Wildflowers

Over the last week or so I have been plotting out our front flower garden.  In lou of a green lawn that is expensive to upkeep we have opted for a wildflower garden out our front door.  My hope is to fill the plots with drought resistant flowers that give us a beautiful show and yet don't require overhead sprinklers twice a day.  Honestly, my dream would be to water by hand 2-3 times a week, but I don't think I'm quite savy enough to find plants that fit that model yet.

Since we live in the desert I have yet to notice a small flowering plant that is native to our area.  There are blooms on the yucca and Joshua trees in the spring, and a certain bush I have yet to find the name of, completely covers itself in tiny yellow flowers at the end of summer for one week, and for that week the high desert is a sea of yellow.  But nothing dainty and flowering, yet.

In our front garden I wanted flowers, bright, abundant blooms all throughout the growing season.

I am using two resources:

Theodore Payne California Wildflower Foundation

and

My Own Experiences

So far, I've decided on a packet of California wild flowers that has flowers in it that bloom from early spring to late summer.  I've also decided on some of the Black Eyed Susans that sprinkle themselves liberally over the Los Angeles basin in the heat of summer.  They are not native, although they have naturalized to Southern California and I have had a love affair with Black Eyed Susans since I was very small.  The way they spring up on the side of the freeway in a crack in the pavement, a 2'6" scrubby plant covered in large yellow blooms that hasn't seen rain or even clouds in months.  They wave a cheery hello at the motorists as they grumble in smoggy traffic.  These girls are still a poem waiting to be written, and I'm more than a little excited to see them swaying in the wind outside my window!

Payne's #1: Rainbow Mixture Available Here.

Black Eyed Susans in all their glory, Available Here.

So, we have already turned this:  

Before we moved in.

Into this:

Bright blaring morning sun, but painted the front white, the door red
and added a scrappy little fence.

And some fun little rock paths. 

So this is the inbetween period, the period of plotting, rock hauling, gravel making and watering plans.  Soon, there will be lots of wild flowers beside those paths!  And the scrappy little winter time rose bushes along the house there will be blooming and beautiful.  It'll be such a transformation!