Delicate looking, but tough as nails.

These 3 plants; pacific coast iris, bleeding heart and columbine are plants that remind me of spring.  They usually have pastel colored blooms and look fragile, but surprise! they're not.  Water will help them look lush and improve their overall health, but its surprising how little they need to survive.

Euphorbia Cyparissias

This is one of my favorite Euphorbias:  Euphorbia cyparissias

It dies back every year and before I know it, it's back and looking lush and beautiful.  It blooms all through summer and at some point, I'm not even sure when, I cut it back with no trepidation.  I know it will be back again soon.  With it's fine leafed foliage, it meanders through other plants perfectly, never smothering and the chartreuse blooms make any color next to it pop. 

With the complimentary purple from the spanish lavender, it's exceptionally sweet.
As Barb always says, "Spring in the Bay Area is beautiful".

Ground covers make me happy.

Whenever we install a garden path that won't be subjected to heavy foot traffic, we almost always plant ground covers in between and around the pavers.  It softens the look, suppresses weeds and, in general, gives a clean and lush feel.  The groundcovers that are most toleratant to light, strolling through a garden type of foot traffic are: dymondia and chamomile.  Thyme is a bit less tolerant, as is isotoma but planted along the outside of the path they look great.
They say even dogs can't hurt chamomile, but that's debatable.  Dymondia is the strongest with its weaving growth habit.  They are all easy to keep in check, and need little to no maintenance.  A good sheering a couple of times per year is about all they require and keeping them from swallowing up pavers is an easy to prevent with garden scissors.