The Other Approach to Seedlings

I've been rather quiet on the blog because Mr. Mouse and I lived abroad for 6 months, and then came home to a garden that didn't really invite lots of blog posts. The drought has been bad, and even a CA native garden suffers - in fact, if you went hiking last fall, you might have been shocked how dry everything looked. 

But that was then. Now, the rains have come, and everything changed again. To my surprise and delight, I'm finding that the house sitters fairly casual approach to gardening has resulted in unexpected benefits: The annuals that were just drying up as I left did not get taken out until July, and that gave them plenty of time to scatter their seeds. 

Now, everything is green In the sidestrip, Phacelia -- always a bit weedy -- is almost forming a solid mat (shown above). However, I'm finding that a single Elegant Clarkia seems to have scattered enough seedlings to cover the front if I pull the Phacelia. So I'm expecting quite a bit of weeding, but hoping for a great show of flowers.

On the other side, the same Phacelia mat. 

Here, I'm also planning on pulling quite a few of the plants, and on the right, I'm already uncovering a combination of Tidy Tips and Elegant Clarkia. 

Tidy Tips and Clarkia

Things are even more impressive in the back. Green, green - bring it on!

Annuals in the back garden

As in the front, the baby plants all depend on what lived here before. In some areas, I have seedlings of Baby Blue Eyes (or is that Five Spot?), with a few poppies mixed in. 

Baby Blue Eyes and Poppies

In other areas, I see a mix of Clarkia and Poppies, and in the shade, I'm hoping for Chinese Houses. 

Clakia and Poppies

I admit that I'm looking at the explosion with some trepidation - how much weeding will be necessary to keep the bounty under control? Will it be stunning, or will they all die because they dry out? But then I remind myself of the very bad luck I seem to always have with seedlings in pots (who ate all my Gilia?) and so I think I'll take a chance and see what happens!