Planting Along The Verge

2010-09-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

The light, the air, the texture of this morning in the garden...

2010-09-09T14:19:00.000-07:00

September 9, 2010

Fall has arrived.

There are nasturtiums in the hedge.

and Japanese Beetles in the roses.

I have one ripe tomato
and several green marbles on the bush. Not at all like last year's
tomato tree. This is more of a
tomato bonsai in comparison.

2010-08-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

August 23, 2010

It's 81 degrees here tonight, the hottest it's been all summer and Tearful is away for the night. Lu and I went to the lair to cool off and the light made everything stand up and say hello.

Lilies

Geranium

Flowering Oregano

Cheju Island rock man.

So lovely to have one summer night!

2010-08-18T11:05:00.000-07:00

August 18, 2010

There has been no time in the garden lately.

The plums are all gone, eaten by the critters mostly and the rest in Rustic Plum Cake, the last of which I ate last night with a spoonful of caramel ice cream, can I get an Amen!

The tomatoes are still little green marbles. They too are waiting, hopeful.

The sun is here now, arrived a couple days ago so maybe...

Last weekend we visited the LA Arboretum where I saw the most amazing things.

I don't recall the names of any of these. I was too dazzled to care.

2010-08-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

August 3, 2010

The time has come to dig up and move this Agapanthus that has lived by our front door since we moved here thousands of years ago.
The front yard isn't what it used to be, a picket fenced, sun filled flower basket. It's a secret shady
green room and an Agapanthus
has no business there. As with the
Mutabilis, I couldn't imagine any
human being capable of actually digging it up and moving it but since witnessing that event, I
now know anything can and will be
moved if I so decree it.
I've got the power. Not on
me, but near me. Living in the same house.

No matter how many times I yank out this Nasturtium, without my noticing, it creeps back in and depending on how you look at it,
can seem either threatening to strangle that poor Buddha who is losing it's head,or gently
embracing him.

I'm not a hater. I like the
Nasturtium. I like that it
does it's thing with no effort on
my part other than yanking it out
when it gets too crazy. That's my kind of plant.

The newly planted bed in front of Buff Beauty is doing...not much.
The Lychnis hasn't put on one
centimeter of growth and neither have the Scabiosa or the Peruvian Lily. I'm just happy they're
alive. Behind them, to the right
is a Pineapple Sage which has yet to flower this year, but since it's real charm is the fragrance of pineapple in the leaves, the flowers are not that big a deal.

As always, the critters come to the yard to loll about or hide as is the case with the critter above. After a romp in the ocean, it's always best to hide as soon as one gets home or to look
really threatening.

2010-07-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

July 19, 2010

Monday

The Mojo has returned.

We hit the nursery this weekend and tackled big projects. Projects that seemed too daunting to imagine are now crossed off the list, but there are always more.

The biggest one was cutting back and digging up the Mutabalis rose outside Em's bedroom window.

I didn't think it could be done without bloodshed as that rose doesn't have thorns, it has talons and it will do you damage. Enter Tearful with chain saw.

Mutabalis has now been relocated

to the wine barrel in the back and though it has been severely cut back, I know it will recover.

In it's place are apricot colored Foxgloves and pink Penstemmon with Santa Barbara Daisies. It has lightened and opened up that space and will be beautiful once it fills in.

Meanwhile...

Santa Barbara Daisies and Nasturtiums gone native in the back.

Sweet Peas...

Oregano...

Pots under the Maple disguising the gopher's game of Dig up the Tulip bulbs.

Peruvian Lilys, Lychnis and Scabiosa.

Buddha at the pond.

Abutilon and succulent shoes.

Grilla relocated.

Gnome relocated.

New Geranium.

New and favorite score

Ballerina Purple

Angel's Trumpet.

The Alien.

2010-07-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

July 12, 2010

I broke the spell.

A little.

I went to the nursery in town and bought mulch for the front yard, as the earth has been scorched up there and the bare dirt was more than I could stand.

