Sun and Shade

 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?

A Little of This and That

 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.

Tales of Woe and One of Graditude

 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

 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!

A Woodland Feeling

If you asked me for my philosophy on garden design, it would probably involve something about creating a specific ambiance in the garden. I wish I could say for certain what this charming mauve plant that I put in a few weeks ago is called, but the label is long gone. I'm guessing it is some sort native or wold foxglove. I absolutely love it because they have been blooming constantly since they were planted (this was five one-gallon plants) and they make the dappled shade under the pepper trees look downright woodland-like, an ambiance I am particularly fond of that is not easy to pull off in a drought. They are tall enough to have a nice proportion over the boxwood hedges that border this "island." But the best part is that the hummingbirds love them and they come down to eye level to enjoy them while we are sitting nearby in the garden! I really should go back and see if the nursery has any more while this cool weather hangs around, extending out planting season!

Our Cool Spring Blessing

The cool, overcast weather has been a blessing for those of us on water restrictions. Soon the gardens will start showing more and more stress from the drought. Right now the Moonlight Garden is still holding it's own without any help from the usual annuals I typically add in the spring to fill in the bare spots. I am losing about six birch trees in the Laguna garden that I planted about 18 years or 20 years ago. They are almost at the end of their short life span anyway so I'm trying not to stress too much. I've lost a lot of trees there in the past four years. I will be much more cautious about what I plant in the future, even though a number of the ones that died were already there when I moved in. In all fairness, I also took some out because they constantly grew tall and blocked neighbor's views, another mistake I have to own up to I'm afraid. I do love to plant trees!

Eating The Garden

 May-Gray is a phrase used to describe the seasonal weather pattern we often have in Southern California that describes the overcast, low hanging clouds that cover the coast in the morning hours, usually clearing in the afternoon which often starts in the month of May after a beautiful spring. This typically develops into June-Gloom and sometimes extends into July which we have no cute rhyme for because by then we are all cranky and in need of waking up to some sunshine which is why we all live here in the first place. Last year there was very little if any overcast spring weather, we jumped right into a warm sunny summer, which delighted us all, but was probably not the best for a drought plagued region. The year before that, I think the sun didn't come out before 3:00 PM all summer.

 The May-Gray thing is caused by the close proximity to the Pacific Ocean which is still cool while the inland is heating up quickly, especially in the desert and pulling in the cool air from over the ocean. As the ocean water heats up it will stop this phenomena and the mornings will be sunny again. But it is hard to explain this to the fruits and vegetables that require a certain amount of sunshine and heat to grow and mature!

 Tomatoes especially need the heat and hate the cool weather we have been having. I typically don't get around to planting them, but this year I was inspired by a lecture I went to for the Master gardeners so I have high expectations. But honestly, these have been growing since the end of March. Pretty sad! I planted a beefsteak, a mid-sized and a cherry tomato plant, up high enough to at least somewhat discourage the dogs who usually eat them before we get to them. 

However if there is one fruit that is enjoying this weather it is probably my new blueberry bushes that I got for Mother's Day! I planted them in a planter so I could keep an eye on them and control the soil ph more closely. They are bred specially for growing in our climate and do not require the chill that most blueberries do, so I am hoping they do well. They were already loaded with berries that are very tasty when got them, so hopefully they will continue to be happy. Unfortunately my dog thinks they are very tasty too.

For some reason we don't have many apples this year. We had lots of buds, but just a few apples. I hope this isn't because of a lack of bees. We did have some rogues freezes here and there, so I am going to chalk it up to that this year, but I am very disappointed.

An Old Friend Takes a Tumble

 Way down at the bottom of the Laguna garden is a grove of eucalyptus trees, two of which are silver dollar eucalyptus, one of my favorite trees. This is a picture taken eight years ago and you can see the one in the center of the photo has a definite "lean" to it. it has been this way since we moved in and it gives it a lot of character and makes for a good tree to climb and sit on. Hawks, peregrines, and many other birds frequent these branches. These trees have held up many hammocks over the years, still hold up odd little bird houses that were occupied again this spring, and ten years ago I had a stage build between them where a blues band played in the afternoon while the audience sat on the grassy knoll for my DH's birthday party.

It had been a few years since I had the tree trimmers over to do any maintenance on them and when I went down to check the trees out before I had them come to do the trimming, the large silver dollar eucalyptus had grown and reached way up, covering most of the hillside! I was shocked at how large it was. It rained that weekend and unfortunately by the time the tree trimmers came later that week the large tree had fallen over, pulling up some of the roots out of the ground. If only I had been a few weeks earlier getting my act together!

 It really broke my heart because I love this tree so much, so we decided to trim it back and just kind of leave it and see what happens. It really can't go anywhere and it isn't hurting anything, having landed on the open space on the hillside. So if it lives it will make an interesting tree sculpture and a good place for kids to climb next summer. If it doesn't make it, we'll have firewood for many winters to come, but I will really miss it.

And so will the birds I suspect.

