A Walk at Heather Farms

A couple of years ago I got interested in drought tolerant gardens. I'd just bought a house and it had no sprinkler system. In the Bay Area it rains a lot in the winter and not at all in the summer. I decided that I didn't want a lawn, too much watering, mowing and general work. Besides that, what I had was more than half weeds anyway.

I wanted a garden that was full of plants that didn't need to be watered in the summer. So I found out there's many native plants in California that are really great looking and don't need summer water and, in fact, will die if you water them. My whole front yard has been converted into a garden at this point and right now, since California's growing season is January through April - I'm working on getting rid of the rampant weeds that are trying to take over.

 So, a week or so ago I went to Heather Farms Park to see what was going on in their garden. I guess I was a little impatient, because the garden was still mostly dormant, but I did take a few pictures of the manzanita branches. Manzanita only grows on the west coast and most varieties have twisted branches with smooth red bark.
 
This variety is Vine Hill Manzanita.

Even though most of the garden was still sleeping, the narcissus was in bloom as the earliest flower of spring.