The Gardens of Petersonville

Just Enjoying The Flowers

2016-06-02T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hydrangea

I think every gardener has a critical eye when it comes to their own garden. I know I do. As I walk through the beds I focus on the bare spots, the plants that could be doing better, a bit of insect damage here and there and a number of other blemishes that mostly only we can see.

Duranta

But it is important to learn to look past those imperfections and focus on the amazing beauty that the gardens offer up this time of year.

Bearded Iris

Sometimes we are the only ones that see the pretty scenes in our gardens too. Visitors may take in the big picture or see only the plants that they are interested in personally.

Verbascum

Allow me to indulge in some of the amazing blooms that are decorating my gardens this time of year. All of them are my favorites that are putting on a lovely show during our dreary weather.

Rose

Alstromeria

Clematis

Statice

A Look at the Moonlight Garden

2016-05-27T11:22:00.000-07:00

It takes a long time to establish a garden. I have been working on mine in SJC for about nine years and although they have looked lovely on and off, they are finally starting to mature enough to come into their own I think. Shrubs are filling out and plants that work and thrive in different spots are settled in nicely. Every year I add to the bare spots, trying to find something that works in difficult spaces. Some things die and some things I just yank out after admitting defeat. This is especially true in the Moonlight Garden. Although the white blooms are the highlight, it is the variety and depth of the shades of green and foliage textures that I think make this a lovely place to spend time.

Although they aren't what you would think of as drought tolerant, and they certainly had bad days during the past year, this giant ligularia are quite content in this cool damp spot where the yard drains.

It didn't take too much rain to encourage the Australian daisy groundcover to perk up and spread. Pelargonium geraniums are rather pedestrian around here, but I especially love the white ones along with the Marguerite daisies. They add a bit of sparkle to the garden.

I don't think a garden is complete without some vines for vertical interest and these bower vines do the trick with their easy disposition and charming trumpet flowers.

Oak leaf hydrangea is another plant that surprises me with its ability to adapt to our dry conditions. It grows large and healthy with little to no care other than deadheading after a few months of beautiful blooms.

It is hard to keep the all-white theme when it means removing blooms that have changed color a little due to micro climates. Some all white flowers revert to a soft shade of pink and others like this daylily turn a soft yellow. If I was a perfectionist I would remove them, but I find perfection a bit boring.

I really need to mulch some of this little areas with gravel I try to encourage the use of groundcovers to fill in but they don't always take to every spot and wood mulch breaks down so fast. You can see by the dainty little weeds that something is definitely needed here other than monthly manual labor!

Variegated foliage is an easy what to add white shades to the garden.

I add a lot of silver leafed plants to add another color to the foliage palette.

True white daylilies are a little like unicorns. They exist only with a bit of imagination!

There is a lot of additional vertical interest in this garden with the existing queen palm trees, the Italian cypress we added and some sculptural plants.

Some Vegetables, Ollas, and Flowers

2016-05-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

It has been a crazy busy spring around out house, so I haven't done much blogging. I have been busy in the gardens.

Once again the fresh food from the garden bug has got me and although my dream is to try once again to create a big beautiful kitchen garden, it is just going to have to wait. Summer is just around the corner and I try to wind down my projects and focus on relaxing and enjoying the fruits of my labors in the summer. I always have some vegetables growing here and there and the fruit trees just carry on all summer without too much attention so I can't complain too much. I got some onions in the ground finally, better late then never!

Thanks to my sister I have quite a few tomato plants this year. I planted some in pots outside the kitchen, but about a dozen went into an empty raised bed. I added ollas to see how they worked. Ollas (pronounced “oy-yahs”) are unglazed clay/terra-cotta pots with a bottle or tapered shape that are buried in the ground with the top/neck exposed above ground that are filled with water for underground irrigation.

We couldn't find any large ones so we went with a bunch of smaller ones. Usually tomato plants require a lot of water, although with our gloomy weather I guess I should be more worried about mildew than wilting! The tomatoes are bred to handle the May Gray and June Gloom we typically get this type of year so we'll see how they do. So far so good.

