Small garden projects

Even as heat blasted parts of the US this season, we've enjoyed a relatively mild summer.  Sure, we've had some temperatures in the mid-90s but they haven't been sustained and we haven't yet had a heatwave that's pushed temperatures above 100F.  That's not true of all of Southern California - the inland valleys have had some truly miserable highs and the Palm Springs area is roasting.  We've been lucky by comparison and I've used the opportunity to tackle some small garden projects.

This is the "before" shot.  Although it looks like one uniform mass, there are two Coleonema shrubs planted here and they were encroaching on both the Yucca on the right and the Leucadendrons behind them.

This is the "after" shot.  I shaved off bits of both Coleonema but cut more deeply into the one rubbing up against the Yucca, with the latter plant drawing blood a couple of times in the process.

This is a before shot of the messy rosemary shrubs.  Earlier this year, I transplanted a Leucospermum 'Sunrise' I'd had in a pot behind the rosemary after removing a mass of Bulbine.  While the Leucospermum will grow larger than it currently is, what had turned into a messy rosemary hedge wasn't going to complement it well.

I removed all but one of the rosemary shrubs.  I left one in place in an effort to balance the Grevillea alpina x rosmarinfolia planted behind Leucospermum 'Goldie'.   Both the Grevillea and the remaining rosemary still require some trimming.

Here's a second "before" shot, taken in late June

Here's another "after" shot taken from the same angle as the prior one

I could emulate what I'd done on the left side by adding more Zinnias as temporary fillers...

Trying for more consistency, I could add another Abelia 'Kaleidoscope' like these on the right to mask the bare legs of the remaining rosemary...

I pruned this Echium handiense a couple of months ago but was afraid to cut it back harder.  When it started producing new foliage on the thick woody branches I'd cut, I went all in and cut the rest of it back.  I also took some cuttings, although no source I consulted suggested that this plant can be successfully propagated that way.

Cleaning up the Mexican feather grass (Stipa tenuissima) is something that needs doing every couple of months here.  Before I "combed" these plants of their seed-laden plumes, they were covering this dirt path behind the back border.

The Centaurea 'Silver Feather' here are still blocking this flagstone path.  I was clearly delusional when I installed seven plants in January 2019.  The plants aren't blooming any longer so they can come out, although I've no idea what to use to replace them.

This Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire' has been in this strawberry pot since we moved in almost 10 years ago.  I've cut it back several times and I swear it just gets larger.  I think it probably has to go.