Late to the Garden Party

I'm joining Heather at Xericstyle once again this month in posting wide shots of my garden. Unlike virtually every wide shot post I've done since I began this monthly exercise last year, photos for this one were taken under gray skies. But our first really significant rainstorm this season is expected to arrive tomorrow so, as far as I'm concerned, the outlook is bright and sunny even if the view is not.

As virtually all my free time has gone into work on the front garden for a couple of months now, the rest of the garden has been largely neglected, although I did get in a couple of hours of work in the backyard garden last week.

Usual view from the back door after a little drizzle

View from the backyard patio looking south with a few of my raccoon deterrents (aka tomato cages) in clear view

View of the backyard from the far left looking south

View of the backyard looking north

Both the border extending from the backyard fountain and the southeast side garden have suffered regular raccoon and skunk free-for-alls over the past month. The tomato and upside-down gopher cages I've used in an effort to thwart them have protected the plants they cover but haven't kept these critters from digging around the cages, uprooting everything in their paths. I generally make early morning tours of the backyard, replanting as I go. I featured one of the raccoon rages in a November Wordless Wednesday post. Here's a view of another bad one just over a week ago.

The raccoons don't seem to like digging in wet soil so I'm hoping for a post-rain hiatus.

View encompassing part of the side yard and the backyard

Southeast side garden, photographed from the south patio area

View of the side garden looking east toward the harbor

Planting is well underway in the front yard, at least on the right side of the pathway approaching the front door. I'll post a detailed account of that effort separately later this week. For now, here's the usual view of the front of the house, providing a peek at the focus of my current gardening activity.

My view of the neighbor's property across the street from the front door - they have the best fall color of anyone in the neighborhood

The vegetable garden, which I had been using as a staging ground for plants purchased for the front yard is mostly clear of nursery pots now but there are still no vegetables.

The only things left in the raised planters are perennial herbs

I've added a few succulents here and there to the dry garden but it otherwise received little attention this past month.

The slope got no attention whatsoever. However, the neighbor's tree service crew arrived bright and early this morning and started work despite the threat of rain. Their 3-day job will include cutting down the Yucca elephantipes that sits on the boundary between our 2 properties. I have mixed feelings about losing the Yucca but, after expending considerable effort just to trim it back earlier this year, my husband wants it gone. Next month's view of the slope will probably look very different (unless the rain delay throws the tree service's schedule off).

The massive Yucca is visible in the distance behind the peach tree uncovered when my husband cut back the Yucca earlier this year

View looking upward from the bottom of the slope

The Yucca won't be addressed until day 3 of the tree service's efforts. Day one involved taking down 2 pine trees afflicted by pine bark beetle. At the end of the first day of work, one tree is gone and work on the second is in process.

This tree was already dead

Our view expanded with the tree's removal

Second tree in the process of removal - I'll really miss this one as it partially blocked the view of the neighbor on the street below

Some garden changes are within our control and others are not. The views next month will definitely be altered by activities undertaken this month.

All material © 2012-2014 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

It seems as though I've been working on the front garden forever. We made the decision to remove our front lawn in late August. It had never looked good and drought conditions had made it look worse. The lawn was removed on September 13th, leaving a clean slate - sort of.

The area immediately after the lawn was removed

The grass was gone but the area was in no condition to be planted. It was filled with grass roots, sod netting, and lots and lots of rock. My husband and I began digging to clear the soil of debris and prepare it for amendments. It was hard-packed in many areas and the effort took much, much longer than either of us had anticipated. Complicating matters, the Magnolia tree's surface roots extended throughout a large area so we had to work carefully to avoid causing any serious damage to the tree.

Some sections of the hard-packed soil had to be deep-soaked before we could even get a shovel into them

A sample of the rocks retrieved from a single shovelful of the native soil

We marked off a large area under the Magnolia's drip line, which I weeded of grass roots as delicately as I could (considering that the sod netting wraps around many of these roots). We plan to cover the area with wood mulch as nothing much can compete with the tree's roots.

Benderboard was used to separate the area to be covered in wood mulch from the new pathways and garden beds

We brought in a total of 6 cubic yards of new topsoil, requiring 2 dump-truck deliveries.

The first topsoil delivery, ready to be moved from the driveway into the front garden area

My husband borrowed a neighbor's rototiller to mix the new soil with the native soil (while I was off touring Santa Barbara County with a friend). Then came the stone for the pathways. We have to make a third trip to the stone yard to get the remaining flagstone we need for the area to the left of the front door but the pathways on the right side have been laid, thanks to my husband's diligence.

Mid-way through the process of laying the new pathways

As you may have noticed, I started planting even before the flagstones were set. I'd already accumulated plants on my trips to San Diego and Santa Barbara Counties, as well as on visits to local garden centers. Planting the area alongside the front door walkway was easy as that soil was well-worked. However, after trying out the Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' I'd purchased in Calabasas in a spot previously intended for a shallow-rooted groundcover, I ended up spending additional hours digging up yet another portion of the former lawn area to receive it.

The Grevillea was meant for this space (even if that wasn't my original plan)

Area after installation of the first few plants

Although I've now planted more than 70 shrubs, perennials and groundcovers, the area is still fairly bare.

