Low-growing plants create a tapestry of color, punctuated by bold agaves, backed by taller shrubs and trees. It’s a great place for hummingbirds and pollinators, too. This garden has been growing for several years now, and has moved into the phase where maintenance centers on keeping the plants in bound as opposed to letting weeds take over.
Low plants
This is the where tapestry effect plays a major role. Plants overlap a bit, as they would in nature. There’s two varieties of California fuchsia, germander, sundrops (Calylophus) and a bit of gentian sage. These plants have overlapping bloom seasons for more dynamic, mixed color.
Foliage colors are gray dominant, with some neutral green thrown in for variety and to harmonize with the green deer grass near the middle of the planting.
Accent plant
The Agave salmiana is a living sculpture. This is a large species of century plant, and here we gave it room to grow. It will become even more impressive as time goes by, a real “wow” plant especially for lovers of agaves.
Some agave parryi backs up the form of the salmiana for design consistency, but this species only grows to about 30″ or so.
A red yucca sends up salmon-orange flowers at the other side of the driveway.
Screen plants
The neighbor’s driveway is pretty much always crowded with cars. To mitigate this view, a mix of mounding and screen plants filters and blocks views of this motley collection of recent vehicles.
First, there’s some deer grass, then taller ceanothus along the border between the two properties. The result is a more gentle screen than a solid hedge, and with all that’s happening in the foreground, nobody looks as much at the cars as before.
For the birds…
Mostly hummingbirds, in fact. The California fuchsia and red yucca are favorites, but they appreciate the sages, too. The agaves will likely attract them years from now, but the goal is to provide a food supply every year. There are a lot of insects visiting the other flowers – hummingbirds like to snap them up, as they’re an excellent source of protein.