I also put in some squash mainly because the rabbits leave them alone. I think the trick to enjoying squash is to plant a number of plants and harvest them when they are small and tender. Anyone who has ever grown zucchini knows they can grow to scary proportions overnight! A bowl of tiny squash with grated cheese is a meal for me. I haven't tried frying the flowers, but who knows?

The rest of the garden is looking especially nice this year (mostly) due to the rain that we have had. It's not enough to say the drought is over, but my garden is certainly basking in the bit of extra percipitation.

Signs of Life

2016-04-04T07:26:00.001-07:00

It has been a lovely spring for surprises in the gardens. Plants that were sleeping for months if not years have suddenly been replenished with the rain this winter (and I understand more is in the forecast). One example is this variegated acanthus I thought I had lost. You either love acanthus or not so much, but they are survivors in dry shade and a rich dark green, classical leaf and most of the time and I kind of love them! I planted this about a year ago and it faded fast in the dry summer, but looks revitatlized now. Let's see how it fares this summer.

Ajuga is one of my favorite groundcovers with lovely purple blooms low to the ground. Most of it disappeared over the past year, but I'm counting on this little patch that has hung on to grow again and refill the path edges.

White Blooms

2016-03-24T09:35:00.002-07:00

Spring is a lovely time of year in the Moonlight Garden. With so many white blooming plants in addition to the variations of green foliage, everything kind of sparkles. And yes, those are blue blooms on the rosemary, but I am obviously not a perfectionist!

The rice flower shrub blooms for months and is kind of huge. It definitely makes a statement and makes up for the bare spot nearby where a white flowered blue hybiscus died suddenly for no apparent reason last year, left a large empy space.

I do have to replenish the annuals and small perennials in this area a few times a year due to the hungry bunny population that considers this a smorgasbord.

The white camellias and azaleas are just starting to wrap up their bloom season.

Cistus or rock rose is a reliable California native that I should remember to plant more of in the near future.

I am so happy that the ornamental grasses are coming back after their seasonal cut back that leaves them looking less-than-lovely for a few months. They add movement to the garden that can easily get too stiff.

It is important to me that there is a lot of visual interest, scents, sounds and textures in my gardens and I think this garden covers all those requirements quite nicely this time of year!

Preparing for Easter

2016-03-20T10:41:00.001-07:00

Clivia

Easter is a big day in the gardens. We have been having an Easter Egg Hunt for as long as I've had a garden to hide eggs in and one of my favorite things is watching the gardens filled with kids hunting over, under and around all the beautiful plants. Throughout the years there are typically anywhere from five to ten little ones doing the hunting and the older kids do the hiding. It started in my Laguna gardens and then moved to the back yard in SJC and now we do it in the Moonlight Garden where the adults can see the fun from the seating area.

Indian Hawthorn

Because Easter is early this year, the gardens will be in their Spring peak I'm hoping. The scents of flowers is heady and the early spring blooms are really prolific this year.

Wisteria

I'm hoping the climbing roses and wisteria hang on for another week, although they have been blooming for weeks already.

Heliotrope

One of the most fragrant plants in the Moonlight Garden is the white heliotrope. I planted a number of plants years ago and they just thrive and bloom all year round. They are rather easy to overlook, until you catch a whiff of the cherry pie scent!

Azalea

The camellias and azaleas are almost done with their show, but the roses starting to open, so it will definitely be a lovely day for everyone!

'Evelyn' rose

Sun and Shade

2016-03-19T10:10:00.001-07:00

Here is another view of the white climbing roses from the last post showing just how beautiful and full they are during March facing the early morning sun! I don't even think they get fertilized!

