STYLE : GARDENS : Wild in the Garden

Wildflowers are often ephemeral pleasures, here in spring, gone by summer. And because they rely on unpredictable fall and winter rains, there are good years and bad. But in the garden of longtime Del Mar resident Pat Welsh--where water is always assured--wildflowers have thrived every year for a decade.

Orange California poppies, baby blue eyes and yellow coreopsis, all native to these hills, share a 15-by-12-foot bed with scarlet flax, orange calendulas and lavender linaria. “I find them uplifting and easy to maintain,” says Welsh, author of “Pat Welsh’s Southern California Gardening” (Chronicle Books).

Welsh makes her own seed mix and sows it each fall. She first turns the soil, amends it if necessary, rakes it and then lightly covers the seed. She waters by hand and uses pruned branches, what the English call “pea stakes,” to anchor bird netting. Once the seed sprouts, the netting comes off and the branches remain to support any lax new growth.

Thereafter, Welsh practices the secret to her success: She waters regularly but sparingly with perforated drip tape. The bed lasts from December to May, a vivid reminder of an entire countryside once carpeted with wildflowers.