Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: Burst of Color

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Burst of Color

Design for a California Garden

Dry doesn't have to mean drab. This sunny front yard in coastal California features perennials & shrubs, such as Kangaroo Paws & Orchid Rockrose, that were chosen for their exotic flower colors & shapes, as well as their drought-tolerant habits. Groundcovers keep weeds at bay & contribute more color. A simple gravel path curving from the front walk to the side yard is easy to maintain. Even viewed from inside the house, the show is eye-catching. --text from Low-Maintenance Gardening.

Plant List

A. Anigozanthos flavidus (1) Kangaroo Paw

B. Callistemon citrinus (2) Lemon Bottlebrush

C. Cistus purpureus (4) Orchid Rockrose

D. Acca sellowiana (1) Pineapple Guava

E. Festuca ovina 'Glauca' (5) Blue Fescue

F. Gazania 'Sunrise Yellow' (10) Gazania

G. Kniphofia uvaria (3) Torch Lily

H. Lantana montevidensis (1)

I. Limonium perezii (3) Sea Lavender

J. Salvia leucantha (1) Mexican Sage

K. Thymus pseudolanuginosus (9) Woolly Thyme

I designed this garden which appeared in the 1998 Sunset publication, Low-Maintenance Gardening. It is appropriate for USDA Zone 9.

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About This Blog

This blog began in 2008 as Metropolitan Gardens to provide information on gardening in Seattle & places like it. Click on Gardening in Cascadia. The blog expanded to include Parks P-Patches Public Gardens in the US, Canada & Europe. Then Nature was added. (The difference between nature & gardens is intent. Nature happens. Gardens are planned.) Many recent posts are not about Seattle, or even Cascadia. They are Urban Landscape: streetscape & architecture. Cascadia is the region including the Cascade Mountains of Washington & Oregon. If you want to contact the blogger, leave a message in comments. Comments are moderated & private messages will not be posted.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.