What to Do with a Long Weekend

We found this weekend to be a great time to do our "Living Wall 2.0" project.  Here's the original "living wall" that came with the house.  We liked the concept, but didn't like that the soil kept falling out of the little cells and onto the stairs below. And some of the succulents had outgrown their spaces.

So, Erick removed the original, I painted the wall behind it and came up with a design, Erick made cedar boxes and put them up.

Boxes in place and ready for planting

Living Wall 2.0

There were lots of plants left over after we got the boxes comfortably full.  So, I planted them along the stone path on the canyon side of the house and in the yard near the front door.

Canyon side plantings:

A good example of the Serpentine soil in our area

Front yard plantings: 

We've chosen native and/or drought-tolerant plants for the yards.  Anything that needs better soil or a bit of pampering will be in pots on the decks and balconies.

We now have bird feeders on both the bay and canyon sides of the house. Here are a couple of the visitors to the one that's on a bayside balcony.

A Stellar's Jay

A Scrub Jay on the feeder

A recent early morning photo with clouds below Mount Diablo: