We tend to use a lot of lavender here in my Northern California climate and have found that shearing it back by a third after it blooms keeps it compact. Depending on the variety it needs to be replaced every 6 or 7 years due to it becoming too woody. Attached is a garden that we designed and built 13 years ago .This is what the lavender ( Lavandula provence) looks like in the winter From Loropetalum chinese And what it looks like in the summer : From California Gardening Teucrium does sort of look like an evergreen nepeta. There are two distinctly sp. of teucruim that I like to use. Teucrimm fruiticans is very silver and can reach heights of 4 feet, it trims up beautifully into a form and holds beautiful light violet colored flowers. Teucrium chamadrys grows much lower ( like a nepeta) and has pinkish flowers. Below is another garden in Northern Cal. that we did 16 years ago using clipped Teucrium fruiticans, rosemary, westringia, cistus and cotinus - this is a heavily deer browsed garden in Anderson Valley. From Alexander Valley one more image from another old garden we did about 20 years ago ( which we just renovated using lots of succulents ) that shows Felicia , Cistus and Erigeron clipped into spherical forms juxtaposed against some looser foliage plants for a nice balance of yin and yang. From California Gardening

My neighbor the grape grower, grows only organically and sprays nothing. Fungus is only a problem as the grapes ripen and is avoided by thinning the foliage to allow good sun penetration and air circulation. During dormancy last years growth is largely removed and burned. Here in the Napa valley wine country there is no summer rain to add moisture and contribute to fungus disease. Al

This morning, I looked closely at my lilacs and noticed the tiniest of brownish-green buds. Very exciting. Then I read your post and just now went out and did the scratch test. They are alive. Yay! I think our soil is called loam. It stays pretty wet after rain or watering. The boxwood area tends to dry out faster than where the lilacs are planted. The boxwoods get almost an entire day of sun and a lot of heat reflects off the house.

Well, maybe it is a Calvatia--it is somewhat larger than those in the "fun with" site, but the size is close enough, and the overall shape is spot-on. Mine is well past the stage when it was white. It is all a deep brown, the whole top is open and the inside looks like rotten foam rubber--I didn't touch it. It is not like a puffball with the opening at the top that ejects spores when touched. The whole top and down the sides is one brown mass. But when I look closely, I can see how the shell has split leaving the sepal like sections of the shell at the bottom. These don't come up the sides very far. Yes, darn it, I need to get a camera! --Spruce