it will grow to approx. 15
ft. Just in the past six weeks it has grown over a foot (the top was below
the three ft. high stake) to it's current size of four to five feet. We
have planted four of this variety of manzanita. Just to the right of the Dr.
Hurd Manzanita is the Fransiscan manzanita, this species is presumed extinct in
the wild.
John Dourly Manzinita, This one grows to about three ft high and spreads out over several ft wide. It is planted in the front of the front yard wall.
This is the mama bear manzanita, at maturity it will be around eight ft. to ten ft. tall. Its book ended by two deer grass clumps that are already full hight.
And another manzinita, Howard McMinn manzanita, this one grows to abut four to six ft in height. All in all, I would guess that we have 20 to 25 manzanitas and they are doing great.
This sage is a native of Alpine and the Cleveland National Forest, Cleveland Sage. This sage is about three ft tall and has just finished its blooming season.
The natives are tough! This Cleveland sage was trampled and mangled by our dog, who made a dirt bed in this area. It was totally gone and I wrote the plant off as a casualty of dog ownership.
Three weeks later the plant crops back up and is growing fast! (So, ok it's only six inches tall at the moment but that's one tough plant and the natives are expensive!)
This is one of about 20 Juncus, or rush plants throughout the garden.
The rock amphitheatre has Juncus, Deer Grass, sedge, and manzanitas around it.
A Tacoma Stans, While not officially a native by most accounts, Sunset garden books have it as a Southwest native from Texas to California. Most consider this a native of Texas state that naturalized in California. It is an extremely drought and heat tolerant plant and grows to 15 feet.
Island Snap Dragon which is a native of the channel islands.
California lilac or Ceanothus Joyce Coulter, This is a beautiful native that will cover about eight ft. and grow to a height of two to three ft. We have planted about a dozen lilacs.
This is another lilac or ceanothus. Ray Hartman, and is a tree type that can grow to 20 ft.
This shows some of the manzanitas, a coffee berry plant and three Yucca Wippelie or "Lords Candle" plants. Behind this wall is where our front yard vineyard will be.
This is the area for the front yard
portion of the vineyard. We will be planting this in February and will have
approx 30 Head pruned Cabernet Sauvignon vines in this location.
This is the back vineyard area, we will be planting around 130 to 150 Sangiovese vines on a vertical trellis system.
The rose garden area and the herb garden area are non native and on drip irrigation.
The Red Yucca is a native of Texas naturalized in California and is part of our xeriscape front yard.
The Mexican sage is a native of Northern Mexico and is also a naturalized California native.