Weekend Gardening - 5/7/2017

After several weekends away from the garden, I was finally able to do some more work this weekend. Here are some pictures of things that look mostly good the first weekend of May.

We'll start with the back garden, since that's where I spent most of the time, cleaning the patio and potting up some new plants.

The poppies are done, but now the sage is growing up.

I still have to pinch myself about the hill side. It still needs work, but it looks full!

The Dasylirion longissimum is blooming?

It doesn't seem big enough to bloom yet... Weird!

Always nice to see the cactus isn't dead!

Palo Verde starting to bloom!

More yucca bloom spikes!

This one too... It's going to get crowded in this corner.

Agave 'kissho kan' survived again!

Ground cover running amok!

That's Epilobium canum, bent on world domination. Kris at Late to The Garden Party shared some of her ground covers this week. I should follow her good example and clean this area up a bit!

C. 'little john' has started blooming!

The next few pictures are from the bed that I mostly redid earlier this spring. The plants are starting to grow in!

And so are all the red yucca seedlings.

New plants here!

Like many people, I was very interested in the new xMangave varieties that seemed to become available this year. I got several, and we'll see how they do. They are all in pots for right now.

The front garden is also starting to bloom. I need to send some time out there weeding, but two areas look good with no help from me...

Rosa 'Blaze' was original to the house, and blooming beautifully right now

Yucca and flower friends

I was so happy to be enjoying the garden this weekend! This is the one area of my life I enjoy a never-ending to do list.

April Poppies!

After our winter of rain, we had a few weeks of spring weather. There were lots of comments about a #superbloom, so of course I had to visit the poppy reserve and see for myself. This was from about 2 weeks ago. It did not disappoint!

There were fields of orange

Lots of orange!

Poppies stay closed when it's overcast or windy, so early in the morning, they weren't as open. The fields were still pretty though.

A bit less bright, but still everywhere.

Poppies everywhere!

There were some areas where the yellow wild flowers were more prevalent:

Yellow fields on the west side of the park

Yellow and orange blending together

Up close, the color variations in the poppies are easier to see:

Yellow and orange.

Bi-colored and orange

There are many other flowers besides the California poppies, but they only really standout in close-ups!

Clover

White flowers

In addition to the plants, the desert wild life was out too:

From the friendly...

... to the not so friendly!

The super-bloom lived up to it's billing! It's already getting hot now (and windy), so I'm sure the flowers will be gone soon. The ones in my garden will stick around longer. But that's part of what makes the big fields of wild ones so special - the golden hills of California only stick around for a bit!

April Bloom Day

Time for Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Garden! There are so many things blooming all over the world. I don't have pictures of all my blooms, but just a couple that caught my eye after a week-long work trip.

The poppies are blooming everywhere except the planting beds. I wonder if there's any chance of them being as well behaved as Gerhard's? There's a particularly large clump in the dry stream bed:

Poppies plus Cassia (or Senna) on the hill side

More poppies and ice plant on the rest of the hill side

 It seems like the ice plant is blooming less than last year. I'm not sure why there is a random pillow (?!?) in the middle of the hillside. This still part needs a lot of clean up. That's what Easter is for!

My new iris is blooming! It's in a container in the back of one of the large planting beds. It's doing surprisingly well. I really like the color. 

I think like this is like Carol's variety name: "there's a tag somewhere"

 This combo of yucca and daisies makes me look like I plan things or something:

I don't, but i need to get more of that color daisies...

 And last - these aren't flowers, but they are growing and so cute!

Baby hummingbirds! 

Happy Gardening Bloggers' Bloom Day! Carol has many more blogs to look at in her comments!

Spring Inspiration - Huntington in March

Just some pictures from the Huntington a few weekends ago... I haven't been home enough to make a ton of spring progress in my own garden, but my projects continue to slowly get checked off.

These are totally random, just things I found pretty or inspirational as I continue spring clean up:

Swoon... I sense a dangerous plant crush developing!

A gorgeous combination of texture and color!

The Jade vine was blooming!

 That color blows mind... If it wasn't for the fact it would take over my house before it bloomed, I would try it as a house plant.

Spring in the tea garden

Swoon some more...

 I want some of those flowers, even though they won't want the desert!

I love this view 

 I'm pretty sure no amount of spring cleanup will make my garden look like that, but at least I can have the next flowers:

So pretty and delicate!

 This one might appear in my garden one day too... The jury is still out on whether my plant survived the winter:

Big poofy red flowers

I can't​ wait to get back out there!

Before and After - 3/11/2017

Although i continue to make progress on clean up (mulching! cutting back grasses! trying to weed! buying new plants! (wait...)), this before and after is more about plant growth, and how much further the garden has come than i sometimes realize in the last ~4 years. Because its nice to reflect on how at least some of my plants are happy, instead of wondering why, 2 years after getting rid of the grass, there are grass weeds everywhere? (?!? seriously?)

So here are some before and afters, with a kind "note to self" to actually believe the final size noted on plant labels!

First up, this is in the front garden - Furcraea foetida, sold as "agave sp":

March 2013

March 2017

I still want to find the variegated version, but i love the leaves on this one. And it definitely makes a statement! Smooth edges, but wicked spikes at the leaf tips. It's gorgeous.

Next, my first Agave ovatifolia:

July 2013

March 2017

A slightly different angle, but i don't think i can get a top down view anymore... this one has really grown into it's own. I removed the brick edging around it a few years ago - that was mostly so that i could plant the baby plant in slightly better soil. 

Next, one i've shown before, but still one of the most dramatic: Agave "Mr. Ripple":

June 2013

February 2017

Boom! So pretty, and giant. Good thing i like it so much, because it's never getting out of that tube...

This bed has a couple of different agaves: 'Blue Glow" and "Little Shark" aka "Royal Spine":

May 2013

Feb 2017

Different angles but the same bed. That's "Blue Glow" in the right (before) / front (after), look at how much bigger it's gotten! The other two are "Little Shark", both of which have made a pup.

Next up, more spike goodness, in the form of Agave parryi and its yucca friends:

March 2013

Feb 2017

You can't even see the yucca 'Color Guard' (i think) in the before picture, but i swear it's there! Even more impressive is that all those plants are still alive - the yucca pallida moved from the top left (before) to the bottom right (after - you can just see the leaves), but everyone else stayed where they were. The a. parryi has made about a million pups. 

Last is this entire bed, with a white buddleja davidii in the center:

March 2013

March 2017

This is one of the beds i worked on the last few weekends, adding new mulch and cleaning up the plants. I started turning the bush into a tree last year, which worked pretty well. Instead of brussel sprouts (before), there are now another agave ovatifolia, a Mr. Lincoln rose (2nd year), and various succulents. I was very surprised that three Aeonium 'Mardi Gras' actually made it through winter (in the blue pot) so i'm tempting fate by planting several more in the ground. There are also 2 ornamental grasses in the bed in the after, which should grow back quickly.

Looking back has been fun! At least it gives me hope that regardless of the current amount of weeds, i'm at least doing something right.