Wordless Wednesdays - the Conservatory

The Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco is one of my favorite places ever...

Pruning Help Needed For Palo Verde!

For the back garden, there's two plants that i think i really need to prune, but i'm not entirely sure how? They are both in the same bed. Maybe seeing pictures will help me figure it out (and if anyone has any ideas/advice, please share!)

The first is my Palo Verde tree. It's about 2 years in the ground now, and has grown quite a bit. In fact, probably too much, as became clear after a wind storm this summer.

something not quite right...

 An entire branch (almost as thick as the trunk) broke off!

That was not a very clean break - it looks much better now (a few months later)

 The branch was pretty much big enough to be a tree by itself:

it may have also taken me until this weekend to get rid of the branch... oops.

With the branch gone, its just even clearer that the tree needs some substantial pruning. I'd like it to be an actual tree, not an overgrown bush.

Looking at the picture below, i'm thinking the bottom 4 branches have to go?

ignore the cables - they don't do anything any more, and will be removed at some point soon.

Maybe all the branches up to where the trunk branches, minus the really big one?

This is kind of hard to see, but all the branches are on one side (forward in the bed), so getting rid of them will hopefully make the tree more balanced, and less likely to fall over at some point?

note to self - trim the grasses...

You would think that having that entire branch fall off with no noticeable bad effects would make it less scary for me to consider pruning off some more...but apparently not! Looking at the pictures does help - as does imagining what all i can plant under the tree once i can get in there.

I'm thinking i'm just going to have to dive in and do it! Any sage words of advice?

Wordless Wednesday

My Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide' always reminds me that it's almost Thanksgiving!

Productive Day!

My day may have started rather unproductively (sleeping in until noon!) but i ended up getting a lot done!

Here's the list from last time:

• Fix pipe <-- Done! It ended up being very easy...
• Trim acacias & uncover agaves in the front <-- Done! i did create an entire garbage can full of trimmings, but the little agaves can breath again

Still left to do:

• Clean up the 'stone pond' bed in the front garden <-- i did clear out a bunch of grass and removed a bunch of gopher mounds, and cleared all the dirt out of the rocks. Now i just need to figure out what to do with this bed!
• Trim up Palo Verde tree <-- No progress yet on the tree itself yet, but i did finally break down a giant branch that broke off a few months ago. To be honest, i'm a bit worried about pruning the tree!
• Clean up right back patio bed <-- no progress yet!

I didn't take many pictures today, but here is what the acacia looked like before:

It's now about half that size. I'm not sure this one will stay long term, although i love the easy green it provides, with cute yellow flowers...

I also seem to have a new friend/permanent resident:

That's a bad picture, but there's a new, small, purple-headed hummingbird (looks like a male Costa?) that's decided my garden is it's home. Hummingbirds show up all the time, of course, but generally they don't really care much for humans getting near.  This one is happy to sit above my head on the patio, or in the branches of various bushes and let me get really close. He will also buzz me if i'm getting in his way. He's territorial in a strange way too - happy to share the feeder and some of the plants, but aerial battles ensue if another hummingbird tries to sit on his perch or drink from one particular aloe bloom. I'm hoping he'll stick around for the winter!

Next time, i'll try for better pictures! Hopefully renovating the beds will make for more exciting pictures than hacking my way through the bush!

Wordless Wednesdays

Spiky happiness

(Here's to wondering what happens when the frost arrives?)

In the light to show off colors...

back to the garden!

The high today was ~70 deg F. For the last 3 weeks, its been noticeably cooler - and its like the garden, and the gardener, can let out a big sigh...

And enjoy some things that look great after the long, hot summer:

And some things that need a bit of help:

The list of things that need doing:

• Fix pipe
• Trim acacias & uncover agaves in the front
• Clean up the 'stone pond' bed in the front garden
• Trim up Palo Verde tree
• Clean up right back patio bed

But before I start on that whole list, I'm going to sit on the patio, without getting a 3rd degree burn! Here's to gardens that still love their gardeners after only admiring them from inside the whole summer!