Crazy-Busy Season

 I met someone who told me they didn't plant spring bulbs because they didn't like the messy foliage they had to put up with after the flowers faded. I must admit, there are a couple weeks when this is what it looks like in a few flower beds that the daffodils live in and I know that there are some fastidious gardeners that are very tidy and braid or bundle the dying foliage up while it is gathering the all important nutrients for next year's blooms, but I never get around to that. Besides, there is so much else going on in the garden to look at this time of year you can hardly notice a little chaos here and there!

 The orange trees that were all but withering away due to a lack of water when a broken sprinkler was not detected for a long time at the back of the property in SJC have once again come back to their previous glory (well almost) and with a heaping help of fertilizer and lots of rain and consistent watering in between the rain are blooming and filling the air with the lovely scent of ummmm... orange blossoms! How wonderful!

 The sweet little 'Anna' apple trees are blooming like crazy as usual.

The camellias and azaleas are winding down their seasons, but still have a few lovely blooms to share the stage with the spring flowers that are just starting to flower. 

The honeysuckle vines are in full bloom, climbing up the giant bird of paradise, so very fragrant and pretty, attracting the hummingbirds like crazy! Now really, who can worry about some fading bulb foliage when there is so much else going on in the garden?

New Fruit Trees

We're adding a new fruit tree (actually two) to the SJC gardens this year. When we moved into the Laguna beach house there was a pomegranate tree, or more like a pomegranate bush, growing way down in the back forty. Planted by birds I'm guessing. Anyway, I found it rather charming and a lovely addition to have on hand, both for the tasty fruit that is so good for us, as well as the decorative component. There are few things as lovely and sensual as a large bowl of pomegranates during the holidays. Especially when you cut a few open to show the beautiful seeds and gorgeous colors inside. Because they grow so easily here and seem like a natural addition to any Mediterranean garden, I have been meaning to add one or more to our SJC yard. At the nursery a couple weekends ago they had some bareroot ones that my DH and I picked up and now we have one in the rose garden and I am looking for a sunny spot to put the other one. I like to buy two of new additions to the gardens and spread them around so if one doesn't do well in a location, maybe the other will take to it's new home a little better! Bareroot fruit trees are so easy to plant is is almost crazy! (I know the label looks like it is a peach, but it is not!) Pomegranate trees grow kind of like a scrappy, large shrub, so finding the right spot may take a little work, but I am looking forward to the fruits of our labor this fall!

A Beacon of Light

If I remember correctly we were traveling last year this time and I missed seeing my pretty little pyrus calleryana or Ornamental Pear tree bloom.  One of the first plants to show color, it is looking especially robust this year as are all of the shrubs and plants in the Moonlight Garden, I suspect due to the rainfall we have had this winter. It is a beacon of sunshine in the middle of winter as the California natives are starting to bloom and some of the early spring flowers are waking up. The weather is lovely this week and just perfect for getting out in the garden and taking care of some of the chores (like cutting back the roses) that I have been falling behind with due to other obligations! After a year of injuries for me and years of drought for the garden it is nice to be able to get back out there and make up for lost time!

Getting Back to the Garden

 It has been a while since I have been able to spend any time in the garden, let alone write about the garden, but today was a beautiful day with the temperature of about 80 degrees and I finished my "must do" list and headed over to the nursery to see what was going on there. I had just written a post for the UCCE Master Gardener blog about fertilizing citrus this month along the coast and I decided that I had better follow up on the dose I gave last summer that resulted in a bumper crop of grapefruit and lemons. I have a feeling my garden helper is a bit frugal with the organic fertilizer I buy (it is pricey) and spreads it a bit thin, resulting in weak trees with not much fruit. Citrus trees are heavy feeders and need to be fertilized at least three if not four times a year.  You might as well save your money if you are going to skimp on the dose.

Of course just to prove that we really don't know more than mother nature, my key lime tree in the front yard that was here when we moved in, never gets fertilized and produces a ton of fruit every year! I always look at the poor scrawny thing growing in a rather shady spot and think it certainly can't hang in there another year thriving on neglect, but it continues to prove me wrong! I suspect that because it is tucked away behind the grape tunnel it gets lots of natural fertilizer from all the grape leaves and fruit that fall and go unnoticed.

 The camellias are blooming all over the yard. I am going to make sure to feed them soon because I am afraid I am asking them to keep going without much care and they do seem to be giving me fewer and fewer blooms each year. I did go to buy some fertilizer today, but came home with five new camellia bushes instead, they were just too beautiful for my weak constitution to resist on this beautiful day! Now is the time to plant camellias and azaleas because they are dormant while they are in bloom. Once they stop blooming they go into a growth cycle and will need the nutrients the fertilizer will provide, so I am going back for fertilizer tomorrow! I have already cut a few but I need to get out my shallow bowls that I use to float the blooms in all over the house!

 Of course the azaleas are blooming too! I'm not a big azalea fan, but there were tons of them here when we moved in and after moving them around a bit I've grown to appreciate the sparkle of color they add to the winter garden and the low maintenance requirements. I'm sure they are in need of some food and they will use the same acidic kind as the camellias, so I will see that they get some this month too.

