Work day chop!

John and Bob clearing
out shrubs

Today's workday had an energetic crew: Janna, Matt, Emily, Bob and John convened on the garden to make a mark on the plants that have died of drought.


Janna got to work turning the compost and the rest of us cleared a huge amount of dead material to the now HUGE pile in the dog area. Today the plants that got removed were two Kunzea baxteri who, despite having survived the drought were too floppy in form to live where they had been planted. Our Cytisus scoparius (Scotch Broom) had died too - a volunteer who had been cheerfully providing a splash of yellow for a few years, but is now as dead as a dodo. It joined the others on the heap.

Janna all smiles
taking a break form the compost

We also lifted the canopy of the nearby Hakea suaveolens and Berberis linearifolia, cut back the Salvia leucantha (Mexican Sage), Salvia canariensis (Canary Island Sage) and Plectranthus argentea severely, and gave the Watsonia bulbs a haircut.

The whole brights bed looks really different now with only one big tree left, and a determined pair of taller plants: Cussonia spicata and a Berberis linearifolia who needs to be cut down to size...

Before

In the meantime, Matt went and fetched a large Agave "Green Giant" from PRG as it was buried under a Malva. It came up to join the other big Agave of the same cultivar by the wrong way sign. I cleared out tons of overgrown Pelargoniums in the area, and we moved a Coprosma "Evening Glow" to the left bed, and a clump of Watsonias to where the others are. All we need to do there now is add a few grasses and the area is transformed.

After

After all this, Matt and I went and bought some new plants to replace the dead ones - plants we know are tougher than tough! We got 5 Cordylines and a Coprosma, all thanks to a great donation by Christopher Johnson of Mississippi Street!

5 year anniversary

Today is the 5 year anniversary of Pennsylvania Garden, the day that Matt and I went out and planted the very first plants on that nasty lot of land. Awww.

I looked back, and here's what we planted that day, with status update:

• 4 Dietes - they rule; they're everywhere now
• 8 Agapanthus - ditto 
• 3 Hakea suaveolens - flowering as I type
• 3 Kunzea baxterii - never a dull moment
• 1 Coprosma australis (variegated) - kicks major butt
• 2 Geranium maderense - um, not all that prolific...
• 3 Ceanothus "King Sip" (ground covering/low) - superb border edging plant - trimmed some today in fact
• 2 Geranium macrorhizum - bopping around int he left bed somewhere I think...
• 2 Dianella Tasmanica - much too excitable, yet mostly dull looking. I removed and sold them.
• 1 Aeonium - can't even remember where the original plant went, but we have dozens of them.

So yeah. Not bad for the very first selection.

Today we had a volunteer day too, and I should have brought cake except I only remembered it's the 5 year anniversary just now... oh well!

Emily, Matt, Eliot, Mary and Carlin came to help me weed the front border, turn the compost, weed and trash pick Pennsylvania Railroad Garden, cut back Stachys and Plectranthus, and generally get some biz done in the chilly December weather.

John also cam by with a truckload (literally) of Furcraea (some sort of species) which he and Matt went right ahead and planted at PRG, filling in some empty spots instantly.

Later on Matt moved an Agave parryi that had flowered by the arch up to the compost area, pulled out an Agave americana from the same spot and put it up in the dog area, and replaced the original A. parryi with a nice new one.

Good job folks - and happy birthday PG!

Nature abhors a vacuum

Euphorbia characias

According to the ancient philosopher Aristotle, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” Aristotle based his conclusion on the observation that nature requires every space to be filled with something, even if that something is weeds.

According to my philosophy, weeds must go. And then nature once again takes over and requires the newly empty space to be filled with a plant I perceive to be a non-weed.

Nutshell version: today we weeded and planted.

Agave salmiana on the way out

After Emily set up the hose to water the PRG trees today (Thank you Fregosi Paints for donating water!) Matt and I went up to PG and set about our tasks.  First order of business: clean out the terraces, by planting lots of plants.

Naturally this resulted in minor despair, as we have a lot of plants. So we started by taking 6 Agaves down to the PRG/MCG area and planting them. Two Agave parryi, an Agave lophantha and two Agave americanas. I also popped in a Dendromecon harfordii.

I pruned the Salvias and cataloged many of the leftover plants on the terrace so we can sell them on Craigslist. Matt planted an Agave desmetiana and an A. "Sharkskin" down at the bottom of the terrace.

