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In a Vase on Monday: Maybe I'm in a rut
It feels as though I'm recycling the same dahlias week after week. I checked my posts since my first IAVOM post featuring dahlias in mid-August. I found that I've used Dahlias 'La Luna', 'Mikayla...
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Puttering about
I've been busy for the past week cutting plants back, tidying things up, and even doing a little planting. Between taking down the dead Auranticarpa rhombifolia and my end-of-summer pruning...
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While work was temporarily on hold
As I mentioned in my last post, my end-of-summer cleanup came to a temporary halt when I filled all three of my green bins. (I even topped off two of a neighbor's bins.) While awaiting the city's...
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In a Vase on Monday: Magnificent Mutants
Last week I complained that I thought I was in a rut with my dahlia-based flower arrangements. In response, my friend HB of Piece of Eden suggested that maybe I could try a minimalist or Ikebana-style...
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Musical chairs in the garden
While most of my end-of-summer/early fall cleanup has involved clearing debris, pruning overgrown plants, and removing plants that are dead, dying or unappealing, filling waste bins in the process,...
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A look at this week's projects
My approach to items on my "to do" list is usually haphazard and this week was no exception. I finished cleaning up the leaf debris on the front slope on the southwest end of my garden, deadheading...
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In a Vase on Monday: An embarrassment of riches
It's October and I've got more dahlias than I know what to do with, even though I've been giving bouquets away here and there. In 2017, the first year I grew dahlias, they were gone by September....
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Wide Shots - October 2023
The year is spinning by. While I look forward to the cooler days of fall, I'm also sad to see the end of the longer days of summer. As fall is the busiest season of the gardening year in my climate,...
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New plants and plant prospects
What's your approach to buying plants for your garden? Do you research candidates to fit your climate and space requirements and draw plans to determine how they might complement other plants? There...
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In a Vase on Monday: Can you have too many dahlias?
The dahlias in my cutting garden have gone bonkers. 'Iceberg' is finally in the process of opening its first bloom so now all those I planted this year have made a showing. Even though the...
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Clearing the decks
When it comes to preparing for my annual tree trimming exercise, I'm always amazed by the amount of stuff I need to move out of the way to minimize the risk of damage to potted plants and decorative...
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Bloom Day - October 2023
I'm two days early for Bloom Day but hopefully you don't mind. Weather conditions here have been so variable, I've no idea what to expect from my garden the rest of this month but there are still a...
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In a Vase on Monday: Nearing the end of the road
Another very warm weekend with bouts of wind caused more dahlias to keel over, and the prospects for seeing dahlias through the end of the month have grown dimmer. There were plenty to fill vases this...
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Tree trimming update: There's always collateral damage
The tree service I've used for ten years arrived on schedule at 8am last Thursday morning. I walked through the garden with the arborist who owns the business and the crew's leader, reviewing what...
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Off the see the - Trolls?
The weather has felt very unlike fall this week. The morning hours have been foggy and the afternoon hours have been hot.Sometimes, at sunrise, the fog/marine layer sits just below our elevation,...
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In a Vase on Monday: It's time to embrace autumn
The combination of mildew, heat, and high winds brought my summer cutting garden to an abrupt end. It was expected but sad nonetheless. I began cutting back the mildewed dahlia foliage last week with...
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Bi-annual plant shopping trip to Carpinteria & Santa Barbara
A friend and I made our bi-annual plant shopping trip to Carpinteria and Santa Barbara last weekend after it was postponed weeks ago due to unpleasantly hot temperatures. The sun was intense in...
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Lots of dirt under the fingernails
I've spent a lot of time in the garden this week. I no sooner get the dirt scrubbed from my fingernails than I find myself diving into another task, leaving them filthy again. I occasionally take a...
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In a Vase on Monday: Save the last dahlia for me
Deconstruction of my cutting garden is well underway. I left four dahlias with large buds in place for awhile last week but ultimately gave up on all but one of them. All the other dahlias - or at...
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Clearing the decks
During the past week, I've spent a lot of time clearing the raised planters in my cutting garden of the remnants of summer blooms, packing away dahlia tubers, and refreshing the soil in those beds to...
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