Where do you live? What is your soil like? What level of maintenance, if any, are you prepared to provide? Sounds like you are willing to water. You ask a good question, but you provide little information that would help in providing an intelligent and useful answer.

Bob

Sorry... I am in SoCal. Corona to be exact. I prefer plants that basically maintain themselves for 2 reasons. First, my time to spend gardening is limited. I'm a full time mom and am responsible for all household chores as it is now, including mowing the lawn, edging, etc. Trying to do this with a toddler and 5 year old can be challenging at times. The second reason, is I know nothing. If I'm told cut off dead flowers, I could handle that. When people say 'dead head' I'm lost, lol. So, basically I could spend I don't know maybe an hour a week or so maintaing it. I guess the key is for me to know how to maintain it.

I did manage to plant roses in February and all but one survived and have done beautifully, so this has given me hope. Other than that, the only thing I seem to be able to grow are ferns, lol. I actually considered just transplanting my ferns all over the slope, but I think I need more variety and color than that. Plus my husband thinks they are actually weeds, not ferns and thats why I haven't killed them yet, lol.

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I am willing to water some, but do not want thirsty plants. I know the first few seasons, the plants will require more water and that is fine. Oh, and I do not want to have to replant each year. I want to plant once and then maintain.

Thanks for the help!

Hi-

We were all newbies once! One thing I noticed right away: you have quite a steep slope there. You dont want to be watering too much up there or it might slip. Also, if you spread chunky mulches (bark or gravel,) they will wash down the slope when it rains and end up on your lawn.

And Corona is hot, hot, hot. You wonÂt have much luck with the typical kind of Home Depot flowering annuals (marigolds, daisies impatiens, etc.) unless you flood them with water and fertilizer. So, I am thinking succulents, xeriscape (plants grown on natural levels of water) and California natives. These plants can all be planted on your slope without digging-up and amending (amending means adding nutritious decomposed plant material to the existing soil) the entire slope. All you have to do is hack out a hole, fill with water and a little amendment and drop the plant in. I would strongly recommend planting in November after the summer heat subsides out there.

For inspiration, I would suggest the Sunset Garden Books, which are carried at most nurseries and home centers. Another idea would be to visit a local native plant nursery to get ideas. There is one in San Juan Capistrano on Ortega Highway called "Tree of Life". When you design your layout, be sure to leave some horizontal access paths up on the slope. The kids & dogs will love it.

For the bee problem, just about any flower that attracts butterflies or hummingbirds will attract bees and insects, also. Unless you have a family member who is allergic, itÂs probably not a big issue of concern. If you donÂt want bees around, stick to succulents and grasses, like Purple Fountain Grass.

Good luck! It would be fun to see an "after" picture!

Brookenstein,
Since you don't want to be strapped with maintenance, let me suggest that you purchase several flats of Rosea ice plant (Drosanthemum rosea), nothing like freeway ice plant, but a delicate little plant that will nicely cover a slope and is maintenance free once establilshed. Cut the plugs from the flat, plant them one per square foot and water gently with a sprinkler until established. They are deep rooted, drought tolerant and will hold your slope. I used it in Riverside (your neighbor) with much success.

My sescond choice would be Vinca minor, an attractive, green ground cover, fairly drought tolerant but will require a little more water now and then (use a sprinkler).

You can plant a few shrubs in between if you want a little accent. Suggest rock rose (Cistus sp.).

Take a trip to your nursery, and ask the nursery person to show you these plants. Good luck.

Bob

Try California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum, formerly Zauschneria). Summer flowering. Attracts hummers. Spreads slowly by roots. Excellent for erosion control. Requires an annual cutting back to the ground at the start of the rainy season.

Thank you for the advice so far. I'm really glad to hear that I don't have to do much prep work before I plant. I was a bit worried about that. November also sounds like the right time for me as it is way to hot for me to even try to clean it up much right now.

I'm going to go to the library tomorrow and see what books they have. If they don't have anything then I guess I will hit B&N on the way home.