View from the path to the from door facing south

Closer look at the bed adjacent to the front door path

View from the side garden looking north

Closer look at the back half of the new space, still thinly planted

View of the completed flagstone pathway, which has a "Y" shape

Yes, the plants need time and room to mature but I also need a lot more plants. Here's what I've installed thus far:

2 Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt'
8 Arctotis 'Pink Sugar'
3 Argyranthemum frutescens 'Butterfly'
1 Coprosma 'Fire Burst'
1 Corokia x virgata 'Sunsplash'
5 Cyclamen (no ID)
3 Erigeron karvinskianus (aka Santa Barbata daisy)
3 Euphorbia characias 'Black Pearl'
5 Festuca idahoensis 'Siskiyou Blue'
7 Festuca rubra 'Patrick's Point'
7 Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Biokovo'
1 Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream'
5 Heuchera sanguinea
3 Lavandula stoechas 'Silver Anouk'
1 Leptospermum 'Copper Glow'
1 Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder'
1 6-pack of Leucanthemum paludosum
5 Lomandra longifolia 'Breeze'
3 Phormium 'Maori Queen'
1 Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata' (aka mint bush)
2 Rumohra adiantiformis (aka leatherleaf or iron fern)
1 Salvia lanceolata (aka Rocky Mountain sage)
3 flats of Thymus serpyllum (creeping thyme)

This week's rain helped settle everything into place. It's too wet still to do any more digging or planting right now but the break gives me an opportunity to shop for more plants. After all, the other side of the front pathway hasn't been touched yet.

Work is pending!

There's quite a bit in bloom right now during Southern California's "second spring" but it still wasn't easy to put together a bouquet this week. Much of what's available doesn't combine well and most of the floral material has short stems, limiting what can be done with it. So this week's vase has a little of this and a little of that.

The color scheme was set by the fluffy bloom of Calliandra haematocephala, also known as Pink Powder Puff. I have several of these evergreen shrubs espaliered against walls. They're sheared frequently to keep them from sprawling into walkways as they're prone to do, which means that I seldom get flowers so I was pleased to find this one.

How long the Calliandra flower will last in a vase is an open question

In addition to the Calliandra, the vase contains:

Alstroemeria (no ID)
Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold'
Cuphea ignea 'Starfire Pink'
Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum'
Rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy'

The Alstroemeria stem was discovered by accident, hidden below the Cuphea

This Cuphea blooms all year - at least until I hack it back

The feathery plumes of the Pennisetum were beaten down by last week's rain but they recovered quickly

This Rudbeckia was a deeper red than most of the 'Cherry Brandy' in my front border

I picked a few flowers in a very different color range as well. These ended up in one of my tiny vases.

This vase contains 2 varieties of Gaillardia, 'Goblin' and 'Peach Mesa,' as well as stems of Abelia 'Kaleidoscope' and Bougainvillea

Finding spots for this week's vases proved to be a challenge. The vase I featured 2 weeks ago with Toyon berries and Gomphrena is still sitting on the dining room table, looking very much like it did in last week's follow-up photo. And last week's vase containing the blue and white Eustoma is still sitting in the entryway, minus the yellow roses and the Prostanthera foliage.

So the first of this week's vases ended up on the fireplace mantle in the master bedroom and the tiny vase landed on a side table in the living room.

This week's vases were prepared as my contribution to Cathy's weekly meme at Rambling in the Garden. Visit her blog to see what she has put together this week and what other gardeners have to offer. As winter descends in many areas, gardeners are finding it more challenging to assemble vases but you can trust that quite a few have risen to the challenge.

All material © 2012-2014 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

As the saying goes "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." In my last wide shots post, I mentioned my husband's desire to dispatch the Yucca elephantipes (aka Y. gigantea) sitting along our back slope and bordering our neighbor's property.

View of Yucca elephantipes from the top of the stairway leading down the slope

View of the Yucca from my home office window showing its extension above the hedge behind the backyard border

The Yucca was more than 20 feet tall and still growing. Wherever a branch touched soil, it took root, which over time allowed the Yucca to extend the entire width of the slope. The neighbor obtained a cost estimate for cutting it down to 2 feet (61 cm), which we agreed to cover despite some misgivings on my part. Last Friday, the work began just after 7am.

The process viewed from my office window after the chainsaws started up

Going...

Gone. With the Yucca out of the picture, I could see the Vincent Thomas Bridge from my office window even through the fog

After the main branches were cut, the workers attacked the stumps; however, after a time I noticed that they'd been silent for awhile. I was surprised to discover that they'd left without touching base with me or the neighbors. Here's what I discovered when I tromped down the slope.

The stumps left behind are well over 4 feet (1.2m) tall and greater than 8 feet (2.4m) wide, with additional stumps extending up the slope

I knew the stumps would be a problem but it looks even worse than I'd anticipated. My husband had planned to drill holes in the stumps and cover them with mulch to encourage decomposition but, at their current height, that would be difficult. We knew we were going to need to plant the area around the stumps to restore privacy for both us and our neighbors but, at the moment, we're not even sure how to proceed.

In the short-term, the neighbor who contracted the work has asked the tree service to return to see what they can do to clean up and level the stumps. Assuming that can be done, I expect we'll proceed with the plan to promote decomposition. (These plants are notoriously difficult to kill.) I may try planting groundcover in the cavities between the stumps and one or more trees or shrubs alongside them to create a visual break but selection will need to involve the neighbors. My husband is willing to install a fence but we're not yet sure how the neighbors feel about that option.

Meanwhile, the neighbor on the other side of our property at the bottom of the slope is ecstatic because her vegetable garden now has plenty of sun. We've got a lot more light too, albeit at the cost of privacy in that area. The neighbors also took out 2 pine trees and cut back a variety of shrubs, giving us a broader view of the harbor both from the bottom of the slope, my office and the backyard patio. So, there are some pluses to accompany the minuses.

Maybe. I can't decide. I saw Metrosideros collina 'Springfire' (aka as Ohia Lehua in Hawaii) on a recent shopping expedition with friends and backtracked to take a closer look at it. Would I have looked at it twice if it wasn't for those wonderful orange-red flowers? Possibly not, although there's nothing wrong with the gray-green foliage.

