California Poppy Makeover Party

This is the story of how we turned our weedy strip next to the driveway we called “Poop Alley” in to a flowery fun place for super cheap when we lived in Oakland in 2014. It’s almost the time of year to start tossing around the California native annual seeds for the rains to get them going. We could have started our Oakland project a couple months earlier. 

Sometime back in February Matti pulled out all the huge weeds growing next to our driveway (we don’t use this part to park) and gave the ground a good hoeing. That’s when my seed insanity began. I planted a jumbo bag of Baby Blue Eyes, a bunch of CA poppies, Nasturtiums, Clarkia, Cerinthe, Nigella and a Papaver I’m thinking is rhoeas. I also stuffed some random succulents in.

In a short time things started to fill in and I shoved in some more free plants we got at a local plant exchange.

Fast forward a few weeks and the Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila menziesii) started to rock.  I wish I would have seeded some Tidy Tips (Layia platyglossa).

It’s still kicking with almost no water. I throw a little on it once a week. The best part is that pretty much everything I seeded will reseed again next year to do it all again. I’m still waiting on the Nigella and Clarkia flowers to happen. They might have been eaten by the poppies. We knew our landlord would be returning to our house to retire when we moved in, so I looked for quick super cheap ways to make the garden spaces better.

The view from my office. I work out of our garage and get to watch my flowers through the front doors every day. You can see the spot where Max actually poops down by the garbage cans. He pees on a little crack on the other side of the driveway. He’s been living with us long enough to know where to go potty with out making me mad.

LOVE this super little flowered red dude!

I planted Renee’s Copper Pot and Tropical Sunset Mix of California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) for a little bit of everything, but I’m a sucker for deep orange flowers.