In a Vase on Monday: The zinnias keep going and going...
Are zinnias the Energizer Bunnies of the garden? I think they might be. I dug out the last of the dahlia tubers last week but I haven't had the heart to pull out the remaining zinnias even though I...
View ArticleCleaning Up: First Steps
Our remodel is still hitting snags but nonetheless moving inexorably nearer to closure. I've worn blinders for the past several months to avoid getting too worked up about the collateral damage to my...
View ArticleIn a Vase on Monday: Going tiny
Today is the anniversary of the popular meme, In a Vase on Monday, launched by Cathy of Rambling in the Garden six years ago. I joined up at the end of March 2014 and have participated regularly ever...
View ArticleWednesday Vignette: A pall over the horizon
Visitors to my garden often exclaim about the view from my back garden, which overlooks the Port of Los Angeles. It can be attractive and interesting but its appearance is frequently blurred by a...
View ArticleGarden Bloggers' Bloom Day - November 2019
November isn't the best month for gardens in the Northern Hemisphere and mine is no exception. There's less in bloom in my garden this month than there was last year at this time but that's a...
View ArticleIn a Vase on Monday: Last Call for the Zinnias
I finally pulled the last of my zinnias on Saturday as another round of high winds and unseasonably warm temperatures moved into Southern California. I cut and put aside the remaining presentable...
View ArticleWednesday Vignette (Late Edition): Rain, at last
It's hard not to take rain forecasts with a grain of salt here, especially when the first 3 weeks of November were unusually hot and humidity levels were stuck in the single digits all too frequently....
View ArticleReady or not...
As mentioned in my last post, we'd hoped to be done with our home remodel this week. As it turns out, we're not. We received the wrong hearthstone and may have to wait another few weeks for delivery...
View ArticleIn a Vase on Monday: A little of this and a little of that
While my climate is far gentler on plants during the fall/winter season than many other gardeners can claim, the pickings are definitely slimmer at this time of year, especially as I was late in...
View ArticleMy renovated bromeliad bed
I finally got back to work on the bromeliad bed I've been slowly renovating over the past 2 months. I can't say I'm completely done with it - is any garden bed ever done? - but it has a more finished...
View ArticleIn a Vase on Monday: Understudies steal the show
I had a couple of blooms in mind as focal points for this week's vases but, in both cases, other flowers ended up stealing the spotlight. In the first case, a tall-stemmed Lisianthus (Eustoma...
View ArticleChristmas tree takeover
Christmas trees fill Roger's Gardens' North Forty areaYou may have noticed that I haven't been blogging as much. That's partly due to the prolonged process of completing our renovation project (still...
View ArticleIn a Vase on Monday: Begging the Hummingbirds' Forgiveness
It's rained off and on for more than 2 weeks now (yay!) but that's left the limited flowers I have left looking rather disheveled. My inspiration for this week's vase was the ribbon bush I've finally...
View ArticleWednesday Vignette: Diverting views from the back garden
Coastal Southern California doesn't experience the onset of winter in the same way as other parts of the country but after a sharp cold snap and three solid rainstorms, the seasonal shift is becoming...
View ArticleBloom Day - December 2019
I've got fewer flowers to share than I had last December but perhaps that can be explained by the colder-than-usual temperatures we had in late November and lighter rain. Or, it could be largely...
View ArticleIn a Vase on Monday: Something a little different
The cool-season flowers in my cutting garden got a late start and most are nowhere near bloom-stage yet. While I still have plenty of the flowers I've featured in recent weeks, anything I did with...
View ArticleHoliday Updates
Finishing up a home remodel and putting our house back in order while also preparing for Christmas and dealing with a serious medical problem affecting my beloved cat has added considerable chaos to...
View ArticleIn a Vase on Monday: A Zombie Christmas
There's still very little going on in my garden when it comes to floral displays. I've got seedlings coming up here and there but it'll be a good month or two before I start to see vase-worthy blooms...
View ArticleFall Color: Better late than never
Coastal Southern California isn't known for its fall foliage color. However, looking back at posts from prior years, it appears that I usually uncover traces of it sometime in November. That didn't...
View ArticleSnow on Saturday
Actually I took this photo on Thursday but I couldn't resist the alliteration. At sundown, as our latest rainstorm moved out of the area and the clouds moved out of the way to briefly reveal a clear...
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