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We garden in Sonora, California at an elevation of 2000' on red, granitic clay punctuated with frequent granite boulders. Our gardens are hot, dry, and very neglected.
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Rock Garden

Our main rock garden is on a slope behind our house. We began building it shortly after the house was finished in 2002. The slope faces west and is in the sun for most of the day. The soil is classic foothill red clay, somewhat supplemented by occasional shovels of sand and a gritty top soil mix. The mulch is pea gravel, whatever kind we have piles of at the time, and ranges from 1 to 8 inches deep. 3-4 inches would be perfect and is my target goal.

The garden is watered about once a week in the summer. Peak bloom is in April, with subsequent waves peaking again in May and June.

Entrance to the Rock Garden
Spring bloom in the rock garden
Globularias and Ptilotrichum with other spring blooming plants.
Front Berm

The Front Berm is a large ungainly mound that sits in the middle of our front yard. It is basically a huge pile of our red clay, mixed with lots of sand and punctuated with large boulders. We top dressed it with 6-8 inches of additional sand and lots of gravel. In this austere and extremely well drained garden we grow only western natives.

New Baby
05/19/2010 - 17:44

Every once in a while a new creature emerges from the garden. This year it was a small rosette of leathery leaves. I had been kind of ignoring it for a while, and suddenly it shot up a spike of flowers. The stem was tinted burgandy and it had the simple elegance I associate with Digitalis obscura. And then the flowers opened. It was serious love at first sight. I think it may be a hybrid of D. obscura. Whatever it is, I am hoping beyond hope that the seeds will be viable. Click on the photos below to see enlargement.