I have one more area in the back I forgot to ask for input on. This is on the side next to the built in BBQ and the fence. The soil here is much more like soil than on the hill where it looks just like dirt. Hope that makes sense. There is water over there, but it floods as soon as it is turned on. I haven't searched the source of the leak or how difficult it will be for me to fix. I should point out I'm from the NW where we don't have sprinkler systems, we have rain, so I know nothing about them. Anyway, here is a pic of that space... it is currently covered with dead weeds and a few branches from a dead tree I cut down.

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The site below provides a landscape design tool for a native garden.
http://www.mynativeplants.com/search_options.php
All you do is plug in your zip code and info about your soil, sun/shade, watering, etc., and you get a list of plants that may work at your site, with links to photos and a little more info about the plants.

Another resource from Southern California for designing gardens with native plants is
http://www.bewaterwise.org/Gardensoft/index.aspx
This one includes photos of landscapes.

You can play around with both of these to figure out what you like, and then contact some nurseries to get more detailed info (or ask more detailed questions here).

When you go to the library look for "Landscape Plants for Western Regions" by Bob Perry. He is a professor of landscape architecture at Cal State in Pomona. He suggests many possible plant combinations with water conservation and wildlife in mind. Al

If you want low-maintenance, I suggest you implement weed control *before* you plant anything. Water the slope regularly for a couple of weeks, as if you were trying to grow something. (You are, the point is to get any weed seeds to sprout.) When the weeds come up and are looking healthy but *before they set seed* (that is very important) kill them with Roundup. Then repeat the process once more for good measure, remembering to NEVER let the weeds set seed. Then go ahead and plant your chosen plants, and after, sprinkle around a weed preventer for good measure.

I suggest this because as a beginning gardener, one of my greatest frustrations was weeds, and I never knew how to control them until well into my gardening life. This effort up front will give you a head start and make life much easier.

Thank you for the weed control information. The weeds on this hill are out of control when they are alive. After the rainfall last winter, by mid Spring they were about 6 feet tall. It took lots of Roundup and weed wacking, along with me falling down the hillside while weedwacking not once, but twice (it's steeper than it looks, lol) to get it to its lovely present condition. I also went through 2 weed wackers... one I broke while falling, the other wasn't strong enough to get through the stems. I haven't had to do anything to it since late June as it has been hot enough to just kill it for now.

How do I know when the weeds will set seed? Am I looking for something? Remember I'm a newbie knows nothing. :-)

Thanks again for the help! I'm hoping to make it to the library today as well.

"How do I know when the weeds will set seed?"

If you see flowers, that's the time to whack them without delay. Sometimes you have to look closely at a weed to see the flowers, however. The flowers can be tiny and easy to overlook.

When you are looking for plants, "erosion control" is the characteristic that is most important for your site, so make sure that whatever you choose has this characteristic.

Look for "California Gardener's Guide" by Bruce and Sharon Asakawa at your local library.

I look at your slope and envision Prostrate Rosemary, Lavender, Daylilies, native bunchgrass like Purple Needlegrass, the aforementioned California Fuschia, and Coyote Bush. All are quite drought-tolerant and low-maintenance.

For the side space by the grill I would clear off all the tall weeds and lay down cardboard, then cover it with mulch like wood chips. The cardboard will keep weeds from popping back up and the mulch will make it look nice.

You have a lovely space to create a backyard bird and butterfly habitat! Good luck and happy gardening!

Aloha,

Nathan Lau
San Jose, CA

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Do consider dwarf coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis 'Pigeon Point' or 'Twin Peaks'). Deep rooted native with terrific slope binding value, drought tolerance (NO summer water), and bright green appearance. Tiny white flowers in early winter. Great habitat plant.

Re: weeds

Don't let the weeds get more than a couple inches tall. Many of the grass type weeds won't get recognizable flowers, but seed heads. If they've gone that far, it's too late!

I agree with the cardboard advice by the bbq, that will work well.

