by Lorraine on March 2, 2011
Okay, at last…this will be my first attempt of posting some video that I shot of my garden last month and hopefully I won’t mess things up here and I will do it correctly without too much trauma.
My garden is constantly changing each day and for a while, we had some very warm weather that triggered many plants to bloom too soon. Then we became swamped in several rainstorms and then after that, the temperatures dropped so low that we had even a wee bit of snow.
Needless to say, all of these weather changes have caused confusion for not only my garden but for all kinds of plants and crops. The good news for farmers who grow stone fruits, is that at least the cold weather would be good for their production but for plants that have bloomed out of their normal cycle, it could be damaging.
But, I guess I don’t really know. However for my garden that is filled with native plants from California, there’s been quite a bit of confusion, lately. Bulbs were coming up and as a matter of fact some of the native Irises in my garden were sending out shoots, but not now. Frost in the mornings put an end to that attempt to show off.
But more on that in a later post because I want to see if I can manage to a share a video that I did at the end of February of the garden. At that time the Ceanothus and Monkey Flowers were blooming and so was the Howard McMinn manzanita.
Plus, there is a brief appearance of Theo, too! Note his beautiful blue eyes…and his jaunty harness!
The manzanita’s flowers have since turned brown because of the freezing temperatures but the Ceanothus, Monkey Flowers, Channel Island Poppies, continue to bloom. And there are even a few California Poppies starting to put on their show.
Well, it seems that I can’t load the video, because it exceeds the allowable size for my web site. Drat! Back to the drawing board, but I will learn how to do this.
by Lorraine on December 14, 2010
For the last few weeks I have been very busy making changes in my garden and I’m just about done with I wanted to do. Initially I had planned to remove all of the Canyon Prince Rye grasses, two sages and begin trimming many of the plants.
Winter and fall are very busy times if you have a native plant garden because most of the maintainence and planting is done then. With the recent rains that we’ve had, my garden has come to life and every day it looks a bit different and requires some attention.
Many of the bulbs are popping up due to a period of time when the temperatures were warmer and oh my gosh…there are a million California Poppy seedlings that have sprouted, even in the cracks of the sidewalk.
The fuschias are done blooming and they will be my next target for pruning within a couple of weeks or so and I do intend to put in a couple of new plants in a place where I just removed a Desert 4 O’clock that was under a window and was too messy.
I divided some Blue Eyed Grass today, as they are now beginning to be very happily established and since there are so many of them, I dug a few up and transplanted them to another location. I hope they don’t die but do well because they are so beautiful and I love their blue flower.
I moved two Salvia mellifera’s from the garden to the backyard and actually they came up pretty easily. But again, I don’t know if they will survive but hopefully they will, as I enjoy the smell of them and their beautiful blooms in the spring.
We are expecting some rain this weekend, so that’s why I wanted to get all of this done in time to take advantage of it and the cooler temperatures, too and I feel as though I have managed to complete what I set out to do.
Then there’s the Liquid Amber leaves. I have four of them in my front yard and I love them but everything is buried in their leaves and I can’t rake them up fast enough before they get deeper.
Whew! I ‘m tired but satisfied and I love how the garden is looking. All I need to do, is step outside, step into my garden, inhale its fragrance and sink into it’s tranquility.
by Lorraine on February 26, 2010
Okay, lets start with the good news in that the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers & Native Plants will be having their annual Poppy Day Spring Festival & Plant sale.
It just seems like the other day that they had it but here we are again, another year has flown by (where do they go?) and this fun event is just around the corner and happening on March 27th. at the nursery in Sun Valley, CA You may call them for details at 818-768-1802 or go to their web site http://theodorepayne.org
Now the gopher issue. I put my native plants in about 2 and a half years ago and I have never had any problems with gophers until this year. In the last couple of months these buggers have turned up in the garden.
I’ve tried the cat piss clumps…didn’t work and then just prayed that they would go away. Yeah, don’t laugh but that’s what I did. The main attraction seems to be the CA Poppies which apparently are like candy to them.
It’s been very frustrating to see a Poppy look “poopy” only to discover that it no longer has a root. The good news is that the first gopher and the newest arrival are not damaging any other of my plants because the are established.
But I am concerned about the wildflower seedlings and my bulbs that are just sprouting. I will be really angry if they ruin them, especially since my garden is to be featured on two garden tours this Spring.
You would think that one of my four dopey cats would take them out but nooooo. They are not interested. However they do seem to like the lizards way too much which makes me annoyed and I have to pay attention to what they are up to on the few occasions that they are in the garden. Otherwise a lizard might get caught by one of the cats.
What to do?
Free social networking site for nature lovers: http://naturalgreenlandscaping.com
