About this log

I live in a single-story house in the East Bay with a backyard of about 1,100 square feet. Until 2023 most of it was lawn that turned brown every August no matter how much we watered it.

After a few dry years and a water bill that kept rising, we replaced the lawn with native and Mediterranean plants on drip irrigation. I am not a trained horticulturist. Everything here comes from trial and error, a couple of local nursery workshops and a lot of reading.

Plant names are the common ones I use at home. When I mention a specific variety, it is because that is the label that came with the plant, not a recommendation.

Updates

I add an entry when something changes in the garden, usually two or three times a month in spring and less often in summer. Older notes get corrected when I find out I was wrong about something.