I DO still have a lot of space to fill in the front garden. It's drought tolerant. It's suited to my zone (USDA 10b, Sunset 23/24). It can handle placement in full to partial sun so it would work in the area alongside Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' and provide that plant with a very nice color echo. The biggest issue is its projected size. Monrovia projects growth to 6-8 feet (1.8-2.4 m) tall and 3-4 feet wide, which is already pushing things a bit for the placement I envision, and, complicating matters, San Marcos Growers says that, left unpruned, it it can grow to 15-25 feet (4.5-7.6 m) tall and 6-8 feet wide, which is way too big.

But look at that flower:

Even the buds, which Flora Grubb's site describes as "kitten toes," are wonderful. Can I resist? Too bad Santa is already done with his shopping.

All material © 2012-2014 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

We got our second solid rainstorm of the season last week, a so-call "Pineapple Express," which did indeed roar through our area like a freight train, complete with lighting effects in the form of blown electrical transformers visible on the horizon. We were lucky, though, and didn't either lose power or suffer the mudslides that caused significant damage elsewhere. It did leave some flowers in shambles but it was welcome nonetheless, even if we're still far from ending California's drought.

A few plants took the downpour in stride, most notably the Arbutus 'Marina,' still blanketed in blossoms (but no berries).

2 of our 5 Arbutus 'Marina,' all loaded with blossoms

The Arbutus blooms attract bees, hummingbirds and even butterflies

Other pink-flowered plants that held up well included:

Arctotis 'Pink Sugar'

Coleonema 'Sunset Gold' and Cuphea ignea 'Starfire Pink,' which seem impervious to all weather conditions

Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl'

There were troupers among the blue, yellow, orange and white-flowered plants as well.

Ageratum houstonium 'Blue Horizon'

Anemone 'Mona Lisa Deep Blue,' a Bloom Day cheat as it and several others were planted shortly before our last rainstorm

Angelonia augustifolia

Aster x frikartii 'Monch'

Polygala fruticosa 'Petite Butterflies'

Solanum xantii, a California native

Argyranthemum frutescens 'Butterfly'

Gaillardia aristata 'Gallo Peach'

Gazania 'New Day Yellow'

Osteospermum 'Blue-eyed Beauty,' another new acquisition

Aging blooms of Gomphrena haageana

Orange-flowered Osteospermum (no ID)

Cyclamen (no ID)

Hibiscus trionum, not blooming as profusely but still producing new flowers daily

Lantana 'Lucky White,' yet another new introduction

Osteospermum ecklonis '3D Silver'

Some plants were beaten down by the rain but are too pretty to entirely ignore this Bloom Day:

Camellia sasanqua (no ID)

Eustoma grandiflorum 'Borealis Blue'

Rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy'

Schlumbergera truncata

That's it for this year-end Bloom Day wrap-up. Visit our Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day hostess, Carol, at May Dreams Gardens to find what's blooming in her Indiana garden and links to other bloggers' posts.

It's also time to post a photo of what I have "In a Vase on Monday," in collaboration with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. As multi-tasking is mandatory during the busy holiday season, I'm including blooms picked from my garden in today's Bloom Day post. Visit Cathy to find what she and other participating gardeners collected for their vases this week.

Today's vase contains 'Buttercream' roses, an Anemone, Aster x frikartii, Solanum xantii, and Erysimum linifolium

This month's foliage follow-up post is a bit of a grab bag. The plants I've selected to highlight have little in common but for the fact that they're all looking very good at the moment. Some are new and some have been in place for awhile.

First up is Phormium 'Maori Queen.' I added 3 of these to the new bed along the front walkway, created as a byproduct of the recent removal of the front lawn. I looked for more to add on the other side of the walkway when it was finally ready for planting but I've yet to find more locally.

Phormium 'Maori Queen' looks especially good when backlit

Another variegated selection is Erysimum linifolium 'Variegatum.' This plant and the others surrounding the backyard fountain have been in place going on 3 years now. They looked scraggly in the heat of mid-summer and I'd planned to replace them all this fall but light pruning, the cooler weather, and rain seem to have snapped them back into shape.

Erysimum linifolium 'Variegatum' also makes the most of the light

I planted Melianthus major in early spring and it sat like a lump doing nothing until recently when it suddenly produced new growth. It, too, may be responding favorably to the cooler weather and rain. We're due for more rain today - in fact, we've already had some light rain this morning.

The hanging succulent basket by the front door I planted in late summer has begun to overflow as the individual plants grow larger, earning it the attention of passers-by.

Sedum 'Lemon Ball' is taking over, although the Kalanchoe and Senecio are holding their own

Despite receiving regular watering, the unidentified Kalanchoe has turned a delicious burgundy, mirroring the red stems of the variegated Portulacaria afra

Photo taken from above the basket showing some of the succulents almost buried behind the Sedum

But my very favorite succulent at the moment is Agave gentryi 'Jaws.' I've seen photos of this plant elsewhere and thought it was attractive but I was unprepared for the effect it had when I saw it in person. I scooped it up (carefully) and took it home after seeing it last week while on a shopping trip with friends. It's currently situated in the front garden near my new Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder,' where its orange and red spines echo the Leucadendron's foliage color. It's said to get 3-4 feet tall and 4-6 feet wide at maturity and to be suitable for placement in either sun or shade. I hope the latter information is correct as it gets only partial sun where I've placed it, at least this time of year, but I'll keep a watch on it and move it if necessary.

Look at the size and color of those spines! The leaf imprints are wonderful too.

The emerald green leaves show tinges of blue at the base

Pam at Digging hosts this monthly foliage follow-up. You can find her foliage picks and links to other gardeners' selections here.

All material © 2012-2014 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

On a recent shopping trip with friends to Roger's Gardens in Orange County, I checked out the wreaths on display.

Wreath with Banksia - I thought the flowers were fake at first

Most years I buy an inexpensive Christmas wreath from the local garden center or tree lot. Although they may have a few pine cones and a mix of greens, they're pretty plain.

