After the holidays, I threw myself into cleaning up my garden, focusing first on pruning plants I'd allowed to get completely out of control during our remodel, as well as pulling plants too woody or beat up to prune into shape. I spent so much time pruning (admittedly using tools too small for the purpose on occasion) it appears that I threw my right wrist out of whack. I don't have a medical term to describe what I did but I'm seeing a doctor on Friday to get an assessment.
I haven't stopped work in the garden but I did shift my focus to tasks that put less strain on my wrist. Having reduced the large shrubs adjacent to the patio on the south end of our house by more than half, I mulched the soil, pulled out scraggly succulents, and filled in with a mix of succulent cuttings and California poppy plugs.
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| Reducing the height of the "dwarf"Agonis flexuosa 'Nana'shrubs, means I can once again see the harbor while sitting on the south patio (not that I sit much). Although I expect the shrubs will flesh out again within months, the area looks a bit bare to my eyes at the moment. I may plant more California poppies to provide additional spring color. |
Next, I tore apart an adjacent area that had been overrun with
Bulbine frutescens to make room for a
Leucospermum that had been languishing in a large pot.
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| Bulbine frutescens is a succulent groundcover that spreads by rhizomes to form large clumps. I planted 3 yellow-flowering and 2 orange-flowering plants in 2014. This is what they looked like last May, when they'd gotten completely out of control, swallowing everything around them. |
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| Digging the clumps out wasn't hard but it took a good deal of time to remove all their roots to clear the area for the Leucospermum |
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| This is about two-thirds of what I removed |
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| I saved a small number of divisions of the orange Bulbine for use elsewhere in the garden |
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| I dug up that sorry-looking 'Amazing Red' Phormium and added planting mix to the bed |
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| Leucospermum 'Sunrise' didn't bloom last year in its pot near the front door in partial shade. It'll get full sun in this spot and I hope to see some flowers next year, if not this year. |
Yesterday, I freed another
Leucospermum that wasn't living up to its potential from its pot and found it a new home in a sunnier location as well.
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| I cut back and moved some groundcover Lantana to make room for Leucospermum 'Spider' here along the front slope. The planting is "cozier" in this area than is ideal but I'm going to allow the plants to sort things out among themselves for the time being. |
My next project will be filling the two pots left empty at the entry to the house.
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| At present, I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to put in these 2 empty pots |
I'm lucky. Winter in coastal Southern California allows me to work in the garden almost without a break. We're looking at a nice stretch of mostly sunny skies with temperatures in the mid-60s over the next 10 days, perfect for working in the garden (as long as the doctor doesn't put me on the sidelines). There's no rain in the forecast for the rest of January but then we can't have everything.
All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
