Primroses in June

A shady nook in the garden that rarely is seen by most viistors still has a few English primrose blooms left thanks to the cool, overcast weather we have been having. The hellebores were done blooming months ago. These primrose were in a basket I used for some dining room arrangements in March and were just kind of stuck in the ground when they stopped blooming, but I guess they had more buds to show!

Buddha in the Garden

 Sitting quietly, way on the back of the gravel garden, is Buddha. Most of the winter he is surrounded by white azaleas. The rest of the year, by various cool shades of green succulents and tropical plants.
 

It is hard to see in this picture, but there is a perfect umbrella of duranta over his head. Duranta, if you are not familiar is a flowering shrub that has arching sprays of blue flowers (at least this one does). I always seem to miss it in bloom back here. Buddha's hands form a perfect cup to hold enough water from the sprinklers to keep blooms fresh for a few days and I try to keep them filled with long lasting flowers when I pass through this garden.

But Tilly seems to think that Buddha is there solely to offer her a little refreshment, for her own personal benefit, just like the rest of the gardens, and everyone else in the household for that matter.

Bee Hive Hose Covers

For those of you that have asked me about the beehive hose covers (the gray mound at the base of the column in the picture) that are tucked in throughout my SJC gardens and were disappointed to learn that my source no longer carried them, good news! I just noticed that they are once again available at the Wisteria Catalog! Just a coincidence that the only picture I could find with the hose cover in my garden is covered with wisteria!

Wisteria and Roses

 I just can't get enough of my wisteria and roses.

 When they start blooming I actually get a little sad because I know they will only last a few weeks.

 Their beautiful scent, the buzzing of the bees, the sparkling of the sunshine peeking through the flowers will only be fleeting for the first few weeks of spring.

 They seem to be the first signs that winter is on the way out and the warm weather is on its way and soon all the other flowers will be appearing.

I really need to learn to spend more time just sitting under this pergola enjoying the beautiful arrival of spring and less time regretting how quickly it passes.

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!

Just Fun

My Laguna garden has a lot more fun and unusual garden decor than my SJC gardens. They are both beautiful, just a bit different in feel due to the different ambiance of the design of the houses. The SJC house has a Mediterranean feel and the gardens (hopefully) reflect that, while the Laguna house is a funky little beach cottage, thus the funky garden art. I'm just glad I don't have to choose which is my favorite because I love them both!

Along the Street

I must confess that I don't see much of this garden in SJC. It runs between the front wall and the street and because I pull in and out of the driveway before I pass it I usually only glance at it once in a while.
It is fairly large and was one of the first things I worked on when we moved in four years ago because it was some really bad grass around the tall queen palms and not what I wanted the world to see. It is comprised of a gravel path, rocks, a pot of succulents as a focal point and a number of native and drought tolerant plants. I use woolly thyme and rosemary as groundcovers.

Many of the plants here, especially the succulents, have been started as cuttings from other places in the yard. It does get watered in the summer from the automatic sprinklers that have been adjusted from when it was lawn.
There are summer blooming shrubs and perennials such as lavender and lantana for color. Every once in a while when I go out the gate specifically to look at what is happening out here I am pleasantly surprised that it is doing so well and there is always something that amuses me. Usually it is a really big, thriving weed or a piece of trash that has ended up in a bush (I have to get out here more) or even a small aspen tree that has sprouted from seeds the giants across the street drop. But this week there were some interesting things in bloom that I will share later.

Lions Spitting Water

My DH and I have a running joke about "lions spitting water". When we were first married and house hunting it seemed like we had very different tastes when it came to real estate. I liked quaint, funky places and he liked stately, dignified homes. To clarify my point one frustrating day I told him that I would never live in a house with lions spitting water. What is the first thing you see when you pull in the driveway of our SJC home? Well it used to be a lion spitting water. Now it is a lion overlooking a funky basin of succulents spilling into a basin of "splashing" liriope. A fitting compromise I would say!

