Another view of the bed:

It looks really nice! Love the design!

Rosemary is very drought tolerant, behaves itself well, and is useful on the BBQ and in cooking. It does like full sun though.

Suzi

That looks so nice, really beautifully done! I'm wondering if you could put a trellis there to train up some sort of vine. Star Jasmine comes to mind, but it gets biggish and might look overesized with the skinny part of your bed. Mandevilla vine? Not sure of drought tolerance. You could check out CA native plants.

If you have other tall things softening the fence, you could plant something low there (succulents?) and use that part of the fence to hang some decorative item (ceramic, wrought iron, etc.).

Instead of trying to plant something sizable in the narrow part of the bed I would plant two on either side of it with something smaller in between. Since climbers usually need some form of support and you're low on space you might want to use shrubs and train them horizontally in an informal espalier.

I am not in the same zone as you, so before buying any plants I recommend you should make sure they will thrive in your warmer climate. I have a Mediterranean mixed planting in front of my fence that gets an eastern exposure, the plants that liked it and stayed are: fountain grass, calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster,' lavendula 'provance,' hidecote lavender, salvia chamaedryoides, salvia uliginosa, creeping thyme, a couple of roses, ceanothus, and choysia ternata. I also have daffodils and muscari mixed throughout for early spring color.

It looks like your garden area will be beautiful when it is done, be sure to post more pictures when you are finished!

I've been thinking about this...and don't laugh at me...but I think you could put a trellis there and pick out some kind of ivy--I know everyone hates ivy--but there are some really pretty small-leaved ivies, varigated for example. I have one that has a heart-shaped leaf which I keep in a pot because I like it so much. If you try to put a larger plant there, it's going to look out of scale to the planter, but a skinny vine of some sort might work. Just a thought.

Thanks for the suggestions, everybody. I've definitely been leaning towards having salvias, lavenders, buddleias, and grasses in our garden. We're working on getting another bed ready (along the fence towards the wildflowers in the 2nd photo in my original post) and they will go in there.

I hadn't considered an espalier, peachymomo, and will research that. It's looking more and more as if some sort of climbing thing will have to do for that spot since it's so shallow.

Socks, thanks for the vine + succulent suggestion! We actually have a lot of succulents, but most are in pots and don't get quite tall enough even at maturity to cover the block wall. BUT - I remembered we have lots of Calandrinia spectabilis that mounds up to about 18" at maturity that will do a great job at partially obscuring the retaining wall. I could plant a flowering vine behind the calandrinia and perhaps train it along an espalier.

Here's a photo of what this area looked like - cleaned up! - when we bought the house a year ago. There were random clumps of black bamboo, fruit trees, a grapevine, and a raspberry vine planted smack in the middle of the sod. We tore out the sod as it was poorly laid, uneven, and thirsty. The previous homeowners had just thrown it down in an effort to sell the house.

We also tore out the concrete sidewalk that led to nowhere to lay the patio. And let's see what else, we also ripped out Brazilian pepper trees, Tecomaria capensis and Campsis radicans where the property line was - they needed to be removed in order to put in the retaining wall.

Unfortunately, the hummers loved both the cape honeysuckle and the trumpet vines. I'm hoping that the salvias and buddleias I put in the new bed will make up for my ripping out their old food source.

It is always fun to see the before photo, with the afters. Well done manifest!
Have you considered the California native Galvezia (Island bush snapdragon)? I have grown both G. speciosa and G. speciosa 'Firecracker and have been surprised how easy and quickly they grew. They are drought tolerant, but don't look like the usual non-thirsty plants with their lush green foliage and red flowers.

What a wonderful job you have done landscaping your yard. Thanks for showing the 'before' picture- it really tells a story!

Wow, great job with the hardscaping!! That looks like it was a lot of work. I would put creeping rosemary along the edge so it drapes down, it will go great with your sages and lavenders :)

You might want to consider painting the cinderblocks before you plant anything in front of them. That way you can soften the look instantly and the need to cover them won't be quite so urgent. I have cinderblock walls, and I painted all of the exposed blocks when I moved it - the rest were covered with creeping fig and didn't really need to be painted. We painted the cinderblocks a light color (see photo below), but it could be any color you want. I stained the concrete patio a fairly dark color because the glare from the white concrete almost blinded me every time I went outside. You don't have the concrete problem I did, fortunately.

I would plant South African succulents in front of the wall in the narrow spots - there are some that look like sticks and get fairly tall.

Lars

paint at the very least, but smooth stucco would clean up thecmu better.

I agree that putting stucco over the cinder blocks will improve the look more than just painting - I didn't have that option, since most of my cinder blocks were covered with vines.

Lars

Nice stain job, Lars. Your yard looks cool and inviting.

Thanks for the feedback, everybody. I'll post photos of plant or wall progress.

Lars, we considered painting, but it seems we wouldn't be able to stucco later without removing the paint first. We will probably wait towards the end of the summer when temps cools down to stucco.

I'm very jealous of your stained concrete. You did a great job! We have a cracked and uneven concrete patio that is another project...but one thing at a time! What vines do you have growing on your wall?