Well, I went to the library yesterday and I didn't have luck finding all the books that were suggested, but I found some others. Here are the books that I came home with:

Low Water-Use Plants for California and the Southwest by Carol Shuler
California Top 10 Garden Guide by Sunset
Drought Resistant Planting Throughout the Year Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden
The Low-Water Flower Gardener by Eric A Johnson and Scott Millard

Right now I am going through the books mostly looking at pictures to see things that I like. I've seen plants I like so far, but I haven't seen much in terms of examples of slope design like I had hoped. I think I will go through the books and come up with a list of plants I like the looks of and description of, then post back to get feedback as well as cross referencing that with what was reccomended here already.

As for the cardboard thing... do I just flatten regular old cardboard from something I bought (does it need to be plain brown without the coloring/laminating like feel to it... more like moving or warehouse boxes then like merchandise, or does it matter?) Do I put it directly on the weed free dirt, then put the wood chips directly over the top of it?

When I drove home from the library yesterday I saw that a nursery lost its lease and everything is being clearanced. I'm temped to call to see when they actually are closing the doors, to see how much time I potentially have to snag some deals. I would love to be able to get some great deals, but I know its a bit early to plant with it still being 100 outside. Could I keep things in the house, in the garage... or is it not worth saving 30-50% now because they would just die. I'm not even sure if this nursery carries native plants, so it might not matter.

I wish I was good at photoshop so I could play around with how this stuff would look on my slope.

Thanks again for all the input.

I just thought of a few other things... how difficult is it to grow and/or maintain fruits and vegetables? Could I throw some into the mix and have that look okay (or would it work over by the BBQ), plus could someone of my caliber, lol, handle that? My kids love to pick the lemons and make fresh lemonaid already and they love fresh fruit and veggies, but I hate to buy them since they go bad so quickly in this heat.

Are there any that would grow easily here that someone like me could handle? Let's see, they love red, orange, yellow and green peppers, avacadoes, mushrooms, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, blueberries, oranges, apples, watermelon, and strawberries.

You can use any type of cardboard box. You just open them up flat and lay them down, overlapping the edges so the ground isn't exposed to the light. Alternatively, you can use several layers of newspaper wetted down. And yes, you put the wood chips right on top. Within a few months, the cardboard will break down and you can pull aside the mulch to plant in the dirt.

I was thinking that you could actually plant some veggies and herbs next to the grill. In that case, you'd want to do something called "lasagna gardening". There's a book on it - "Lasagna Gardening" by Patricia Lanza. Instead of just putting wood chips on top of the cardboard, you layer different organic materials and compost, creating a raised bed. You can plant directly into the lasagna and the decomposing organic material will feed the plant.

In that side patch you will be able to plant peppers, tomatoes, garlic, onions, and herbs like rosemary, sage, thyme and oregano.

I would definitely take advantage of the nursery closing to get good deals on plants. You don't have to plant now; just keep the plants out of direct sunlight and keep the soil in the pots moist.

Aloha,

Nathan Lau
San Jose, CA

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I just called the nursery and talked to someone for a few minutes. I'm going to go down at noon after I pick my son up at school. He said books are good and all, but you really just need to see what they have in stock because they could vary drastically. He will have a sales guy there ready to talk to me and help me out so I'm not just walking around like a lost puppy.

Everything they sell is grown either here in Corona or in Riverside. The store is not closing, they just lost some of their land (so a developer can build more houses... big surprise) so the sale prices they have now will not get any lower and when they sell out of the stock on sale, that stock will be gone until next year. I think mostly shrubs and trees are 50% off with plants maybe 25%, but I can't remember. He said the sale has been on a week and a half and the stock is flying off the shelf.

I have a feeling I need to take the third row out of my van as I may be coming home with new toys. :-)

Rather than getting one pot each of many different plants, I suggest getting several pots each of 5 or 6 plants. That way your backyard won't look like a jumble of disparate plants but will be more cohesive.

Aloha,

Nathan Lau
San Jose, CA

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I just returned from the nursery and I must say it was a miserable experience. I didn't enjoy myself one bit. I was so excited and maybe that was the problem I don't know. Anyway, the guy on the phone told me everything they had was 'native' and 'drought tolerant'. It took about 10 minutes for them to find someone to help me. I took in pictures of the slope and told the guy what I wanted. He said until I had hired someone to fix the irrigation I shouldn't do anything. When I said I thought I could take care of it pretty easily, he raised his eyebrows and said 'uh.. okay...well...without proper irrigation this isn't going to work'.

