Orange Happiness!

There is a part of the yard that is sloped and sunny and hasn't had anything done with it. It's just been covered by wood chips. When we first moved in it was covered with foxtails. It was one of the few places (other than the lawn) that was not covered by ivy. Before we moved in I raked up all the foxtail seeds and the first winter we covered the area with wood chips from the tree work that we had done. The main goal was to prevent the foxtails from coming up in spring and to cover the dirt so the dogs didn't track in mud. It worked like a charm.

Last year El Esposo planted a few poppies there and I put a couple of tomato plants there. A couple of the poppies had stayed all year and others were coming up from seed. We bought a few festuca grasses and I planted little sprigs of blue eyed grass that I got at the native garden tour. Here it is in mid April.

Now, a month later the blue eyed grass sprigs are starting to send up new green shoots, the festuca is looking a little more established and the poppies are going crazy! The new title photo is looking up toward the lawn from the "meadow." Here are more pictures from a few different angles, including one that is like an "after" photo of the one above. You can see the festuca grasses, but you can't see the blue eyed grass sprigs. They are too small and are in amongst the poppies.


There is just something happy about California poppies! I feel the same way about bumble bees. They always make me smile. So it is even nicer that they go together so well!