Pink Ice Plant Rescue

One of the front garden's major features in the spring is the various colors of Lampranthus spectabilis, or Trailing Ice Plant. I current have three different colors (purple, red, and pink):

All three ice plant colors + red false yucca and blue fescue

The purple L. spectabilis was one of the first plants I added two years ago, and the red L spectabilis got added a year later. Both have survived winters with snow here, although not a lot of snow, and with a thick mulch of leaves from my neighbor's tree. The light pink ice plant got added last year also, but it was another plant rescue...

The house next to mine went into foreclosure last year (a "strategic" foreclosure, per the homeowner) and so the landscape wasn't getting watered or cared for. Their grass died, and weeds started going in the lawn. To keep them from getting into my lawn, plus help the house look nicer, I mowed their area several times, until the summer started, and things stopped growing. I had noticed the light pink ice plant in one of the beds, and it was not dealing well with no water. So I dug out a clump, and moved it into my garden. The picture above shows it in the full sun spot, but I also planted some under the roses on the north side of the house:

Ice Plant in shade - it's a lot less bushy than the full-sun location

Where it is still blooming now, several weeks later, and hanging out with the (red) rose (Rosa 'blaze') and the (pale pink) mexican evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa):

Three different shades of pink - I never realized how much pink I have in this corner!

One of the things I love about L spectabilis is how soft the flowers are. They also feel cool to the touch, regardless of how hot is it:

Close up of flower - one of the last ones to open

I also enjoy the way all the colors combine, and how the foiliage takes on different colors too:

Full sun location for all three colors, plus red yucca (with growing bloom spike!)

Next year, there should be a yellow one too, although not L spectabilis, so it might not bloom at the same time.

Oh, and that planting bed I took it out of? It looks like this now:

Neighbor's (former) planting bed

 About a week after I transplanted the ice plant, the bank sent in a crew to "take care" of the outside. They pulled up everything in that bed (there was a lot of other stuff in that bed) plus a lot of other plants and replaced it all with fake red mulch and weed barrier. Really attractive... it took another 6 months for the house to sell. I'm glad the pink ice plant escaped the fate of the rest of those plants.

Weekly Front Garden 07/05/2012

This is what the light in my garden looks like at 6am in the morning:

I went on a trip this weekend, so I took the picture a day early, and very early in the morning! The sun light looks so different. Nothing too exciting changed in the garden from last week, and I still really want to pull out that two-horned clump of mexican feather grass. There's also some of the bleu fescues that need to be dug up and divided... I think bed will look better on the right side of the mexican feather grass if the blue fescue were actually blue again. All the "extras" will go into the back garden, of course!

One of the things I did notice before leaving is that my Tricyrtia formosana 'Amethystina' is forming buds!

Blue buds are forming! It gets part-shade for most of the day (except at 6am!)

I just got this plant this year (as a birthday present.) and I really wasn't expecting much from it this year. But maybe it will bloom in time for July Bloom Day!

I'm caught up to "present time" now, so I'll only do these posts once a week (on Wednesdays). Hopefully that will make for more varied posts, and more pictures of the back garden, which is starting to fill out some...

Weekly Front Garden 07/01/2012

This week in the front garden:

That clump of mexican feather grass in the middle is starting to look really strange. I think it's split into 2 clumps, or the middle has died out. I'm thinking of digging it up (in the fall, when its not in the 90's to 100's for weeks on end) and replacing it with something. Maybe a big Phormium (a P. tenax or P. hybrid). That would look really cool if it bloomed.

Alternatively, I really, really want a yellow-flowing red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora). That would be a smaller accent, but the flowers would be fun! I haven't been able to find any for sale yet though...

New Agave

Sometimes I wonder how the big box stores stock their plants. A few weekends ago, I found a pretty agave stuffed in the back of the bottom shelf (again). It was the last one, and looked pretty sad (no water, no light will do that to a plant), so it came home with me, plus a 50% off discount.

