Very nice! What are the red flowers in the background? Foxglove or Hollyhock?

This Jungle part of my yard is just 1/4 of my garden space. The other 3/4 are xeric and drought tolerant plants. But,the jungle is a nice respite in our dry brown summers.

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Here is part of my back slope.
Russian sage, salvia clevelandii on it's 2nd bloom.
Lantana, other salvias and lavenders on lower level.
Along the fence on the left side is more salvias in red, pink and white, lavatera...I call that hummer corner.

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Here's some shots of my CA garden

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Love all your pics! I wish I could grow some of your tropicals.

cagary, your 4th pic looks like a private garden I saw in Kauai. So pretty! What is the pink flowering shrub?

safaribabe, they are hollyhocks. They seed readily so I have them everywhere. But I love them and have cottage style gardens so I don't mind. Here are some of my dark ones.
'Nigra' same as Jefferson grew:
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The shastas are going strong. They are fairly drought tolerant for me.
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Let's see more CA. gardens!

Here's a picture of my native garden, taken in May. This is a new garden that I just started planting last summer. It's been suffering from severe infestations of bermuda grass (in the summer) and annual bluegrass (in the winter), but even with those problems, it's managed to look fairly pretty.
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Wow. I'm almost embarrassed to post anything lest it be compared to those stunning landscapes.

Here's a few pictures of my recent lawn replacement, please be kind. It needs some time to grow in, obviously, but I'm very happy with the look. And in our location, it needs no summer water at all.

The grass is mostly Festuca californica "Patrick's Point," with a few stipa tenuissima for texture. There's also a few varieties of achillea millefolium ("Paprika" is blooming in the photo), some veronica peduncularis and lithodora "Grace Ward." The tree at right in the top picture is "Royal Frost" birch.

There's also a ton of brodiaea bulbs interplanted in there--the brodiaea with the veronica and the lithodora and the bluish grass was really quite a spring show. {{gwi:539794}}From Random pics

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My first photo on garden web!
Artichokes in bloom in my Los Angeles garden

Here is a link that might be useful:

Is that edible artichoke? I've never tried to grow it. Can you touch the flowers? It looks a little like the artichoke thistle that grows here in southern CA and the flowers are very painful if you touch them. Let us know if you get artichokes!

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The pond in back
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Bloodgood maple and Ceanothus in bloom
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CA Native front yard
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Diana, that's a beautiful rose garden. I don't grow roses anymore, but I can appreciate the work that goes into producing that gorgeous display.

Stan, your jungle look is more my style! Gary, nice Ravenala!

A few color shots taken recently:

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Thanks Kim,And I like Wandas natives as I have done native gardens also.Did it the whole nine yards,almost became specialized in that-but,the whole worlds pallete just appeals to me.
If the drought goes on and deep,dust off my Jennings natives and my numerous natives field guides series books...I know I gotta keep growing something-lol...

Hello, everyone. This is the first time I've posted on this forum. For gardening I'm generally on the rose forum and the antique roses forum, since the old roses are my special love. If you were to ask me about how I'd describe my garden I would say it's a Mediterranean garden with a special focus on antique roses, although I also grow Austen roses and other modern ones. I live in north San Diego county in a rural area, up in the hills, where it's hot and dry, and my plantings to some extent reflect that. I hope you like the pictures.

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Ingrid

Hey Diana, thanks for starting this thread. I have gotten so much pleasure from viewing everyone's gardens.

Diana, the photo of your roses should be in a book. The colors melt my heart, and the view just beyond the garden makes it even more enchanting.

Stanofh, cagary, and catkim, your jungles make me feel like I'm living out a childhood fantasy. I can imagine sneaking into your gardens and hiding out in all of the nooks and crannies. I especially love stanofh's huge staghorn fern, cagary's bizarre fan-shaped palm, and catkim's garden design and use of bromeliads. Fantasy Island.

Wanda, you have made a paradise. Maybe it's not nice to say this, but gosh your yars sure does put the others in your neighborhood to shame. Your use of drought tolerant and native plants to create such a lush setting is pure genius.

