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.

Mid-Winter Updates

Thanksgiving and Christmas are big holidays at our house, but Super Bowl Sunday takes the prize for sheer volume of people at the house and I work all month trying to refresh the mid-winter gardens so that they at least look presentable since this is the only time of year many of our friends come to the house and most of them associate me with being a gardener and have high expectations. The camellias and azaleas are lovely, but I have been taking advantage of the lovely weather and abundant rain we've been having to add some pretty seasonal color that I have skipped the past few years. After the poinsettias were retired from their showy pots around the entrances, there were empty pots for many weeks until I got busy at the last minute to drop in some winter bloomers. I even updated this wooden planter with tiny succulent cuttings that will look good for months to come. Amazing how inspirational a little rain and sunshine in the middle of winter can be to a gardener!

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!

Learning Lessons

 So, I was going to write this post about my weeping cedar tree, and how much I adore it, and how much it has grown, but now I will probably write about how much your learn writing a blog about your garden!

When we moved into this house in 2008 there was a big awkward King palm in this little carve out that had out-grown the spot and was learning over the driveway. It was the first thing I had removed and relocated and I chose a weeping cedar to replace it for two reasons. First, it can be trained into a rather columnar tree which is perfect for this tall, narrow space, and second because I love this graceful, soft tree. Sure, it didn't look like much at first, but I had faith and sure enough as you can see in the top picture, with some staking and some pruning it has filled the space nicely (in hind-sight an Italian cypress would have probably been ideal and fit in with the feel of the house too).

 But in searching for pictures among all my files over the years for photos of this spot to show the progression I have made a few observations.

At first I was going to qualify the top picture saying that the 'Black and Blue' salvia that fill this planter, along with the bright orange daylilies are all dormant and cut back so it looks rather bare at this time of year, but is lovely most of the time. I then spent a long time looking for at least one picture of it looking "lovely". There were none. I take a lot of pictures, especially when things are looking good which leads me to believe that this area, which is right next to where I park my car every day, (you can tell by the tire marks on the edge of the planter) rarely looks good. Now this bottom shot with the snapdragons is not bad, but I would say that is a good four years ago. Part of the problem is that this east facing planter is very shallow and narrow and right up against the color of the house and therefor the colors of the flowers I can use is very limited and must be carefully chosen, and there is not a lot of air circulation so the plants must be tough. There are some lovely stained glass windows here too that have a rather tropical feel to them (Toucans and such), so they must also be taken into account. When I think about it, it is no wonder I have had such a hard time filling this little space successfully!

Another observation I have made today while writing this post is that I take a lot more pictures of my grandchildren now than I do my gardens! That doesn't bother me a bit!

Maybe Some Container Veggies

Sooooo.... I went to the nursery yesterday to buy rose fertilizer, but I have to go  back today because I came home with everything but fertilizer. Mainly I stocked up on one gallon lavender which it seemed like I looked for all last fall and couldn't find at all, although I still couldn't find any Spanish lavender yet. I also was seduced by a beautiful camellia and some complimentary azaleas because let's face it, the window to plant them is going to close soon. A few flats of fairy primrose also made it home with me because I plant them every year this time. 

But I really wanted to buy some beautiful lettuces and peas that I haven't planted in years due to being discouraged by the rabbits that have their way with most of my gardens. But I have really been missing the vegetables and now I think I will try to grow them in containers around the fountain on the back patio. The fountain splashes everywhere, making it rather damp and I started putting plants around it years ago when one of the dogs was a puppy that kept climbing in it and to discourage toddlers from getting too close. I am not crazy about the choice of prickly plants that my garden helper has grown from slips there and I think I will try to replace them with veggies and see how that works out. It is right outside the kitchen, gets lots of sun and is a ways away from the rabbit territory so maybe it will work. I'll let you know!

Autumn Details

Begonia

 Although I should be focusing on refurbishing the gardens this month, I get a bit distracted at the nurseries and bring home autumn colored potted plants to decorate the fringes of the house.

Ornamental grasses and Chrysanthemums

 Most of these plants will end up somewhere in the gardens after they finish this bloom, so it is all good.

Zinnia

 I am hoping against the odds that they will hang in there for five more weeks so that I don't have to replace them before the family starts rolling in for Thanksgiving.

Zinnia

I haven't even bought any pumpkins and gourds yet!

More Than Green

This is the same garden bed I have been writing about in the two previous posts, but a different angle. Although primarily different shades of green foliage there is some burgundy grass and a container for some added interest. The succulents in the container were all just small pups and cuttings taken from other plants in the landscape and stuck in there to thrive and grow into what it is today.

A Sweet Discovery

I can get easily distracted by all the big things in the gardens. What needs to be done seasonally, what needs to be changed visually, what is not doing well culturally. Sometimes it is easy to overlook the small things, like this sweet little succulent that has been quietly growing in a container by the pool for a number of years. I have never really noticed it before, most likely because the pot is jammed full of stuff and I am usually walking by at a quick pace on my way elsewhere. Maybe I need to take some cuttings and spread it around a bit. It is too charming to go unnoticed!

Pups

One of the best things about succulents is the ease with which most of them propagate. Many will grow more plants easily by simply breaking off a piece, letting the wound heal for a few days and then sticking it in the ground.

Many succulents send up "pups" like this flapjack plant (kalancho luciae)

When this container was planted in the street-side garden a couple years ago the container was filled tightly and a few were added to the ground for a bit of whimsy. As you can now see there are a bunch of new pups filling in under the mature plants. As is the case with many succulent containers, this one will need to be refreshed by dividing the plants and pups before the whole thing looks cramped and the older plants start looking straggly. The good news is I have lots of spots to fill in with the extras!

