For Zen and drought-tolerant, I’d use (small variety) native ornamental grass in each bed. All the same type. You could have pretty river rock/etc as the top dressing.

This nursery is in the Bay area, but lists a lot of native Cali grasses:

https://pacificnurseries.com/7-california-native-grasses-to-consider/

I think it would be a good-looking design, easy to care for, soft to walk by, and give some lushness in those beds. Check with established, local nurseries for advice on native and non-invasive grasses.

Not grasses here, ignore the types of plants, just showing the idea of using the same plant in a small space.

And how pretty a row of grass is:

This median bed is in SoCal, with Lomandra longifolia ‘Breeze’ (Dwarf Mat Rush):

Decorative rock:

I like dark stones, too. I’m in brutally hot Texas and have both with some of my hardiest plants:

Or use different types of grasses, but with the same type together in each bed.

If not grasses, something else small and drought-tolerant…. but again, the same plant in each section. It will give the illusion of bigger beds.

Although you don’t have much room, you could still get creative with using different stones and some sort of design for interest:

Against our house in the front we have octopus agave (vilmoriniana) and in the back red yucca (hesperaloe parviflora). Both of these are very little maintenance and extremely drought tolerant. Add a rock/gravel mulch and it looks good with very little water and care.

I'd say no to stones. too harsh looking.

So Cal and backyard, I'd remove everything and find new homes for them.

put in a Drought Tolerant NATIVE plant, (do your part) to fill all the vacancies, a unified look since it is in the backyard.

A Russian Sage, yucca, daylillies, or a similar idea. close together

Kind of a low hedge look, clean but low/no maintenance.

Pachysandra is a really nice plant that fills in quickly and doesn’t seem to need a lot of watering. We have it in a few spots and love it.

@Lyn Nielson i love the idea of native plants. Sadly, the native plants I’m finding for the los angeles county area are not very appeaing and the ones that we find decent looking are either too large at maturity or very small. Im looking at www.bewaterwisewater.com

the russian sage is nice looking but it doesnt seem to be a native.

We don’t have a home for the plants we’ll be removing so sadly they’ll end up going in the trash.

@jmscv I've had a surprising amount of luck giving away plants by posting on NextDoor and my local Buy Nothing FB group, and just leaving them on the side of the street with a 'free' sign on them.

I agree with @jmscv a big FREE Sign will work everytime.

any plants can be trimmed back to suit your needs. Do you have a local nursey?

They'll have some great plants, even a neighbor may share something.

Whenever I’ve had Russian Sage, it looked great for about a week or two. The rest of the season, kind of ratty looking and not very interesting. I would not put a red or any Yucca there, they would get too big. Daylilies are not native.

@Jilly, in my research i’ve found that these are not native and some can be very invasive - day lilly. I'm partial to grasses right now, we have a purple fountain grass thats not native but we love the look of it. I'm going to go to the local nursery today and see what I can find.

Please update us, I think it’s going to look so nice and fresh with some changes!

@Lyn Nielson and @Emily R. ill try giving the plants away. as you know removing them and leaving them on the side of the road dont leave them in the best condition. the moment plants are removed they go into shock and depending on how much trauma there is, they may not come back.

our local nursery has a lot of plants and all the ”native” species isn’t attractive. They aren’t clean looking, they are dry and shaggy looking. Others look like weeds - no offense to anyone who enjoys the native plants. maybe someone can turn me on to something I’m not seeing.

In trying to be environmentally concious to find draught tolerant plants and support the local ecosystem this poses a problem. We’re considering sticking with the fountain grass or other type of grass and mixing in some daisy type flowers for a pop of color. It‘s frustrating that this has to be so difficult. maybe im being difficult but for anyone whos looked up native plants for Los Angeles area there isnt a lot of wow factor there.

Do you have ’New Gold’ lantana there? I have it in several beds, here are two in a driveway bed:

Very very very drought-tolerant, perennial, blooms non-stop, loves heat, butterflies love it. It would spill over your beds, as mine do here. Non-invasive. I have some in a brutal hell strip, too, as well as a backyard bed that gets afternoon shade….. they thrive in all different conditions.

@Jinx i believe we have that here. i want something that gets 3-4” tall and i think this will do that. I saw that dwarf mat rush today and it looks promising. I saw this plant (pink champane ruby grass) that looks good too but it doesn‘t get too large. I’m also thinking why not stay with purple fountain grass since it grows well in my space especially since i can’t do native options. Another plant of possible interest is society garlic.

1. Lantanas do great in South California. They bloom almost all year. They come in many colors and sizes. Some can get very large so I would read the labels. Lavender, Kangaroo Paw, trailing gazania, and Indiana hawthorn are a few you might like. The red yucca is really nice, but it might get too big for your area. You might check out Plants Express online to see which plants might work. They have one for southern California which is handy to see what plants look like and the water they require. We replaced our front yard a few months ago and that site was a big help.

Just to say red yucca (hesperaloe parviflora) is not a big plant and is better looking year round with lower care than ornamental grasses which I love but find more work and messier. purple fountain grass is pretty though and I have it as well. Ca natives can be a little rough and ready but beautiful too and if you could just smell this clevland sage!

Hmm. My red yuccas get big and sprawling!

That cleveland sage is so pretty.

@mojavemaria that cleveland sage is pretty. it’s something I consider and would love to put in. Does it look good most of the year?

@Jilly, the yucca i saw had rigid leaves and was spikey. is all yucca this way? i have 2 young kids that i don’t want to have get hurt.

Red yucca isn’t as sharp as some, but can still hurt. I just wouldn’t even consider them for those small beds no matter what.

A good description of them (scroll down):

https://dcmga.com/soft-leaf-yuccas-vs-red-yuccas-one-is-real-one-masquerades-but-both-are-beautiful/

Well we purchased 2 - society garlic in green (expected mature size between 1-2 feet tall and wide with the shoots probably another 12” above), 3 osteospermum 4D violet ice daisy (expected size 8”-12” tall and 12-16” wide). It felt so good to pull the old stuff out! I temporarily placed the new stuff in their containers into existing spots. It’s not as large and grandios and everything has room to grow.

We tried to stay native but couldn't find anything for this small space. We considered star jasmine as a hedge, but it would not provide the same variety and not sure how long it would take to fill in and train.

I thought about putting a tall hose holder on the far left since pur hose now is tolled up on the ground next to the planter. I was also considering pots in the planter to provide height.

Can’t wait to hear feedback. Happy to consider changes and open to ideas. we can return what we bought so we have options.

Much improved.

Should the brick edging go? 2 of the 3 planters have it. It would give an extra 4-5” and the plants wouldn’t look lile they are sitting lower than ground level.

@Emily R. my son loved the hot lips salvia. the guy at the nursery told me it would grow to be too big and take maintenance to keep it small enough. Hence one reason we didn't do it for this planter. we do habe 2 others to do so if it’ll work then we may give it a try.

Red yucca get HUGE. Avoid. I see landcapers digging them out a lot.

we still havent planted these in the ground and have seen some huge society garlic since purchasing these. started considering star jasmine to try growing as a hedge. Does anyone have experience with this or opinions? the space is so narrow that i wonder if this would serve the space better.

What about Color Guard yucca?