I decided to add it to the frontyard garden, which mostly counts on grasses and ice plants, and needs some spiny accents. In the ground it went:

new Agave 5/5/2012

It was labeled as Agave species, which is not very helpful. It has no teeth, and at this point it is hard to tell whether the brown tips at the end of the leaves are damage or spines. I think its either A. attenuata, A. bracteosa or A. desmettiana. A few weeks later, its looking a little better:

Agave 5/27/2012

 The new leaves that are growing in the center also have brown spines, and all the leaves are now growing more upright. The color is definitely a dusty blue-green, which makes me think it's A. desmettiana. I like the way it looks with the Elijah Blue (Fesctuca glauca 'Elijah Blue') in the background. The colors are very similiar, but the textures are almost opposite. We'll see if it starts producing any offsets. Since A. desmettiana isn't technically hardy in zone 11, I may try to remove any offsets that show up and overwinter them inside. Just in case...

Clematis Blooms

I never thought I would get this excited about 6 flowers... but my Clematis 'Jackmanii' is finally blooming! I planted this (from a dormant root/rhizome/whatever) three years ago.

The first year, it made a single stem, which promtly got eaten by something.
The second year, it made another single stem, which got broken by the rain (?!) and never got longer than about 6 inches.

But this year, it grew (again a single stem) and some leaves. The leaves started to get eaten again by some unknown pest, I think earwigs. But it made it to being a foot long, so I built a support for it. Then it got even longer, so I built a trellis for it out of bamboo. And then flower buds started to form. I was so excited, and checked it every day. The flowers on lower on the stem bloomed first:

Clematis 'Jackmanii', 5/19.2012

Those were barely open when I took that picture. A week later, all of the flowers were open and blooming:

Clematis 'Jackmanii', 5/25/2012

There are six of them, most with four petals, although one has five. One of the blooms got eaten while it was still a bud (something ate the inside?), but the rest survived. And it looks like there might be another few buds still to come. The whole vine (still a single stem) is probably about 3 feet long. I really hope it keeps growing, and maybe grows another stem (or more). Sunset says to fertilize monthly during blooming, so I'll try that. I think its in a good spot for a clematis - its roots are in the shade (and under mulch) most of the day, while the stem gets sun for the morning and early afternoons.

The lesson learned here is, I think (besides that I get way too excited when something works!), to plant Clematis from transplants, not dormant root/things. I'm thinking of getting a second one, to start growing on the other side of the trellis. This one obviously blooms on this years stems, so maybe a similiar type would look good? But I'll definitely be buying that one at a little bit more mature starting point!

Vegetables!

In addition to doing a front garden update, I want to show some plants in the back garden! I'm so excited the vegetables are actually growing!

One of the "problems" (I use the term lightly) with the newly installed back garden is that it's rather... empty. A lot of the plants are still small, and they'll fill in eventually, but not yet. Combine this with my laziness re: mulching so far, and the beds look sad:

This was still during construction - that stick in the middle is a Vitex agnus-castus

So the question became - what do I use for "filler" while the rest of the plants grow? Besides the whole mulch thing, which I will get done before the end of the summer.

The answer (for this year) was vegetables! I've always liked growing them, but have never really had the room for them. I grew tomatoes and herbs in containers, which was dangerous because I would forget to water, but never vine crops like melons. But now I have plently of room, and late may/early June is the right time to plant those heat-loving crops. So I went and got:

All the plants were planted over Memorial Day Weekend, which might be a little late...

Some tomatoes: ('Black Krim', 'Green Zebra' and 'Black Cherry')
Some melons: Honeydew, Cantelope and 2 types of watermelon: yellow and 'Sugar Baby'
Lemon Cucumber
Sweet peppers: red and orange
And peas (it's technically too late for peas, so we'll see how that goes...)

The 'Green Zebra', Honeydew and Orange peppers went in the bed with the buddleja :

This bed in particular was very empty

The Black Cherry tomato, Canteloupe and 2nd pepper went on one side of the patio:

This bed (like the rest) basically gets full sun (all day).

and the other side got the lemon cucumber and 'Black Krim':

The two beds are sort-of symmetrical - I like the combo of order & disorder...

While the long bed, with the Optunia, Vitex and Yucca got both watermelons and the peas.

I didn't crop out my sprinkler valves (ugly!) because this picture shows what the Optunia looked like when the vegetables were planted...

Of the four pea plants, only 1 was still alive by the end of the week... So that didn't work too well.

Now I'm excited to see how they'll grow! I also have to figure out cages vs. stakes for the tomatoes... But before I buy (or build) anything, I want to see if they'll live! I did build little watering basins around each plant, so I can water them deeply a few times a week (in addition to the sprinkers) as needed. I also sprinkled some Sluggo around them to make sure the snails don't get all of them.

So an update about a month later - it worked!/ is working! Everything is still alive, although one of the pepper plants is a little sad. And they're filling in the blank spaces between the plants like I hoped.
Here's the bed with the butterfly bush:

Honeydew, buddleja and tomato. This tomato has grown the biggest so far...

The buddleja actually has buds, which I was not expecting this year. I'm not entirely sure which color/cultivar it is, so figuring out the color will help!

And the cantaloupe with the red yucca and blooming Coreopsis verticillata 'Route 66'. You can also see the 2nd tomato in the background.

The canteloupe seems happy, and yuccas seem unbothered (as they are by just about anything)

I ended up getting colored cages for them (red and yellow) and they add a nice vertical accent to the garden. Here is the other bed, with the lemon cucumber:

The yellow in the background is Coreopsis pubescens 'Moonshine'.

The color scheme of red and yellow is starting to take shape with the flowers, tomato cages and other accents.
The biggest surprise has been the Sugar Baby watermelon. It really likes its spot next to the Optunia:

Maybe its all the extra heat from the walls? But its been in the 90's/100's most of the month.

That little plant in the back is a Feathery Cassia (Senna artemisloides). It's supposed to get bigger and hide the sprinkler valves. The Optunia has also been putting a bunch of new pads, maybe it's inspired by the watermelon:

This compared to the Optunia just a month ago (see picture above) is crazy! It's made 10 new pads!

The yellow watermelon and peas still have some growing to do, but are also filling in:

That's the last remaining pea bush in the back. I'm not sure how happy it is.

And...

Canteloupe on top, watermelon on bottom. We're going to have a lot of watermelon this year!

Melons! I'm excited... I've not been very successful actually growing edible things before, so it's so cool that this is (or appears to be) working! And the rambling vines are filling out the beds nicely!

I'm sure there will be more updates later in the summer. I'm so excited, and the plant are growing so quickly! Next year I might do this again, any maybe try planning and getting started a bit earlier....

Weekly Front Garden 06/22/2012

I'm almost caught up! After Wednesday, I'll just post pictures on Wednesday, and post something else on Mondays. Hopefully it will add some variety...

This week:

Front Garden - 06/22/2012 - Morning

I deadheaded the roses, so hopefully they'll make more blooms soon. The grass needs mowing (that's why it's turning brown right in the center. Grass is too much work !) The Gladious is blooming again! About 10 minutes after this picture was taken, this flowering stem also got blown over. So I added some stakes to tie the rest to. Next year - do that earlier!

In the shade next to the cherry tree, the random sunflower is blooming! I want to do a post showing the different sunflowers in the garden. I'm happy they self-sowed themselves in a couple of places!

The pink muhly right under the window is starting to come back! I'm excited - I miss the extra "filler" it brings in the bed. Hopefully I'll even get some plumes this year, although it might take another year for that to happen...

About Me

Hello!

I know I always like reading a little bit about the blogger behind the blog, so I figured I should put some information out there too. Also, I'm frequently accused of doing nothing but work, so this should answer that question too. (Of course, none of those people will read this, but whatever...) So with that, here are the things I usually spend my time on:

1) Work. Ok, fine, I work a lot. And I actually enjoy it! But it won't show up on this blog at all, other than that I'm trained as an engineer, so I like things like lists and plans and to-scale-drawings of my house and gardens. On graph paper...

2) Running. I usually run 4 to 5 times a week, and I'm training for a half marathon. Running through my neighborhood gives me an excellent excuse to look at other people's front yards, and interesting plants and ideas. I'm going to start taking my camera with me to take "breaks" during long runs, I mean pictures...

Daffodils, Tulips and Ice Plant in the Spring. It will be
interesting to see if the daffodils comes back next year

3) Gardening. Obviously! I bought my home about 3 years ago, and the second thing the neighbors mentioned was "when are you fixing the front yard?" (The first was "welcome to the neighborhood". I have friendly neighbors!). Now I've just finished part 1 of the back garden's overhaul and plantings also, so both of those will be showing up on the blog. And even before I had my house I had plants (indoor and out), so a lot of my indoor container plants will be showing up too. I tend to "rescue" both indoor and outdoor plants also, so both collections are constantly expanding.

4) Sewing. This is what I do when its too cold/hot/dark/wet to go outside for long. It probably won't show up on the blog too much, unless I do that patio project I've been thinking of....

5) Reading. Besides the Sunset Western Garden Book (my gardening bible in many ways), I also like to read as much as possible. I don't have a tv, so books are the way I relax and unwind.

6) Cooking. Preferably with things from the garden, although I suck at growing edible things. But with the back garden now functional, I'm hopeful for more success in the future.

7) Travel. Between work and leisure, I love going to different places and seeing interesting things (like the inside of an office building, and plants that I've never seen) I'm often inspired to try new things at home once I'm back from a trip, and a trip to Hawaii finally got me to buy a camera!

Aloes in Bloom, in early March at the Huntington Gardens

I realize this all makes me sound horribly "domestic" and it is true that I'm more of a homebody than anything else. But I also like going out and seeing everything my area has to offer. From here, I can drive to the snow in the mountains and the beach in the same day, and I have access to everything in the greater So. Cal area to learn about and explore.

So see, I do more than just work!

Weekly Front Garden 06/16/2012

Now we're in the middle of June:

See that white flower on the left? It's one of the lily blooms - blooming for the first time ever! And this one is not deformed like the last blossom was... It is plain white though, but the fragance is very strong! The roses still need to be deadheaded (on the list for this weekend!)

Also blooming for the first time since they've been planted are the blue plants in the center (near the clematis trellis). I think they're Gladiolus. Last year, they just made leaves and some flowers that were shriveled up before they even bloomed. This year, at least 1 is blooming, but when I tried to take a picture of it later in the day, something had knocked it over! Probably the curtain getting blown around by the wind. But another one is developing a bloom spike, so I'll try to take a picture of that one!

Staying away for a week and watering the grass more doesn't seem to be doing anything to make it look better. I think one spot is due to a neighborhood dog, but I'm not sure why that one spot in the center is turning brown. Grass is so much work!

Weekly Front Garden 06/08/2012

The wind continues....

The front garden on 06/08/2012

I'm not sure why the Mexican Feather grass clump in the middle of the bed decided to grow back in that strange shape. I think it will get dug up and divided in the fall.

I took this picture a little bit later in the day, which put a lot of the bed in the shade already. The mexican evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa) is still going strong. The little vertical plant next to it is a sun flower (I think!) It grew up between the daffodils, which kept a lot of the bugs from eating it! I'm not sure how big its going to get yet, and its certainly no where near as big as the sunflowers in the back garden pipes, but i am excited that it popped up! The seedpods in the center of the picture is from the one blue fescue I didn't pull the seed stalks from. I like how it kind of echos the shape of the feather grass, but I don't like how the tan color detracts from the blue grasses. I do intend to dig that one and one right next to it up this fall and divide them. I should figure out where the divisions will go!

The lawn grass is starting to go yellow-ish already! I water it for 5 minutes daily, but I'll try an experiment and increase that to 5 minutes twice a day for a week, and see what it looks like next week.

My Back Garden - Post 2

Part 1 here: Part 1 - Starting Point

Part 2: Design

One of the most fun parts of the backyard garden re-do was figuring out a planting scheme and doing the landscape design. I did the basic design myself, with some additional touches suggested by the various landscapers that bid the project. I want to document some of the plans I came up with...

I started by measuring the whole yard, so I could make a to-scale drawing of the thing. I also wanted to be able to estimate things like fencing length, planting areas, etc, to help with estimating the costs. I used an ultra-sonic measure device, which was way easier to use than a long measuring tape, especially around all the weeds/hill/walls. Once I had all the basic measurements, including for the (existing) patio, I drew it up on graph paper, and made several copies.

