Hot, in fact

Yes, today was, in fact, hot. Which was nice consider the last week has been uncharacteristically chilly even for San Francisco. So out I went and did about 4 hours of work:

• Watered front bed, steps area, bamboo/back fence area and left beds with the new sprinkler.
• Trimmed the Cordylines that live in the wine barrels at the front, and watered them (needs to be done more often!)
• Filled water jugs so that midweek Center Hardware strip garden watering will be easy.
• Removed 4 wheelbarrows of corn marigolds and poppies from the front bed - they are done, and the rest need to be pulled out.
• Chatted with David G, and Gary 
• Cut back the Kangaroo Paw that is looking pretty dead....
• Deadheaded roses, Kniphofias, Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia)
• Potted 12 Mexican feather grass babies up for the fall plant sale.
• Removed all the floppy leaves from the cardoon - it's going into flower mode - and put them in the compost bin.
• Noticed that the Cannas had been deadheaded too - must have been Miyuki! 

Whew - I am beat. And there is SO much more to do right now - I started making a list and it got so long I began to wonder if it was all possible! One thing that takes too much time is watering. I spend a lot of time moving the hose and adjusting the sprinkler, which I could be doing more important things.

This is the year we find out if once weekly watering is enough though. And some plants are not going to like it - mostly ones donated by neighbors with wetter gardens. This means I'm going to be digging up some plants and preparing them for the fall sale...

Photo shows the lupine planted yesterday. One thing that really helps plants at P. Garden get a good start in life is a well made basin around the base: the plant ends up at the bottom of a bowl with sides about 6" high, which helps funnel water into the root area. It's very important that our plant get set up like this, since the sun is so fierce, and slope so quick to drain.