I have been struggling with trying to fill in this bed under the fast growing California peppers trees. The trees prefer not too much water or they get root rot, so shade and dry loving perennials were my only choices. There is some late day sun that creeps into one side of the bed in the afternoon which evidently is enough to sustain the purple lantana, the tagetes lemmonii and an 'Easter Basket' rose bush. The plants facing the other way have to be shade lovers or, like the daylilies from years ago that linger there, they may hang on, but never bloom.

My garden helper does not really pay any attention to sun and shade requirements and propagates plants all the time and puts them in where ever they are needed like these Margarete daisies. They need full sun, but seem to be blooming like crazy in this dappled shade. Years ago this bed was filled with beautiful calla lilies that I thought disappeared during the last few dry years, but it looks like they are making an appearance again after staying on the low down until the rains came back. What do I know?

Spring Awakenings

2016-03-16T08:25:00.002-07:00

Green Agave

With this rain we've been having has also come some crazy weather. A couple weeks ago he actually had hail, thunder and lightening, an event that takes place rarely around here. It has happened once before while we have lived in SJC with the same results - damage to the green agaves in the form of pits. It will take a few years for it to completely disappear.

Rice Flower

I have forgotten how many wonderful spring blooming shrubs I have like this rice flower plant in the Moonlight Garden. I have to confess that I have been to a number of nurseries in the past few weeks and have left with nothing in my car. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed at what needs to be added or replaced in the gardens. I finally decided I have to get busy before I am too crazy busy with other projects in my life to focus on the gardens so I did load up the car last week with a few basics that I can always tuck in somewhere.

Milkweed

Milkweed is a must to keep the monarch butterflies happy. They struggle through after being decimated by the caterpillars every year, but a few more never hurts.

Right now the scents from the gardens at sunset are amazing and this combination of pink jasmine and Indian hawthorn are partly responsible along with the citrus blooms. Makes me giddy!

The white roses (rosa spinosissima) and wisteria are waking up in the front driveway. I was afraid the hail would ruin the blooms, but there were enough new ones opening up that they took it all without missing a beat. Even though the roses only bloom for about one month out of the year, I couldn't ask for a more prolific rose with no disease or bug problems.

The wisteria here is about a month behind the wisteria in Laguna, probably due to different micro-climates because they are the same hybrid.

Finally!

2016-03-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

Finally! After some unexpected rain yesterday I got out and wandered through the gardens and to my delight, there is a collective sigh of relief from all the foliage! Even the drought tolerant plants were getting really tired of having to be so tolerant of years of no significant, deep soaking rain and were showing signs of stress and lethargy.

But finally there is a bout of growth spurred by the weekly rain we have been having and upcoming spring weather that can't be denied. Even the groundcovers that were the first to give up due to the dry weather have started to reappear.

Shrubs that I planted years ago that never showed much growth are starting to take off - finally!

I have planted so many perennials that just kind of dwindled away even though they supposedly tolerated dry conditions that are now bursting with life.

This is how I think of early spring, flush with new growth and lush, deep colors of green! Finally!

A Little of This and That

2016-03-13T10:23:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share some gardening successes I've had over the winter and some other random stuff!

First is the abundance of lemons on my little potted lemon tree that sits right where I park my car every day. It always makes me smile when I pull in the driveway with the beautiful shades of green and yellows. I need to make sure to fertilize it this week because there is a big difference in the crops I get from my citrus when I stick to the recommended feeding schedule of four times a year. You can see by the leached coloring in the foliage that it is need of iron. I use an organic fertilizer for citrus.

I actually followed through with forcing some bulbs this year and they were a delight for weeks!

One of the first signs of spring is the blooming ornamental pear tree in the Moonlight Garden. It is always a surprise in the middle of winter and it only blooms for about a week so it can be easily missed if I get too busy to wander the gardens in the cool weather.

Our key lime tree was very prolific this year with lots of fruit to harvest from the ground around the tree.

One of the favorite plants for the bees is rosemary. This large shrub is always buzzing this time of year. It is actually in the Moonlight Garden and breaks the all-white rule, but I let it slide because I love it so.

