Here is the erosion situation around the fountain grass:
Non-Native/invasive fountain grass covers the south facing slope of our hill, and the rocky chasm. There's only a few spots of it on the bare southwest facing slope. As you can see, it's doing nothing to hold back the decomposed granite. Even though it clings to the face of the rocky area, it's not doing us a lot of good. The soil just flows around it.
This is an attempt to show the one native buckwheat we have on site:
It's grown into the fence next to a pomegrante tree, probably to protect itself from the deer. It's kind of lovely and it would be nice if we could get a whole row of them to grow into the fence like that, but I'm not sure that's entirely possible.
View from the SW facing slope (laurel sumac in the foreground):
This is the one lovely little sagebrush we have growing:
It's soft and feathery and smells lovely. Wouldn't the hill look nicer with a whole pile of these guys?
Cacti... I believe these are California native Opuntos, but probably escaped from someone's garden.
Our one glorious oak:
I believe this is a coast live oak, but I'll have to do some more research. I was super pleased to find that the leaf litter under the dripline was not slidey. It stuck to itself and held in place as I stepped on it... as opposed to other areas of the hill that would just slip out under my feet.
Now this is unpleasant:
Our neighbor seems to have extended his yard into ours. This is along the top fenceline. I actually don't mind them having a veggie garden going up here, as long as they provide the water and I don't have to. However, in the foreground you can see an untended compost heap (I.E. just a pile of green waste) that is stinky. I'm a little worried it's a haven for rats, so I didn't go up there. I'm not sure if we should deal with this legally or what. It's really unneighborly.
View from the S facing slope (enjoy our lovely new roof!):
View of the Valley:
Wouldn't it be nice to somehow have a patio up here?
What most of the SW facing slope looks like at ground level:
Seriously, all this is decomposed granite, a few scrubby non-native weeds and an occasional teensy-weensy lupine here or there. It's really difficult to traverse and I'm pretty sure we're going to need professional help planting this, because I'm not sure how I could get up there while managing any sort of equipment.
One cutie patootie lupine:
