Here begins my garden blog! I've been reluctant to begin this whole blogging thing for some time, but rambling on at length with no particular concern as to whether or not anyone is listening is really a natural for me. So now I'm doing it on a blog! Let me introduce my garden - it's at least 600 square feet in the back, but it wraps around the side, and up to the front so it probably works out to something like 800 square feet altogether. It's mostly in part/half day sun with small spots of full sun and deeper shade. I am in Sunset zone 15 in the hills of Castro Valley, which is located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Though I've gardened in Castro Valley my whole life, we've just moved so I've only been in this particular location for about five months. Moving my previous 210 square feet garden with its many, many plants here was a challenge, but it mostly worked out. As referenced in the blog title I am particularly passionate about Salvias! The Lamiaceae (the Mint Family) includes a lot of my favorite genera - Salvia, Trichostema, etc. But I really have so many different plants that it's not limited to that at all. My garden is primarily focused on California Native plants. To me this is very important and tied into a sense of place and connection with the land. It's not just the plants but everything that goes with them. I am attempting to recreate the hillside habitat that would have existed here prior to all the houses and cars and whatnot. Our house is just a few houses away from local parkland so I'm using the hills there as a template. Though this will be the bulk of my garden I also have a vast array of species from other parts of California and the rest of the world. I always enjoy making friends with a new plant! I have over 40 Salvias presently in my collection. All but three are native to the Americas - primarily California and Mexico. Since my entire life and most of my energies are focused overwhelming on plants I've managed to acquire some pretty unusual and rare ones. I'll try to post a species list later!
2 comments:
Great first post! Looks like it will be an interesting blog!
I liked your post, I will be checking back. See this way I can get all the info that you want to share without showing my complete plant ignorance by trying to correctly respond.
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