Wednesday Vignette: Happy Place

It's Wednesday. I'm stuck at an airport. I'm not sure what American Airlines' 2020 resolution was, but "suck less" was apparently not it. To distract myself, I dug through my pictures of my last visit to my happiest place on earth: the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers. Perhaps your Wednesday needs a pick-me-up too? Let the pretty pictures of texture and green distract us/me!

i feel the stress go away

there are always gorgeous flowers

and leaves of all colors and textures

spanish moss

a fake leaf! (they were setting up for a light show)

what my pond would look like if i had infinite money

silvery leaves

i like that their plants aren't too perfect

mysterious mist (also part of the show)

perfect combos

baby pomegranate?

all the plants growing on plants

ending with flowers

Happy wishes for your Wednesday!

6 on Saturday: looking back at Joshua Trees in the snow

After the late December snow, i stopped by the Prime Desert Woodland Preserve for some unusual views! The snow did two things: put the Joshua trees in some odd company, and make the dry stream beds be actual streams. It was cool to see the park in such a strange setting.

water!

this was the day after the snow - the melt patterns were interesting

more water

lots of animal tracks

the green really popped

no snow on the joshua trees anymore - but plenty left on the ground

By 1 January, all the snow was gone, and even the mud had dried again. Its amazing how quickly the moisture gets sucked into the ground. I'll be looking back at these pictures in the summer for sure!

Wednesday Vignette - snow!

These pictures are from right after Christmas 2019... when it started snowing and didn't stop for 24 hours. All the plants (and the gardener) were confused. We're all recovered now, and thankful for all the moisture, so here are some pictures to remember the closest we've gotten to a white Christmas in a long time!

agave was not amused

about 6 inches in total 

poor aloe blooms!

this was while it was still snowing

there is a poor agave under that

the front garden 

the palo verde did not do well with the heavy snow. it lost a bunch of branches already...

the pond did not freeze (and the water is very clear!)

thankfully it was all gone in about 2 days...

2020 Gardening Goals

star of the garden in 2019

2019 was an exciting year in the garden - my pond was wonderful, lots of plants did really well, I mostly stayed on top of the weeds, and the patio was a great place to hang out, even in the summer!

looking good even in October!

For 2020, there are a whole lot of things i want to do, but here are 4 big ones:

• finish the right hill side - i started this last year, and while some of the new plants worked, others didn't. I still need to find something robust yet low to the ground to fill in this part of the hillside. 
• be better at pruning - i put off pruning forever, because i always worry that i'll do it wrong and kill the plants. The plants laughingly take advantage and grow to giant green blobs, taking over steps, pots, the entire garden. This year, i'll be better - starting with learning the best ways to prune!
• fix the upper sprinklers - these sprinklers haven't been used in a few years. I started to switch them over to drip, but the pressure is too high... so i'll have to do something about that. Once i unlock this, i can have more pots on the top of the hill. Because of course i need more pots?
• redo the bed around the butterfly bush - this starts with being better at pruning the giant bush (see goal #2) and then figuring out what likes to grow under it. I planted some things a few years ago that turned out well, but are now covered under a layer of butterfly bush leaves. So cleaning that might be the first order of the year. 

even with flowers!

I know better than to set goals about weeding, not buying new plants (ha!) or not buying plants i don't have room for (sigh)! I can dream of a bigger pond, but i'm guessing that one won't happen this year. I do know of several plants that need to move, and gopher holes that need filling, but for now, I'm going to start by dreaming and planning fun things! Oh, and pruning...

Here's to a great gardening year!