Category Archives: Home & Family

Redesign Plan 17 June 2015

Five years ago, I redesigned our front garden for water conservation. Partly as a result of my recent experience with a Pacific School of Religion class project helping to plant a food garden for The Village curbside community, aka homeless encampment, in Oakland, I was inspired to replant some of my own garden in Willow Glen (San Jose, California). John Plocher and I had to reroute the watering lines. I also had to remove couch and Bermuda grass volunteers, and relocate the many big pink worms that get mixed up in the work.

My 2015 plant list included:

• Achillea tomentosa – woolly yarrow (yellow/grey) – still thriving
• Agapanthus inapertus (purple) – still thriving
• Bearded iris (red and purple and yellow and white) – still thriving
• California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica, orange) – still thriving
• Dymondia margaretae (yellow/grey) – removed, could not take the heat
• Helictotrichon sempervirens – Blue oat grass – removed, could not take the heat
• Lantana (purple) – still thriving
• Lavender (Lavandula – purple, of course) – still thriving
• Muhlenbergia rigens – deer grass – removed, got too big
• Narcissus – daffodils (yellow – full size) – still thriving
• Verbena lilacina (purple) – replaced twice and finally removed, could not take the heat
• Verbena peruviana (red) – replaced twice and finally removed, could not take the heat
• Phormium – flax (purple/brown) – died and was replaced with a similar plant

What I have now includes more California natives, which I hope will handle San Jose’s increasingly hot summers better.* New additions are in bold:

• Achillea Millefolium “Sonoma Coast creeping yarrow”  (California native, white)
• Achillea Tomentosa – woolly yarrow (yellow/grey)
• Agapanthus inapertus (purple)
• Bearded iris (red and purple and yellow and white)
• California Poppy (California native, Eschscholzia californica, orange and yellow)
• Ceanothus hearstiorum “Hearst Ranch buckbrush” (California native, from San Luis Obispo County, purple)
• Ceanothus megacarpus “Bigpod ceanothus” (California native, from the Central Coast and Channel Islands, white)
• Echium wildpretii “Tower of Jewels” (red)
• Lantana (purple)
• Lavender (Lavandula – purple, of course)
• Manzanita “Emerald Carpet” (California native, from Mendocino County, Arcostaphylos, white flowers, red fruit and bark)
• Narcissus – daffodils – full size (yellow)
• Narcissus “Tete Tete” – miniature daffodils (yellow)
• Penstemon baccharifolius “Rock penstemon” (a Texas plant, but the only red bloom that day in Yamagami’s Nursery natives section)
• Phormium – flax (pink/brown)

On 9 February, I took out three of the lantana and replaced them with low-growing manzanita, which is a California native that I hope will be less bushy and aggressive. There are still two of the lantana, much pruned back.

* “San Jose will go from having 7 days a year on average above a heat index of 90 degrees between 1971 and 2000 to 24 days a year by mid-century and 53 days by late century, at the current rate of emissions.” – Paul Rogers, “Bay Area likely to see more 100+ degree days in coming years, new study finds,” The Mercury News, 16 July 2019.

10 Nov 2015
4 Feb 2020
10 Nov 2015
4 Feb 2020
9 Feb 2020
Daffodils, 4 Feb 2020
Princess, the Garden Guardian, 2020

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Images Copyright 2015-2020 by Katy Dickinson.

9 Feb 2020 – added a photos of 3 new manzanita