A Look at the Moonlight Garden

 It takes a long time to establish a garden. I have been working on mine in SJC for about nine years and although they have looked lovely on and off, they are finally starting to mature enough to come into their own I think. Shrubs are filling out and plants that work and thrive in different spots are settled in nicely. Every year I add to the bare spots, trying to find something that works in difficult spaces. Some things die and some things I just yank out after admitting defeat. This is especially true in the Moonlight Garden. Although the white blooms are the highlight, it is the variety and depth of the shades of green and foliage textures that I think make this a lovely place to spend time.

 Although they aren't what you would think of as drought tolerant, and they certainly had bad days during the past year, this giant ligularia are quite content in this cool damp spot where the yard drains.

 It didn't take too much rain to encourage the Australian daisy groundcover to perk up and spread. Pelargonium geraniums are rather pedestrian around here, but I especially love the white ones along with the Marguerite daisies. They add a bit of sparkle to the garden.

 I don't think a garden is complete without some vines for vertical interest and these bower vines do the trick with their easy disposition and charming trumpet flowers.

 Oak leaf hydrangea is another plant that surprises me with its ability to adapt to our dry conditions. It grows large and healthy with little to no care other than deadheading after a few months of beautiful blooms.

 It is hard to keep the all-white theme when it means removing blooms that have changed color a little due to micro climates. Some all white flowers revert to a soft shade of pink and others like this daylily turn a soft yellow. If I was a perfectionist I would remove them, but I find perfection a bit boring.

 I really need to mulch some of this little areas with gravel I try to encourage the use of groundcovers to fill in but they don't always take to every spot and wood mulch breaks down so fast. You can see by the dainty little weeds that something is definitely needed here other than monthly manual labor!

 Variegated foliage is an easy what to add white shades to the garden.

 I add a lot of silver leafed plants to add another color to the foliage palette.

 True white daylilies are a little like unicorns. They exist only with a bit of imagination!

 There is a lot of additional vertical interest in this garden with the existing queen palm trees, the Italian cypress we added and some sculptural plants.

Getting Back To Business

 It's been a busy summer and I know I've been negligent in posting to my blog, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy in the gardens. This summer we had a wedding in the family, a big birthday bash in the garden in SJC, started to design our new home in Laguna in addition to Grandparent's Week and lots of birthdays and visits from family and friends. I can hardly believe that summer is almost over although the signs are showing outside in spite of the 90 degree temperatures. 

 We have been asked to cut back our water consumption 26% to help alleviate stress from the drought. I put in new sprinkler boxes in Laguna to help regulate the water better, and our last bill showed that we cut our water use down 67%. Needless to say, the garden doesn't look good and we have lost a lot of plants that preferred the wetter conditions, but that may have been inevitable. 

 In SJC we switched out sprinkler heads to more efficient ones but did not adjust the watering times and everything suffered due to not enough water at all. Then one of our drip systems got shut off accidentally and wasn't noticed until it was too late for many plants. Our water bill at this house is down more than 50% too. I am happy to be so water efficient, but I didn't intend to hit the community goals for everyone all by myself! 

 Many of the older established plant hung in there and are bouncing back with a little added water. They are predicting a lot of rain from the El Nino coming this winter. I hope we get the rain without too much damage. We could sure use it!

 I was forced to do what I tell other people not to do in their gardens. I planted a lot of plants in the middle of summer to enhance the gardens for a big garden party I had for my DH's birthday. I bent over backward with a lot of hand watering to keep those new additions to the garden alive while they got established and was able to hold on to most of them while we got the sprinkler issues worked out. Take note: do not fool around with your automatic sprinkler system in the summer!

Although I'm sharing some pictures that look good that I took this beautiful summer morning before the day heats up, I'll try to share (it kills me) the not-so-pretty scenes too over the next few weeks and the lessons I learned!

Taking a Step Back

 It is easy for me to walk around my gardens and see all the problems. There are so many things that I want to fix, move, change and improve that it sometimes requires discipline to see the really cool things. Places and views that work perfectly to my eye when I step back. Here are a few that I captured today. 

I love this scene above looking east from the backyard. There are just so many shades of green and textures not to mention all the depth from the trees, fountain and canopy  in the distance and the hint of mystery of what is waiting down the steps to the right. The main plants here are all very simple, common garden staples but together they create what I consider a lovely, muted scene.