Plastic Grass or a Tree?

 The other night it was so refreshing to wake up and hear the sound of rain! Walking through the gardens after a rainfall is something I can barely remember since it has been at least seven months since we have had a drop. We didn't get much but it was enough to wash the dust off everything and you could almost hear the plants giving a sigh or relief, however so slight. But now the weather report is showing another heat wave coming this week with temperatures reaching the eighties again. So much for getting out the sweaters!

 

 Last week I was someplace and I overheard a conversation between two young couples discussing how they were coping with their yards and their concerns over their landscaping and the drought. One was talking about how they were looking at synthetic lawns and the other mentioned that they had just let their yard "go" and would wait and see what happened. I can only imagine how hard it is for the average homeowner to know what is the right thing to do, both from an ecological point as well as an economic point but just as important from an aesthetic point of view. A landscape is a large part of what adds value to a home as well as value to the way a home is enjoyed by a family.

If I had to suggest to someone what to do to add value to their landscape in this day and age when trying to reduce the lawn and water use is to plant trees. I must admit I love to plant trees and in my lifetime I have probably cut down more trees that I have planted than most people have ever planted, but that's okay. Just plant trees is my motto! The more the merrier. You can always cut them down later! Once established the right tree will live just fine without you and as long as you don't live where you block people's view, they can grow without needing much pruning (although I have put many of my tree trimmers children through college, but that's okay). They never need fertilizing and they give back much more than they take. 

I see people struggling with trying to remove lawns and put in something that will be attractive when I think, just look for a tree (or two or three or five) that will do the job, put them in and be patient. Trees do take some patience, waiting for them to grow, unless you have access to the space and enough money to put in a full grown specimen, but I like to plant babies and watch them mature myself. The right tree requires no pesticides, provides food and homes for the wildlife, adds all kinds of good stuff to the environment to offset your carbon footprint and cools the air and soil around it. Just do some research and pick out a yard partner for the next 25 or 30 years.

These pictures show what our back yard looked like in 2006 when we moved in and what it looks like now. I planted three California pepper trees from 25 gallon pots, a liquidambar, and an arbutus tree. The boxwood hedges and perennials are reminiscent from the gardens that I put in for interest while the trees grew to size, but at this point I could remove everything else in this yard, put down a lovely, crunchy pea gravel and never water again.  If not gravel than at least a red fescue that would take some water to become established, but then only occasionally during the summer require watering and let it go un-mown giving it a lovely meadow feeling. Add a few hammocks and we would probably be out there all summer long under the shade trees. I still haven't made up my mind yet.

A Success Story

Although there are some pretty pathetic looking scenarios this fall in the garden, there are also some happy ones. This is my little lemon tree that I wrote about last spring. It was suffering from a long list of bugs and diseases and looked very sad. I think I only got one lemon from this tree since last April. But after cutting back the damaged foliage, I fertilized it with an organic fertilizer, gave it long, deep soaks all summer and hosed it down every once in a while and now it is rewarding me with tons of sweet, sweet blooms that fill the air with their lovely fragrance, on top of an already abundant young crop of lemons with not a bug or yellow leaf in sight. No pesticides or insecticides were necessary, just some nutrients, a lot of sunshine, some thoughtful watering and maybe a little love!

Moving Towards Fall

This week and last we had the trees trimmed in SJC. We try to put it off for as long as possible, but the palm trees start to open their seed pods and drop the pollen and eventually the seeds and it is a terrible mess. It takes four whole days of about five men to do the job.

The end-of-summer gardens are really a mess. I am frustrated  because it is just a disappointment to walk around and see so many ailing plants due to a long dry summer. Not only that, the temperatures have been so hot that just keeping everything alive is a chore. Most of my attention has been on a number of house problems that have required me to hire and track servicemen and contractors which is challenging and time consuming and drives me somewhat crazy. I have also been suffering from a shoulder issue for a while now and it is time I just concentrate on resting and healing that, which means numerous weekly trips to acupuncture and massage. This is also a busy time for many of the organizations we support, so because of a number of reasons getting to this garden is going to take a while. Of course I have help that keeps it from going totally off the charts, but it clearly is missing a loving touch, and I am clearly missing spending time out there with my plants!

My Asian Pears

I love surprises in the garden and this was a pleasant one! This pear tree was here when we moved in and there were many years I could have sworn it was dead. Few leaves, even fewer blooms led me to believe it was very unhappy as were many of the other fruit trees that were planted here by the previous owners. I fed it and watered it along with the others and it continued to sulk, but not quite give up entirely. Occasionally it would produce a couple of these rather round Asian pears, usually going unnoticed until they fell to the ground before I had a chance to taste them. But this year I was pleasantly surprised to see it bearing a good sized crop! I'm not quite sure whether they should be picked while they are still green or wait until they turn yellow so I think I will pick one every few days and see what is the best time so I don't miss the peak time, as I often do with my tree fruit. What a nice way to start the fall garden experience!