The first plan I came up with looked like this:

First Backyard Plan

It involved a lot of squares. I knew I wanted to extend the dry river bed that's in the front yard to tie it to the back yard. I also knew I wanted to limit any turf in the backyard - i.e. minimize grass. And I knew I wanted raised beds or planters of some sort. I'd been keeping track of sun patterns for a while to see which areas got the most sun. The back of the house faces west, so pretty much all of the backyard is either full sun or half sun. This is one of the few plans that show a labyrinth - I've always thought they were cool and wanted one, but it really didn't fit that well.

The next version of the plan reflects that I realized most things in nature don't grow in straight lines:

Second plan - extending the dry river bed

This plan also extends the dry creek bed to take over the entire south side of the yard. The different colored circles represent different grasses, which would match the grasses that are in the front yard. I really liked this element, and it started repeating in all the plans. I also started extending the beds on the north side of the house, to reduce the amount of grass or permeable material. For the back slope, I knew I wanted some trees up there - the hope is that they'll grow up and serve as shade trees. I started looking at fruit trees (other than cherry, which is in the front) that do well here.

The third plan reduced the "lawn" even further:

Third Plan - small lawn

After this version, I realized I didn't really want any lawn in the backyard. There is a (~800 sq ft) lawn in the front, and it requires a lot of upkeep (and water) in the desert. My neighbors don't have any grass in the back yard, and so after talking to some people about real estate issues, I decided to remove the idea of lawn altogether. That version of the plan (basically the green area above shaded grey) was what I took to several landscapers to get bids on. I had decided early one that I was going to do the same process as the front yard - pay someone to do the (massive) cleanup and haul away, redo the sprinklers, hardscape and plant major things like(to be) large trees, while I would do things like plant and finalize drip irrigation etc.

After talking with the landscapers, I added a few things to the plan:

Final Plan - no colors

Minor details like a way to get up the slope, and access to the top of the slope. The landscaper suggested railroad ties to build a curved set of steps, and small trails on the slope. It also helps create a flat path on the bottom of the slope. Also, the shape of the curved beds near the patio was adjusted for easier access. The big empty area in the middle is filled with round planters (separate post to follow, because they're cool!), and another landscaper suggested a large bowl on the right side. All the "paving" areas are actually decomposed granite, in a color that matches the decomposed granite path in the front of the house. The dry creek bed is also decomposed granite (a different color), which also matches the front yard. The beds are edged in terra cotta colored tinted concrete, which breaks up the expanses of DG. Here is the final plan with some colors in an electronic version:

Final Plan - Electronic

and the colors are fairly representative (except for the teal-ish patio, its really more sky blue). I drew up a bunch more plans of different ideas than what I've included here, but most of them were just variations on a theme. The whole exercise was very helpful - thinking about what would look good, what would work for the environment and what did I want. The bed shapes and sizes were drawn around a couple of different plants, which I'll discuss in the next post...

Weekly Front Garden 06/02/2012

The first week of June!

Week of 06/02/2012

It was very windy this week. Getting a picture of the Mexican Feathergrass (Stipa tenuissima) standing semi-upright was not easy. All the ice plant flowers are gone now, although some rebloom is starting on the purple ones. The roses are still going, as is the society garlic (Tulbaghia violacea) and mexican evening primrose (Oenothhera speciosa). The false red yucca clump has made three bloom spikes this year - one of them pops against the blue of the house. But mostly, the front garden is blues and greens right now - the blue fescue (Festuca glauca 'Elijah Blue') peeks out from the rock border. I wonder if I should consider adding some summer blooms in the main bed? I kind of like the quietness though, especially with the pops of yellow (Sedum x rubrotinctum flowers) and purple.

Weekly Front Garden - 05/25/2012

This week, the weather turned a little strange for Zone 11 at this time of year...

It was windy! See the S. tenuissima? Oh wait, crazy wind is normal for here, no matter what time of year... The strange part of the weather is better shown here:

Which also shows the cherry tree at full height for a change. Poor tree always gets cut off in the picture. But see those strange dark things in the sky? We don't normally get those in the near-desert, in the last weekend in May. Even though it did get a little cold, the clouds only teased though, because we didn't get any rain. Just wind. Which is too bad, because we could use the rain (as always...)

