Gardening & Landscaping
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.

Hi, I've never posted on this board before. I am looking for inspiration on what to do with our front yard. Any ideas?
Re: Looking for inspiration
Our little Irish rose came to us on March 5, 2010
Don't drink the water.
Disclaimer: I am not an MD. Please don't PM me with pregnancy-related questions. Ask your doctor.
A lot of our neighbors have been extending the front into a portch and because of water restrictions in our area have been putting in more stone. We have a garden in the back. I really love the palms and we're definitely thinking about adding a couple more. Possibly removing the yucca plant. The flower boxes against the house had rose bushes which we got rid of because they attracted too many bees (I'm allergic) so I would like to avoid anything that would cause the same problem. I have a couple of books but, am at a complete loss now that we've removed the old and are actually ready to start putting in new.
Could you do some sort of drought resistant cactus below the retaining wall next to the sidewalk.
I think some window boxes would soften things up and add a burst of color too.
I like the cactus idea below the retaining wall. That space definitely needs something. We were also looking at birds of paradise.
Up against the house on both sides of the portch are flower boxes. We're planning on planting probably small palms and not sure what else. Hopefully that will soften it up. Also, this picture is pretty dated. While the yard is exactly the same we've had the stone replaced with stucco and also added stucc to the retaining wall to update everything.
Look at manzanitas and ceanothus. Native and, as a bonus, the ceanothus might die if it's watered during the summer
They both have beautiful blooms, and the manzanitas have great bark. There are a variety of sizes of both, ranging from ground covers to trees.
As a NorCal girl, I appreciate any water-saving measures you take. Our delta is in trouble.
ETA: Here's my no-water-required front yard. Granted, we get lots of rain from Oct. to April and have cooler summers here, but I don't water at all between April and Oct., and they get no rain then. The blue blooms in the foreground are ceanothus. The bright green in the background are euphorbia, which I bet would do really well in San Diego. There is some santolina in there along with some carpet roses, a holly tree and fortnight lilies (which I plan to replace with manzanitas eventually). The white is an ornamental cherry, which I figured would die from a lack of water but has survived four waterless summers.