Vegetation

There is not very much vegetation in my town. The houses are relatively close together making wild plants scarce. Some native plants include, iris, lilies, penstemon, poppies, erigeron, salvia, aquilegia, heucheria, and digitalis. These flowers are not common in the wild, but due to the fact that they are native, they are very popular in gardens in the area. My mom's garden is home to most of these plants as well. Before the heavy development that took place in Richmond, the city was a grassland. The city of Richmond is very flat, and without houses the city would be a very large grassland with native flowers, and trees growing abundantly. Some of these native trees are the madrone, pacific dogwood (these cause major allergies), tanbark oak, california laurel, incense cedar, and the catalina redwood. The soil at my house is very good. The way that it has been treated over the years has greatly improved the soil from a dry and hard soil to a soil that is very light and airy. Our backyard soil is very dark and rich because we have used lots of grape seed and shell compost that greatly enriches the soil. The soil is always moist, and there always lots of worms in it.