You might not have the budget or the time to find a landscape designer right now, but that doesn't mean you can't still up the ante on wild beauty, wildlife and water savings in your garden!
There's a lot I've learned as the founder of an eco-friendly landscape design boutique. And there's one thing I think it's always really important to shade (it's the thing that really makes California Wild Gardens different). It's that we believe that plants - like people - belong in diverse communities.
How we combine plants matters just as much as the individual species we choose for the garden. In Regenerative Agriculture (formerly know as Permaculture) strategic plant combinations are called Guilds.
5 EASY Plant Combos for California Gardens
It's one of the most valuable things I've learned about California gardening... how to put plants together in ways that look great, grow happily & provide benefit to one another. So, here's a few DIY Plant combos that you can put together while shopping at almost any nursery nearby.
Salvia's, Erigeron karvinskianus & Artemisia grow together in a garden (with a penstemon accent).
4 Easy Ground-covering California Native Wildflowers
This fast garden filler works great as a foreground accent with a larger native Wormwood or Salvia accent behind.
- Santa Barbara daisy (Erigeron karv.)
- Yarrow (Achillea <- we like 'moonshine' but any varietal will do)
- Creeping Gray Germander Sage (Salvia chamaedryoides)
- California Sagebrush (Artemisia californica) or Large Native Sage (Salvia leucophylla, apiana or leucantha)
Euphorbia tirucalli (firesticks), Agave americana (blue agave & variegated agave), Yucca aloifolia & Aloe 'blue elf' adorn a steep slope in San Diego
5 Easy Yard-Filling Succulents for Full Sun
This combo is GREAT for slopes. Why? because succulents love the fast drainage and high heat exposure of being angled towards the sun. Here's the plants:
- Agave (almost any varietal, Agave americana shown above)
- Aeonium (almost any varietal, Aeonium sunburst shown above)
- Euphorbia (bushy varietals like rigida, characis or firesticks) -> caution sap of all euphorbias is a skin irritant, and in some cases dangerous eye irritant
- Aloe Vera (great winter hummingbird plant)
- Yucca (almost any varietal - go with Spanish bayonet for a thornless option)
Echeverias, Aeoniums, Aloe Kalanchoe & Agave attenuata. All but echeverias can handle full sun or substantial shade.
5 Sweet Succulents for a Shade Garden
These succulents are smaller accent plants compared to the big full sun ones. This plant combination makes a perfect foundation planting or lights up the land under the shade of a tall tree.
- Aeonium (purple, green or both! - large rosette forming varieties are most shade tolerant)
- Foxtail Agave (or almost any non-hybridized varietal of Agave)
- Aloe Vera (like the aloe you'd grow as a house plant)
- Paddle Plant (Kalanchoe thrysiflora)
- Sedums (most of these good for part shade or Crassula for deepest shade)
Palo verde (Parkinsonia 'desert museum'), Lavender 'Goodwyn creek', Artemisia californica, Anigazanthos (kangaroo paw), Salvias and Rosemary blend together in this beautiful Mediterranean garden.
4 Easy Silver Mediterranean Plants to Make Your Backyard Glow
- Rosemary ‘Boule’ (great round shaped variety)
- Lavender ‘Goodwin creek’ (give it good drainage)
- Wormwood: Artemisia 'californica' or 'powis castle')
- Catmint: Nepeta 'Walker's Low' is a great option
These are low-water, nicely formed varietals. Throw in a Palo Verde tree or two for an epic silver foliage / gold flowering accent combo! Or stick with Olive trees for something super soft and understated.
6 Easy California Native Plants for Vibrant Greenery in the Shade
- Catalina perfume (Ribes viburnifolium)
- California Currant or Gooseberry (Ribes sanguinum)
- Hummingbird Sage (Salvia spatheca)
- Coral bells (Heuchera) - pick a colorful variety like 'creme brulee' in the photo above for flare!
- Douglas iris - these are easiest to grow in coastal climate regions. Some bearded iris hold up just fine in part-shade in hotter climates.
- Sword Fern (Polystichum municum)
California coffee berry / Cascara (Rhamnus californica 'eve case' or other) is another great easy evergreen plant for shade. It makes a great low-water camellia sized evergreen in shade and part-shade. It can be very slow growing regions with less than 20" annual rainfall, so start with as large a plant as possible.
Heuchera 'creme brulee', Iris douglasiana, Salvia spatheca, Columbine and Western swordfern combine in this California native shade garden. Native fescue lawn blend in back.
Remember to Plant what you Love
Beauty matters. When your putting all the work in to help create new landscapes, remmber if you're not attracted to them, you're not going to care much about looking after them. So listen to your wildest dreams and start planting a yard that makes your senses tingle, because that's the one that's going to last.