Late Winter Blooms

2016-03-11T14:40:00.001-08:00

It is hard to believe that spring is just a few days away. This winter has flown by with so many family happenings as well as personal events that took over much of my focus and time.

The big El Nino we were counting on to bring us relief from the long drought has been rather winpy to say the least, but there is still more rain in the forecast and the mountain tops are covered with snow, a good sign.

I haven't spent any time in the gardens up until this week, but they have been soaking up the rain and the record breaking heat in February and there are signs of growth everywhere. I am delighted that the abutilons I searched for all over last year have settled in and are blooming like crazy in all the shady gardens that were so bare. I absolutely love their charming blooms as do the hummingbirds. Their structure is a bit leggy and sparse still, but I am hoping they will fill in this spring. I learned the hard way not to prune them too hard because they are slow growers so I am just leaving them alone to allow them to spread out in their light and airy fashion. Because they prefer the shade, they don't seem too bothered by the lack of rain last year and are good sports almost everywhere I have planted them. I am going to figure out how to cut some branches and bring them in the house too.

The Garden Waits

2015-11-18T07:40:00.001-08:00

It's been a busy month with little getting done in the gardens. I had bunion surgery in late October and have been somewhat incapacitated for too much activity. I did get a walk through the gardens once in a while, which was a little frustrating because there is so much to do and this is such a good time of year to do almost everything.

Most of the color is coming from a few potted plants I added for a dinner party we had last month.

I'm almost healed and looking forward to getting back out there and keeping busy - at least until this expected monster El Nino sends me back indoors!

Yesterday I tagged a number of shrubs that have not fared well during the hot, dry summer to be removed by my garden helper this week. Hopefully I will be able to get to the nursery to pick up some replacements that can get established over the winter. With the holidays coming and the house filling up with family next week, I know my priorities will be elsewhere again soon. Luckily the garden isn't going anywhere, it's always waiting and carrying on without me. Thank goodness!

Fall Bloomers

2015-10-02T14:53:00.001-07:00

'Frequent Violet' Iris

I have been meaning to write a post about all the plants that have disappeared over the past couple of drought ridden years in my gardens (these are not them!), but it was kind of sad so I decided to focus on a bit of color that is still enjoying the hot weather.

Duranta erecta 'Sapphire Showers'

I've had to remove a bunch of photos from my computer so it will not punish me, so I have been reminiscing about plants that I had kind of forgotten about.

Hybiscus

I have also been visiting nurseries this week to start thinking about the fall planting plans. I want to take advantage of this forecast El Nino year with the added rain it is supposed to bring.

Queen's Wreath

It is too hot to do any planting yet, but October is our best month of the year for establishing new trees, shrubs and perennials.

Bird of Paradise

I am much more disciplined and savvy about sticking to natives and drought tolerant plants after this long hot summer than I am in the spring when I just get carried away!

Rose 'Evelyn'

It has been a rough year for some of my favorite plants (ahem - roses) and I am rethinking whether or not they are worth the work and anguish they put me through.

Salvia leucantha and Guara

I'm trying to make smart choices and add more of what already is working well. Of course that is the plan. We'll see how it plays out when I actually go to buy the plants!

For The Birds

2015-09-30T07:41:00.001-07:00

The Fall is such a wonderful time of year for gardeners in Southern California. It is the best time of year to plant almost anything other than tropicals since the soil is still warm, the air is still mild (or at least in theory) and the rainy season is on its way. Plants like trees, shrubs and perennials planted in the fall have a chance to establish their root systems in the warm soil before the spring growing season starts, giving them a distinct head start. However we have been having such hot weather along with the continuing drought, it has just not been the right conditions for doing any planting yet. This hasn't kept me away from the nurseries though, as I dream of cooler days to come.

Instead of bringing home plants doomed to struggle in the heat, I decided to enhance my bird friendly accessories in the way of a few pretty new birdhouses and a new feeder to hold nyger seeds. Rodents don't like these bird seeds and since I stopped feeding the birds a few years ago due to the growing population of rats and mice that were making the feeders their local dining preference, I'm hoping this will attract the small songbirds that do like the seeds.