This year's purchase, hung over the flagpole holder that came with the house

But I always add my own touches, usually a bow and Christmas ornament odds and ends. This year, Sunset magazine featured wreaths with proteas and I thought maybe I'd use natural materials to embellish my wreath too (even if I didn't make the base from scratch). Loree of danger garden added Leucadendron to her tree and I thought that was a good idea, especially as I have several of these shrubs in my garden. I tucked in some Aeonium, Pennisetum setaceum and Heteromeles arbutifolia berries too.

My embellished wreath

In addition to a bow I've reused for years, I added succulents, berries and grass plumes cut from my garden as shown in close-up here

This close-up of the wreath's lower portion shows 2 varieties of Aeonium, stems of silvery Leucadendron 'Pisa' and cuttings of L. 'Wilson's Wonder' (I also used a few stems of L. 'Chief')

Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' isn't as red as it was in summer or as yellow as it'll be later this winter but I was still pleased with the effect. And, despite our recent rain (another inch from the storms yesterday and last night!), the wreath has held up well in a largely unsheltered area. Do you use garden material to decorate for the holidays?

All material © 2012-2014 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Work on the front garden continues between rainstorms. I thought I'd provide an update, although I'm far from done with planting (and don't expect I'll be done until spring, if then).

The biggest change since my first report is that flagstones and the first plants have been installed in the area to the left of the walkway to the front door. My husband is once again responsible for setting the stone in place. For a change, rather than letting my collector tendencies run wild, I selected plants to create continuity with the area on the other side of walkway.

All the plants are drought tolerant to some degree. Here's what's in place thus far:

3 Coprosma (1 'Evening Glow,' 1 'Inferno' and 1 'Scarlett O'Hara')
1/2 6-pack Erigeron karvinsianus (aka Santa Barbara daisy)
1 6-pack Gazania 'Kiss Frosty White Flame'
3 Lavandula stoechas 'Silver Anouk'
1 Leptospermum 'Copper Glow'
3 Lomandra longifolia 'Lime Tuff'
1 flat Thymus serphyllum (aka creeping thyme)

Top: Coprosma 'Scarlett O'Hara' (left) and 'Inferno' (right); Bottom: Coprosma 'Evening Glow'

Gazania 'Kiss Frosty White Flame'

Lomandra longifolia 'Lime Tuff' (which looks very similar to the L. 'Breeze' I used on the other side of the walkway)

I plan to use more thyme, Gazanias and other perennials, possibly Euphorbia, to fill in some of the empty space.

The biggest change on the right side of the walkway was the addition of 2 cubic yards of bark mulch around the Magnolia tree. I also added a few more plants in the area beyond the tree.

View of the area to the right of the walkway

View of the back section (more stones were needed to give me space to move without tromping through planting areas)

Key additions included:

1 Abelia grandiflora 'Kaleidoscope'
1 Agave gentryi 'Jaws' (featured in my December foliage follow-up post)
2 6-packs of Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip'
1 Asplenium 'Austral Gem' (fern)
3 Plectranthus ciliatus 'Zulu Warrior'(grown from cuttings)
3 Zephyranthes candida (aka rain lilies)

Abelia 'Kaleidoscope' (there are 2 others in an existing bed along the house)

Another look at the handsome Agave 'Jaws'

The ferns, Plectranthus and Ajuga in the foreground will be part of an expanded shade bed including the existing Arthropodium cirratum (Renga lilies), Pelargonium tomentosum (peppermint geranium), and Geranium 'Biokovo' among other plants

But it still looks bare.

All material © 2012-2014 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

I have to confess that my vases this week were created Saturday night as decoration for a small family gathering on Sunday. I wandered about in the half-dark collecting flowers to fill two vases, barely able to see what I was cutting. Still, I'm pleased with how they turned out.

This one landed on the dining room table.

This photo, taken in Sunday's early morning light, turned out better than those taken the evening before under artificial lights

Back side of bouquet, photographed in my night-darkened kitchen

It contains:

Agonis flexuosa
Alternanthera tenella
Gaillardia x grandiflora 'Mesa Peach'
Gomphrena haageana
Nandina domestica (berries)

I used 2 forms of Agonis flexuosa - the thin-leaved stems came from one of our peppermint trees and the lower stems with wider leaves came from the dwarf variety 'Nana'

I used the chartreuse Alternanthera to pick up the similarly-colored centers of the Gaillardia

The Gomphrena are on their last legs - the lower petals (actually bracts) have dried and flaked away like rice husks

The second, smaller vase served as decoration in the guest bathroom.

Photographed without the benefit of any natural light

It contains:

Aster x frikartii 'Monch' (reused from last week's vase)
Eustoma grandiflorum 'Echo White'
Hebe speciosa 'Variegata'
Solanum xantii (also reused from last week's vase)

The Eustoma bud hasn't yet opened

As the sun went down, the flowers of this Hebe seemed to gleam in the twilight but its photos didn't contain the same magic

These vases are my contributions to Cathy's "In a Vase on Monday" meme at Rambling in the Garden. You can see her vase and find links to other gardeners' creations here. Most participants are dealing with far colder temperatures than I am. Our temperatures hovered in the mid-60s Fahrenheit (around 18C) last week but, in response to high winds, they're expected to climb up to 80F (26C) tomorrow before settling back to normal levels before Christmas. Hopefully, the warmer temperatures following last week's rain will bring more flowers (rather than more weeds).

All material © 2012-2014 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

View from our backyard looking northeast - the closest we'll ever get to a white Christmas is the view of those white-capped mountains in the distance

Happy holidays from our house to yours

May your holiday be as bright as the night view of Los Angeles

We don't get much in the way of winter color. While that's due in part to the selection of plants on the property, the comparatively warm winter-time temperatures here are the main culprit. This year it stayed warmer longer and even the persimmon trees didn't show much of the yellow and orange tones they've worn in prior years. However, the colder night-time temperatures we've recently experienced appear to have colored up our ornamental pear tree, Pyrus calleryana, making it my favorite plant this week.