Agave salmiana rehomed

Next Matt moved to the cactus wall. There we had several large plants in one area competing for attention, with nobody winning. At least one had to go, so Matt selected an Agave salmiana - out it came, and into the front border. "The front border!?" you ask, shocked as this has long been an area filled with fluffy flowers and constant weeding and annoyance. Yes. We are going to add Agaves to the front border. And lo, it will be awesome.

While Matt was busy I ripped out the last lavender in the middle back bed, cut back the Plectranthus argentea there, moved a Tulbaghia violacea (Society Garlic) and weeded a lot of grass out from around things. I planted another clump of Calla Lily (Zantedeschia) from Michele there and yes, it all looks a bit sad but it'll perk up before you know it.

I also planted some sort of wavy-leafed Yucca that John gave me ages ago that had 2 Verbascums in the pot too (or somesuch) in the left bed, an Agave bracteosa and an Agave attenuata "Ray Of Light." Phew.

Out with the old, in with the new

Leucadendron "Safari Goldstrike"

Matt and I did our usual Sunday morning garden trip today in the lovely warm sun, with clear skies above and a mockingbird warbling in the Monterey pine tree at the garden. Ah!

I decided to plant a Yucca rigida (Blue Yucca) by the steps. I cleared out a load more yarrow (Achillea) and carved a hole in the steepish slope, uncovering several daffodils just sprouting, as well as some hyacinths going for their third year "in the wild" and still flowering!

Yucca rigida gets planted

The Yucca should get great drainage in that area - we had a small Y. rigida specimen near there years ago that died but I'm hopeful this one will make a go of it.  That spot is also where we have the rest of our small Yucca collection, with a Y. recurvifolia, a Y. linearifolia and a Y. elephantipes "Silver Star."

While I was admiring that scene Matt cut back a Salvia leucantha, some grasses, an Artemisia, and the Matilija Poppy (Romneya coulteri). Whack!

I wanted to plant some Calla lilies (Zantedeschia) donated recently by Michele so decided to take a look at the three lavenders in the middle back bed. Those were some of the first plants we ever put in, back in early 2009, and they're not long-lived. These three now have a distinctly dried-up look to them and I decided their time had come. Before I knew it I was enthusiastically ripping two of them out completely.

Entwined in them are a couple of Plectranthus argenteas so it was a bit of work to cut those back appropriately too, as well as the neighboring rosemary plant. I put the Callas in, looking a bit rough - with a bit of luck they'll bounce back - and decided to leave the third lavender for another day.

Winter chores

Miscanthus moved

Today Matt and I went out to the garden for the first time in weeks to get some chores done.

First I coppiced the Cotinus coggygria (Purple Smokebush) which is something I've been dying to do for ages.  Coppicing is a nice way to say "cut completely down to the ground" and you do it to some shrubs to get them to grow back vigorously from the base and show off their beautiful new foliage.

Our Cotinus had been grown into a standard when we got it - a 3' tall trunk with branches growing out of that, like a little tree. It looked weird in the border, and various shoots tried to grow from the base too, making it look weirder. So I cut it to the ground. Fingers crossed it comes right back!

Matt moved an ornamental grass from the left bed to the middle back bed. No idea what it is - probably a Miscanthus - but one thing's for sure: the Fuchsia boliviana was crushing it.

Then he removed a grass that wasn't great from the brights bed and replaced it with four Aloe maculatas from the middle front bed, where they were being crushed by an Aeonium.

I cut back the Dahlia imperialis, weeded a whole lot of weeds out, trimmed a Plectranthus argentatus, and tried to decide what species of Agave to plant in the dog area where someone keeps crashing into the Salvias to use the border as a bathroom. Yuck. Hopefully a sharp spine to the nether regions will stop that nasty habit ;)

It's never really quick

Plectranthus top left,
Euphorbia bottom right

You think you're going to go to the garden and quickly water what needs to be watered, and do a quick tidy. No chance! Hours later you look at the time and... eek!

Today I watered several areas, and planted the following, one of each:

Teucrium betonicum (Madeira germander) - anything from Madeira is a freind of mine. Emily picked this out.
Phormium "Yellow Wave" - from John.
Euphorbia "Blackbird" - in the same spot where one failed before. Is this wise? We shall see.
Plectranthus parviflorus "Sapphire Dream" - A variegated one.The other Plectranthus we have, P. argenteus, does really well for us. Fingers crossed here!

Phormium spilling over
the old stump

These all went in the area of the left bed that was cleared of lupines and Brugmansia yesterday. Yes, it's more watering, but they won't live in their pots forever, so in they went!