There is something about the light that is especially lovely this time of year. The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler and soon it will be time again to focus on the indoors and family and holidays, but hopefully there will be a window of opportunity to replace many of the plants that have disappeared during this long, hot dry summer, that just couldn't tolerate another year of drought.

This and That in September

2015-09-17T11:51:00.002-07:00

Not sure what this little guys is - maybe a hoverfly? He is kind of cute!

My favorites, abutilon, is starting to bloom as the days get shorter and the nights get cooler.

Don't remember planting this, but I am enjoying this pretty display of allums nerver-the-less!

We have never has squirrels here in SJC - until I bought this sweet little squirrel ornament. Suddenly I have started to see them here and there in the gardens! Weird!

Attracting Butterflies.

2015-09-06T10:25:00.001-07:00

I've been focusing on adding more plants that attract butterflies. Luckily there was a Master Gardener class focusing on just that which I attended a couple months ago that introduced me to some new plants that will do the trick that I don't grow - yet.

There was an abundance of cleome at the nurseries this summer and I bought a number of them. They add nice summer color and the butterflies love them.

I have fennel that has self seeded throughout the gardens.

I have never grown gomphrena before, but after planting it I have a new appreciation for it. It went totally wilted when the new sprinkler weren't working, but bounced right back bigger than ever.

Of course there are the standard butterfly attractions like milkweed and passion flowers. It all must be working because there are more butterflies around than ever this year in the garden - much to my delight! Of course along with butterflies comes caterpillars and some damage to the garden while they eat their way to cocoons, so it is important to eliminate sprays, even organic ones, if you want to make them comfortable sharing your garden.

Tales of Woe and One of Graditude

2015-09-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

This is what many plants look like when you plant them in the heat of the summer in a drought. I was deseperately trying to fill in bare spots with plants to prepare for a big party I was planning that would take place out in the SJC gardens. All the leaves died within the first month on this acanthus, but new ones have already started to grow.

I know I wasn't the only one with sick looking dahlias, I heard many other gardeners complaining this year. Since they hate soggy soil you would think they would do better with limited water. This may be the result of a virus or disease, but that is what happens to stressed plants - they are more likely to fall to either of those maladies as well as insects, than when they are well watered (for their needs) and strong.

I don't know what kind of tree this is on our neighbor's property behind us that looks like it is on its last leg, but it was once a full, lovely tree that added dimension to our garden. It is just over the fence in a part of their large property that doesn't get watered at all except from rain. I imagine that it may be reaching its roots out to get some from our garden, but if it is near its end of life span, it may not be getting enough to hold it over.

I am so grateful for our trees that are wonderful at cooling the yards and house with their shade. It is about 20 degrees cooler standing under them than walking out into the hot sun. One is a Brazilian pepper tree that was already here and the others are California pepper trees that we planted about six or seven years ago. Both kinds are very drought tolerant and I see them growing around here in terrible conditions looking like little oases of green in an ocean of brown. I would love to pull over every time I see someone in our neighbor hood installing synthetic lawns and advise them to plant a few drought tolerant trees (there are lots of them) and surround them with a crunchy gravel and a few distinctive but beautiful agaves or native perennials and they will be much happier as will the wildlife!

When Plants Get Stressed

2015-09-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

Different plants respond differently to stress (much like people). Many plants, like this brilliant 'Santa Barbara' bougainvillea, think it's best to send out as many flowers as possible to help spread seeds before it may expire. Although it is considered a tropical plant, and I think of tropical plants as ones coming from lush, rain forest-y places, many are extremely drought tolerant. This is probably why the most beautiful and prolific bougainvilleas are usually found in the most desolate places like abandoned buildings or deserted parking lots and yet we can't get them to bloom in our own backyards.