The tree occupies space in a small patch of lawn (or weeds masquerading as lawn) between the garage and the street

Of course, the pace at which the tree is losing leaves has picked up so the color may not last long.

Most of these leaves get tossed into the nearby composting bin

Native to China, this is a very common tree in Southern California. It's primary attractions are its fall color and its very early spring blooms. It began blooming in late January this year and was in full bloom when the photo below was taken on February 4th. The flowers have a characteristic scent, which is seldom mentioned in polite company but you can read about here.

The tree produces fruit but even the hungry critters in the garden seem to ignore these. However, at least one of our squirrels thinks its the perfect place to hang out and eat fruit stolen from the citrus trees in the vegetable garden.

Last week, my husband commented that he thought the oranges were ripe. I disagreed but perhaps he was right.

This may be one of the smaller Mandarin oranges rather than one of the navel oranges, as I think the latter are too big for this fellow to carry

Pyrus calleryana is my contribution to Loree's favorite plants meme at danger garden this week. Earlier this month, I featured another favorite, Agave gentryi 'Jaws,' as part of my foliage follow-up post. You can see it here and you can view Loree's favorite plants wrap-up for December here.

All material © 2012-2014 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

When I pulled up my photos to prepare my post for "In a Vase on Monday," the weekly meme hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, I was surprised to find pictures of the morning sunrise. My husband, who gets up earlier than I do most days (i.e. before dawn!), used my camera to capture a particularly pretty sunrise.

View of sunrise over the Port of Los Angeles from our backyard

I included the sunrise photo because it picks up some of the bright colors in this week's vase, if only by coincidence.

My vase selections started with 2 stems of the 'Joseph's Coat' rose that climbs up our bedroom chimney.

However, I was hard-pressed to find materials that complemented the coral/salmon color of the roses, so I ended up including more of the same Nandina domestica berries that dominated last week's vase. In addition to these elements, I included the foliage of Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt' and a stem of an almost florescent salmon-colored Pelargonium peltatum (aka ivy geranium).

The vase replaced last week's creation on the dining room table.

As usual, I had some leftover blooms blooms, which I crammed into one of my tiny vases. Weeks ago, Julie of Gardening Jules counseled me that my reference to these creations as "reject vases" was too harsh so I'll refer to it, as she suggested, as this week's experimental creation.

The tiny case includes the white Eustoma grandifora I included in last week's "experimental" vase, now finally open, as well as the yellow daisies of Euryops 'Sonnenschein,' a stem or Narcissus, more Acacia foliage, and Persicaria capitata

I recognized the pink flowers as knotweed, which I don't believe I planted. I know the plant as Polygonum capitatum, which is often sold here as a groundcover but decried by many people as a rampant weed. When I couldn't find it under that name in my western garden guide, I discovered that it's currently classified as part of the genus Persicaria, which makes sense when you look at the leaves.

Visit Cathy to see what she's put together this week and find links to the creations of other stalwart participants.

All material © 2012-2014 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Yesterday was the second anniversary of my first blog post. In 2013, blogging was mostly a distraction from turbulence in my personal life. In 2014, it became more pointedly about the garden itself: what I liked and didn't like about it, what I planned to change, how those changes were implemented, and the challenges we faced along the way. All through the process, I appreciated the comments, suggestions, commiseration, and support I received from those of you who do me the honor of reading my posts. When I started blogging I never anticipated the sense of community the process creates. That has become the most important impetus for continuing.

As I looked back on this year's posts, I realized just how much has happened in the garden this year, some of which was planned but much of which was not. In some cases what started as small decisions, made without much deliberation, led unintentionally but perhaps inevitably to much bigger projects. Pruning the unsightly Pittosporum hedge along the street is a case in point. That hedge bugged me from the time we moved in 4 years ago. However, for the first 2 years, I left the pruning to the garden service that took care of the lawn. In 2013, I cut back a few of the hedge's shrubs. The new growth looked better so, in January 2014, I took things a lot further. Too far, as it turns out. Portions of the hedge haven't recovered. But, on the plus side, cutting back the hedge led to the creation of a street-side succulent bed, allowing me to significantly expand my already burgeoning succulent collection.

From left to right: Hedge before pruning; hedge after pruning; wide view of succulent bed; and a close-up

While I was busy mutilating the hedge, my husband decided that the wood-fired "snorkel spa" we inherited with the house wasn't worth the effort required to maintain it. He dismantled it, we cleared out the gravel beneath it to open up yet another planting area, and my husband made a patio table out of the spa's wood shell, giving us a new seating area in the backyard.

From left to right: Original spa; dismantlement in process; cleared bed; area after planting (September); and completed patio table

Taking out the grass on the south side of the house in 2013 had created a choppy flow from that area into the backyard. To address that we decided to extend the small bed surrounding the fountain in the backyard to form a connection to the south side yard. That work began in February. The new area was planted in March and April.

Counterclockwise from top left: Area prior to project; work begins; additional soil is delivered; bed ready for planting; initial planting (March); and the new bed at the end of May

With the creation of the extended fountain bed and the bed formerly occupied by the spa, the remaining grass area in the backyard became more of a pathway than a lawn. We removed another semi-circle of lawn next to the north end of the patio in September to improve the flow of that pathway (and give me still more space for ornamental plants).

From left to right: Area before lawn removal; after lawn removal; and after planting (October)

As the summer progressed, we accepted the difficulty of maintaining our front lawn in the face of California's severe drought. Rather than try to restore the half-dead lawn, we elected to take it out. The grass was removed in September but my husband and I spent much of our free time in October and November digging out grass roots, sod netting, and rocks; adding soil amendments; and laying flagstone paths. Planting began in December and is ongoing.