The nursery in town, though beautiful and well stocked is over priced. I think almost $50 is too much for a couple bags of mulch and a couple plants even if they do carry it out to your truck.

Also that's just too much money to spend on gopher food.

The two bags only covered the front bed, I'll have to get more, mulch, at the evil Home Despot to do the rest.

I decided to go ahead and run my little planting in pots experiment on the one bed the gophers have not invaded, so I pulled out the deformed cauliflower but left the pretty purple Sweet Peas and added a Purple Pentstemon, not in it's pot, (it's the one being sacrificed like the guest actor in Star Trek) and some Calibrachoa and a Gaura with variegated leaves, all in pots. We'll see how that turns out.

Tearful slashed the sides and bottoms of the pots without losing any fingers. I'll need mulch for this bed too.

I took some pictures of gardens in town on our walk this morning.

The Ollalieberry Inn's garden is looking great these days, and so is the Dentist's house...

Always looks neat and beautiful, and I've never seen anyone tending it. They must have night gnomes.

The roses manage to bloom under the shade of the trees, though they are a bit rangy. Still, no black spot or rust.

I remain hopeful the ennui has passed and that I will plant something again...

2010-07-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

June 9, 2010

Friday

I took a stroll through the garden this morning...

The hydrangea in front of the lair is looking pretty gorgeous. I love how the flowers open, each little bud opening one at a time until shabam! it's a giant ball of pink.

The bird bath bed is pretty sorry looking except for the sweet peas. The gophers loved the lettuce but very kindly left the sweet peas and the cerinthe which looks raggedy just now but will soon drop it's seeds for next year.

The tool box is in bloom as are all the succulents I transplanted from various cuttings gathered around town. These things are remarkably easy to propagate and basically carefree. They could use a bit of a clean up, note the spider web and seed head perched on the left.

The fortnight lily also in bloom and here is another generous self sower. After the flower comes a pod and when the time is right it explodes sending millions of little seeds everywhere and though I love this plant it can get too big for it's britches.

The jasmine on both arbors is loaded with blossoms and filling the whole yard with the most intoxicating fragrance imaginable. If I was crazier I'd gather those blossoms and try my hand at extracting it's perfume. 

The plum tree is loaded with almost ripened fruit. Must find recipes! 

And finally, the cauliflower.

I'm calling this a failure. Each and every one I planted did this weird separating thing. I've no idea what went wrong. Other than I just lost the gardening mojo somewhere. I have no interest in planting, weeding or cleaning. Lately it's been cold and gray and when the sun does show up it's only for a minute.

I'm not blaming the weather entirely for my lack of interest but it isn't helping.

Dude,Where's my summer?

2010-07-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

July 6, 2010

Fuschia by the hammock, gets so little light under the maple and yet it blooms and dances in it's pretty pink dress. It gives me hope.

That, and the Hydrangea in the pot on the back deck, stuck there last year while I waited out the paint job on the house, thinking I'd plant it there and have the driveway lined in blowzy blossoms come the end of summer. Instead it made itself a home in that pot and there it will stay.

Our weekend trip to Sin City gave me ideas.
Look at this craziness...

unlike everything else in Vegas, those plants are real. In pots! Millions of them in little plastic pots so even the giant ants can't do much damage. Now I'm sorry I tossed all those black plastic pots!
The tomato and cauliflower live on and now will be joined by other plants dug into the ground and planted in plastic pots. Take that gophers!

2010-06-25T14:51:00.000-07:00

June 25, 2010

The gophers have got me down, it's true but the lavender keeps going and there are sweet peas blooming though they don't seem to smell as sweet as past years.

Still...

The hydrangea are very happy in this pot on the back deck and so far the ones in the ground haven't been disturbed and all are budding.

It looks like they've been digging around the tomato and the cauliflower but the plants are still standing. I'm taking that as a good sign and am grateful for what is given.

meanwhile...

2010-06-17T16:29:00.000-07:00

June 17, 2010

The Alium and the Iceberg Rose have fallen in love.
I can't wait to see their babies.

