Re. Finding the right garden idiom (a bit long)

Greetings from Santa Cruz, California, Ben!
Two and a half years ago I bought a property on a small, south facing lot ~300 ft above sea level. The house with its large redwood decks in the front and back take up most of the space. The neighbors are quite close on either side but there is a lovely view of the ocean and the town of Capitola from both floors. The site is at the top of a small canyon so the front garden is sloped ever so slightly. There are two level "alleys" on either side of the house that lead to the back garden which is terraced down to a flat section held in place by a retaining wall.
The average rainfall here is 30"/year although we've been in a three year drought. In Summer, the marine fog rolls in during the night and burns off by mid-morning. The mist moderates the temperature which averages 50-70°F but occasionally hits the 80's in Summer and dips to the 30's in Winter.
When I moved in, there was a wide range of plants including impatiens and petunias by the fountain/stream and pond, (trickle and puddle, actually). Everything was hand watered daily. Not wanting to continue this practice, I ceased altogether to see what would survive. Everything but the trees succumbed to the summer sun.
During this time, I began investigating California native plants. I knew virtually nothing about them so I purchased some 20 books, did extensive online research and attended native plant seminars. My goal was to create a bird and butterfly refuge as we're in a transition zone and have listed 70 yard bird species to date. I'm not as familiar with butterflies but I have seen a wide variety of those, as well.
Not wanting "a garden of dead sticks" or other worse terms I've heard applied to native plant installations, I cross referenced plant selections ad nauseam and visited actual gardens and nurseries with mature plantings. Before purchasing anything, I brought in 2 feet of soil to cover clay over hardpan and installed a timer/irrigation system. Every plant is in a gopher basket and has a spaghetti line which, until the cooler weather, dripped for 10 minutes in the early morning and 10 minutes in late evening. The entire garden is mulched with ~1ft of finely chipped bark.
There were two requirements for my plant choices; bird or butterfly food, and habitat and long bloom time. To this end, I have put in well over 200 species from a variety of plant communities. All are thriving. Many were still flowering before I whacked them back Thanksgiving weekend and my "green" fence around the perimeter is filling in nicely. Admittedly, these plants have better conditions than they would in their normal habitat and the garden is less than a year old so it remains to be seen how well it will age when the supplemental water is cut off. If I am not happy at that point, I will add mediterranean species from the UCSC Arboretum or Sierra Azul. 

Two reference books I found exceedingly useful:

"California Native Plants for the Garden"
by Bornstein, Fross and O'brien

"Designing California Native Gardens
The Plant Community Approach to Artful, Ecological Gardens"
by Keator and Middlebrook
Alrie Middlebrook has been advocating natives and designing gardens for a long time. She has common sense, extensive knowledge and is very approachable. She came to see my garden before giving a lecture on replacing lawns for Cabrillo College's Fall horticulture lecture series. She suggested I move a few plants so they would be in the same community but in general approved of what I have done so far.
In the back of Keator and Middlebrook's book are appendices that mention places to see natives and places to shop for them. I collected plants from all over the state including the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens and Las Pilitas but I bought the bulk of my plants from Elkhorn Native Plant nursery in Moss Landing. I had a tough time finding pond plants, especially a Nuphar lutea but the kind woman who owns a native nursery in Sonoma sent one from her own pond. 

Cheers,
Nancy Collins
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