Gobluedjm and mlevie, you guys and Wanda give me hope for the future of my garden. Thanks for the ideas on how to landscape in a more sustainable fashion. Next year when everything in my garden is dead I look forward to enjoying photos of your beautiful terraces and walkways.

Lahomegrown, your house is an object of my envy. You have chosen such a good color scheme for it. I'm also in awe of your lot, Ingrid. It looks like you have some unbelievable views.

Thanks to all for taking the time to load these photos. I can't get enough of other people's gardens. Did you all know that you can link to your Photobucket accounts in your Gardenweb member page so that I can visit your gardens on a regular basis? Isn't that wonderful?

Here are a few shots of mine:

Flower garden in May this year with Double Delight Rose, foxgloves, and red asiatic lilies.
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This is my rubble patio, my pot ghetto and my potting sink.
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Pond and bridge. The plants on the left are finally starting to grow in. Most were starts from the plants on the right.
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Showbiz Rose Bed

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Veggie Beds and compost pile
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Front Patio and brugmansia
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Mlevie, You shouldn't feel embarrassed at all. We all have to start somewhere. Mine 2 years ago were just little tiny ones from 1 gallons. Yours will fill in nicely. Good things take time.

Wanda, WOW!!! Your neighbors should be so jealous, I sure hope they appreciate it. I bet you laugh everytime they are out mowing. Fabulous!

Renee, I love your Brug. But unfortunately they wouldn't do well here or I would have one. I would have the lilies also but the darn squirrels!

Very nice seeing all the gardens. I can appreciate the hard work you've all done.

Renee, your garden is so incredible, not only beautiful and well-designed, but so impeccably maintained. Each of the gardens here has its own style and it's fascinating to see how each person interprets his or her space. California certainly doesn't have just one "look".

Ingrid

I forgot! I know you have been working on your native garden for a year now, queerbychoice, and it is starting to really fill in. Isn't it your garden that had the horrible drainage problem? It looks like you have taken care of that. Pretty doggie.

Ingrid, it's funny you should call my garden well-maintained. Both of my parents think my garden is chaotic.

I love California!

Renee

I'm kind of torn between a blue-gray toned drought tolerant landscape and a tropical jungle look like Stan, Cagary and Catkim. My yard kind of reflects that haha. Here are some pics of a section of recently replaced lawn space. My landscape is very young so a lot of the plants are just temporary fillers (petunia) while the main plants fill in (aloes, agaves, phormiums, dracaena draco, many many palms...). I also am about to put in three dypsis decipiens, so as you can already tell, my yard is somewhat mediteranean with a tropical twist.

Dragon tree, california poppies...
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Succulents
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Several Palms and a tree fern
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Backyard Patio
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And some more succulents
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Wow, i missed some posts while I was posting my own pics!
Hosenemesis, I love that pond picture. What is that you use as groundcover? I'm assuming it requires a lot of water huh? I'm looking into replacing all of my lawn with creeping thyme. Just today, I ripped out some more lawn space around the patio pictured above (picture #4) so even now it doesn't look like the photo above which was taken about a month ago. The grass between the flagstones is also gone. I've planted creeping thyme between the cracks.

California has MANY fascinating faces! I love the look of all of your 'established' gardens, since mine is just starting. You know, those gardens with full grown trees and plants at their mature size.

Hi Diana! Thanks for starting this. I have only 3 words...

GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS!!!

This thread is GREAT! I love looking at all the gardens and the unique way we use our "spaces". Thanks, Diana, for starting this thread.

Your roses and hollyhocks are to die for! Ingrid's too, and that view is magnificent!

Catkim, those bromeliads are stunning! You, Stanofh, and Cagary have created wonderful tropical gardens. Stanofh's ferns are awesome!

Hosenemesis, you have created beautiful garden spaces. I love all the brickwork and "rooms".

Keep the pics coming. I just love visiting all your gardens.