Counterclockwise from top left: Early stage of soil preparation; what one neighbor referred to as a burial mound; one of 2 topsoil deliveries; laying the flagstone paths; the area to the left of the front walkway after planting; and, on the top right, the partially planted area to the right of the front walkway

Along the way:

I lost my beloved garden companion, Ming, in March after a long struggle with a disease we couldn't defeat

I faced regular visits by raccoons (aka Satan's minions) who tore out virtually every plant I put in, often more than once (Note: As shown on the far right, I finally captured a photo of one of the cheeky culprits on Sunday night outside the dining room window)

We lost the privacy provided by the huge Yucca elephantipes that sat on the boundary between us and a neighbor: the first 2 photos on the left were taken before the Yucca was cut down and the last were taken afterwards (Further work on the 4 foot tall stump is planned for mid-January)

So what will 2015 Bring? I'm not sure but I suspect our garden will continue to change, along with our expectations of it. Whatever those changes may be, I hope you'll continue to join me on the ride.

Upper left: Sunset photographed from the front yard; Small photos: Views snapped from the backyard over the course of 2014

The monthly wide shot meme was launched by Heather of Xericstyle in 2013 and I have joined in with photos from my garden since September of that year. This month I thought I'd change things up a little and focus on two areas of my garden: my "new" front yard and an area I call the "glen," which I don't often show.

As anyone who has read my posts over the last few months knows, the front garden has undergone a major change. We removed roughly 800 square feet of lawn surrounding our central walkway this fall and, after lots of work preparing the area, I began planting it in late November. It's still a work in progress but it's coming along.

Usual view of the front of the house from the driveway

The area to the left (north side) of the front door walkway

The larger area to the right (south side) of the front door walkway

View of the same area, photographed from the south side garden

Although the front garden is far from finished, I've begun thinking about my next project, one that was originally on my mental list to tackle in 2014 but which dropped to the wayside when efforts shifted to the front garden and the street-side succulent bed last year. I want to make the area I call the "glen" (for little reason other than I need to call it something) more usable. The area sits inside a hedge (or what used to be a hedge) along the street on the southwest side of our property. It's accessible by two separate dirt paths. One path slopes down from the arbor in the south side garden and the other runs behind the Xylosma hedge on south side of the driveway entrance. I've fiddled with the area off and on since we moved in but, since I mutilated the Pittosporum hedge that formerly hid it from view and planted a succulent bed along the street in front, I think I need to do more to transform the area, starting with building an extension to the existing dry-stacked wall.

This photo shows the path into the area from the upper level

The path leads toward the street, disappearing behind the Xylosma hedge that formerly connected to the Pittosporum hedge

For unknown reasons, the low dry stacked wall holding back the slope ends halfway through the space (roughly in the middle of this photo). I added some rocks and rubble collected on-site to extend the wall our first year here but that isn't doing the job.

I've added succulent cuttings above the wall and, more recently, planted a small succulent cutting bed at ground level (partially visible here in the right foreground)

I'll close with collages showing the seasonal progression of other areas of the garden I usually include in my wide shot posts.

Counterclockwise from the top left: The back garden in April, July, and October 2014 and, top right, in January 2015

Counterclockwise from top left: The southeast side garden in April, July, and October 2014 and, top right, in January 2015

Counterclockwise from top left: The dry garden in April, July, and October 2014 and, top right, in January 2015

Counterclockwise from top left: The back slope in April, July, and November 2014 and, top right, in January 2015

The first project of the year will be to address that hideous stump at the bottom of the slope. The tree service that cut the Yucca elephantipes down to its current height of 4+ feet will be back in mid-January to try cutting it closer to flush with the surface of the soil. We'll then do our best to expedite the stump's decay and construct a living or man-made screen to create privacy between us and our neighbors on the other side of the stump. There's always something that needs doing in a garden.

All material © 2012-2015 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

I opened the comments section of my blog yesterday afternoon and discovered that I'd been nominated for a Liebster award by Anna of Flutter & Hum. I was thrown. I have an awkward relationship with awards. On the one hand, I'm flattered to no end but, on the other, I'm flustered. As I do with any compliment I receive, my immediate inclination is to convey my unworthiness to receive it. You like my shirt? "It's old and was a gift from someone with better taste." You're impressed with my garden? "You should see my neighbor's garden - she has done a bang-up job on hers." I've won awards at intervals during the course of my life, some academic and some career-related, but I've never been able to simply accept them without some kind of disclaimer. The funny thing is, just the other day, I was thinking that, at this point in my life, I should be able to accept compliments with grace instead of denials. I don't generally make new year's resolutions but, if I were to, this would have been on my list. So, 3 days into the new year Anna gives me an unintended push to make good on my unspoken admonition to myself. Thanks, Anna, for the kick in the behind, as well as the recognition!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Liebster Award, as I was before this, it has been described as an on-line chain letter with some rules. The rules vary somewhat but, in this case, in accepting, I've agreed to:

Link back to Anna's blog;
Answer 11 questions she outlined in her award post; and
Nominate 5 other bloggers to receive the award, continuing the cycle.

With another word of thanks to Anna, both for reading my blog and for recognizing it with her nomination, here are my answers to her questions:

1) Why do you blog? Originally, my blog served as a distraction. It gave me temporary relief from the stresses of family events by shifting my focus to the pleasure I felt working in my garden. Over time, it became a way of tracking changes in the garden and connecting with others who had similar interests. It's the experience of community associated with blogging that keeps me posting now.

2) What makes you happy? Right now, rain!!!

3) If you could live anywhere, where would you live? There's a lot of the country - and the world - that I haven't seen yet but, based on my experience to date, I'd live in the Pacific Northwest.

4) If you had to lose one of your senses - which would it be? Hearing, vision, touch, smell or taste? Taste. It would offer a benefit of sorts by eliminating any reason to eat sugars and starches and all the other things that aren't good for me.

