Garden Grove Native Landscape in the Summertime

Back to Natives designed this native landscape and installed it during a native plant workshop in October 2009.  We are now maintaining it.  Here it is in it's Summer glory!

This beargrass flowered last Spring.  In the background, California fuchsia flowers bloom, and white sage displays its spent flower stalks, which are still visually pleasing.

Deergrass and purple three awned grass line the walkway.

An elderberry (Sambucus mexicana) gives the landscape height, provides privacy, fruit and habitat for animals!  Check out the perfectly shapped California sagebrush in the right foreground!

Butterflies and other beneficial insects love California buckwheat!

The view looking from the house to the street.

There is always something flowering in a locally native landscape!

Suzanna Bixby Bryant Ranch House Garden

Back to Natives Restoration has been maintaining the native gardens at the Suzanna Bixby Bryant Ranch House in Yorba Linda for over a year! Here are some photos of the garden at the height of Summer. Many think natives look "dead" in the Summer time - when what they're actually seeing are dead non-native annual plants. Some natives do go dormant to conserve energy at this time of year - but as you can see, THIS native landscape still looks pretty lush. If you think it looks good now, just wait until Spring!

 

 

The flowers of this buckwheat turn rust colored as they go to seed, reminding us that Fall is just around the corner!



Native asters make an excellent ground cover!

Yucca line the path near the rear of the garden.



Ceanothus cascading down a hillside near a path,
accentauted by a lovely light feature. 



The manzanita in the foreground and the toyon behind it are green year round.  The manzanita's bark is an interesting deep, rich reddish brown, and in the Winter the toyon will have bright, cheerful red berries.



Heuchera and native fern flourish in the shade of the Coast Live Oak trees.  The oak leaf litter provides an attracte and natural mulch.

 

Juncus softens the edges of the patch under the Coast Live Oak trees.
 

Mahogany colored seed pods add interest to a redbud near a mature clump of deergrass.  Once the deergrass flower spikes are done, the clump will be raked rather than cut to allow fresh new growth to come in after the Winter Rains.

 

The Suzanna Bixby Bryant Ranch House was the original home of the historic Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden!

 

Berberis  spp. by the doorway draws the eye to the fabulous chimney constructed of river rock.