My garden is rustic and quirky (fun garden art, but watch your step!). In about 2006, I began to enhance the two types of oak woodlands existing on the site. To the moister interior live oak forest I added shade-tolerant shrubs such as bush anemone, western spice bush, western spiraea, buckeye, and California bay. For ground flowers, I planted such perennials as western columbine, Douglas iris, Douglas artemisia, and vining pipevine and clematis (propagated by Frank Kosko). Although the live oaks were severely damaged by Snowmageddon 2019, they are recovering and the understory plants are fine. I am especially proud of my Bored Botanist 2020 project, in which I weeded out all grasses but California melic, a native California bunchgrass. The golden heads are beautiful in the morning and evening light.
As a result of losing a large blue oak to the south, I populated the suddenly sunny area with sun-loving shrubs including silverbush lupine, California lilacs (Ceanothus spp.), white sage, Cleveland sage, Mojave buckwheat, and a groundcover of creeping Sonoma sage. This planted area adjoins a grassy blue oak savanna including many native bulbs (they came free with the habitat). The wild hyacinths have seeded into my native planting, to the delight of Western pipevine swallowtail butterflies and many other delightful insects. -Susan Libonati-Barnes
Enjoy the following slideshow for a virtual tour of Susan’s garden. All photos by Susan Libonati-Barnes.