Furnishing the Gravel Garden

There seems to be a curse on the Gravel Garden. I have been having a heck of a time getting the thing finished! It seems that everything I order for it in the way of adornment, including the table, chairs and lighting has been riddled with issues and problems. I finally am at least at a point where it is somewhat what I had envisioned; a cool, romantic location to spend warm summer evenings with friends over a good meal and a bottle of wine. (My original fantasy included a meal from the home grown vegetables from the garden, but I have abandoned that idea until some serious fencing is appropriated for the veggie garden.) Now if only we would get some "warm" summer evenings!

The Last Project

I make it a point to stop planting around the first of June. You can practically plant year round in our climate, but I find it is good to take a break from putting in any new plants until fall. Summer projects, if any, focus on hardscaping.
So what are all these plants doing waiting patiently to go in the ground? Well, I have one last project to complete. It is where the septic tank is in SJC (yes, we have a septic tank) that had to be dug out a few months ago to put risers in. It has been bare ground for months and I have decided to put in a wispy, drought tolerant garden with stepping stones to make access to the tank easier in the future.
This is one of the replicated aged wood pavers that I bought from Essence of the Tree. It is made from a recycled material that is formed over aged wood and looks very natural but is lightweight.
Here is what the spot looks like now. I need to go get some sand to place under the stones and then I can finally get the plants in the ground... and then I'm done for the summer!

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.

Conceding

My peaceful Buddha sits in the very back of the serene gravel garden in a flower bed that I have replanted every year we have lived here. The white carpet roses do fine but I have a terrible time keeping any other groundcover thriving there. While adding some gravel to the back area, my son went ahead and covered the bare soil with some of the remaining gravel. I must admit it looks better than it did and there is a good chance I was not going to get around to adding more doomed plants anytime soon. The beauty of it is that I can always take up the gravel if I get ambitious in the future and want to add more plants, but for now, this will work fine for me. I concede!

Hose Hive

I have a large yard and there are many garden hoses (thank goodness) at various spots throughout the property. Bright green coils of hoses drive me crazy because the vivid color draws the eye away from the subtle shades of the landscape, especially in photographs, and they seem to stand out like sore thumbs. I added a number of cooper hose pots last year to the SJC garden, but it seems like there were still hoses everywhere. Then I found this sweet hose keeper from Wisteria and order a couple. I am so charmed with them that I can't help but smile when I walk by them. The bee wings are actually a pliable material. A nice solution to my nagging problem.

Memories

A few years ago my husband turned 50 and I threw a big party for him with friends and family from all over the country. On the invitation I asked that instead of a present, guest bring a rock with a message for him that we could place in the garden (the theme was 'Rock On'). We got a lot of rocks! Five years later some of the messages have faded, others have disappeared all together, a few were chiseled into the stone and will last forever. It is a joy to walk through the garden with all the messages of love tucked into the landscape!

Shedding

When I first started my Laguna garden many years ago I put in this little shed to store my tools. Over the years it has been replaced by a large potting area under the deck where most of my tools are kept now. Perhaps more practical, not not quite as charming.

Stepping on Leaves

I bought these leaf steps made of copper many years ago from a catalog. They have little posts on them that penetrate the ground making them secure. I thought for sure they would rot away after a few years, but not so. They are just as charming as the day I put them in this little path around the rose garden in Laguna.

Time in the Garden

With daylight savings time upon us I always wonder if there are people who actually adjust their sundials. We have had this one that was a gift from a friend when we first started transforming our vacant hillside into a garden, for about fifteen years. I can't remember once adjusting it, probably because I rarely even think of it as a timepiece, not just a garden ornament that I love dearly.

The Bird Gates

I was on my way down to the garden the other day and I realized I have never posted pictures of my beautiful gates in Laguna. They were custom made for me by artist David Wolf many years ago. These gates have 17 different kinds of birds on them, all from our area and life size. It is hard to photograph them so that they show the beauty and workmanship that went into them, but take my word for it, they are lovely!

Fallen Angel

This mischievous looking little man with wings in entitled 'Fallen Angel' and was a gift from my husband a number of years ago. He overlooks the back deck in Laguna where he keeps an eye on everything.

An Ant To Remember

A few years ago some friends gave us this amusing "ant" made of scrap metal and rocks for the garden. I'm sure they have forgotten all about it, but I think of them fondly whenever I see it.