 
This picture is actually taken from the exact same spot looking west. If I look closely I could come up with a dozen issues here, from too much bare ground, flowers needing deadheading and of course the chain link fence showing in the background, but in this picture it looks rather inviting to me. I would like to sit and take in the lavender and rose fragrances while admiring the view from those chairs.

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.

Persistence Pays Off

I do love an arch in the garden and I have lots of them. I add them all over to create height and add a vertical element as well as acting as a way to separate spaces. Most of them are wire ones that I purchase from catalogs or a nursery.  This also allows me to utilize a whole new group of plants that would otherwise be left to an occasional fence or wall - vines. This arch in the Moonlight Garden has had at least four different kinds of vines growing on it that I can think of off the top of my head. When I put it in about seven years ago I planted the very prolific and popular at the time 'Avalanche' clematis. Of course the more I thought about it the more I regretted the chance to put one of my favorite fragrant vines in,  Madagascar jasmine, so I added that too. Neither vine flourished the way I hoped they would. So I decided to just go for it and add a white passion flower vine and at least have butterflies all over. I probably added a star jasmine too. One thing about vines that should always be a warning is that they can be very aggressive. By nature they are meant to grow from the floor of the forest, and scale up tall trees to get the sunlight at the very top. All of the vines I planted on this arch had no intention of scaling much of anything and most barely made it over the arch but the most frustrating thing was they just weren't interested in blooming. Here and there would be a bloom but nothing like I was used to in my other gardens. It may have been too shady. I have a hard time realizing that this area doesn't get as much sun as it seems due to the tall queen palms. The hard ground isn't very fertile either because of years of chemicals used on the lawn that was here previously. Then finally I broke down a bought a white Mandevilla vine. I am not crazy about Mandevillas for some reason. A little too showy and tropical for me, so I have no idea why I bought two and put one on each side of the arch last spring, just desperate I guess. But just to keep me humble I suspect, those Mandevillas are just as happy as can be and are blooming for months now! Go figure!

Privacy Hedge Update

 The hedge along the back fence in SJC that was put in a little over a year ago to replace the oleanders dying of oleander scorch is filling in nicely. This picture was from a couple months ago and there is actually a lot more growth since then due to the hot weather we had been having. We keep them topped for now to encourage side growth.

 Although these are all considered drought tolerant plants when once they are established, since they still have only been in the ground a little over a year and are in a heavy growing mode they require regular water to keep them from getting stressed. We have invested too much time and money to lose them now due to neglect so we keep a close eye on them during this drought.  A truckload of mulch is being delivered this week to help keep the soil cool and moist.
 

 Although there were old sprinkler heads that had been converted to a drip system for the older plants, we are giving these young shrubs long deep soaks a couple times a month to make sure their roots go deep. There are still a few oleanders that are hanging on around the far side of the fence, but they are all slowly showing signs of dying off to the disease that has taken hundreds of the shrubs in this neighborhood alone. Soon we will have to deal with their replacements too, but the choices may be different due to the location in the yard and how they fit in with the other landscaping. The neighbors on the other side of these fences haven't done anything to enhance the privacy, but our other neighbors on the other side have already planted some bougainvillaea to take the place of the oleanders.

We had also planted some quick growing vines along this fence to give us some privacy a little bit sooner than the hedge will be complete and they are filling in nicely too. I am anticipating almost complete coverage by the end of this summer.

A Gravel Garden Update

 I was recently asked for an update on the Gravel Garden by a reader, so here it is. As is the case with any low maintenance area, not much changes back here, at least not quickly. 

 You can see though, that the screening shrubs between our property and the neighbors are continuing to thin. This is in part due to the demise of the oleanders in the area due to oleander scorch disease and just the normal growth of the overhead plants shading out the under plantings. We planted Carolina cherries (Prunus caroliniana) to replace the dying oleander and continue to plant vines and shrubs along the fences to encourage a dense thicket, but the right combination takes time to grow in and fill in the gaps in this shady space. The dry weather has not be helpful. The automatic sprinkler system can only provide so much water to these large specimen plants and even the drought tolerant ones are a bit stressed these days and not as full as they could be under optimum conditions. There is a large old Brazilian Pepper Tree to the right in these pictures that covers most of this area with shade that is looking very stressed and I am planning on giving it and the orange tree in the back a good long soak with a hose-end sprinkle this weekend to give them a little relief.