I showed him the list of plants reccomended here and he showed me 3 or 4 of them. He then showed me several other plants he reccomended. When I questioned how much watering they need he went back on this tirade of how all plants need constant watering or it won't work. I told him in the research I had done that there were many plants that once established only needed to be watered once or twice in the summer. He said, 'oh what like natives' and I said 'yes, that is what I was interested in. That is what I called about and was told that was all you had.' He just shook his head and said that all their plants were drought tolerant so I asked how often they needed to be watered and he said daily.

So my question is this... do drought tolerant plants need to be watered daily? That seems absurd to me! That sounds more like a heat tolerant plant that a drought tolerant plant.

He said I can expect to spend $5-600 to make the space look decent. Does that sound about right?

I'm back to looking at my books, deciding what plants I really like, then will go look for them in person... or will try to find another nursery.

>>He said books are good and all, but you really just need to see what they have in stock because they could vary drastically. Well, he was right on that. There are only 3 big wholesalers who supply all the garden centers and nurseries. Supplies vary according to what will sell well at that particular time, so if you go with a "must have this, nothing else" list, you will be possibly frustrated because some of those plants may not be available now but will be coming into the stores later. Better quality nurseries buy better quality specimens; big box stores buy in bulk so can be much cheaper but you need to get the plants when they first come in, not after they've been sitting around getting erratic care.

I would point out one thing that no one else has. What kind of drainage do you have on that retaining wall? I don't see a single drainage hole, and that means that eventually that wall will start to crack and fail. It may take a decade or more, but if you start irrigating you may accelerate that process.

When you set up your irrigation system, water most heavily at the top and much less so (one-third or even less) at the bottom of the slope.

Add some evergreen, tough, dependable shrubs in the midrange height (6-12') to add some variety. There are many good ones, such as Rhaphiolepsis (Indian hawthorn) and Photinia.

Keep your dog(s) out of the area as much as possible during the first year or so, to allow the plants to get established. Being dug up and tossed around is not good for growing plants, LOL.

Make sure you put in some sort of pavers so that you can get around in there. Watering will bring weeds, and irrigation systems need periodic maintenance.

Good luck!

"they love red, orange, yellow and green peppers, avacadoes, mushrooms, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, blueberries, oranges, apples, watermelon, and strawberries."

I can speak for northern California.

Lettuce and carrots can be grown all winter, from seed. You may need to start when the temperatures have gotten cooler, but the ground has not gotten too cold. I like Babette carrots, they are short and sweet. Longer carrots need to have very loose soil.

Peppers, tomatoes, and watermelon are summer crops, they need to be started in the spring. Tomatoes and watermelon take up more room than you think they will, and tomatoes grow best with some kind of support, such as a large cage. Cherry tomatoes are almost always successful and productive. Do some research to find good varieties. It's fun to grow different colors. In my garden, the squirrels got most of the large heirlooms last year, so I grew mostly cherries this year and am picking more than I can eat. Peppers and watermelon need the warmest spot in your garden.

Avocadoes, oranges, and apples grow on trees. You'll want to research which varieties do best in your area, maybe taste some different ones (especially apples) if you can. Look for dwarf varieties, which will stay relatively short so that you will not need a ladder to pick them. You will probably need only one tree of each.

Mushrooms. If you are adventuresome and really like mushrooms and you're not set on growing the white button mushrooms found in grocery stores, you can inoculate tree stumps with different mushrooms and grow them right in your garden. A fun project. Look at www.fungi.com for some possibilities.

Blueberries. Small shrubs. Need acid soil (different from most plants). Some people manage the special soil requirements by growing them in containers. Choose the varieties carefully, some will grow best in your climate, and some need a specific different variety grown nearby for pollination (so that fruits will form).

Strawberries. Buy small plants in the spring and grow them in strawberry pots, window boxes (rectangular planters you can put anywhere), or in the ground. Very adaptable and I think easiest to manage in containers. Prone to slug damage in my garden. Research which varieties are recommended for your area.

