Southern CA Gardeners here?

[zhuzhu]

Hi All!

We are finally in escrow! Yay! As we got a pretty good price on it, the backyard/side-yard of the house have not been kept up at all (its all soil right now). What we have is a great potential for a beautiful yard and garden. The problem is that I am an idiot in gardening!!!! While my husband-to-be can easily plan grass-seeds to make the grassy part lovely, what I really want is to have LOTS OF COLOR and STRUCTURE using flowers and bushes.

Would you please help suggest a types of flowers/bushes to plan that are (1) easy as can be to maintain, (2) even when flowers are not in season, the bushes/leafs are still lovely to look at? We plan on doing all the work ourselves, pretty ambitious huh?

I am looking forward to the garden work to make the house truly "ours". Please help us with your knowledge and suggestions!!!

Thank you so much!!!

 

[Selkie]

Congratulations on your new house! I think there are lots of resources out there that can help with finding plants that are either native to California, or are drought tolerant and hardy. There are so many gorgeous plants out there that don''t require a lot of water, or upkeep, and I''ve seen some fantastic gardens using them. Here''s one site: How to design your garden using native plants. And here''s an article from the Orange County Register: Orange County is Dry.

 

[zhuzhu]

My goodness, thank you so much!! DO you think having this new project coming up will distract me away from temptation to buy more jewelries?

My honey plans on installing a hardwood floor to the whole house himself, I guess he is even crazier than I am......

 

[surfgirl]

Congrats zhuzhu! What area of SD did you find the place in?

Re: gardening, it really depends on what zone you''re living in...coastal areas are different from slightly inland, etc. You can get the Sunset Magazine''s Sunset Gardening guide - it''s a huge bible of what the plant out here and you can find it at any bookstore or any good gardening store. I like going to Walter Anderson'' Nursery because they''re really great about explaining what would work best depending on what area of SD you live in and what your exposures are, etc. I can recommend talking to "Patty" if you go to the Walter Anderson in Point Loma. She''s excellent.

 

[zhuzhu]

Thanks Surfgirl! The house is on the border of Mira Mesa and Sorrento Valley, off Calle Cristoble. I would say it is more coastal than inland. It is in a quiet residential area with an easy commute to work, yet close enough to urban part of Mira Mesa.

What part of SD do you live?

 

[Miranda]

Congratulations on the new house! How exciting! We just went through the planting the yard thing. It''s a little fun and a little not so fun. Do you have any model homes nearby? They can be a great resource for what kinds of plants grow well in the area and to give you design ideas. I live in South coastal OC so we probably have similar climates. If you like roses, iceberg roses grow very well here. They bloom all the time and are *fairly* disease tolerant. I say *fairly* because I just treated mine with fungiside. Their leaves are pretty (for roses) and they can be shrubbed. In some of my planters I have boxwoods in the front with the roses growing behind them. If you go to your local plant nursery the people who work there are usually more than happy to help and are also quite knowledgeable. Our landscaper used this nursery http://www.miramarnurseries.com/index.shtml they appear to sell only to contractors. I don''t know if you are using one or not. Good luck!

 

[zhuzhu]

Thanks! The first thing I would like to do is planning where to reserve for trees, hedges, rose tree, vegetable garden, wild flowers bed, and THEN we can plan the grass seeds! (yes, there is currently nothing - just dry soil in the yard)

Could someone please tell me what are some trees that are easy to care for and grow fast fast fast? We have a corner lot on a quiet cal de sac, and it would be ideal to plan trees inside the fence for even more privacy from the houses behind us!

Thanks!!

 

[sunkist]

Hi Zhuzhu! I''m in OC. I''m not the greatest gardener, I have sooo much to learn. But I do have a lot of fun looking at plants and purchasing them even though they may not have been the best choices I figure as a learning gardner my plants will live, they may die, and I''ll learn. I think this website www.highcountrygardens.com is a great place to get ideas for a garden though, or even buy your plants there, though I never have. They have info on which plants require little water or sun requirements. I love looking at their pre-planned gardens! And the xeriscape plants show that you can have a lot of pretty color from plants that require very little water. Anyways, thought that it might give you some ideas!