We are fortunate to live in one of the seven Mediterranean climates globally. In 2002 we yanked out a dying lawn, ivy and blackberry vines, along with native weeds 6' tall, to install a 'cottage garden' modified for our Northern CA climate - 7-10 frost days (no ground freeze)/yr, cold rainy winters, bone-dry but often foggy summers with pleasantly warm days but cooler nights. As we get no rain 6 months out of the year and have endured 3 droughts in 20 years, water-saving is imperative here.
Therefore, many of our plants are different. Some are winter-tender annuals elsewhere, some are tropic giants that are tender here. But the primary concern is to be evergreen year round. Without good 'bones', a NorCA garden will look either weedy, wimpy, or sterile for months on end. So foliage contrast and 'layers' of plants are very important to my design. We have a good-sized city lot, with about 2000+ sq. ft. of various-sized mixed-plant beds. Hand-weeding this garden is strenuous work!
What follows are some of the photos I took this month. I plan to re-do my garden website, but haven't even started yet, LOL. This year so far we've gotten sufficient rain, but also so much frost it killed a large number of my freesia bulbs and nasturtiums, so our spring show of color (usually April-May) is going to be a bit drab this year.
I'll post the photos below. Enjoy!
Cottage Garden in March NorCA
I have 2 passifloras, purple and coral. Out here these are 50' fence-crushing monsters, so I'm constantly pruning these to keep them in check. I don't like to do that, because the Gulf Fritillary butterfly depends upon them for its sole source of food, but if I don't keep them in check I know I'll regret it.
beautiful!! Thanks for posting all those images... perfect on this cold gloomy day.
Very nice! I learned a lot from your posts. Thank you!!!