Progress photos of garden - heavy rains have worked miracles!
I can't believe the mega-leap of growth in my garden after all the heavy rains. I photographed my garden denizens Friday before sunset, so I apologize that the lighting is not the best. I corrected the shots as best I could. Does anyone have any further guesses as to what the "mystery plant" next to Grand Prize is, now that it's grown bigger?
I haven't replaced the mulch in the garden yet, because I am in the process of building and then installing a new soaker hose. Meanwhile, the old soaker is exposed thanks to the "landscape workers" having blown all the mulch away with their leaf blowers. I am happy to report that the heavy rains also saved my heuchies and hostas from ODing on the weedkiller the "landscape workers" sprayed on the lawn on a windy day, which spotted and killed many leaves on several plants. You can still see some ugly brown spots on the photo of Remember Me.
I had a fabulous surprise when I trimmed back my spirea bush---a supersized Yellow Polka Dot Bikini which was a teeny thing last year, and a similarly supersized Gypsy Rose. I hope they do all right after I have now exposed them to a bit of sun by trimming the spirea.
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Comments (12)Ragtimegal, Thanks, but the flowers belong to the wife. I grow the food and she makes things pretty. Gotta satisfy all the senses. I do mix the dirt for her flowers. I do have to brag a little by saying I am a slightly above average photographer. You know, composition and all that stuff. ooooohhhhh yes, The flowers. The purple trailing blooms belong to a plant called "New Wonder". It is an Australian plant which simply loves heat and full sun. It is very, very draught tolerant, so its okay if you forget to water it for a couple of days. The succulent with the orange blooms is common Pursalane or pigweed. It is available in many colors and is also heat and draught tolerant. If you like pursalane, it is great. It does reseed prolifically and seems to be able to almost grow on a concrete slab. We tend to reuse a lot of our soil each year simply by remixing it and returning it to the containers. All of our soil has pursalane seed in it and it regrows. Wild pursalane is also edible, I don't know about domesticated pursalane. Pursalane also seems to attract a lot of ants. The blooms appear to have a sweet nectar which some ants find irresistable. The ants are what we used to call sugar ants and don't seem to hurt anything. Feel free to ask any questions. Ted...See MoreSucculent Garden Progress Photos
Comments (26)Paulzie, haha those are just river rocks. I have them there because there is a drainage pipe opening there and the stones keep the soil from eroding. Our winter rains could swamp my succulents and make them rot :( Stan, thanks. You have a good eye. The majesty is one of very few here in the valley. I've seen several in protected spots throughout different neighborhoods. & Jacarandas are becoming more popular trees here. The big box stores are carrying them now. There are several large, old jacarandas in Fresno. They are a sight to see during the summer. The Cyathea Cooperi are very common here actually. There is a pair just down the street from me with trunks over 4 feet tall. Mine survived the 2007 freeze. I also have a trunking Blechnum Gibbum and a Howea Forsteriana underneath the Cyathea. That one also survived the freeze. Rachel, I will have to check Lotus Garden out. I've never been to that nursery! Thanks for the tip! Thanks everyone for the encouraging words! I've drawn so much inspiration from seeing all of your posts here!...See MoreThe summer garden???(long/photo heavy)
Comments (13)Phonegirl, thanks for the kind comments. I take a walk around the garden early every morning (when posssible) to dead head and pull any visible weeds. The weeds tend to grow next to plants with leaf structure similar to their own and are sometimes difficult to spot until they get to be 3 ft. tall. I try very hard to stay on top of this as often as I can. Rheumatoid arthritis diagnosed about 4 yrs ago sometimes finds me unable to even scratch my nose. I never know when it will flare. As a result, I can't put things off until tomorrow or it may be a while before I'm able to do anything. As for the sprinkler system, ahh no. We don't have one. DH says we should do that soon as we are not getting any younger. Dragging hoses up and down 200 ft. of hill gets to be a real pain, but I honestly don't think I would use it often enough for the benefit to exceed the cost. I rarely water anything other than the pots in my "ghetto" and the strawberries growing in the planters on my deck rails. It has to have been 2-3 weeks w/o rain before I would even consider watering. And while the lawn looks lush and green now, it usually has started to crisp and brown up at this point in July. This continues to be an unusually rainy and cooler than normal gardening year. If you look at previous posts, you may see the hose extension hanging on the fence near the bottom of the hill....See Moresecond year progress, photo heavy if I do it right
Comments (11)Front yard plantings, bromeliad in Bismarck direct steal from someone on this list, I'll have to look up who it was. Mulch is not done. There were five citrus trees planted last year, and eventually I'd like to see their height in the landscape. It was very bright today and the colors washed out.: Back yard view from house in Oct, got creamed in Dec and Jan, replanted with some cold hardy, some tropicals. New fence next year, and I planted tons of vines to grow up and over. And although I said, "No more bananas!" I lied. I planted two dozen for the leaves.: Shady side, bromeliad garden. And we talked about home-made bird baths. I didn't know what to do with this column, the last owner left it. I'm looking for funky bowls for a birdbath. The Farm:...See More
josephines167 z5 ON Canada
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoEsther-B, Zone 7a thanked josephines167 z5 ON Canada
DelawareDonna Zone 7A
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoEsther-B, Zone 7a thanked DelawareDonna Zone 7AEsther-B, Zone 7a
5 years agoThanks, everyone. I myself am bowled over by what the rains have wrought. I have already put down my Osmocote, went hosta and heuchie to hosta and heuchie to put a teaspoon of Sluggo beneath each one so the birds wouldn't be able to see and peck up the pellets, and WAS going to repair the brick border fence You Know Who busted in, but the steady rains today have nixed that project until a drier day. I also put Sluggo inside the little green cages you see which I built to keep the birds and squirrels from eating the Sluggo before the slugs do.
PLANT TAGS: I order aluminum single-sided PET I.D. tags from Pettags4less. They cost $2.29 for the "Aluminum EXTRA LARGE CIRCLE W/TAB Single-sided" one I always order and they come in about a dozen colors. I order black because I feel it has the most contrast and shows up better, but they have green, blue, red, etc. Aluminum doesn't rust, so it stays good for a very long time outdoors. I also get Coghlan's 9" aluminum tent stakes. They have a little hole at the top with a white poly string through it. I remove the string and use a fastener to attach the pet tag to the tent stake. I am currently waiting on some samples of extra-small diameter screw posts to arrive. Screw posts are normally used for bookbinding, but I am obviously very facile at repurposing. One piece screws into the other, making a weather-tight fastening. Screw posts come in stainless steel, aluminum, plastic, etc. in many lengths and colors. If the brand-new-on-the market skinnier ones fit through the holes on both tent stakes and pet I.D. tags, I will have a very attractive and durable way to fasten those things together. Using the little rings that come with the pet tags is not good because the rings allow the tags to flip around to the blank side, and it's a pain to flip them back. Also, they tend to rust very quickly. The screw posts will be a very neat, non-rusting way to attach these things together with no play, so I won't have to flip anything.
Esther-B, Zone 7a
5 years agoEsther-B, Zone 7a
5 years agojosephines167 z5 ON Canada
5 years agoEsther-B, Zone 7a
5 years ago
peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
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SUSAN namway
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Claudia _michigan