After a long stretch of very warm, dry weather, the temperatures fell and the skies finally turned gray on Wednesday. Although rain had been in the forecast for more than a week, the chances had been gradually scaled back and, when Wednesday morning started out warm with blue skies and low humidity, I was ready to write off the rain forecast entirely. But by late morning, conditions suddenly shifted.
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| View of the Port of Los Angeles from my back garden as it began to sprinkle |
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| The clouds looked like an abstract painting |
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| As the rain came down more steadily, I placed the rain chain in a plastic trug to catch what flowed off the east-facing roof. Other areas of the house and garage roofs directly feed 3 collection tanks but I try hard to capture every drop I can. |
My November Bloom Day post had already been posted when I noticed two more plants with unexpected blooms.
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| I'd watered the plants in this barrel on Tuesday and noticed no sign of flowers on Hibiscus acetosella 'Haight Ashbury'; however there were a half-dozen or more flowers early the next morning. The flowers are more attractive than I'd anticipated. |
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| In the street side succulent bed, I also noticed that Aloe lukeana had a bloom stalk. It was a gift from Gerhard Bock of Succulents and More when he visited in 2021 and this is the first time it's bloomed. |
On the north end of the garden the persimmon tree (Diospyros kaki 'Hachiya') was offering another splash of bright color - until it wasn't.
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| View of the tree early in the week |
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| I caught sight of movement in the tree from inside the house and went to investigate. One squirrel streaked by as I approached. The second was initially too busy to care. |
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| He did try to evade my camera, possibly thinking his tail functioned as a cape of invisibility. Unfortunately, as I approached from one side, he decided I was too close, dropped his prize, and headed over the fence into the neighbor's garden. |
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| I left the soft fruit in the garden for him and his buddies to eat. I cut 2 persimmons mainly to prevent the squirrels from dropping them onto the Agave ovatifolia below, making a sticky mess. |
The persimmon tree has since been cleared of fruit. 2022 was a banner year for both the
'Fuyu' and
'Hachiya' persimmon trees but this year I never saw a single ripe piece of fruit on the
'Fuyu' and I got fewer than two dozen persimmons from the
'Hachiya'. The squirrels ate or damaged all of them except two I cut during my squirrel encounter.
Blue skies returned Thursday morning.
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| The skyline was (mostly) clear of smog for a change |
I made good use of the break in the rain on Thursday. I moved the rainwater I'd collected in plastic trugs to the largest of my three rain tanks. I spent an hour on our back slope cutting back masses of Centranthus ruber. While I barely made a dent in the work required down there, at least I got a start on the long-needed cleanup while the fire ants were inactive. I received my third (and last!) bulb delivery for the season and got a portion of those potted up, and also sifted the homemade compost in one bin and spread it in the front garden. Whew!
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| I'd of course forgotten how many bulbs I'd ordered |
Another storm is expected to move in late Friday night with light but steady rain through noon on Saturday. The break on Friday should allow me to get the remaining bulbs planted and, if it's cool enough, more work may get done on the back slope. I have a mail order plant delivery due to arrive Friday or Saturday but it may be too much to hope that it arrives on the the early end of that window.
I hope you can enjoy some time outside this weekend, whatever your weather conditions.
All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
