Under the weather

I've been under the weather, literally and figuratively.  Our heavy marine layer has been a persistent presence since early April.  At best, we get a little sun in the late afternoon.  On the positive side, we've picked up about 0.08/inch of precipitation in the process in the past week.  On the negative side, for someone who's lived in sunny Southern California her entire life, the persistent gloom is getting old.

Photo of my south side garden looking southeast toward the invisible Los Angeles harbor

From a figurative perspective, I've been fighting with my knee problem for a couple of weeks now.  A compression sleeve has helped there but then last week I developed an incessant cough.  I tested negative for COVID, but whether I have a sinus infection, an out-of-control allergy, or something else is unclear.  I saw a Nurse Practitioner and we developed a multi-faceted plan but I still feel crummy.  Oddly, however, I seem to cough less when working outside than I do sitting at my computer.

Before and after shots of my back slope looking up from the bottom of the stairway.  The photo on the left was taken last Saturday.  It was floriferous but treacherous to navigate.  Pruning the out-of-control bay laurel hedge is a job I leave to the gardeners but they could hardly get to it.  I cut back and pulled anything that impeded the stairway and the path between the hedge and the lower border as shown in the second photo.  Unfortunately, that included cutting down the Echium webbii, which was too big for the space.  I still need to remove its trunk but that's a task for another week.

After months of doing nothing, the cutting garden flowered, seemingly all at once.  Plants are crowding one another and falling over.  I cut back the contents of the raised beds enough to allow me to walk between them but I'll need to start pulling plants out soon to make room for the dahlia tubers that are sprouting in their temporary pots.  I'm also fighting mildew and rust, a byproduct of our high humidity levels.

In addition to working off and on in my own garden, I've continued to take daily walks around the neighborhood.  I thought this is a good time to share photos of one neighbor's front garden, which I consider a master class in planting on a slope.  It's looking particularly colorful at the moment.  Here are a couple of panoramic shots:

View of the long, sloped front garden border looking downhill

View of the same border from the other end

As the panoramic views hide a lot, I'm providing a series of closer shots.

Driveway adjacent area featuring noID orange roses, Pittosporum tobira, and Plectranthus neochilus

A closer look at the Geranium incanum, Oscularia deltoides, and Salvia leucantha surrounding the steps

Some sources indicate that Calandrinia spectabilis and C. grandiflora are synonyms for the same plant, others differentiate between the 2.  If they're different, I'm not qualified to clarify the distinction.

That's it for me this week.  For those of you in the US, best wishes on Memorial Day and enjoy the unofficial start of summer (whether you have any sun or not).