Getting stuck in (the ground) today

Things that got the dubious pleasure of being planted in P. Garden today include:

2 Solanum laciniatum (Kangaroo apple)
2 Heuchera (Coral Bells) "Snow Angel" and a dark purple one.
2 Impatiens niamniamensis "African Queen"
1 Bougainvillea (top - the "before" pic. Wonder what the "after" will look like!)
1 Hardenbergia violacea (Purple Coral Pea vine - below)
1 Cactus of unknown sort

Also: Digitalis purpurea (foxglove), Iris, Fragaria vesca (Alpine Strawberry), Cineraria and 3 Gasteria bicolor (Lawyer's Tongue) - all from craigslister Emma - thank you so much!

Hopefully the Bougainvillea and Hardenbergia will cover up the nasty chainlink fence, and deter people from climbing over it back there. I found several needles too - I should buy thicker gloves...

Our neighbor from up the hill David came by and offered us a lovely wooden garden arbor, which looks fantastic at the top of the steps. Thanks! He also brought us a massive bag of gorgeous lemons from his tree (how I covet that tree!) and I met his pretty daughter Julia too. Good times.

On top of that, Ron the Iron Maverick came by and man, is he a double espresso! In no time he had the arch picked up, put in place and staked. Then he put bricks on the steps. Oh and he added landscape stones to some plants on the hillside so they don't slide off. Oh and he shored up the downhill side of the path to the steps. Oh and he moved a big branch for me, and experimented with wavy bricks and, and, and... most of this time I was standing gabbing away with his lovely wife Gina and his dog Tank, so you know I felt like a loser when he drove off. What can I say - thanks for giving up almost a whole Saturday to P. Garden - I truly appreciate it :)

I did manage to scrape all the leaves and junk out of the gully and form them into a compost heap of sorts (left - not one that will decompose into usable compost as apparently cordyline leaves have a half life of 763,000 years), as well as weaving the front round border edge from all the leftover branches. I have to say branch weaving has been my favorite project at P. Garden - it doesn't murder my back, and they results are instant, useful and look good! I have spied more branches at Jackson field round the corner, and will try to get some (before they are wood-chipped) so I can weave edges for the remaining three borders.

I also extended the front edge border so the compost pile is gone (left.) The compost-and-branch pile is gone at last! What on earth shall we plant there?