During the atmospheric rivers that have meandered through Southern California at frequent intervals this month, I've stayed close to home, squeezing any required errands in between rain showers. Public announcements have encouraged residents to stay home if they can in order to avoid being caught by falling trees or flash floods. However, I've taken walks through the neighborhood between downpours, snapping photos along the way. Wrapped in clouds and using my cell phone, many of the photos aren't as clear as I'd like but I'm going to share some of them anyway.
My photo "trail" follows the route I took through my neighborhood. One of my favorite stops is several houses down the street. It's fronted by a sloped garden topped by a massive Bougainvillea and peppered with succulents. I've featured wide shots of it before but only took closeup photos during my recent excursions.
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| Agave gypsophila, surrounded by Cotyledon and Kalanchoe among other succulents |
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| Shrubs like this Echium handiense are included in the mix here and there. This Echium has spread over the years via self-seeding. (I clearly cut back my spent Echium flowers too soon.) |
The gardener and I often take our spins around the neighborhood together. She showed me some other areas of her garden earlier this week before we headed out.
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| Clockwise from the upper left are Chasmanthe floribunda (aka cobra lily), noID Narcissus, Rosa 'Julia Child', and Streptosolen jamesonii (aka marmalade bush). I'm on the lookout for both Chasmanthe bulbs, which do better than Crocosmia here, and the Streptosolen shrub. |
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| A large mass of Helleborus foetidus (aka stinking hellebore) in full flower |
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| A vigorous Phlomis purpurea. Mine, planted from a 4-inch pot in 2020, is only now beginning to gain some girth after I moved it to a better spot in 2021. |
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| One section of a tiered succulent garden at the back of the house, The gardener is in the process of revamping another tiered area after the neighbor behind them removed a mass of juniper planted along the property line. |
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| A downed agave bloom stalk. The gardener gave me several bulbils. She pointed to the agave shown in the foreground on the far right as the parent plant's twin. I'm guessing it's a variety of Agave parryi. |
The house next door was professionally landscaped from scratch in 2022.
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| The modern garden for a mid-century modern style house has matured, although I still wonder how manageable all that Nasella tenuissima (Mexican feather grass) will be. I've been slowly removing mine as I identify other options. |
As I rounded the circle that makes up our neighborhood, I took photos of another front garden that received an overhaul in stages in 2022 and 2023.
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| The sharply sloped front garden shown here was covered with a rumpled rug of artificial turf for many years. In 2020, the owners had the right-hand section of the "rug" removed and planted masses of Agave attenuata, several Crassula ovata, and a couple of Magnolia trees with an edging of junipers along the entire length of the bed. In 2023, they mirrored that planting scheme on the left side. |
A line of ornamental pear trees decorates the front of another house on the other side of the road.
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| I took this photo in between 2 back-to-back rainstorms. As messy as ornamental pears (Pyrus calleryana) can be, these well-manicured specimens always look elegant in early spring. |
I managed only a few shots on the other side of the neighborhood.
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| This garden, designed by a former neighbor who's since moved, has always been a favorite of mine but the last 2 owners haven't been as invested in keeping it fresh, although it's tended weekly by a competent gardener. The steep front garden is terraced. The Magnolia (maybe 'Black Tulip') and gigantic Leucospermum (maybe 'Sunrise') have just started blooming. |
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| Another home on the other side of the street features this large Roldana petasitis (aka Californian geranium and velvet groundsel). Native to Mexico, it's reportedly drought resistant despite its large tropical-looking leaves. |
On another occasion, I took a brief jaunt up to the entrance of our neighborhood.
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| The entrance has a gatehouse, a remnant of decades past, but no gate. It's been planted out over the years with succulents donated by neighbors, including me. The aloes are blooming now. The massive Echiums fronting the main road (probably self-seeded) will be blooming in a few months. |
That's it for my latest neighborhood garden survey. Hopefully, I'll get to wander beyond its confines soon. The current rainstorm is expected to clear out sometime this morning; however, there's yet another round of rain on the horizon, currently projected to arrive late Sunday or Monday. Our "water year" rain total to date (since October 1st) stands at 14.53 inches.
All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