Windy, and purply

It's seriously windy today. I went to the garden at lunchtime to pot up twenty one 4" pots of  Lychnis coronaria (rose campion) that were given to us by John. The pots were flying all over the place!

I love the intense pink color of the rose campion, so hopefully the seedlings will take and we can put them all over the place.

The middle back bed is looking nice today. I had planned it to include many shades of purplle and silver, and the photo here shows just that! Working from lower left in a clockwise fashion we have silvery lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina), variegated Society Garlic (Tulbaghia violacea), more lamb's ears, orange California poppies, blue pincushion flowers (Scabiosa), Lavendula stoechas "Madrid Purple" (lavender), and in front of that the strappy leaves of Aristea major (about to flower for the first time!), then silvery Plectranthus argentatus, a purple Lantana camera, and finally the Pacific Coast iris (Iris douglasiana) on the bottom right.

Sun!

Red bed makeover
part deux.

After the last week of perishing cold, rain and hail, we are back to sun. Matt and I met Emily in the garden today and knocked a few tasks off the list.

First we removed all the plants from the south end of the red bed and rearranged them. We had too many red colored planted there (hazard of calling it the "red bed" I suppose!) and too many tall plants at the front/short ones in the back.

First we pulled out the giant clump of lavender Watsonias out - about to start flowering, their subtle color is lost in that bed. Matt took out a clump of Dianella tasmanica in the left bed and replaced it with the Watsonias.

Osteospermum and lavender

We brought a yellow variegated Phormium to the front, added a yellow Santolina virens, a lime green Euphorbia characias and a purple and lime green Salvia mexicana "Limelight" to one group. Next we uncovered a group of three Kniphofia uvaria "Flamenco" from the front middle bed for a dose of orange hues, and rearranged the purple bearded Irises there.

Blue skies and daffodils!

Next we replanted three Dianthus "Fire Star" and five burgundy Gazanias at the very front, and rearranged the Anemones and Ranunculus too. After Emily left I planted a Plectranthus argenatus and a Salvia curviflora too.

Matt propagated from Cortaderias and I mulched and watered things in.

Garden Tour a success

Today was the Potrero Hill Garden Club Tour in support of the Potrero Hill Library. 15 gardens were on the tour and we were "open" from 10am-3pm. John joined me in the garden all day to answer questions and do some final primping - thanks so much for giving me some company!

What a day. Lots of people stopped by, including two old friends I haven't seen in ages,  and we sat on the bench and caught up - it was lovely. And with all those people came lots of questions that I hope I answered successfully. The final tally is:

Most commented upon garden feature: The twig borders
Number of sandwiches consumed by me for lunch: 0.5
Favorite plant: The Princess Plant! Closely followed by the Scarlet Flax and Agastache.
Number of times story of Caltrans explained: hundreds
Number of people who sat on the new bench: 12

Number of tickets sold: 170

Amount of money raised for the library: $3500!!!

I was too tired in the end to attend Kepa's potluck afterwards, but it was a really fun day. Thanks to everyone who got the garden ready for it's big show!

Photos top to bottom: Front to back: Osteospermum, California poppy, Aster "Bill's Big Blue" plus Plectranthus on the right.

Agastache "Apricot Sprite," Red California poppy, Linum grandiflorum "Rubrum" (Scarlet Flax), Leucadendron.

Agave americana variegata  and Achillea "Walter Funke" 

Euphorbia myrsinites and Crassula capitella subsp. thyrsiflora.

Tuesday night fix

Above: the front border showing three pics of before, during and after, from two angles. Befores are December 08 or February 09, afters are today!

I rushed home to plant the rest of the plants from the weekend's Pacifica haul, and managed to get the following in the ground:

2 clumps Plectranthus tomentosa (I think - smells like lemon!)
4 clumps Echeveria "Sun Dancer" (probably)
3 clumps Crassula corymbulosa “Red Pagoda”

Of course lots of little bits fell off, as is the way with succulents, so I scooped them up and took them in the house. They are potted in 4' pots now - we have 2 flats full. Yep, house is starting to look a little Sanford and Sons-esque again...

I also chatted with my charming neighbors and their dogs, and a stranger who crossed the road to tell me that the garden fills his heart. Well, gosh! *blush*

This morning I brought out a bucket of water for the Cardoon (floppy) and emptied our compost bucket into the bin. There's some good compost brewing in there!