 The following is a production of New Mexico State University. We're back in Sonoma County, California, at the home of Master Gardener Linda King, who gardens in the hills overlooking Petaluma. You've got an interesting garden full of grasses and very xeric plants here. Thank you. Yes, this is euphorbia, which is a South African plant, the dulcis chameleon. We've got a beautiful red stem. Then we have a climatus armandii, the only evergreen climatus. So you have green here at the entry, you're around. Right. It covers up when the wisteria is out of leaf in the wintertime. And they both bloom. They both have beautiful white flowers in the springtime. As I look around the hillsides, there's a lot of grasses, and you've got grasses as part of your landscape. I grow grasses because they're very drought tolerant. And it's beautiful on the hillsides. This one's so gold right here. Yeah. I like these tall golden grasses. They're the same color as the hills around here. Are these native? No, they're actually not a native plant, but they are drought tolerant. And they do a great job of holding the hillsides with very little water. And it does seed itself quite easily, which is nice. I see another grass down here that is very different. Yeah, this is a very special grass. This is a California native. It's called Muhlenberger Regens, or deergrass. It used to cover almost all the slopes of California. But I don't see it on the hills around here anymore. No, well, the cattle doesn't do very well in cattle, and they overran it, and now the annual grasses have taken over the hillsides. Does it self-seed very easily? Not really. It doesn't. It needs to be propagated mainly by division. And so you're propagating and covering the slope here with this? We're working on it. It's difficult to get going because it does not like water at all, which is nice for me, but it needs a little bit of helping care getting started. And speaking of things being so dry, is there any concern for fire here? Very much so. We high-weed mow the grasses out there, the annual grasses, because it's a dangerous fire hazard in the summer when it dries out. And then by morning, you give the California poppies a good chance to grow. Oh, yeah, we like to keep them growing as long as we can during the year. This looks like a very chapparel-ish garden. Well, it is a mixture of California natives and a lot of Mediterranean-type plants, because they're also drought-tolerant. Is this one from the Mediterranean? This is actually a South African native, mealyanthus major, or the honeybush trees. It's got a beautiful red, spiky flower. And I look here and I say, well, a peach in an arid landscape. Well, I do grow my own fruit trees. I have the peach, I have plums, quince, apples, Asian pear, cherry, and almond. Oh, all that right in here. Yeah. Yeah. And up here I see what looks like a very special part of the garden. Oh, yeah, that's our sunset garden. The lavender looks like it's really happy here. Oh, yes. Oh, it's a typical Mediterranean plant. Makes sense. And it's a wonderful aroma. There's a plant up here with such shiny leaves, you can't look past it. Yeah, well, that's pitosporum, tenuopholium silver sheen. And with black wire-like stems. Yes, it's just a gorgeous plant. You've got more than one type of oak out here. Here's one coming up from the roots. Right. Well, that one seeded itself from an acorn, about seven or eight years ago. But this is the quercus agripholia. This one's the evergreen. Yeah, and we have another one that doesn't drop its leaves, the quercus lobata, the valley oak. And it's got a much bigger leaf to it. It looks like some big birdhouse up there. Well, yeah, that's a barnel box. It's my gopher deterrent. We do have a gopher problem in the garden, and we've managed to acquire a barnel in this box, and he swoops down in the evening hours. It's quite nice. Do you have other wildlife here in the garden? Yeah, we have badger, coyote, all sorts of animals in here. It's like a wonderful place for resting for you and for them. Oh, yeah, it's gorgeous. Why don't you have a seat? What a view. Is that the fog coming in off the Pacific? Yes, it certainly is. That's what cools us down a little bit in the summertime. The preceding was a production of New Mexico State University. The views and opinions in this program are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the NMSU Board of Regents.