All the red ice plant is done flowering now (well, mostly). So now I have a lot of deadheading to do, and maybe they'll bloom again later in the year. As this bed calms down some, the bed next to it is starting to bloom. The right side is just visible in the weekly picture - it has two butterfly bushes in it (Buddleja davidii 'Black Knight') and they are starting to smell so good...

(First!) Foliage Follow Up - June 2012

Following my first ever Bloom Day, it's my first ever Foliage Follow up!

To see more amazing foliage, go see Pam at Digging and all the other amazing gardens in the comments.

Just like with bloom day, I have no theme, I just want to show off some of the interesting foliage in my baby-garden:

In the front garden:
Three different types of foliage growing together:

Ice plant, sedum x rubrotinctum and blue fescue

The sedum loves growing all over the base of the rocks in front garden - I think that's why it has survived for these past 3 years, even though it's not supposed to do well here.
Mexican feather grass (Stipa tenuissima) that's grown back from its hair cut this winter:

There are two clumps of this in the front garden, and I love how they dance in the wind.

Closer to the house, there's more different leaf textures:

Agave schidigra, blue fescue, A. desmettiana

 And on the other side of the driveway, there's the Muhlenbergia capillaris, with last year's blooms still on it. I love this grass, especially in late summer when it's pink!

These also wave in the wind, but less than the feather grass.

 Behind the stone pillar, the hosta is hiding in the shade. I never thought I could grow these here in the desert, but so far they're doing ok.

They haven't turned into a big clump yet though...

 Moving to the back garden, there's the other Agaves, including A. parryi:

This one was just planted this year.

 All the plants in the back garden are still very spaced out, since the garden is still growing up. Another agave that I added was A. ovatifolia (Whale's Tongue agave):

Its still very small

 I can only hope that it grows up to be as wonderful-looking as some of the other ones I've seen, or like Pam at Digging's "Moby".
These next couple of plants were too small when I bought them (at the Huntington Plant sale! sqee!) to put in the ground yet. So they're in container and pipes, and will get moved in a year or two. In this pipe there is: A. tequilana 'Sunrise', A. angustifolia (variegated) and Aloe dorotheae:

The Aloe is the red one... I love the color on it.

 The next pipe is also a work in progress / opportunity for plants to grow, and see if they'll survive the winter. These are an Echeveria subrigida and a Kalanchoe luciae. It may be a bit of denial that I live in the desert to believe that the Kalanchoe can make it through the winter...

But if it does, it might get the pipe all to itself....

 This container on the patio holds three more "I wish these would make it through the winter":
Aloe camperi 'Cornuta', another Echeveria subrigida, and Echeveria hybrid 'Blue Wave':

From the Huntington Garden plant sale.

 I don't know what that stalk is in the middle - maybe a bloom stalk? But it seems to late for that. I guess I'll find out later... The sunflowers are getting ready to bloom also, and are creating wonderful leaves for now:

Sun flower bud - I'm not sure anymore which cultivar this is..

 The plants are rather huge... Here are the three I planted from seed this year:

I think one of these is a red sunflower?

I love the look of the large leaves and plants - I think next year I'd like to grow Castor Beans in the garden, to amp that look up even more!
There's also some edibles that I'm growing more for looks - although if the rhubarb makes it through the summer, I'd like to eat the stalks in a few years:

This is it's first year - waiting to see if it will survive the summer heat

I've learned that rhubarb is grown as an annual here - but I want to see if I can get a big clump in a few years, so I'm not going to harvest anything this year. We'll see what happens! This first year in the back garden is a lot of experimenting with what does and doesn't work.
Like I found out lettuce grows here, as well as what happens when you don't pay attention to your lettuce for a few months:

Pipe full of lettuce!

Maybe next time I'll try harder to take care of them so they can be eaten... but who knew lettuce plants could look so cool?

There still so much more growing in the back garden, but I'll include those in a future post! I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of the summer brings... and already making plans for next year!