This half-acre plot of Walnut Creek School District (WCSD) property, once a mustard field, has been evolving with my conscious guidance. Without a source of water for irrigation in a somewhat arid part of California, I am shaping it as a dry garden. This means that there is no supplemental water, only what falls as rain. I plant in the fall. The landscape reflects what survives without artificial inputs. In a sense it is a default landscape. It affords many exploration opportunities for children and learning possibilities for adults who use it as a link to and from the adjoining public open space area.