Herbs! would be ideal for your BBQ area. I love to grow herbs. Most are drought tolerant and need little or no care, besides cutting back (also called harvesting). Basil and parsley need more water, but oregano, rosemary, thyme, sage and many others need very little care. Mint is wonderful but invasive, so it must be grown in a container. It's wonderful to have a range of different herbs growing close at hand so I can pick as much as I need, rather than having to buy a whole bunch or use dried herbs. Rosemary can become a big shrub, but once it gets big enough you can cut branches to be used as skewers. Herbs (and native plants) will also attract pollinators, which are essential for most fruit and vegetable plants.

For help in choosing varieties, most counties have an ag extension or master gardeners group that may have recommendations. Don't rely on what's for sale in the nurseries; in my area, I have often found varieties totally unsuited to the local climate.

For photos, Sunset publishes a bunch of thin books that include lots of photos of landscapes. I've seen one on slopes and hillsides, and at least one on the theme of low-water.

Don't be discouraged. I'd love to have a slope like that actually and think there's alot you can do with it.

There are plenty of drought tolerant natives that can be watered 1-2 times a week or less in the summer once they are established. I agree with jkom that increasing irrigation will probably lead to the wall cracking and speed up erosion of that slope.

What about a couple terraces to break up that slope? Maybe a small path in the middle to give you easy access to the plants that you put on the top of the slope. It looks like clay, so it probably won't drain quickly. But that also means the soil will retain moisture longer under the surface and you don't need to water as often, you just have to water deeply and infrequently.

Alot of salvias, penstemons, and lavenders would probably like it there. Cleveland sage would love it there. Maybe also some verbena (i.e. bonariensis), Wooly Blue Curls, geraniums.

Since you live in Corona, and are interested in natives, you may want to check the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden's (It's in Claremont) Fall Plant sale. There's also the Fullerton Arboretum's plant sale, and you can always order online too.

Hi, Susan from Altadena.

You've gotten a lot of great advice.

Just a few brief tips and suggestions:

1. Even if you want low maintenance...you do need to condition (work/amend) the ground. After getting a handle on the weeds (you can also cover with black trash bags to kill off seeds), just use good ol' cheap steer manure. Try to borrow a rototiller or dig it in. Water heavily for a few weeks to leach out all the salts in the manure. Turn the ground every day until you get good drainage. I know...I have dead soil with no drainage that I'm amending.

2. Try to "terrace" your slope. It will help with run-off. You can use rocks, bricks, wood, etc. I have a little slope in front of my house.

3. Use a drip system with a timer. Forget about that water pipe. Much more efficient with drip. Or snake black soaker hose underneath whatever mulch materials you are going to use.

4. What I would grow against the fence is cannas. They get quite tall. Love heat. I have mine in junky soil and they are doing great.

5. Good filler plant are agapanthas. Take very little water. They go from white to deep purple.

6. Assorted succulents such as aloe veras and others

7. Grasses

8. Lantana, Martha Washington geranium, periwinkle (all over UCLA campus)

9. I have these pencil sized aloe looking succulents that take get hardly any water and fill in nicely.

10. Try freecycle.com and craigslist.com for free plants, especially succulents (we always have too many)

11. Which nursery did you go to? Try Armstrongs (they are always very knowledgeable). Do you have botanic garden?

12. Personally, I would fill it with lavendar and rosemary plants :0)

13. Have you tried our County Extension?

14. Is Cal Poly Pomona near you? They have agriculture program...may you can get a student who needs to build their portfolio?

15. Try an unusual mulch such as cocoa hulls or colored shredded bark.

My front yard is mostly low maintenance/water needs as I concentrate on back veggie/flower garden.

THE BARBEQUE AREA...
I would put in a "raised" bed with good potting soil. You could plant whatever grabs your fancy. Like petunias and violas in fall with some sweet peas (or real peas) climbing up the wall. And some herbs in spring. Or more flowers :0)
The kids would love growing radishes...the seeds are big.

Good luck, feel free to email me. Sorry I don't have pics of my new garden uploaded yet.

