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!

Tell the Truth Tuesday: Pruning help needed!

As much as I'm happy to chop some plants, i think i need help/advice with this one. This is Leucadendron 'Rising Sun', and it's the first leucadendron i've ever had survive. It's also growing sideways:

very sideways

 It used to be smothered under the Palo Verde. Winter took care of that problem, but now it looks even weirder than before:

the plant branches and colors are gorgeous!

 Do i just chop some of the branches off? Will it grow more straight if that i do? Or will i kill it? The branches get fairly thick near the bottom:

close up - will new branches sprout from this wood if i cut it back?

Any advice? I've been looking things up on the internet, but nothing beats experienced gardeners advice!

Tell the Truth Tuesday: how you know you're a boring adult

Alison at Bonney Lassie used to do this thing called "tell the truth tuesday" about the not-so-pretty parts of your garden. I'm not sure if she's still doing it, but seemed like an appropriate theme for this very exciting pair of pictures!

I present to you: GARBAGE CANS!

very exciting - there are 2 grey ones!

The grey ones are for yard waste, and the green one is for recycling. Because that color coding makes total sense...

the new green one comes with this thing called a "lid"

Why am i so excited about garbage cans? Because they had been broken (the green one) or insufficient (the grey one) for a long time. All the way back in November of last year, i finally figured out how to get the city to bring me more/new cans, and after that the saga/waiting game that involved 5 phone calls and dragging empty, broken cans to the road each week, started.

I joke (mostly), but this is very exciting (sorta). It has taken me months to get the city to provide additional yard recycling containers, and a non-broken recycling container. And just in time to finish all the pruning and soon to be arriving plant containers.

It is kind of strange what I can get excited about these days...

Thinking of Spring...

As everyone keeps reminding me, it's not spring yet. Out here, we can get frost until about mid March. So, to keep myself from rushing ahead, i figured i would write down the key projects i want to do this year, so i can think about Spring, but not kill any plants with my over enthusiasm yet!

I'm doing this as a "tell the truth" tuesday post, because you can see some of the before pictures... and they are not pretty! Hopefully, there will be better pictures later this spring! Thanks Allison for keeping me honest about all these parts of my garden!

In the back garden, i want to:

• Set up pots around the stock pond

like this mock up i did a few month ago

• Replace some of the dead/dying pink muhly grass along the stream bed

many of them look like this (those are poppy seedlings, and not weeds!

also, i should just keep "kill the gophers" on a regular list, like weeding.

•  figure out what to do with the 4th planting bed on the hill side

it needs a bushy ground cover - i'm thinking of a couple of options. And maybe a less dead tree?

• plant something on the top edge of hillside, under the pine trees

or maybe leave it mulch, but at least clean up the dead stuff!

• reconfigure the "mangave pot" area with different ground covers & flowers

i'm thinking a new yucca, and wildflowers?

• clean up and replant the area under the palo verde tree that can now be seen

um... yes? replace the yarrows?

• Hang up some plants/pots/decorations on the south side of the house on the empty wall

this is on the south side, and usually dry... i'm thinking maybe pots with cacti 

In the front garden, i want to:

• figure out/fix the watering system around the "rock pond" bed - it's not working and killing the plants

in particular the areas to the left and right of the giant clump of dead purple fountain grass

• clean up and change the plants on the north side - the guara are way overgrown

and others need to be trimmed back hard to see what will happen

• clean up the old red yucca (hersperaloe) in the corner - it deserves better!

this was one of the first plants i ever planted (also, yes, clean up leaves is on the list!)

Of course, a general goal i should have is to stay ahead of the million weeds that are about to spring up in the DG around the garden. After all the rain, i predict it will be epic this year. But i know myself well enough to know that i won't be staying ahead of the weeds too well... plus they are easier to pull all at once right?!

Now i'm off to look at plants to buy for these projects, and counting down the days to it being dry and warm enough to start cleaning up.

Tell the Truth Tuesday - sad agave...

Allison at Bonney Lassie has been encouraging everyone to share the not-so-great parts of our gardens. While i haven't been doing a lot of gardening, a break in the rain this weekend left some time to address the truth that one of my agaves didn't look so good:

...that doesn't look good!

Much to the delight of all my neighbors, that's in the front garden. This poor agave (unidentified when it was planted) had been declining for a while. The first part of cleaning it up just exposed more of a mess: 

pretty sure i know what/who the culprit is!

Since rot doesn't usually cause dirt to migrate into the center of the agave, it looks like the gophers are back. Sigh. 

Thankfully, a replacement candidate was waiting in the back garden pipes:

its been here for a while, gaining size

This is agave franzosinii 'Lost Wax', from the Ruth Bancroft garden. It was high time for it to get out of the pipe, before it takes over like Mr. Ripple has. A few moves with a shovel and some new gravel mulch, and it's in the front garden:

where it will have plenty of room to grow

The blue works well with the blue ball decoration and everything else. It's on a slope, so the rain shouldn't bother it too much. I will be upset if the gophers eat this one, although there's another pup safely protected from them.

Some other things i got done this weekend while the rains held off:

• trim back all the roses
• start to trim back the butterfly bush (...to get to the roses)
• debate whether its too early to cut back the grasses...

Any of those situations could have made for good "tell the truth tuesday" pictures, but sometimes cleaning up is the best part. Is it spring yet?