5) What does your perfect day look like? Blue skies (following a night of rain), cool temperatures, good friends, and a trip to one of my favorite nurseries, preferably with one of my friends doing the driving.

6) If you had to pick only one cuisine to eat for the rest of your life, which one would you choose, and why? Chinese - it includes lots of vegetables but everything is tasty.

7) What book are you reading right now? I usually have more than one book going in different formats. I just finished "Under the Spell of Succulents" by Jeff Moore in soft-cover and started "Practical Botany for Gardeners" by Geoff Hodge in hard-cover. I'm listening to "Dust" by Martha Grimes on a USB drive in my car and I'm reading "The Last Time I was Me" by Cathy Lamb on my iPad.

8) Which is your favorite movie? "Ghostbusters" (the original)

9) Do you have a favorite color and if so - which? Yellow is my favorite color, with green and blue close seconds.

10) Which is your favorite place to visit? I haven't had an opportunity to travel much lately but a trip to Carmel and Monterey in California is my favorite get-away.

11) Name five famous people (dead or alive) that you would love to invite to a dinner party at your house. That's a tough one! I was tempted to select a literary or garden-focused group but as a variety of views can create the most lively discussions, I'll go with: Jon Stewart, Beth Chatto, Dan Hinkley, Louise Penny, and Richard Feynman.

Selecting 5 blogs to nominate is, by far, the hardest part of accepting this nomination. There are so many blogs I read regularly and love. Some of those bloggers have already received this award or have declared themselves "award free" and others have been blogging for an extended period. The guideline for selection is under 1000 followers but, in many cases, I wasn't able to determine the number of followers. As the sub-title on the award logo says "discover new blogs!," I focused on blogs I admire that came into being within roughly the past 3 years:

Angie, Amy, Evan, Cathy and Shirley: If you wish to accept the award, answer the following 11 questions in a post on your blog and select 5 nominees of your own to answer 11 questions of your choice. I leave it up to your discretion whether you use the number of followers or some other criteria in making your selection.

My questions to those accepting the award are:

1) Why do you blog?
2) Words or photos? Which do you labor over more in constructing a blog post?
3) What is one thing someone who knows you only through your blog would be surprised to learn about you?
4) What have you read in the past year that impacted your outlook, be it with respect to gardening or life in general?
5) If you had to chose, what is your favorite among the plants currently in your garden?
6) What plant do you covet that you don't currently have, or which wouldn't survive in your climate?
7) If you could pick up and move anywhere, where would that be and why?
8) If you knew in high school what you know now, what career would you have selected for yourself?
9) What plant have you killed at least 3 times, if any?
10) What do you like best about your own garden?
11) Name your favorite public garden.

Best wishes to all my nominees. The nicest thing about this award is the opportunity to share my appreciation of your blogs. Thanks again to Anna for facilitating that!

All material © 2012-2015 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

I really hadn't a clue what to cut for a vase this week. We've had a cold snap, with nighttime temperatures closing in near freezing but never quite reaching that point. But that's cold for us! While I had no damage here, there were no new flowers bursting forth demanding their moment of glory in a vase either. I clipped a flower here and a flower there but nothing clicked. I briefly thought of just stuffing what I had in a vase and calling it done but then I though of the Euryops 'Sonnenchein' tucked down in the area I call my glen. On the way to clip a few stems, I passed the Pelargonium tomentosum, also known as peppermint geranium, which I'd previously thought of using in one of my Monday-morning vases but hadn't. Those additions changed a sad arrangement into this:

Very cheerful, don't you think? Here's what I included:

Ageratum houstonianum 'Blue Horizon
Anemone coronaria 'Mona Lisa Deep Blue'
Aster x frikartii 'Monch'
Euryops 'Sonnenschein'
Lavandula multifida (aka fernleaf lavender)
Leucanthemum x superbum, ruffled variety
Pelargonium tomentosum

The Ageratum looks much better than it did when I planted it last April

The Anemones also like the colder weather

I bought a second Aster in November and wish I'd picked up a third

The Euryops flowered with a flourish within 2 weeks of our early December rainstorms

The ruffled Leucanthemum, a gift form a friend more than 3 years ago, are slowly making an appearance

The peppermint geranium (Pelargonium tomentosum) can hold its own in a vase

The arrangement captured Pipig's interest for a nanosecond, albeit not long enough for me to catch a photo of her inspection. She was quickly diverted by something outside I could neither see nor hear.

With thanks again to Julie at Gardening Jules for the new moniker, I also have an "experimental vase" this week:

Senecio cineraria and Pelargonium peltatum (aka ivy geranium)

(Julie, I finally looked into how to shrink the size of the photos used in my posts so let me know if this post loads more easily for you.)

These are my contributions this week to Cathy's challenge to construct a vase from materials in one's own garden. Visit her at Rambling in the Garden to discover what she's found and what other contributors have to offer. Although we complained mightily about the cold here in Southern California, it has been a lot colder in other bloggers' gardens so some participants are pushing the limits to come up with creative options (if the ground around them isn't covered by snow). As for us, daytime temperatures are expected to get back up close to 80F (26C) by mid-week.

All material © 2012-2015 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

I have well over 200 garden books, despite the fact that I donated a substantial number to a local library when we moved 4 years ago. I love each and every one but I've never felt the urge to gush about one on-line, until now.

Back in October, when a friend and I made a mad dash through 6 nurseries in San Diego County, I picked up a copy of Jeff Moore's new book, "Under the Spell of Succulents," while visiting his nursery, Solana Succulents. I was impressed as soon as I opened the book but I remained mum about the book because I decided to buy 3 more copies as Christmas gifts for friends. I didn't want to ruin the surprise.