I have thyme and trailing rosemary herbs on my slope on the side and vinca major in the front slopes. Red Apple is good, may draw bees. They all spread underground and are drought tolerant. Whatever u do, do not plant mint unless u plant it in pots. For the Barbeque area, dig out some of the dirt and add some compost or good mulch to enrich and hold moisture, and plant any kind of bulbs that u prefer, or a dwarf fruit tree. dwarf peach, apple, etc. or just plant a groundcover such as vinca minor or both. fruit trees mean messy fruit on the patio if it isn't picked. I love purple coneflower and blackeyed susans since they are easy and drought tolerant. plant something the hummers would like. The possibilities are large.

I'd like to mention cotoneaster and maybe ceonothus. I'm in Northern Cal, but much of my yard has similar slopes and these two seem tothrive. A few ceonothus have died and I'm not sure why. My soil is a pretty heavy clay. You can check by digging up a bit after it's been saturated, and trying to roll it into a pencil. The closer you come to a pencil without it breaking, the more clay in your soil.

I have to return my Sunset book to the library today, but I get to keep the others until the 21st. I went through it real quick and scanned pics of the flowers I liked the looks of so that I could remember what they are later.

I will look up all the ones that were reccomended here later and see if I like the looks of them. But after looking through the Sunset book here are some of what I like:

Penstemon
Cransebill
Daylily
Lily-of-the-Nile
Sage
Santa Barbara Daisy
Gazania
Ice Plants
Rosemary
Trailing African Daisy
Verbena
Blue Star Creeper

Any opinions of the plants that I like?

I'm having a coworker of a friend come out this week to give me a bid of leveling out the right side of the hill and putting a retaining wall in so that one day I could put a hot tub up there. I may also find out how much it would cost to terrace the other side as well. I doubt I can afford to do both, and frankly the hot tub will have priority. :-)

After my visit to the nursery I've been thinking about plant placement and whatnot. The man told me I should make everything symmetrical. That makes sense, but if I put the space for the hot tub on the right, then my lemon tree is no longer in the middle, and the big tree on the left hand side gives shade so the plants under there would have different needs than the plants on the other side. Also, what should I plant under the tree? The leaves fall and will need to get picked up, so it needs to be able to either withstand the leaves on top of it or with stand raking or me trampling on it with my blower/vacuum. Any ideas???

As for my wall and the drainage. I noticed in the middle of the wall at the level of my patio there is a small cut out about the size of a thumb or so. Could this be for drainage? There is another one over at the BBQ.

Thanks again for all the help.

I always think of gardens as living, ever-changing design. I think it's impossible to achieve symmetry, unless the word the nurseryman was trying to use was "balance", which is really a different thing altogether.

One suggestion is to think of curves on the horizontal plane (e.g., no planting in rigid soldiers-all-lined-up rows) and layers on the vertical plane (height): low (groundcovers), medium (minishrubs) and tall (shrubs and/or trees).

You actually don't have that much space in total, so integrating the hot tub attractively into the overall house and yard design takes precedence. You need access not only to the tub but also for maintenance, a drainage system for the hot tub, storage for the cover, perhaps even a pergola to provide privacy. You'll want to create a pleasant "view" to look at when sitting in the hot tub, from all sides. Your list of plants is lovely but they are all short plants. Sit in the hot tub and you'll be looking at...your fences. As an example, when you sit at your dining room table, do you notice the floors first? It's more likely your eyes focus on the objects that fall within the 3-6' "middle" view. You need to work in your vertical layering first, then do the middle and bottom layers. Failing to properly integrate varying heights in a garden bed is probably the most common fault of amateur landscaping.

I have a neighbor that recently redid her slop with gazanias. It turned out very pretty. I have a small slope with trailing african daisies---gorgeous when in bloom (cooler months mainly), but they need to be wacked back about once a year. My vote is for gazanias (very pretty and no maintenance trimming). Some daylilies would be nice in the mix, too. Rosemary is pretty in combination with thyme (we have this planted in our neighborhood common areas), but this will be taller (mature height of around 18 inches)---the professional gardeners come and trim them to keep them neat. The others & Jkom51 have given you some good advice as well.

