Getting ready for the block party

Cordyline flowering

Yesterday I shopped for plants to decorate the block party with. We needed a few specimens and a lot of ground cover to arrange in tubtrugs for display. I got lots of iceplants, blue fescue, Lithodora and so on, knowing we need them to plant in the garden afterwards.

Today I headed out to the garden early to straighten things up. In about 4 hours I managed to take care of quite a lot of things.

I watered several areas with the sprinkler, and especially the newly transplanted plants. The garden is extremely dry and the weather warm and breezy - classic situation that leads to dead plants if they have recently been moved.

As the sprinkler ran, I weeded out a lot of Crassula lycopodioides from the middle back bed, as it was engulfing some Aloe brevifolias (again), as well as a lot of grass and bindweed that likes to get in there.

I removed a Lupinus arboreus from the left bed - planted in the relatively rich dirt there it had become straggly and wispy. I knew that come summer it'd go seasonally dormant and dry up like a dead twig, like last year, looking fried until late fall. Not a nice look. So out it went. I also pruned the Asclepias curassavica (Butterfly Weed) "Silky Gold" that was nearby, and weeded the whole area thoroughly.

Newly renovated spot.

I discovered some small Nassella tenuissima (Mexican Feather Grass) babies growing in among the weedy middle of the bed and replanted them in a swath towards the front. The middle of that bed now has a wide open spot ideal for something about 3' wide and up to say 5' tall. A white rockrose? Maybe - I'll need to think.

I left the sprinkler going on a low stream, with Emily on the way over a little later to do more weeding and put away the watering tools. Job well done.