Winding Down

Taking off for a couple weeks to recharge as summer winds down. Just received a lovely box of narcissus bulbs from a friend that I look forward to getting into the ground when I return. I will plant more bulbs this fall for a glorious spring bloom, I will!

Sweet New Rose

I was at the nursery the other day, not really looking for roses, when I spotted this sweet little rose. I assumed it was 'Ballerina' but when I looked at the tag (as it was being lifted onto my cart) I saw it was 'Silicon Valley Diamond'! This is a new rose that was introduced this year to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Yamagami Nursery in Northern California. It is only about one foot high and wide so it would be perfect for containers, but I am using it in the front of a border bed. It was so sweet I had to get two!

Sweet Fairy Primroses

I have a hard time deciding which primroses are my favorites, but Fairy Primroses (primula malcoides) seem to be edging out the more showy ones for my affection, at least this year. They are often referred to as perennials, but they perform like annuals in my garden, rarely living through the summers. They do like it cool and damp with dappled sunshine which works just fine for these white ones that are occupying the faux bois birdbath in the Moonlight Garden. They put on a nice show for most of the cooler months as long as they are planted in rich soil. They are small and can get lost in a large bed, but they are perfect for containers or as sweet little accents grouped together among some ferns along a shady path. So sweet.

A Charming Reminder

Last May I attended a fundraiser for a non-profit organization that I support. For a centerpiece on the table was this little square dish of polished rocks with three echeveria in the center. I purchased the centerpiece and brought it home and as I was bringing it into the house from the car I got distracted and placed in on the bench by the front door. It has lived in that same spot for eight months now and has grown three or four times as large and even bloomed. What a charming and carefree reminder of the event I attended.

Welcome Home

See this little lemon tree? It is right in front of where I park my car and I must tell you how happy it makes me feel when I pull into my parking spot and see those little lemons ripening! This pot was there when we moved in and in it was a sad little palm tree that was a bit neglected. Not exactly the welcoming scene I wanted when I returned home every day. I relocated the palm into the ground where it will be much happier and replaced it with this enthusiastic little dwarf lemon tree. It is growing like crazy and I even used a lemon from it the other night! It should bloom soon which will scent the air with that lovely aroma of citrus blooms. Delightful!

While I'm On The Subject

Planting "en masse" isn't just for garden beds. This old wooden container that sits by my front walkway in SJC is usually filled with annuals. When the spring annuals were spent, only the dirt remained, I'm embarrassed to say, all summer. I was walking by the other day and on the spur of the moment decided to do something about it. With a few minutes I had broken off about a dozen young aeonium off shoots and filled in the container. No tools were needed and it has been over a month and they are doing quite well. I will probebly rotate the container 180 degrees every once in a while so they grow evenly since the light is to the left. Now why didn't I do this earlier?

A Dangerous Task

The beautiful agave is living in a lovely pot in our front courtyard. It has been there for a couple years and seems to be quite happy based on the amount of growth it has shown. However if it is to continue to grow I'm afraid it may need a bigger pot because it has filled the one it is in to the brim. It is going to be a case of breaking the pot I'm afraid because this beautiful succulent has very sharp tips and the thought of dislodging it from its home fills me with fear of impalement!

Pot of Flapjacks

Our street side garden in SJC had a problem area in it where a large queen palm had been cut down prior to us living here. Palm tree stumps are very difficult to remove because you can't use a stump grinder on them, they have to be dug out which is quite a chore. Instead of removing it we incorporated it as a termination point for the gravel path. I looked for some sort of ornamentation to put on it for a long time, but never found anything that felt right. Last summer I bought this pot and asked my son to fill it with something dramatic and this is what I got. I love it! He filled it with kalanchoe thyrsiflora or what is commonly known as the flapjack plant. He then added some in the ground around it as if they has spilled over the sides. To add to the whimsy, there is one plant in the pot that has decided to bloom on it's own and if you look carefully you will see little "ears" sticking up from the mass planting. A year later this still looks as good as the day it was planted. The kalanchoe grows slowly and holds good color with the few hours of direct sun it gets in the morning. Of course being a succulent it is drought tolerent and almost carefree.

Forever Annuals

This planter always amuses me. I planted it about eight years ago in Laguna when I used to have a lot of containers on our large deck there. There are actually two of these faux cement urns that I brought over to SJC a couple years ago to place on empty pillars outside the pool house. I have not touched them as far as the plants go for all these years and they still bloom away. The rose is 'White Meidiliand', not sure what kind of lobilia that is other than very long-lived, and there is actually some lovely peach colored verbena that is not in bloom. It gets a drink from the hose once a week and that is about it. A good case for the right plants in the right place makes everyone happy!

A Donated Container

Last month I was asked to create a container for a charity auction to benefit the Great Park Conservancy. I put together this romantic combination in a lightweight container. It contains a 'Ballerina' rose, 'Black Knight' heliotrope, nemesia, bacopa and 'Blackie' sweet potato vine. Over the summer it will grow and overflow the container nicely as well as be fragrant. I'm not sure what the final amount was it went for, but it was a couple hundred dollars when I last checked during the auction. I hope whoever got it enjoys it!

Aeonium 'Zwartkopf'

Few plants add as much drama in the garden without blooming as aeonium . Especially 'Zwartkopf" with its deep maroon almost black foliage.
It is not just interesting, it is also problem free and ridiculously easy to propagate. I have it all over in both of my gardens and they all came from a single plant that I bought years ago.
They will get leggy, but some people prefer the architectural form of tall ones with stems showing. I prefer them short and full, which is probably why I have so many of them. Whenever the stems get taller than I like, I just break them off and stick them in the ground somewhere and let the smaller ones on the bottom take over. They are also great in containers and are very drought tolerant. They need full sun to maintain the dark color.