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Critter captures
I've tried to get photos of the critters in my garden several times recently and mostly failed. It's usually sheer luck on my part when I manage to get a shot under the best of circumstances, and...
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Leucadendrons: A garden mainstay
I took a step back to assess my Leucadendron collection this week. Commonly known as conebushes, these plants in the Proteaceae family are native to South Africa and generally adapt well to coastal...
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In a Vase on Monday: Variations on a hue
I'm not in love with pale pink but sometimes that's what the garden delivers. Last week, my Amaryllis belladonna began popping up on their leaf-less stems, one after another. Frankly, if I had to...
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A prickly project
After hand-watering my cutting garden and fertilizing the dahlias yesterday morning, I decided to tackle a prickly low-reward project I'd put off for months. It was time-consuming and few people would...
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Looking for bargains
On Wednesday, I took a trip to OC Succulents' satellite store in Torrance, California to see what kind of selection the wholesale nursery had to offer. It's only about 15 miles and 30 minutes from my...
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In a Vase on Monday: Mismatched companions
When I create floral arrangements, whether utilizing complementary colors or analogous colors, I look for color echoes to link the elements. I fumbled in that endeavor this week.I used two varieties...
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Holding Pattern
I've been buying new plants at the worst time of the year to place them in the ground here. Last week I received my most recent order from Annie's Annuals & Perennials.On a sale offer, I ordered 2...
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Too warm to linger long
My blood pressure has been running a bit high and, as I don't want to take medication to control it, I've started making it a point to walk each morning. Earlier this week, instead of walking my own...
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In a Vase on Monday: You can't rush Mother Nature
Once a handful of dahlias began to bloom last month, I thought the remainder would be close behind but it seems that their schedule and mine aren't in sync. Three of the stragglers have buds, while...
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Nature's air conditioner
It was sunny at our elevation when I stepped outside just before 7:30am on Monday but a heavy marine layer had created a wall of clouds between us and the Port of Los Angeles below us. Starting the...
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Looking for shade - and another water leak
To be honest, this isn't the hottest summer we've experienced in our area since we moved in over eleven years ago. The day we first toured the house with our realtor in October 2010, it was 103F/39C...
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IAVOM & Bloom Day Mash Up - August 2022
I don't much like it when In a Vase on Monday and Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day fall on the same day as it makes for a very long post but this is the first and only occasion on which this will happen in...
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In a Vase on Monday: Not much to work with
Dahlia production seems to be on pause. The plants that have been blooming for a month or more are still producing buds but there wasn't much in bloom to construct an arrangement around and the buds...
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Dueling hummingbirds and sleeping bees
Unlike so many areas of the country, our summer here along Southern California's coast hasn't been particularly awful.  We haven't had any temperatures over 100F (yet anyway). We haven't been flooded...
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Time out for succulents
A "time out" usually refers to a suspension of activity, either as punishment for a naughty child or a pause in athletic play. In this case, it refers to short breaks from my caregiver activities to...
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In a Vase on Monday: Stepping onto the stage
I finally got blooms from one of my tardy dahlias. As the tuber for this one was purchased during an end-of-season sale, it wasn't actually all that slow to sprout - it simply got a late start....
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One way to clear a slope...
Monday, as I headed home from the grocery store, I noticed wire fencing along a stretch of the main road I couldn't recall seeing before. I also got a quick glimpse of what I thought were a couple of...
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Adding insult to injury
I've complained about our dry conditions often enough that any regular reader probably knows that's a nearly perpetual state here. I've got a rudimentary gray water system that feeds laundry water...
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In a Vase on Monday: Last call for summer flowers?
We were hit with a wicked heatwave last Wednesday and it's not over yet. On top of that, we received belated notification the same day that our area is subject to a 15-day ban on outdoor watering...
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Fleeting views
It's still hot here and, with humidity running unusually high, it's very unpleasant working outside. I did what I could in the way of hand-watering my garden and spreading mulch before the 15-day...
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