As I mentioned
last month, I'm altering my approach to my monthly wide shots post. This month, I'm focusing on the front and southeast side garden areas. Despite 2 heatwaves in March and another this week in which temperatures in our area have been stuck in the mid-90sF (35C), the front garden is holding up and continuing to fill in.
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| The beautiful blue sky doesn't tell the whole story. It's hot and very, very dry. |
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| The area to the left of the central walkway, occupied by lawn this time last year, continues to fill in nicely |
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| This area behind the roses in the front right foreground, all the way to the trees in far background, was also lawn in May 2014 |
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| This is the same area, viewed from the other side. The thyme continues to spread and the variegated Ceanothus griseus horizontalis has begun to creep but the Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt' looks much like it did when it was first planted - if my other 'Cousin Itt' hadn't behaved the same way, I'd be worried. |
The adjoining southeast side garden has undergone a few changes, although they may not be readily evident in these first 2 photos.
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| The usual view through the arbor looking toward the Los Angeles harbor |
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| The usual view of the side garden from the patio |
My third photo reflects the changes I made. I found 3 more of the
Solanum xanti I've been looking for and snapped them up, replacing an
Osteospermum,
Euphorbia and
Pennistetum that had failed to thrive in the area in the foreground on the left. The
Solanum I planted in the backyard in November have done well and I can only hope that these California natives can get established before the heat gets worse. The plastic bottle you can see in the photo is one of 3 attached to funnels that slowly drip water into the root system of my new transplants. I also moved 3
Agave 'Blue Glow' from the bed in the background and placed them in the center of the bed on the left, surrounding them with
Crassula radicans, moved from the same area,
Lavandula augustifolia and
Seslaria caerulea. It was bad timing on my part given the heat we experienced this week but I expect its the last of the spring planting I'll do this year.
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| The newly planted area is on the left |
The last major change is this one:
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| Our new 165 gallon rain collection tank, not yet hooked up to the gutter system |
It's not especially attractive and it'll probably get no use until the next rainy season begins in November or thereabout but I'm hoping it and another 265 gallon rain collection tank, currently on back-order, will help make a difference in next year's garden.
That's it for this month's wide shots. My thanks to Heather of
Xericstyle for starting me on this monthly exercise.
All material
© 2012-2015 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
