Last year, we sowed assorted native California wildflower seeds in a non-irrigated area. We had Chinese Houses, California Poppy, Farewell to Spring, Baby Blue-Eyes, Tidy Tips and other flowers make an appearance. After the plants died we cut them down with hedge shears and shook the seeds over the soil as best we could (we didn’t use a weed whip because we didn’t want to whack the seeds out of the area).
This year, we’re getting a lot of grasses, with a lot of foxtails. These had been removed the previous year, but apparently there is quite a weed seed bank in the soil. Wildflower diversity is down, but there are some nice clumps of California poppy which apparently went dormant during the dry season. There are a few Farewell to Spring plants coming up, but no sign of the Chinese Houses, Tidy Tips or Baby Blue Eyes. Perhaps they are still there, hidden among the grasses. Where no wildflowers are evident, we pull the grasses and place them in a dry spot so they don’t produce seed. Later, they’ll be chopped up and used as a fine mulch.
Other non-native plants have given mixed results. Sparaxis bulbs did come back, but Anemone and Ranunculus (other than a weedy annual species) have not survived the extended dry period, although they are supposed to be adapted to these conditions.
Lupine was part of the original seed mix, but apparently it was not a frost hardy species. It does germinate with the first rains, but is killed off by the first frosts. There are other native lupine species that we can introduce next fall, perhaps along with some California native bulbs such as Brodaiea and (if we’re ambitious) Calochortus.