Every year I have the queen palm trees at our SJC home trimmed in the fall when they put out their flowers and annoying seeds. They cover the ground with scrappy little flower petals then cherry-sized seeds that make a big mess when you have 100 of them. This year I have already had to bring my tree trimmers out once in the summer because they were uncharacteristically blooming and seeding all over the place in July, I'm assuming due to the lack of water. We removed the seed pods, flowers and any dying branches. As you can see here it is almost time to do it again.

Although it is impossible to remove established acanthus, they do not like the drought at all. I have lost a whole bed of them in Laguna and the ones I have placed here and there in the shade in SJC are not fairing well. As you can see, this one has lost all it's leaves but is desperately trying to establish its legacy by expending every last bit of energy in putting out this lone flower stalk. I'm sure it will survive and I hate to say it, but I have never seen them sprout from seed in my gardens yet.

The good news is that a bit of stress can force a stubborn non-bloomer to finally bloom like this little banana tree! I have grown bananas in Laguna for many years and planted a couple trees as soon as we moved into SJC, but they never bloomed. This week I was delighted to see the first flower on my little 'Ice Cream' plant. Hopefully by the time the holidays come I can show the grandkids how bananas grow.

Not all plants respond to stress with prolific blooms. My roses have been almost non-existent this year. They seem to pull in and reserve all their strength to withstand the cut back in water and when they do bloom they are small, sad flowers. I have fertilized same as usual, but they prefer to wait it out until more water is available. I have noticed that the vacant lot down the street where a gentleman grows dozens and dozens of rose bushes for his hobby of showing roses in contests is as prolific as usual. He does use synthetic fertilizers which stimulate the blooms no matter what is going on with Mother Nature. Of course along with that he has to use lots of sprays and lots of water, but he does have glorious flowers!

Getting Back To Business

2015-08-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy summer and I know I've been negligent in posting to my blog, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy in the gardens. This summer we had a wedding in the family, a big birthday bash in the garden in SJC, started to design our new home in Laguna in addition to Grandparent's Week and lots of birthdays and visits from family and friends. I can hardly believe that summer is almost over although the signs are showing outside in spite of the 90 degree temperatures.

We have been asked to cut back our water consumption 26% to help alleviate stress from the drought. I put in new sprinkler boxes in Laguna to help regulate the water better, and our last bill showed that we cut our water use down 67%. Needless to say, the garden doesn't look good and we have lost a lot of plants that preferred the wetter conditions, but that may have been inevitable.

In SJC we switched out sprinkler heads to more efficient ones but did not adjust the watering times and everything suffered due to not enough water at all. Then one of our drip systems got shut off accidentally and wasn't noticed until it was too late for many plants. Our water bill at this house is down more than 50% too. I am happy to be so water efficient, but I didn't intend to hit the community goals for everyone all by myself!

Many of the older established plant hung in there and are bouncing back with a little added water. They are predicting a lot of rain from the El Nino coming this winter. I hope we get the rain without too much damage. We could sure use it!

I was forced to do what I tell other people not to do in their gardens. I planted a lot of plants in the middle of summer to enhance the gardens for a big garden party I had for my DH's birthday. I bent over backward with a lot of hand watering to keep those new additions to the garden alive while they got established and was able to hold on to most of them while we got the sprinkler issues worked out. Take note: do not fool around with your automatic sprinkler system in the summer!

Although I'm sharing some pictures that look good that I took this beautiful summer morning before the day heats up, I'll try to share (it kills me) the not-so-pretty scenes too over the next few weeks and the lessons I learned!

Meet My New Friend

2015-08-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

I've been crazy busy these past few weeks, but I wanted to take a minute to share a post about my SJC garden on the lovely blog of Alex Anderson - Love, Peace and Gardening. Alex writes about gardens and gardening and was directed to me when she visited the Hortense Miller Garden open house (although I am a docent there I could not make the open house this year). I was happy to share my garden with her on a misty morning and we had a lovely time walking, talking and discovering we had a lot in common, and not just about gardening. She also is passionate about Integrative Health as am I! Please pop over to her blog and see her observations as well as an interview with me!