CentralCali, that groundcover is zoysia grass. It's low water as far as traditional lawns go, kind of like Bermuda but slow growing. I give it 20 minutes of water a week.
Best thing about it is you never have to mow it. It's so thick it tends to choke out weeds. The main problem is initial cost. I plugged mine and it took three years to fill in.

A few display garden pics from the fair. Traditional stuff for the Fourth of July.

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Beautiful gardens guys! Thanks for sharing

Cagary: How old is your Traveler's Palm?

Mikey,

I grew it from seed. It was kinda slow at first, but once it got in the ground after growing in a pot for several years, it really took off. I'd say it about 14 or 15 years old.

It does sucker around the trunk, but I cut them all off at ground level. It started to trunk just about 2 years ago and now its got over 2 feet of trunk. Here's a photo from last year.

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You're very welcome! And I'm glad so many of you have posted pics and are enjoying the "view' from your fellow CA. garden pals' gardens. I know I am! : ) I love the uniqueness of all our gardens and it's wonderful to "see" what all we can grow in our great state. I think Ingrid said it best, "Each of the gardens here has its own style and it's fascinating to see how each person interprets his or her space. California certainly doesn't have just one "look"..

Renee and Wanda, thanks for including pond pics. We are just starting ours outback. You can see a pic of our hole on the pond forum. DH ordered the pump, filter/skimmer and liner this weekend. We went to a pond seminar and I won a small container water garden with quite a few plants. I'm really getting excited with this new project!

mlevie, don't ever be embarrassed with your pics. I love what you've done. Soon it will all fill in and you'll be amazed at the transformation.

stanofh, would love to see more pics of that sweet yellow and blue garden building if you have any?

I hope more of you will post. C'mon, delurk and show your style!

Diana

I've been slowly transforming sections of my yard to natives. This is the side yard a few months after it was first planted, in March of 2007:
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And here it is in April 2009:
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The front parking strips looked like this at the beginning of their second year, in April 2009. There are lots of volunteer poppies, birds-eye gilia, and clarkia in there:
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This is my front yard last year:
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And here it is in May, which is already really out-dated. It looks a lot different from this already:
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I've got flickr sets with more photos showing the transitions of all those areas, along with some plant and critter closeups.

Renee, yes, I think I've fixed my horrible drainage problem now. I dug a huge long drainage ditch, and also bought a couple of dozen bags of cheap compost to raise the level of the yard. Now, if only I can get the huge bermudagrass problem under control too!

I love the unusual patterns on your rubble patio, and the area where you're growing plants between the pavers. I always admire the look of plants between pavers.

Here is my little backyard paradise:

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-Brett

Nice pics everyone! I'm a picture-holic anyway.

Well here's my little piece of 'paradise'. This pic is from about three years ago. The year before that I put in a railroad tie path along the top part to open up this side of the yard and give a certain amount of access. Since I took this, I've planted some things--a couple of Bismarckia seedlings, a Brahea and a Butia--also some small agaves and yuccas and a handful of cycads. I'll be planting more of the same as time goes by. I had a setback last Fall, just a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving I put my back out BAD while hauling dirt up the hill so I haven't done much lately. There's also another lot just below this one but at least the bottom half of that is flat and not so rocky. I've planted a lot of Tabebuias and Palms down there.

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It's going to take me awhile to develop because a lot of the stuff I'm growing from seed, so I've got all sorts of seedlings in styrofoam cups on a balcony.

Anyway, a lot of you old-time posters have seen the old part of my yard but for the others I have some pics in that underlined part of My Page.

-Ron-

Here's ours near San Jose

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Oh my. Babka, your yard is perfect. Another set of photos for the magazines. I'm going to email this thread to my sister-in-law so she can get some inspiration for her Asian garden.

Brett, your stone work is so nice. I always envy people with terraces and terrain- my yard is flat as a board, in the bottom of a flat valley. I did holes and build piles of dirt all over the place, but it usually just looks like I buried my husband in the yard.

Lusty- what a huge improvement in your yard. So much work! I can't wait to see the photos when it has filled in. I'm off to visit Ron's page.

