This is a photo of a retaining wall in Scott Spencer's Southern California garden. Oh my! This photo makes my garden soul jump up and down. My friend Pam Penick wrote on her blog recently about reproducing a garden scene from a magazine by substituting plants local to one's own area. What a great idea, which you can read about here.
I have the retaining wall. Isn't it a beauty? David did this retaining wall hauling thousands of pounds of limestone rocks from lower down on our lot.
I think it is magnificent and yet it is lacking something.... I have made excuses; no water, no soil, deer, raccoons, turkeys mice, squirrels. Things have changed recently due to the prolonged Texas drought. We have lost many of the trees and with more sun little Texas sedges are starting to pop up everywhere. The yuccas and opuntia I have planted are doing well producing their first heavy crop of tunas this year. Bluebonnet seedlings are everywhere. With some gentle winter rains we may have a wash of blue next year.
When I visit English gardens I dream of having aubretia and campanulas growing out from between the rocks. Nothing seem to survive life in the dry, drystone wall.
Now after revisiting that wall in California I am inspired to make some improvements. I can have Mexican feather grass and maybe a Weber's agave hanging over the wall. Maybe some euphorbias and of course rock rose. I am going to head out into the garden and pick some seeds to throw among the bluebonnets.
