Here are our top 5 picks for drought-tolerant plants to use in your Los Osos landscaping…

If you’re thinking about re-doing your landscaping, one of the decisions you’ll need to make is which plants to use. If you’re like most people, you probably want to use water-wise and low-maintenance plants to avoid the need for too much supplemental irrigation and to make ongoing maintenance easier and/or less costly.

Fortunately, we live in an area with an abundance of suitable plants for your Los Osos landscaping project. You will have a variety of colors, textures, shapes, and sizes to choose from, which makes it easy to achieve the results and style you want.

To choose the best plants for Los Osos, we take our cues from nature. Native plants that grow naturally here are perfectly adapted to our soils and climate. These plants will grow well with very little irrigation even in our sandy soils.

1.California Fuchsia

California Fuchsia is a perfect plant to use in your Los Osos landscaping to give a bright pop of color. The vibrant, tube-like flowers stand out against nearby plants and bloom much longer than many other natives. You can spot these blooms along the trail in Montana De Oro even in the driest parts of summer. This is a testament to this plants extreme drought resistance.

Fuchsia comes in many forms with different growing characteristics and colors. Use it in your landscaping alongside plants such as Ceanothus and Deer Grass for a lovely contrast of color and texture.

2.Artemisia

Artemisia comes in many forms, but in landscapes it is most often a small to mid-sized shrub with feathery gray-green foliage. This provides a nice, soft texture that can intermix well with grasses and other shrubs. Some varieties of Artemisia can also be used as groundcovers or as border plantings.

Artemisia is easy to grow and survives through heat and drought quite well, making it an excellent choice for your outdoor space.

3.Dudleya

Dudleya is a native succulent that can be seen in the wild on rocky outcroppings or in well-drained soil. It requires very little, if any, irrigation in the summer and can live for up to 100 years! These are incredibly hardy plants that can often survive even with no soil contact for extended periods of time.

Dudleya can work very well in rock or container gardens, but are also suitable to be intermixed with other succulents or native plants in larger landscapes. The flowers shoot up from the plant on tall stalks and can range in color from white to red to yellow.

4.Yarrow

Yarrow is a local native that grows in many different soil types. It can even be seen growing extensively in the dunes on the sand spit.

Yarrow has green or grayish-green lacy foliage and sends up tightly clustered flowers that come in many colors. In the landscape, it generally goes dormant in the winter, only to burst to life in the spring with lushness and color.

Yarrow is highly adaptable and hardy. It can grow in full sun or shade, is deer resistant, and can even be walked on.

Use it in your landscaping for vibrant spring and summer color underneath trees or mixed in with grasses and shrubs.

5.Hummingbird Sage

Hummingbird sage has large fuzzy green leaves and send up flower spikes that are pinkish or purple in color. The plants generally get about a 1-2 feet high and spread slowly by underground rhizome. Given the spreading nature of Hummingbird Sage, it makes a wonderful groundcover for use underneath trees or larger shrubs.

One of the benefits of this plant is the incredible spicy-sweet scent it puts off, which is great for your landscaping because it gets other senses involved, increasing your enjoyment of the space.

Hummingbird Sage can be found in the forests around Los Osos and also more inland, such as at Cerro Alto. With easy maintenance and low water requirement, this is a perfect choice for your landscaping.

That’s not all…

There are many other plants to choose from that will thrive in your landscape. Head to a local nursery, consult your landscaper, or search the internet for California native plants to discover the abundance of different plant options that will grow well in Los Osos.

If you need help deciding what plants are right for you, please feel free to contact us. We’d love to hear from you!