I've added layers of hedges and although I was overly romantic and optimistic when I first put this garden in a few years ago with planting a row of white hydrangeas and a drip system, but it has not quite unfolded as I had envisioned. Since then I have tried to wean myself off of reading so many blogs from the rainy part of the country where 'Limelight' hydrangeas grow like wildfires do here. I planted some 'Yuletide' camellias last year in this shady area and I am still contemplating some more shrubs to fill in that can tolerate the shade. Because both neighbors' yards that border this area are far removed from their homes, they don't pay much attention to what goes on here on their sides of the fence, so it is pretty much my issue. One neighbor's yard is actually a horse stable and riding area with lots of chickens, which kind of adds an interesting atmosphere to the backdrop of this garden.

Overall, with the challenges we are facing with the drought this year, the Gravel Garden with its low maintenance and low water needs along with lots of cool shade make it one of the easiest parts of the property to manage. It handles as much or as little time and energy as I want to put into it quite gracefully and provides a lovely space to hang out on top of it all!

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.

Signs of Spring

 The first day of spring is bursting with color from all kinds of natives, shrubs, bulbs, perennials, annuals, and groundcovers.

 There are still buds waiting to wake up on the birch tree and Boston ivy, but

lots of other plants are in full bloom.

 Clivia lilies are making quite a statement in orange and yellow with primrose tucked underneath.

 Contrasting foliage has been adding color all winter long and continues to create drama as the flowers emerge around them.

 Reblooming iris and heliotrope have been blooming on and off all winter but look even more lovely with snapdragons that are finally starting to bloom.

 Native blue ceanothus makes a beautiful background shrub along the path.

 Helichrysum 'limelight' is as bright and colorful as any spring bud.

 So many shades of green in one garden make an interesting scene even without any flowers.

A small native iris peeks out from a sea of pretty blue ajuga groundcover. Just the beginning of a lovely sring season.

A Do-Over For An Arbor

I remember when we first looked at this property I was already mentally choosing what I would plant on this arbor before we even decided to buy the house. I love arbors and use them all the time in my gardens to add interest and height to an otherwise flat area. This one is tall and very sturdy, however, I don't think it has ever lived up to its potential and a week ago I looked at it in dismay and told my garden helper to just strip everything that was growing on it off and we would start over. (By-the-way, this is a garden technique that I find much under appreciated, ripping everything out and starting over!) We will relocate the plants that were growing there to a bare spot on the always needy fence on the back lot.

It's not that I hadn't tried. Here is what was tangled together growing on it; 'Graham Thomas' rose (not a climber but it does grow very tall here and it did grow up over the top), 'Sally Holmes' climbing rose, purple potato vine, a variety of passion flower, and a clematis of some kind, I think.

I've decided to just go and buy two of the same kind of climbing rose and plant one on each side and then monitor them weekly and tie the growing canes horizontally along the sides of the arbor. I started to do this on the previous roses planted here but obviously got distracted as evident by the top notch of blooms showing in the pictures. This is the key to getting climbing roses that have flowers all along the sides of the arbor and not just at the top like the yellow Graham Thomas rose in the picture above. They must be diligently tied in a zig-zag pattern so they will bloom on the horizontal branches like here or here. Which roses I choose will be somewhat dictated by my choices in the nurseries or whether I am willing to order on-line. Usually we are better off choosing ones that are available locally because they are typically proven to do well in our area. We need ones that will put up with June gloom for months without succumbing to mildew. Strong foliage is always good to discourage those pesty sawfly larvae that haunt us all.  I looked a couple weeks ago and although some of my favorites from my Laguna Garden were at the nursery I usually go to, like 'New Dawn', it typically only has one long and full bloom in the spring and is flowerless the rest of the summer. They also had 'Polka', a beautiful peach colored climber that I find very difficult to get to bloom. Of course there is always the popular 'Eden', but I find it so disease prone, at least in my area, that I am a bit wary of the maintenance involved. Oh well, the search begins!