Front cover

Back cover

The subtitle on the book's cover describes it: it's an introduction to the wide variety of succulents available in cultivation. It's loaded with beautiful photos - there are few pages without one or more and, unlike the succulents you find in most nurseries, the featured plants are labeled. The book contains chapters on a variety of subjects from common topics, such as container and vertical gardens, to the special qualities of selected succulents, such as crests and caudiciforms ("fat plants"). Interspersed between the chapters are sections the author refers to as "interludes" which describe different genera. Among other topics, Moore describes succulent theme gardens, including the use of succulents to create undersea style landscapes. In fact, Moore gained a reputation for these landscapes when he designed an exhibit for the Del Mar Fair in 2002 and a permanent display for the San Diego Botanical Garden. You can find photos on his website. Coincidentally, when I visited his nursery, I picked up an octopus-like succulent, Dyckia marnier-lapostollii.

This is not a how-to book, although the author does offer advice based on his experience. Its clearer purpose is to share the enthusiasm the author clearly feels for these plants. The tone throughout is casual, akin to a discussion one might have with a garden club speaker. There are no pretensions or heavy-handed lectures, just obvious enjoyment in these plants and a desire to share them.

If you're interested in the book, you may face a challenge getting hold of a copy. It's not available from Amazon or another large book retailer. The softcover book is self-published. You can contact the author directly through his nursery to purchase a copy or pick one up by attending events at which he is scheduled to speak, including one on January 12th sponsored by the San Diego Horticultural Society. I bought the copies purchased as gifts for my friends on-line through a San Diego area bookstore.

Note: This review wasn't requested by the author or any representative of the author and I wasn't compensated in any way for offering an opinion. My purpose is solely to share a resource other succulent enthusiasts may appreciate.

Last month I published a post recounting the sad story of the Yucca elephantipes (aka Y. gigantea) seated at the bottom of our back slope on the boundary between our property and that of a neighbor. After watching the Yucca grow taller and spread further along the slope, my husband tried to trim it back. That effort, and the Yucca's resilience in making a quick comeback, led my husband to declare war on the plant (much as he'd done many years ago with a Bougainvillea that, no matter how frequently it was trimmed, grew out across the driveway at our old house to scratch the car he'd painstakingly converted from gas to electric power). When our neighbor came by to discuss the possibility of cutting the Yucca back, my husband mounted a campaign to remove it. Although he has been known to blink at what I spend on plants, he didn't blink at the price quoted to cut the massive plant down to 2 feet. (I, on the other hand, nearly had an apoplectic fit.) Even the neighbor was surprised when we informed him that we (I'm using the royal "we" here) wished to proceed.

In about 6 hours, the Yucca went from this:

Yucca, photographed looking down onto the back slope in November 2014

To this:

The same area, photographed December 5, 2014

No one was happy about how the landscape service left the Yucca. Instead of 2 feet tall, it was between 4 and 5 feet tall in places.

The huge, irregular stumps left behind

In addition to being ugly, the stumps were too tall to cover with soil to speed decay and prevent the plant from growing back. Yet, they were also too low to provide privacy between the 2 properties. A representative from the landscape service quoted another choke-worthy fee to cut the stumps flush with the surface of the soil. We agreed to the plan but recently got another quote from a different tree service representative, who claimed his team could get a stump grinder down the slope to eliminate the risk of regrowth, something the original service claimed was impossible. We accepted his proposal.

The new team arrived on Tuesday, just as I was leaving for the day. My husband told me that getting the stump grinder down the relatively steep slope proved more difficult than anticipated by the new service. Fortunately, the neighbor on the other side of us agreed to allow us to move it through the back of her property.

With that obstacle removed, the team got to work. I came home that evening to find the work half-done, with the crew scheduled to return early the next morning - in exchange for a still larger fee.

The scene at the start of the second day of work

The lattice and pots beyond the stumps sit on the neighbor's property

The tree service increased their price, in part, due to our request to also grind out the small stumps higher on the slope, off-shoots of the original Yucca (circled area)

After another 9 hours of work on that second day, all that was visible was sawdust and mud:

View of area as of January 8, 2015

The sawdust left behind after grinding the stumps is fluffy and very moist, creating a spongy surface, which may take a while to dry out

Now what remains is to determine what we should plant to create a new screen between the 2 properties. I've proposed planting 3 Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Silver Sheen' but the neighbor has yet to respond. Although we believe the Yucca, or most of it anyway, was inside our property line, I want to ensure that the neighbors are comfortable with the choice. They've told us the Yucca was already tree-height 34 years ago when they moved in and I know the wife was upset by its removal. The privacy issue is also greater for them - we're impacted only when we're on the back slope but they face the newly bare area every time they go into their backyard. The Pittosporum, a handsome if unexciting plant, has the advantage of being fast-growing, reaching a height of 6 feet in as little as a year. In a group of 3, it should provide an effective screen, while allowing light and air to move easily through it. It's also moderately drought tolerant.

While I do like the increased light and improved views of the harbor from the back slope, I'm nonetheless sad to see the Yucca reduced to a soggy mass of dust. And I know that the hummingbirds and I will miss the flowers.

But I can always visit the handsome, well-maintained Yucca elephantipes at the local botanic garden, just 5 miles away.

Wide Shots - December 2014

Wordless Wednesday: Whiteout California-Style

The Fun Part Begins

In a Vase on Monday: A little of this and a little of that

The best laid plans

Do I need this?

Bloom Day - December 2014

Foliage Follow-up - December 2014

Christmas Wreath

The Fun Continues

In a Vase on Monday: The Berries Steal the Show

Almost Wordless Wednesday - Christmas Eve Late Edition

My favorite plant of the week: Pyrus calleryana

In a Vase on Monday: The Berries Share the Stage

Second Blogiversary Retrospective

Wide Shots - January 2015

Liebster Award!

In a Vase on Monday: Peppermint Packs a Punch

Do you love succulents? May I suggest a book?

Homage to a Yucca