We are fortunate to live in one of the seven Mediterranean climates globally. In 2002 we yanked out a dying lawn, ivy and blackberry vines, along with native weeds 6' tall, to install a 'cottage garden' modified for our Northern CA climate - 7-10 frost days (no ground freeze)/yr, cold rainy winters, bone-dry but often foggy summers with pleasantly warm days but cooler nights. As we get no rain 6 months out of the year and have endured 3 droughts in 20 years, water-saving is imperative here.

Therefore, many of our plants are different. Some are winter-tender annuals elsewhere, some are tropic giants that are tender here. But the primary concern is to be evergreen year round. Without good 'bones', a NorCA garden will look either weedy, wimpy, or sterile for months on end. So foliage contrast and 'layers' of plants are very important to my design. We have a good-sized city lot, with about 2000+ sq. ft. of various-sized mixed-plant beds. Hand-weeding this garden is strenuous work!

What follows are some of the photos I took this month. I plan to re-do my garden website, but haven't even started yet, LOL. This year so far we've gotten sufficient rain, but also so much frost it killed a large number of my freesia and nasturtiums, so our spring show of color (usually April-May) is going to be a bit drab this year.

Part of our front yard, looking upwards/towards the house. In bloom are shrub roses, lantana, loropetalum, iberis, leptospermum, limonium, rosemary, euryops.

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Opposite side of the front yard, looking downhill. A better view of the euryops bush and limonium, some purple bearded iris, osteospermum, and the tiniest flash of red from a flowering pineapple sage.

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I sited this argyranthemum "Ruby Slippers" to a protected spot. Even in NorCA, it will die back in the cold.

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An unnamed yellow evergreen daylily

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This is a new camellia I just put in, and already I've lost the name, LOL!

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Coleonema in front of a Phormium 'Rubrum' which in the rainy light looks more black than its true color of brownish-red.

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Yellow erysimum. I prefer the variegated variety, with its purple flowers, but I do like the darker tone to this one's leaves. It's at the foot of a tree rose.

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I keep playing with my front stairs planters, trying to find something that doesn't need watering every day in the summer. This is my latest try: a euphorbia and a helichrysum 'Curry'.

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Hellebores don't seem very popular here, and I have no idea why. Of course, taking this photo showed me the good rains have also hatched an outstanding crop of aphids, LOL!

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This is a hellebore "Pink Lady", much more floriferous and strong than the "Red Lady" I have elsewhere.

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The well-known H. argutifolius. The flower stalks always fall down in a big circle, but this one has room so I don't worry about it smashing anything else.

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I have this Impatiens sodonii in a pot. A seedling escaped through a brick wall to site itself at the foot of a trash silver oak. It gets hurt by frost in the winter and wilts in the summer dry season, but it soldiers on and is now some 4' TxW.

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I have several Japanese maples, but I especially love to see the tiny new leaves of "Sango Kaku" come out. They are such a perfect brilliant red, opening to the chartreuse edged with crimson.

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Loropetalum chinensis 'Rubrum' is in full flower, against the chartreuse leaves of Lavatera olba 'Aureum'. This latter plant has disappeared from the retail nurseries, and I'm giving some cuttings to East Bay Nursery/Berkeley to see if they can bring it back for the trade.

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Just a common nasturtium, but the recent frost killed almost all my nasturtiums in the front yard. This one is in a protected side yard and is the first to flower this year.

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Osteospermums look like daisies but are not. They are reseeding weeds here, but pull out easily if you don't want them.

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I have 2 passifloras, purple and coral. Out here these are 50' fence-crushing monsters, so I'm constantly pruning these to keep them in check. I don't like to do that, because the Gulf Fritillary butterfly depends upon them for its sole source of food, but if I don't keep them in check I know I'll regret it.

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Just a common variegated pelargonium. This one tends to be tall and rangy, very vigorous. I have to stake it and prune it or it falls over and smashes its neighbors. "Does not play well with others" should be its nickname!

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Variegated rhamnus is wonderful - tall and vertical, although it hates being headed so don't even try. In spring it gets these wonderful little red-yellow flowers.

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Roses are hard to prune back here as they stay evergreen, even as they look pretty sad. Most of us whack them back in mid-January, but this bud was left on and finally flowered. It's a Double Delight tree rose.

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This is the "Lady in Waiting" shrub rose from J&P. Not a cutting rose, but one of the few that is nicely scented. The color fades as it opens to pale pink, then cream as it drops.

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My 'Tuscan Blue' rosemary, which is outside my front door so I can run out and grab some when I need it in my cooking.

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I grow this pineapple sage for its foliage - a brilliant, amazing chartreuse-yellow. But it has brilliant red flower spikes, too.

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The common Solanum jasminoides vine, which I fight to keep from overwhelming a metal arbor in the back. It lives solely on runoff; I never water it in the summer.

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