Recently in Gardening 2006 Category

Thinking that this is probably one of the last nice weather weekends before it gets cold (well, as cold as it gets here in California), I did a lot of trimming and cleaned up dead leaves and dying plants yesterday.

This morning, I was torn between watching the NASCAR Cup race or heeding the urge to buy red cylamens (on sale at Orchard Supply Hardware). Getting outside in the beautiful weather won! Of course, I bought more plants than just the cylamen!

Planting is done now - probably until spring...

(Photos 1, 2)
Before we left for Hawaii, I asked Bill to make a structure that would allow less sunlight to hit the potted plants on the plant benches in our backyard (he enjoys making things for me!). After much thought and sketching, we decided to go with a structure that matched our deck. He finished the new "shade" last night! See the first 2 photos. The lattice roof allows the plants to get direct sunlight, but not so much that they suffer in summer heat. It's quite nice to sit in our backyard now! I'm so not a sit-in-the-sun person!

(Photo 3)
That's Jasmine outside the screen door to our backyard, and Cleo peeking through the screen. The picture tells the story: Jaz thinks she's an outdoor cat, but she doesn't go much further than that from the door; Cleo is much more comfortable looking outside than being outside.

(Photos 4-6)
The plants growing on the fence side of our backyard this morning before I left for work. I love the randomness and bunches of color!

(Photos 7-13)
Our front yard. One plant in the right side planter is out of control. It's grown shoots and has nearly filled up the entire planter box. There are even a few shoots growing in the grass outside the planter box. I'm gonna have to remove the plant - all of the shoots - before the yard is overtaken!

While I did work in our gardens last year and I even took some photos, I never got around to posting about it. In summary, I pulled out the 9 rose bushes in the backyard, gave the 4 climbing roses to Paula, and put the 5 non-climbing rose varieties in containers so I could place them where the sun shines more.

I didn't realize how much getting snagged and scratched by the thorns bothered (annoyed!) me until I removed them and put other plants in their place! It's a delight to see the very full green vine with clumps of purple flowers from the kitchen window! I also love the bunches of colored flowered in front of the vines.

As you can see, purple is one of my favorite colors! Red, yellow, orange, and green set it off just right!

On the last weekend in April, I was finally able to get outside to work in the garden! It was cold or rained nearly every day through March and April!

On Friday evening after work and Saturday, I hit the front yard and on Sunday the backyard. It was delightful! The weather was warmish-cool - not too hot, not too cold - with a light breeze.

Some of the plants that weren't working for me were removed and discarded. New plants were put other in their place. Two rose bushes were moved from the short part of the L to the long part where they'll get more sun. I've added more color, which I adore. I'm still undecided whether I want to replace the now nearly leafless vine on the front porch (it has lovely purple flowers!) or add another vine to it with the hope that the purple-flowered vine will come back.

In one of the staff parking lots at the college, there's a wall of Bottlebrush Trees that are now in full bloom. I happened to have my camera with me one day this week and captured them.

There was finally nice weather last weekend! Bill and I worked in the gardens Friday evening after work, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning. While I played "manager," Bill dug up plants I wanted to replace or that took up space I now want to use for something else (4 blue Agapanthus (Lily of the Nile), 2 Orange Canna Lily, [evergreen bush with pink flowers]).

I made a trip to Home Depot Saturday morning to buy a variety of plants and a new shovel to replace the one Bill broke Friday night while digging up the Agapanthus (wow! I'll never plant those in the ground again - the root system is amazing!). After feeling just fine (better than I remember from last year) during over 3 hours of gardening on Saturday, an asthma attack hit me within 10-15 minutes of working in the moist, shady area of the backyard garden. That ended my gardening for the day - and wiped me out for the rest of Saturday.

On Sunday morning, however, I woke feeling just fine again and tackled an hour and a half of front yard gardening before breakfast. There are still quite a few plants that need to be planted. I hear it's going to be nice again this weekend!