Bricktopia and composterella

Today we toiled in the hot sun - Gary's wall reflects it onto the succulent bed and it was roasting! I planted Aloes, Agaves, Aeoniums and other assorted succulents along the wall and on the back slope.

We also put in the Cordyline "Festival Grass" (left) and were visited by Jess, Adolfo and Sophia. We met Elizabeth and her happy dog Peeka, and Jim and his two lovely dogs. After that we headed up for some coffee at Farley's. We met Randy of Potrero Hill Garden Club on the street - he was tending his sidewalk garden. I have been admiring it for ages. Coincidence!

Fueled by breakfast, Matt got to work on the wavy bricks. He pulled together a beautiful entrance way patio. We plan to put our two half wine barrel planters on each side, hopefully framed with an arch. Ooh, it's going to be nice.

Leah came by and dropped off a fantastic composter we can fill with household scraps, coffee grounds, horse poop and other compostables. Unlike the, um, "organic waste heap" in the corner, we won't put weeds, pine cones, twigs and other less than ideal items in it, and it will produce great compost a lot faster than the heap does.

She also brought two big flats of Cineraria stellata which will make a lovely colorful carpet in the shade. Thanks Leah!

In other news, the Starbucks coffee grounds got picked up... they suggested 2 other Starbucks we should add to the rounds. What volume of coffee grounds is too much? Not known.

Next we went to the barn, and on the way home dropped by Lowes and got a 100' heavy duty kink proof hose (sadly, having used a non-kink proof hose I now find this incredibly thrilling!), a brass splitter, trigger nozzle, and last but not least a soaking wand. You heard it here first: I can't wait to water stuff!

Finally, at about 8pm we drove up to see a couple of kids emerging from the storm drain area of the garden, rubbing their hands. I knew they'd been trying to hop the fence back there. "Get a few cactus spines in your hands?" I asked... they took off and jumped in a car. I hope they don't come back... time for my solar powered security light to go up back there.