Sprucing Up The Summer Garden

2015-08-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

Veronica and Cleome

In a definite case of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do, I have been busy planting this week. If I had seen someone at the nursery with as many plants as I had on my carts, I would have labeled them a novice. Nobody plants in the middle of summer. But I have a good excuse, or a couple of them. I really want to attract more butterflies to the gardens and since there are so many of them fluttering around looking for their favorite flowers, I figured now is a good time to add some of them to the garden before I forget.

Rose of Sharon

I also have an upcoming event taking place in my gardens. We entertain a lot, but not usually in the summer or out in the gardens. It just so happens that all our parties seem to take place in the winter when the gardens are rather quiet and people gravitate to the inside of the house. Plus there is such a great selection at the nurseries this time of year! I am usually not visiting them much in the summer, but they are just packed with all kinds of great plants that I don't always see other times of the year.

Cleome

So although I'm happy to be able to utilize the gardens for a wonderful summer party, this is just not a good year for taking advantage of the flower beds. I have lost a number of perennials, either due to them just being at the end of their life cycle (not all perennials live forever) or because we have had an issue with the new low volume sprinkler heads not putting out enough water to keep anything blooming, or in some cases, alive. Of course the ongoing drought is not helping either. So I have been trying to choose wisely and water efficiently to give these new lovelies a good start, even if it is the middle of summer.

Finally Ripening!

2015-07-25T11:10:00.002-07:00

Into the later half of July and we still have overcast mornings, some much needed but unexpected rain, and it is finally starting to get hot enough to turn the tomatoes ripe. I even picked my first fig this morning and will savor it in a couple days with some cheese and honey.

The tomatoes finally got staked by my son who stopped by a couple weekends ago and made a run to the nursery for me.

I have tried to make it as inconvenient as possible for the dogs to get to them and enjoy them before we do.

The red among all the foliage is a welcome sight! Along with the different basil that also appreciate the sunny days there is a carpese salad in the near future.

These oranges have been sweet and tasty for a while, which usually doesn't happen until the heat kicks in to give them some flavor. Must be an excellent variety (that I can't remember) for the coast. It is always a good idea to shop the local nurseries that know what varieties do best in our fickle climate.

A Corner of Color

2015-07-15T16:27:00.000-07:00

With the water regulations in play, most of the flowering perennials that would be in bloom now are laying low. It hasn't been terribly warm yet, so there are still some corners of the garden in the shade that hint at what the garden used to be during years when there was adequate rainfall. I'm surprised to see the baby tears since most of the other tiny groundcovers have disappeared, but this little corner near the front door sits in the shade and must get a good dose from the sprinkler nearby a couple times a week. Other plants a few feet away are shrinking and shriveling. Sometimes I am fooled by what hangs in there and which plants cannot handle the stress.

Sago Palms

2015-07-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

Female Sago Palm

Male Sago Palm

Any questions?

Blooming

2015-07-05T12:41:00.002-07:00

Iochroma

I have to admit that my garden is looking pretty pathetic right now. Even though most of the plants are rather drought tolerant and I don't think it is necessarily the water restrictions that are causing the havoc as much as the erratic summer weather combined with my lack of attention. It is cool and overcast for a few days, then hot and humid for a while, then dry and windy.

Asiatic lily

I have very few things in bloom when this should be the peak season for things like roses and lilies. Most of my lilies have disappeared over the years and I still have the new bulbs waiting to be planted.

Disneyland Rose

The roses have been cut back hard due to looking very shabby from sawfly larve, an ongoing problem. I need to make a trip to the nursery for some organic treatments and keep up the spraying. There are a few blooms here and there.

Duranta

I am getting concerned because I have a big event coming up here at the house and only about six weeks to get everything in shape. But this week we have our four oldest grandchildren coming for their special week with us so everything is just going to have to hang in there a little longer - I have more important things to do right now!