Sierra Foothill Garden

The natural meadow in the second year
By that, I mean, this is the second year that I have weeded but not planted here.

I’ve planted my 5 year old garden in irrigation zones.  The area around the house gets the most water and has the most ‘non-native, but Mediterranean plants.’ We’re on a slope so the next level down is also a mix, but the plants there live without much water at all once established.

The outlying areas in a large circle around this level is wild, but with some introduced California native plants and will get no water after this second year.

One area of this third, no-water ring of ground just below the house, I call the natural meadow because it started out with many existing native wildflowers like Blue flax, linum lewisii, Valley Tassels, Castilleja attenuata, Pretty face, Blue flax, linum lewisii, Valley Tassels, Castilleja attenuata, Pretty face, Triteleia ixioides and Shooting star, Dodecatheon hendersonii, Dodecatheon hendersonii.  It’s in a large open gently sloping field with an old glider bench overlooking.

In the center of this area, for the first time, I transplanted some wintersown wildflowers from six-pak trays into the ground.

For three days that same spring I weeded the whole 30′ x 80′ area and now, a year later, I see the result even more natives have grown here.  I’m delighted!  With a few manageable patches of the filaree weeded this month, the meadow glows with the soft yellow of the Pretty face.