Ron! I spent two hours a few months back, wracking my brain to try and remember your name so I could link to your garden for someone on this forum looking for inspiration using cacti and succulents. How's that for a run-on sentence? Now I have added it to my favorites so that I can look at it whenever I want.
Renee

Babka, your maples are gorgeous! I love your Japanese style garden. Definintely magazine quality as stated above.

Brett, working on slopes is no easy task and you did a wonderful job.
I really like looking at all the stonework and pavers. That's my next big project in the back and I'm getting some wonderful ideas.
Did you guys do it yourself or did you hire someone?

I have an explosion of purple this week to show.

One salvia clevelandii split itself into appearing like 2.

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russian sage
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Brett, great work on your slope. If I could do all of my slope yours would be inspiring.

Lusty, great work you did also. I like all the rocks keeping it so natural looking.

Hey Cagary,

The artichokes are very tasty. The only problem is - the artichokes have to be harvested before they bloom - so you have to choose between deliciousness and great, blue, blooms.

They are a type of thistle but these blooms are very soft.

The photos in this thread are FABULOUS

LB

I think when you see Oleander,Ficus,Agapanthus,Bougys,Yucca's and Spanish moor style homes your screaming Califonia. I left out the Philo selloum photo since its not very good,but that is another iconic plant.

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Brett -- I love your hill landscape! I am just getting ready to plant the slope at the back of our yard and it is a blank canvas. Your look is exactly what I would like to do. I am a relative novice at this, so could you tell me what the plants that you used are? Thanks a lot.

--Denise

Beautiful gardens, everyone!

Here's our front garden, at least the part to the right of the driveway and garage which dominates the front of the house. It's a little cottagey. A little naturalistic. A little native-y. As a result, a bit of a jumble. I hope to eventually dig out the rest of the grass...and I badly need a walkway from the sidewalk to the front door so people don't have to come up the driveway to get to the front door...but that probably won't happen until we put our daughter through college.

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As you can see, I'm a bit of a cacti nut, amoung other things:

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The patio covered with tomatoes:

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And other patio plants:

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Hi fellow HB-er! I'm not far from Edison HS. Whereabouts are you?

You're much braver than I am for dealing with cacti. Wow! I bought one of those brainy-looking cacti, a little, itty-bitty one--like the big one you've got--but before I could get it in a pot, the snails ate it. I couldn't believe it.

I like succulents, but cacti are too prickly for me. Here's a little pot I did recently. It's supposed to imitate an "underwater" scene.

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Hi Surfcity... not far from Edison here either. Near Magnolia and Adams. That's a nice succulent garden you have there. You should try some cacti, they're easy and some have the most beautiful flowers.

Wow! So many beautiful gardens out there. Thank you for sharing them all. Here's a couple of my favorite spots in the garden. Obviously I like roses rather a lot, but eventually I suppose the garden will be mostly Aloes and Agaves. Just not right now.

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I can't take credit for the stone work. I am not that talented.

Denise, below I have labelled some of the plants for you. The one I can't remember is the green bushy plants which are like Pink Breath of Heaven, but are smaller and denser. One can almost always find them in nurseries here in northern california. Let me know if you want anything else identified. Hope this helps.

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Brett -- Thank you so much for identifying the plants for me. Like I said before, I love your hillside. I know what you mean about the stonework. We will definitely be hiring that out. Your hillside is a real inspiration for me.

-Denise

Beautiful lush garden, hoovb. You must be in a very cool, rainy, shady area. I marvel at your Japanese maple. I have some in pots under a north-facing full-shade patio where they get just a teeny-tiny bit of morning sun, and they still get crispy at at the drop of a hat.

"cactus nut" is a bit of an understatement, mjhuntingtonbeach, but you have an awesome collection! It all looks fabulous and so neat, tidy and well tended.

Hoovb, your roses are beautiful! Everything looks so lush. It must be quite a chore to keep up with them all.

I like the reed orchids,I have the red-a great bloomer,and a purple,not as heavy a bloomer. Wouldnt mind a few more red.