That's the most exciting thing happening in the front yard these days and meanwhile in the backyard the gophers have taken control. All those cats that used to wander around are nowhere to be seen. Maybe the gophers ate them.
Anyway, they are having quite a party back there, mounds of chewed earth everywhere and one of their favorite activities aside from eating all my lettuces, is digging up the tulip bulbs and leaving them strewn about like empty beer cans.
I can't bear to call the gopher killer. He's not long for this world with all those dead gophers blood on his hands, not to mention whatever horrible chemicals he uses day after day. He has no white in his eyes, only red and he likes to talk. Alot. Mostly about the many ways to kill gophers.
I can't have it. I've decided to let them have it all. Next year I'll plant in big tubs.
I've lost most of my gardening mojo it seems. I water and I weed but I have no desire to feed the gophers any more than I have to. If they don't eat them, we'll have some tomatoes and cauliflower.

2010-05-31T08:41:00.000-07:00

May 31, 2010

The blues are here.

The Nigella is flowering. I love this flower so I let it go to seed every year and it's made it's way into every corner of the garden.

I managed very little work in the yard this weekend even though the weather was fine. That is until yesterday when I planned on spending some time weeding and discovered it was too hot. The top of my feet got sunburned and I got dizzy. I managed to weed out most of the Nigella growing in amongst the Thyme and I re-planted all the tulip bulbs the gophers dug up. Yes, those little bastards are back and they got some of my lettuces. The tomato is still standing but I don't hold out much hope.
Gardening can be such a savage pastime.

2010-05-25T13:04:00.000-07:00

May 25, 2010

Hanging in the yard with Lu...

30% chance of rain

2010-05-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

May 17, 2010

Finally some crappy weather to take pictures by...

First up, the front walk way. Blouzy in pink and purple. A few seeds of Cerinthe is all it took to fill this bed. There is a Hydrangea hidden beneath all this mess but I'm not concerned that it will be smothered since the Cerinthe is almost done, just in time for the Hydrangea to bloom.

The pink frothy stuff is Jupiter's Beard and the just starting to pop Iceberg rose in the back along with Love-in-a-mist, Allium and the orange spots (bottom left) are Calendula

It's an out of control, on it's own sort of bed. We've tended it but pretty much let it go where it wants to. A satisfying approach in the garden but I don't recommend it as a parenting style.

Futher down the walk way...

More Jupiter's Beard and a Mutabalis Rose with thorns so lethal there is no way to weed out the tall grass growing in and around it.

The pink party continues out back...

This was not a conscious plan you see. All this pink...just happened. Take those pink snapdragons, I never planted those and the pink rose in the center came with the house as did the Jupiter's Beard. I'm not complaining. I now love pink!

But to relieve the eye, further back in the yard lives the beast that is NOT pink...

Do I say it every year? I'll have to go back and check. This year's Buff Beauty show is unreal. More blossoms than leaves.

On a quieter note...

The veg bed is coming along. We've already harvested a few salads and we've got blossoms on the tomato already, something that usually takes much longer. I have high hopes for the cauliflower. There are some bare spots to fill with more greens I think since that's mostly what we like to eat.

60% chance of rain today. Yay!

2010-05-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

May 12, 2010

Lu has a new hidey spot in the garden. She goes and sits there for an hour or two every day. She's genius at finding inanimate things that will pet her, like that vine. If she moves her head just right she can get a good tickle. One of her other favorites are the chairs which are the perfect height for back scratching and since there are four around the table she makes a few rounds and gets that spot just right, and there is always the lair and the curtains...
ahhhh

Everything is in bloom and all the veggies are settled in and growing and already providing, the salad greens are amazingly fast growers. The Thai basil, the one plant that I thought didn't make it is showing signs of life.

Maybe I can get some pictures soon. It's mostly too sunny for pictures lately and when dusk rolls around I'm busy in the kitchen trying to put something edible together for dinner. I'm having some trouble with that as of late. It may have something to do with
all of this.

2010-05-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

May 3, 2010

It was brought to my attention that the flower bed in the front yard is overgrown and needs thinning.