Becky

Is there an Anderson Garden Center near you? I have had good luck there getting native plants (they have a Cal. native section). The California Lavender plants I planted on my hill last Nov. is thriving (though hasn't bloomed yet) with nice growth and beatuiful small & abundant leaves. Just make sure to place a tiny terrace and berm around all your hillside plantings and thouruoghly pat down the berm so there is a bowl for the water.

Try the native nurseries in your area:

El Nativo in Azusa
Theodore Payne in Sun Valley
Tree of Life in San Juan Capistrano

Staff here will be much more knowledgeable about drought-tolerant plants (they won't tell you to water daily) as well as plants for slopes.

Also, you will find the new EBMUD book very useful. It includes native and non-native Mediterranean climate plants -- plants which do well naturally in California. Every California gardener should have one.

The plants you have chosen are excellent. You don't have to plant the entire yard in one weekend. Break it up into smaller tasks over 3-4 weekends(1.clear weeds,2.amend soil,3.terrace and mulch,40.plant and walkways,etc.). .If I were you, I would use that BBQ to your advantage and bribe some friends or family to help you in exchange for a steak or some burgers!The more hands involved the lighter the work. Try to enjoy it. Play some music.

I have loved avocados since childhood and was delighted to find I could grow them here when we moved to the San Diego area. If you decide to buy an avocado tree, be careful what kind because many kinds of avocado need two types of tree so one can fertilize the other to produce fruit. We bought a bacon avocado because bacons are self-fertile. It produces nice fruit all by itself, without getting too tall, and it apparently even contributed to the pollination of another avocado several yards away, which we had grown from a seed--probably a Hass type because that's the kind we buy most often. The fruit from that cross tasted even better than the fruit from the bacon avocado.

If you like them, may I also suggest fig trees (provided that the nursery says they can do well in the climate where you are)? They don't get very big and, depending on the type, you can get two crops of figs--one around June (in the San Diego area) and another in the fall.

I'm sure you can make that slope look really nice in a way that won't require much upkeep. Hope it works out well.

Besides the library, try looking through books and magazines at your garden center. I have seen some nice gardening books at Orchard Supply Hardware.

Or find a bookstore that has a good selection of gardening magazines. I like Sunset, Better Homes and Gardening and BBC Gardener's World for pictures and ideas.

You also might find some nice photos if you do a search for landscaping ideas and hot tubs on the internet.

I stumbled on this webpage today with lots of links for California Gardening:

http://www.at-la.com/@la-hort.htm

Do a little at a time. If it doesn't work for you, try something else. That's part of the fun of gardening. You might want to get the word out that you need help with designing your garden. Gardeners usually love to help (and share plants too).

Susan in Altadena

How is your progess so far?

The holes in your wall probably are for drainage. Otherwise the water would collect and eventually the weight of it would cause your wall to collapse. There are small holes along the base of our retaining wall.

Of the plants you listed -- Penstemon, Rosemary, Sage, and Verbena are (in my experience) quite drought-tolerant once established. I have Penstemon and Verbena growing in front of a hot retaining wall in full sun (full sun = at least 6 hours of direct sun each day) and they show great resistance to the heat even in the hottest months of summer, and without much water. The Verbena amazed me this year -- it was its first year and it heavily bloomed constantly. This is the one with arrowhead-shaped leaves the flowers are violet-purple. Cranesbill (hardy geraniums) will require more water than most of the other plants and most of them prefer a little shade in hot regions.

Trailing plants would look nice over the edge of the wall, including trailing Rosemary and Verbena. Ivy geraniums are very drought-tolerant too. I know that because I have tossed some on a dry pile of dead brush in our side yard and they never did die -- they somehow took root and are blooming!! You can't kill 'em! I now grow them at the base of roses which grow at the top of a retaining wall... the ivy geraniums trail around the roses and over the wall.

As others suggested, take it a little at a time. Start simple and don't expect to get it all planted and finished in a day/week/month. Don't get discouraged. It is overwhelming at first. Read as much as you can about where you want to start, and go from there.

Jen