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One Project Completed and Another One Started
A couple of months ago I commissioned my husband to build me a bench to circle the Magnolia tree in front of the house. With only bark mulch covering the area, the space felt too empty to me....
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In a Vase on Monday: The 'Warrior' Steps Aside
Walking through the garden, the only flowers that leaped out at me as prospects for this week's "In a Vase on Monday" post were those on my Plectranthus ciliatus 'Zulu Warrior'. It isn't the only...
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Wednesday Vignette: Sunrise or Sunset?
Each week, Anna at Flutter & Hum hosts a presentation of images that caught the attention of participating bloggers. I took a photograph of a scene from my bedroom window across our front garden...
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September Favorites
During heatwaves I usually feel as though time is passing very slooowly but despite one heatwave after another this September the month has passed so quickly I feel that I never got my bearings. Since...
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Using every last inch of space
This week I had the opportunity to visit the garden of fellow blogger, Denise of A Growing Obsession. Denise's blog was one of the first I began reading regularly, well before I started a blog of my...
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In a Vase on Monday: Three Small Bouquets
I recently bought a collection of five small, inexpensive glass vases, each a different color but with the same tear drop shape. I filled three of them this week with stems snipped from various areas...
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Wednesday Vignette: Spider Season
It's that time again. Carrying a stick or a broom as one moves through the garden in early morning is recommended, at least if one wants to avoid getting one's face wrapped up in the silky strands of...
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Wide Shots - October 2015
I'm finding it very hard to believe it's already October. It feels like summer here. The days are a bit shorter and the nighttime temperatures have finally dropped below 70F (21C) but those changes...
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In a Vase on Monday: The Same but Different
I've heard many bloggers comment that they've felt the shift in the weather that fall brings but the change in seasons wasn't evident to me until Sunday when the daytime temperature plummeted, falling...
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Wednesday Vignette: Pumpkin Palooza
My free time is mostly occupied with digging and sifting the soil we recently had stripped of sod. It's a seemingly never-ending project but I escaped for several hours last weekend to attend a plant...
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The illusion of space and distance
When we moved into our current house, after spending most of our adult years in densely-populated urban environments, we had the impression of lots and lots of space. During our graduate school years,...
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In a Vase on Monday: Rose starts but doesn't finish
A week ago, it felt as though fall was finally getting its start in my area of Southern California but before the sigh of relief escaped my lips, the heat returned with a vengeance. Temperatures...
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Wednesday Vignette: Sunrise on a hot day
I hesitated to publish another post featuring sunrise photos only 3 weeks after an earlier post on the same topic but the following photos, taken earlier this week, capture the sense of scorching heat...
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Bloom Day - October 2015
It's been hot and, despite unexpected rain in July and September, after 4 years of drought and watering restrictions, the garden is also very dry. However, after looking back on my October Bloom Day...
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Foliage Follow-up: Hedges
I've got hedges on my mind, in part because the Strelitzia nicolai (giant bird of paradise) that formed a visual barrier between us and a neighbor on our north side was recently cut to the ground and...
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In a Vase on Monday: The Last of the Eustoma (maybe)
The pink Eustoma grandiflorum (aka Lisianthus) in my garden got an extended period of bloom with its last flush when 'Mariachi Pink' returned as 'Echo Pink' was finishing up. In recognition of its...
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So what happened to the persimmons this year?
I inherited 2 persimmon trees with the house. They were planted by the guy we bought the house from, which means they're relatively young trees as he owned the house just over a year. They didn't...
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In a Vase on Monday: Pure Sunshine
This week the garden itself selected the flowers for "In a Vase on Monday," the meme hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. Senna bicapsularis, one of my favorite fall bloomers, suddenly burst...
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Trick or Treat?
I'd say this was both a trick and a treat - a trick on me and a treat for a squirrel on a pre-Halloween binge. When I put two pumpkins out by the front door, I knew there was a risk that the critters...
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My Favorite Plants This Month
I've been so fixated on clearing the area formerly covered by sod in the backyard that I'm barely attending to the rest of the garden. I probably bit off more than was realistic with this project....
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