Our native garden now

Our native, or mostly native, garden now is looking just as it should.

This is quite different from our garden at our previous residence, because it gets to be very hot on this hillside.

As the blossoms on some of the Spring through Summer blooming plants dry up, the Summer through Fall plants are starting to thrive and bloom.

In the top photo are lambs ear whorls in the foreground, behind them rose chiffon California poppies, Siskiyou wooly sunflowers, Siskyou fescue (bluish grass with tan colored feathery flower heads), Margarita Bop penstemon, lavender, naked buckwheat, red buckwheat, yellow yarrow and seacliff buckwheat.

Here, one of the Sonoma Coast yarrow plants is thriving, with umbels growing taller, while the Tricolor Gilia plants around it are drying up.

The yarrow plant provides food and shelter for many beneficial insects, including bees and butterflies. Meanwhile the drying gilias provide habitat and food for insects such as damselflies.