Wednesday Vignettes: Rainbow / Orange

...continuing the rainbow project! This started as a project during California's safer at home / shelter in place orders. Looking back at all the pictures i've taken of my garden, and finding a rainbow of colors. I was also inspired by one of my favorite artists, Philippa Stanton at 5ftinf and her book "Conscious Creativity", which talks about color collecting, texture and a ton of other things.

Inspired by her book, creativity, Instagram and with a lot of time on my hands, i went and found all the colors of rainbow in my garden. For today, here's ORANGE:

Apparently, there's a lot of orange in my garden and life. I'm going to post all the colors, so my apologies in advance if it gets boring... But i really wanted to find something positive out of the craziness these last few months. Up next: YELLOW

Six on Saturday: Weird cherry tree, and new pots!

Just for fun this weekend, here's a look at six random things in my garden...

First off, my very strange cherry tree - can you see it blooming here?

it's on the north side of the house

It's done this the last few years - bloom on the bottom half of the tree first. I assume it has something to do with the roof line of the house?

a closer picture

In a few more weeks, the top will have flowers, and the bottom leaves. In a few more months, there will be lots of cherries, which is really all that matters.

(also - note to self - prune those opuntia...)

Next - i refreshed some of the hanging pots in my garden! I'm still amazed i can keep these alive! This is one of the new ones:

just some easy succulents

 This one is in a bit more exposed location - it already has sunburn:

but hopefully it will adjust...

 both pots have a spot that's clearly rock mulch - that's where the ice cubes go! I water these pots with ice cubes... so that the water can actually soak into the pots. I've had luck with string-of-pearls surviving, so let's hope that continues!

These next two pots are going on their 3rd year!

this one looks much better now that i watered it...

this one looks kinda bad, TBH, but this plant is definitely surviving

I should get around to adding some more plants to that second pot. Perhaps i should brave the garden center next weekend for my weekly "leave the house" adventure/support local businesses, while maintaining social distancing.

Wednesday Vignettes: Rainbow / Red

...and now for something different. This started as a project during California's safer at home / shelter in place orders. Looking back at all the pictures i've taken of my garden, and finding a rainbow of colors. I was also inspired by one of my favorite artists, Philippa Stanton at 5ftinf and her book "Conscious Creativity", which talks about color collecting, texture and a ton of other things.

Inspired by her book, creativity, Instagram and with a lot of time on my hands, i went and found all the colors of rainbow in my garden. For today, here's RED:

A collage, just for fun

I'm going to post all the colors, so my apologies in advance if it gets boring... But i really wanted to find something positive out of the craziness these last few months. Up next: ORANGE

Weekend Wrapup: Escapees & a sad picture

My garden is set up with planting beds edged with concrete edging, to keep the plants away from the decomposed granite (DG) empty spaces. Think of the DG like a desert-appropriate alternative to grass, maybe? It's permeable, and allows any water we do get to soak into the ground. It also lets other things grow, although since the DG isn't watered, usually nothing much grows (other than mutant, alien Bermuda grass, for some reason). In the Spring, all poppies and other wild flowers do like growing in the DG after winter rains. But the edging keeps a pretty clean boundary between the very full planting beds and the "negative space" of the DG.

This has worked really well for a long time... until i noticed this:

this is Epilobium canum

and this is Aloe maculata

Just to clarify, the blue lines are where the edging is. Plants are supposed to stay on the other side...

i mean, this plant has basically taken over the entire bed, so maybe i shouldn't be surprised?

but the Aloes are barely winter hardy here?

For the record, that edging is probably about 5-6 inches deep, and about 4 inches wide. So yea - nature will always find a way? I'm conflicted about whether to pull them out, or admire their tenacity. At least it's not Bermuda grass?

Speaking of sad things, this has always been one of my favorite views in the garden:

Agave ovatifolia  and Opuntia macrocentra, both probably 8 years old, planted at the same time

Those two plants have been growing since the first year that i had a back garden to grow something in. The opuntia blooms it's head off each year, and the agave always looks good. Except...

that is rot... sigh

that is not good

I'm willing to bet a medium sum of money that the Agave is more gopher damage, probably made worse by the wet winter we had? Or maybe the snow? Our winter wasn't usually cold or wet, but the snow was strange. The opuntia is a bit more of a mystery, but there is gopher mound right in the middle of the plant, so hey, let's blame them!

I didn't have the heart this weekend to pull them out... so stand by for future pictures. I'm trying to be excited to plant something different, but honestly, i will likely replant some of the opuntia pads, and get a new agave ovatifolia. I like this combination so much... 7 years isn't that long to wait? 

Tell the truth Tuesday: Pruning update #2

A few weeks ago, i posted some pictures of my Leucadendron "Rising Sun', and the pruning it needed. Based on the advice i got, i decided to... just go for it! If i totally screwed it up, please be kind... both the plant and I are still bruised!

The before:

a lot of lean, and a lot of ... weirdness

There was actually an old support in there - made of metal no less - which the plant had bent at about a 60 degree angle. So that one came out.

I'm not sure that the after looks much better:

right?

I ended up having to cut out some of the larger stems, just to get the support out. I took the advice to treat it kind of like a lavender, and cut those stems all the way to the base. 

I ended up with a giant pile of trimmings:

the pile of trimmings 

from the top

 In this picture, you can see it still has it's lean, but i'm hoping it will grow in a bit more now that it has room?

hope springs eternal?

 At least i got a nice, if simple, bouquet for inside!

poor plant!

Hopefully i'll have much better pictures at the end of the year... fingers crossed!

Weekend Wrap up: Gazania everywhere

I continue to be grateful to my garden for being a great place to be distracted, relaxed, and learn that control is just an illusion. I spend all sorts of time figuring out where plants go, and which ones i should get, and then the garden says: "What you need is Gazania"

and so therefore, there were Gazania on the hillside

You can buy different colored ones at the garden centers. In my experience, they don't really last. I've never bought yellow or orange ones. But that's what the garden decided it liked, in all the different colors. 

yellow with orange stipes

more orangy and dark

orange

yellow

and this color combo

Not just content with showing me that it's better than me at picking flower colors, the garden also showed that it's much better at picking where to plant them than any planting scheme i've ever come up with:

the right hill side

Here's to hoping we get more Spring-like days soon! 

Wednesday Vignettes - pretty flowers

Well, the world turned upside down... but Spring is still here. Let's look at some pretty flower pictures for just a moment.

why yes, i did get a phone with portrait mode!

Salvia coming back

this species tulip looks like it's floating

cassia is blooming... it might need a hard chop this year!

these are pretty!

yellow yarrow might not be exciting, but i'm still glad its back

Back to the read world, i suppose. I hope everyone is staying healthy, safe, and sane!