Dan's Mom had our front yard redone before we moved in. This is the third year it's been in, and it's really coming into it's own. It was designed to use mainly perennial, native or drought-tolerant plants. There are some plants and aspects of the design that don't quite work, but overall it's a nice, low-water, low-maintenance alternative to a traditional lawn.
And at this time of year, it's really pretty spectacular with everything in bloom.
This shot is taken at the foot of the driveway, looking across the main part of the yard. The shrub all the way to the right, with the white flowers is a rockrose (cistus). We have a lot of these in the front yard. They did not bloom at all last spring, but this year they have been covered with lovely white flowers. In front of the rockrose is a lavender (Goodwin Creek, I think) that we put in to replace a failing penstemon. To the left of the rockrose is a mound of Santa Barbara daisies (erigeron).
The second shot is on the other side of the driveway, looking at the narrow strip under the magnolia tree. You can see more of the rockroses and the daisies.
And this last shot is from the other corner of the front yard, looking over the main part of. Eventually, we'll probably take out the two ceanothus (in the let corner) that are too big to be at the front of the yard, and the line of scraggly jade plants right up next to the house. I'd like to add another smallish tree on this side of the yard, maybe a Western redbud or a coffeeberry, to add some balance to the overall effect. But that's a plan for this fall, I think. We'll be focusing on a new deck and the back yard this summer.