I can thin. I've been thinning and weeding like crazy but for some reason the front yard makes me happy just as it is. Fat and happy. I did pull out some tall grass and found this

Hydrangea, snug as a bug.

My plan is to leave the Cerinthe and Jupiters Beard and Love-in-a-mist all around it as mulch.

Cerinthe and friends up close. Once these guys start going to seed, I'll be more inclined to thin them out.

Meanwhile out back, Buff Beauty is putting on quite a show.

As is the Cecile Bruner. Raining petals on the hammock.

2010-04-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

April 26, 2010

The Mystery plant grows larger. I still don't know what it is and haven't had the time to do a search. If anybody knows, I'd love to hear.

I'm smitten with it. I don't see it anywhere else in the garden so I consider it a special gift.

Behind the fence here the lilies have really gotten comfy. They're all cuddled up to the purple potato plant. They're definitely bullies though and have to be kept in line. They are almost completely dominating the foxgloves I planted here. Look at that one lone soldier in the left hand corner.

Underneath the plum tree I've planted succulents culled from cuttings found here and there. They are unbelievably resilient and prolific once they get going.

I can't stop loving that blue green and deep purple combination. It smells like heaven and if it tasted good that would just really send me over the edge.

And then there is lime green.

I know it's a crazy noisy color, and I still love it, I can taste this color, it's bitter and clean.

That bamboo hedge is filling in beautifully. I wonder when we will begin to find bamboo shoots throughout the rest of the yard. Will it be a bamboo forest someday? I sit out there sometimes and try to see the garden five or ten years from now, when the plum, maple and ginkgo trees have matured and fill the yard with dappled shade.

Through the Lair screen, not a Photoshop

filter.

It finally feels like we've got the major spring clean up done, all of the paths have been cleared of weeds. Planting is mostly done too though I'll have a few pockets to fill when I finally breakdown and pull out the flowering collard greens.

More rain predicted this week!

2010-04-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

April 20, 2010

I finally gave in and bought plants this weekend. Not just my vegies but flowers for the window boxes and sweet peas which I have not been successful at growing from seed for some years now. Don't know if it's where I've been planting or if it's some other issue like maybe I forget to water them. This year will tell.

The bed above has a volunteer rose. Not a bud on it yet but I'll give it some time. Meanwhile I planted lemon basil, parsley, and a fresno pepper along with a sweet pea in the center to grow up to the church house.

I planted the tomato in this bed by the fence which doesn't get as much sun as last year's tomato bed. I bought a Siberian tomato which does best in cooler climates and maybe I can manage it better than I did last year when the tomato turned into a tree. Also in this bed, several varieties of lettuce and some cilantro and a cauliflower!

The Lair Bed

was attended to this weekend by the ever popular Tearful. Not only can he make the best pizza in the world but he's monster strong as well as heavily armed. Do Not Mess with him.

He pulled out a giant fort night lily bush that I thought we'd need a crane to get rid of. A beautiful plant but one that got "away" from me like so many have and then they get threatening and scary and I have to call in the big guns. He also removed the bamboo from this bed and it now lives in the oak barrel (previous picture)along with some volunteer Jupiter's Beard and Allysum. We have some lovely weeds.

It's raining today and probably tomorrow which gives my back some much needed rest. I've been very very good about not overdoing but I am easily drawn in to do just one more thing which turns into three more and so on until the entire day has gone by. My favorite way to spend a day!

2010-04-04T11:44:00.000-07:00

April 4, 2010

Sunday Garden Tour

Weed? I don't know, maybe, but it is beautiful and I'm not pulling it out. It's growing on the fence next to the hammock. Looks like some kind of Geranium to me.

Collard greens flowering now and maybe past their good eating time?

The tulips under the maple still doing their thing. Sometimes they look as though they're done and when I look again, they look like they're just getting started.  And the maple tree...

always late for the party but always makes a grand entrance.

A chunk of the Hearst Castle given to me by a friend who used to work up there.

Lady and the wrench.

