Volunteer day projects

New terraces

Today Matt and I met Emily and John at the garden and knocked a few tasks out pretty quickly.

John got to work deadheading the Agapanthus right away. This year's flowering was not as impressive as other years - could be the drought, could be it's time to divide the Agapanthus, or give them some food aka compost.

While Emily got to work on the ever-important task of weeding, Matt finished up a project at the top of the garden: removing the asphalt he dug up last time and finishing up the terraces using the chunks he'd dug out. The two new areas are ready for some hardcore drought loving plants!

Before and after

Next we dug out some holes for the Agave americana pups Chris collected from the arch area for us last month. This is going to create a low Agave hedge, that replaces the old lavender hedge of yore, with Euphorbias, Calandrinias and feather grass in between.

I started a lot of Calandrinia cuttings, but we'll plant the Agaves now and the rest in winter when there's rain.  Spacing the Agaves 12' apart, it leaves room for other species between them. We gave them lots of compost and mulched them in, so they should be looking happier soon.

While all this was going on a few beds got water. The brights bed has some newish Cordylines that need a good start, and the middle border is just parched. Matt and I set up the sprinklers to also water the middle back bed and part of the left bed, then went for lunch.

We heard a shrieking bird as we set up one sprinkler, and I thought it was complaining about its nest getting wet. Then we saw it - a scrub jay who was REALLY enjoying the rain bath, and yelling for joy. Check out the video.