The year is spinning by. While I look forward to the cooler days of fall, I'm also sad to see the end of the longer days of summer. As fall is the busiest season of the gardening year in my climate, I'm also feeling the aches and pains associated with my the end-of-summer cleanup, which is by no means complete even as my husband and I fill one green waste bin after another. While I've done a little planting to fill a few empty spaces, I've got plant shopping and more planting in my future before our rainy season gets started. And then there are the bulb deliveries I have to deal with when they arrive later this month.
I'll start as usual in the back garden and continue roughly clockwise around the house.
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| View from the back door looking at the entrance to the Los Angeles harbor in the distance. I replaced the woody Echium webbii that occupied the area behind the fountain but the new Echium is still very small. Luckily, it grows relatively quickly. |
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| View from the back patio looking north. I cleared the majority of the succulents out of the bed in the foreground on the left. I've added a few small plants but there's more to do there. |
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| This is a view from the north end of the back garden looking toward the patio. I recently cut a few plants nearly to the ground in the bed on the left. The large container visible in the distance, placed underneath Leucadendron 'Pisa', has been planted with Dutch Iris bulbs to temporarily fill some of the empty space in that bed. |
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| Back on the patio, this is the view looking south. While I cut back several plants on the left, I need to thin Callistemon 'Cane's Hybrid' again. Note how tall the dwarf Jacaranda 'Bonsai Blue' on the right (near the house) is! |
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| View from the opposite direction on the south end of the back garden looking toward the patio. This area has become very shady as the peppermint willow (Agonis flexuosa) there has grown exceptionally tall and wide. It's going to get a good trim this year, which may be only the second time I've had it on the list. |
Next up is the south-side garden.
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| This is a view of the south-side garden looking west. During the summer months, the bright blue flowers of Salvia clevelandii 'Winnifred Gilman' stood out in the background on the left. Now the purple foliage of Vitex trifolia shines in the same general area. |
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| View from the small south-side patio looking south. The peppermint willow (the only Agonis flexuosa I'm planning to leave alone this year) is partially screening the home in the distance. |
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| A final view of the south-side garden looking east through the arbor |
As I recently published a post covering the lower level of the front garden as well as the street-side succulent bed, I'm skipping those areas so we'll move on to the main level of the front garden.
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| South end of the garden looking north. The 'Cousin Itt' Acacias still need pruning. |
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| View from the area next to the Magnolia tree looking back in the opposite direction. The giant strawberry tree (Arbutus 'Marina') in the background on the right is also on the pruning list. All the Arbutus are thinned every year to keep the canopy open and avoid the development of black mildew. |
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| View from the front door at the area under the Magnolia grandiflora. The Magnolia has a number of dead branches that'll be pruned out this year. |
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| View of the front door area from the driveway. The Hong Kong orchid tree (Bauhinia x blakeana) has filled out again. It'll get a very light trim to eliminate the bare twiggy stems. |
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| View of the bed on the right (south) side of the front walkway. The Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' in the middle ground to the right of the Magnolia is looking better now after shedding a lot of its leaves earlier in the year. |
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| Pathway leading from the driveway to the lower level of the front garden (where the lath house sits). Although it can't clearly be seen in this photo, there's a big Agave attentuata rosette, originally planted as a pup, now impeding the path (which isn't wide to begin with). |
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| View of the area on the left (north) side of the front walkway. I'm going to need to thin out the 2 tree-like 'Copper Glow'Leptospermums at some point too. The chartreuse shrub is Coleonema 'Sunset Gold', which the gardeners like to transform into a cube. |
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| View from alongside the north end of the house looking southwest |
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| View of the area adjacent to the garage from the driveway looking north. This area needs work once the ornamental pear tree (Pyrus calleryana) gets its annual trim. |
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| This succulent bed next to the garage is the one I intend to revamp once the Arbutus and Agonis get their haircuts |
The cutting and the north-side gardens are on the other (northeast) side of the garage.
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| I went dahlia crazy this year, even by my personal standards. The sunflowers are mostly bloomed out. Many of the zinnias were choked out by dahlias. |
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| View of the north-side garden, which I cleaned up last month |
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| My husband cut down the spindly Psoralea pinnata (kool-aid bush) to the left of the Arbutus last week and removed the trunk earlier this week. I was in charge of cleanup. I'm undecided about whether to plant something else there. Clearing some of the ivy crawling up from the back slope under the hedge is my first chore. |
The only area left to show is the back slope, reached via a concrete block stairway that lies at the end of the gravel path that bisects the north-side garden. I'm almost embarrassed to share views of it in its current condition but the truth isn't always pretty.
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| I did almost nothing with the back slope all summer. This was due partly to the strain going up and down puts on my right knee and partly to my desire to avoid the fire ants during their favorite season. Everything, including 2 artichoke stalks, gobs of bloomed-out Centranthus, and rampant ivy (shown on the right), needs to be cut back. |
Not all the work that needs to be done is mine. My dependable tree service's annual visit is scheduled for late next week. The heavier-than-usual rain this past year prompted major growth spurts so I'm having fourteen trees, as well as a hedge consisting of five tree-sized shrubs, trimmed by the crew this year. That's not all my trees - by my count there are twelve more - but I can either manage the others on my own or live with them as they are. Of course, there's advance work to be done to clear the way for the crew and more work to address the collateral damage that inevitably comes afterwards. This crew is always careful but some damage is to be expected. The garden should be considerably sunnier, though!
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material © 2012-2023
by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
