Gracious, Spring has been a tornado of activity! I'm finally getting to tell you all about the amazing native garden of one Town Mouse. Maybe you've heard of her? She participated in the Going Native Garden Tour last Sunday and certainly erupted bubbles of envy and wonder in me!
Just look at the graceful stream-bed and the comfy chair behind the Salvia apiana (or White Sage/Bee Sage). So many natives did their best to show off for the tour- in this photo I see Mimulus aurantiacus, Penstemon heterophyllus, a tiny flower stalk of Dudleya pulverulenta, and the dramatic flowering stalks of Festuca californica.
I'm so glad to have seen this Festuca in person. I haven't used it yet since I was turned off by the "deciduous" on the label, especially when it's so rare to see photos of them in the Summer, when they have turned golden. I'm beginning to think that whatever it looks like in other seasons, this grass is so totally worth it!
The back garden can not really be described any better than paradise. The inviting hammock in the afternoon shade sits on a decomposed granite patio (can you believe that was once a swimming pool?!) while the Redwood Sorrel looks on from the raised beds. The dry creek beds continue in looping lazy arcs and bees sip daintily from the bird bath nearby. So many wonderful specimens, birds and bugs that I was on sensory overload! Perhaps it was the tea and engaging conversation with Town and Country Mouse as well as the Curbstone Valley Farm crew. We all converged, chatted, scattered in different directions with our cameras and had such a lovely afternoon. Town Mouse insisted on sending us home with an armful of homegrown avocados and a jar of some incredible plum chutney. Sigh. . . what a lovely day!