Shoes made it through the winter and look just fine.

One of the many soccer balls that magically make their way into our yard, no one ever comes to claim them and not one frog has moved into the little house we've provided.

The geranium propagated from Jim's bush next door cozying up to the lemon balm.

Tulip in the front yard. 

More rain expected today and tomorrow and next weekend.

I'm proud of myself for waiting out March and not buying or planting anything and have only purchased a few succulents for under the plum tree and a hydrangea for the driveway.

House Tour Here

2010-03-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

March 28, 2010

What's blooming in the garden right now:

Tulips! 

Fuschia,

Wisteria, Lilies,

Cerinthe, Abutilon, Pineapple sage (but not very much), Lavender, Primroses...

Vast amounts of weeds have been pulled. The green waste bin is bursting at the seams and still there are mounds in the garden that will have to wait until next week. My back, she's screaming. I will be going to Dr crunch tomorrow, I've waited long enough.

I cut back and dug up one of the lavenders in the back garden and planted it in the driveway where I hope it will live long and prosper. My plan was originally to line the entire driveway with Hydrangea and I've got a couple going already but I think the Lavender and the Fortnight Lily which I've also got transplanted and established will do nicely since I have a real aversion to watering that spot and low maintenance seems the logical solution.

It wasn't all hard work...

2010-03-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

Sunday Garden Tour

Tulips in the front window, still hanging on and more coming up!

The cerinthe has filled in and replaced the penstemon. I love this carefree jumble of calendula, jupiter's beard,tulips, roses and allium. This front patch feels like it's made itself. We planted two iceberg roses and I threw in some cerinthe seeds and planted a few tulip bulbs but other than that I've had nothing else to do with it.

One sad looking tulip and a very curious daffodil. This bed has also come together with not much planning. I threw out some love-in-a-mist seeds and tulip bulbs. The perfect combination. Once the bulbs are done the nigella will be in bloom.

The wisteria surprised us today. Last I looked it was just tight little buds. How beautiful it looks and smells with all the lilies.

House tour here

2010-03-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

March 18,2010

This camelia at the JPH has convinced me to give this plant another try in our own garden. But where?

There are a couple spots back by the lair or maybe just in front of the hammock?

and this...

I've got a couple of these fuschia but not this color combination and none that perform as well as this very well established beauty at the Inn.

and this! a borderline weed I think but oh my

that little drop of water about to drop...

2010-03-08T08:25:00.000-08:00

March 8 2010

Sunday Garden Tour on Monday

Foxgloves, violas, sweet woodruff, snapdragons all have been planted in the corner under the birch tree but all have failed to thrive. Water being one problem and stomping the other. When the hedge is trimmed that area is difficult to manage.

Presently it is filling in with Nigella which is lovely, or it could be Allysum also lovely and tends to settle itself in quite nicely.

I can't remember what this beauty is called but we call her Felicia and she's back blooming in that pot on the front steps, a cheerful welcome home.

The Cerinthe blooming in the front window! I'm very happy to see her there in between our two Iceberg Roses with Allysum and Jupiter's Beard and Tulips and Daffodils. It's a beautiful sight to come home to.

This bed I now call officially CAREFREE.

2010-03-07T16:23:00.000-08:00

March 7, 2010

I spent about an hour pulling weeds and filling the green waste bin. Didn't make a dent.

2010-02-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

February 28, 2010

Sunday Garden Tour

entre

mutabilis growing outside Em's window

doorway

purple tulips

short and stout

nest tour here

2010-02-21T14:26:00.000-08:00

February 21, 2010

Sunday Garden Tour

back door bell

nasturtiums are creeping in everywhere, but not a blossom in sight. yet.

the daffodils are everywhere as well.

the succulent lady, up to her nose in it.

snapdragons and lemons in the potting garden.

conversation

the brooms like everything else being consumed by the nasturtium.

calendula in the driveway

tulips in the front yard

we had modest plans to get to work back there but it looks like it will have to wait another week.

rain forecasted for the next few days.

nest tour here