First off, I don't know what kind of siding you have, but growing plants right up against the outside wall of your home is generally not recommended. Hard to tell from your photo so it may be okay, but you might want to ask a pro to take a look and see if your planting areas shouldn't be moved outwards from the house a bit. Secondly, Northern CA is a very big place with a lot of microclimates. Even Sunset magazine breaks it up in multiple zones and I personally have always thought they should break up my zone 17 into at least three more. Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano counties have very different weather patterns, IMHO. Anyhoo......how much watering are you willing to do? With the new water bill cutbacks of around 20% everywhere look to be coming on a mandatory basis. This is actually not the season for planting - late fall is when you should be putting in plants, allowing winter rains to water them for free and letting the roots get established (hopefully you have good soil and not clay where they'd just drown). OTOH, the pickings in the nurseries and garden centers are starting to hit their stride so you'll have a good choice of plants coming in over the next few months. The "bible" of western gardening is the famous Sunset Western Garden Book (exact title), a large-size paperback whose latest edition is 2007. You can buy it used on amazon.com very reasonably. This is more for researching specific plants; for ideas about design you might want to go to your local library or bookstore and thumb through "Western Landscaping Book: Companion to the Best-Selling Western Garden Book", which you can also buy used in ppbk at really ridiculously low prices at amazon.com. I suggest you look through the latter first before buying it as it's a 'photo idea' type of book - either you'll see something that's applicable to your situation or you won't. There are hundreds of plants that would work in your sunny garden beds, and just as many that would work in your alcove. None of them are very large areas, so you're only looking for a half-dozen or so mini-shrubs. 'Color', BTW, is really best achieved by plants with interesting foliage that provide contrasting texture/shape/colors to your lawn. Flowers are a bonus that come and go, but good foliage mixes will provide interest 365 days/yr, which in our climate is a lot more important. This grouping, for example, would adore sun and take relatively little water. Substitute an evergreen groundcover like Iberis (candytuft) or even a trailing pelargonium for the nasturtiums on the LH bottom. Since the phormium here ("Rubrum") gets quite large, sub something more colorful, like "Sundowner" phormium, which has lovely pink tones that would pick up your brick trim, is smaller, and has leaves that curve downwards: This is "Sundowner" phormium: Shrub lantanas (as opposed to trailing ones) are nice big rounded mini-shrubs, 3x3', that look lovely with variegated pelargoniums. Both are very drought-resistant and take little water. Pelargoniums come in many sizes, shapes and flower colors, so pay attention to what the tag says (although they can be inaccurate; but you have to start somewhere): Here's a partial sun combination - Strobilanthes (very frost tender and needs some partial shade or it burns), spearlike foliage is a bearded iris, and a round variegated-leaf pelargonium, either "Skies of Italy" or "Mrs. Pollack": The following are examples of shade foliage mixes that turned out very successful and illustrate what I mean about foliage being so much more versatile than just using flower color. In this one it's variegated aucuba, bearded iris, and oxalis siliquosa: This is a chartreuse plectranthus groundcover, a small "Endless Summer" hydrangea, and a "Jack Frost" brunnera: I have this combination in full sun, but both mini-shrubs get good-sized over time, a full 4x4'. They look good together, though - Loropetalum chinense 'Rubrum' and the gray-leafed Euryops (the dark green leaf form is more common, but it gets even bigger, to 6x6'). The tiny daisy-like flowers are Santa Barbara Daisy, a very xeric trailer/groundcover. A purple osteospermum stuck its head in there, too. HTH give you some inspiration!

Hi again Sky. Funny about the Matisse. I have always said that if I could paint, I'd want it to be like Matisse! Since you liked the B&W idea and someone mentioned botanicals, I thought I'd share what I did in my bathroom. I used three prints by Steven N. Meyers. They are tinted shades of pale blue and green but are essentially like B&Ws. This isn't a great photo but... Some of his stuff I don't like at all. I chose Willow, Wind and Eucalyptus. I think the last would show well from afar and I find a square shape to be very pleasing. Some of his pieces (Hibiscus) almost suggest the ethereal quality of O'Keefe. One downside for me is that these prints have shown up in the mainstream lately. In fact, just after I bought them, I saw them in a Signals catalog. Ack! But, they are still just the right touch in my bathroom -- so perfect, I may leave them for whoever buys my house...if he/she wants them. Here is a link that might be useful: Meyers' work

We bought our house a year ago with an enclosed garage. Where the garage door used to be, is a wall with a window. Our house is concrete block, but this wall is made of something else- wood? I don’t know. Important info: I live in Florida where we get torrential downpours almost every afternoon in the summer, but don’t usually last long. The problem is it dumps so much rain, in such a short time span that water pools quickly. It doesn’t last long and absorbs quickly enough most of the time. Also important: my yard is on a slant- the front left being high ground and diagonally slopes downward toward the back right corner of the property. So the house acts as a barrier for a lot of this water as it flows past the house and then off into the woods. A couple months ago, we discovered that the wall where the garage door used to be was leaking water and dirt underneath the wall. We found that the sealant that was in place between the wall and the concrete driveway below was disintegrating, so it was replaced with a black tar-like substance. I can’t remember what it was called. This seemed to fix the problem. But we’ve realized it’s happening again. Is more likely to be the wall, or perhaps it’s going under the sealant? And how do I keep water from pooling here? I thought about doing a curtain/French drain, which I think would work well considering how slopes the yard is... but with the driveway being in front of this wall, I couldn’t put the drain there, so I’m not sure it would even help this particular problem. Any ideas or suggestions? The first photo is the inside of the enclosed garage where the dirt and water is coming inside. The second photo is of the outside (from before we added the sealant).

Update: It was a nightmare to get this company to make it right even with emails from the manufacturer stating that they sealant must be removed and an environmental company coming out and informing the owner of the company the air quality was so bad he would not advise sitting out there. They removed the caulk and recaulked but it did nothing to help as it absorbed into the concrete slab and I am pretty sure it was used behind the wall in the corners. The air tester came out after the caulk had been removed and then re-caulked and it was still unsafe. After 4 more months of them doing nothing and the threat of getting a lawyer involved they sealed the floor and it began to ease some. After installing tile and molding, and it helped more. It has never entirely gone away and it has been 2 years. I haven't had the air quality tested because I think deep down I know there is still a small hazard there but in the state I live there is very little consequence to these types of things. Which is why the owner was so blatent and arrogant. He thought he would never be held accountable. Once he got wind of us calling lawyers and asking for formal reports on the testing, he realized it probably best to take our calls. Unfortunately, they've installed hundreds of sunrooms this way, including my neighborhood full of elderly people. They all noticed a smell but thought it was supposed to smell that way because it was new. I personally know of 3 people who have had their sunrooms longer than me and you can still smell the fumes too. My advice is to learn to do things yourself because contractors are really, really bad right now with all the work coming in and they know there is little accountability to be held.