| Posted on Friday, January 02, 2004 - 01:28 pm: |   
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What a better way to start a new year than with a new journal. With the days getting longer now, the weekend activity will pick up, bringing to an end a nice month-long lull in December. January here is on average warmer by a few degrees than December, but the weather will remain unpredictable until mid February or so.
Today was busy; we had to try out a new telescoping pruner and cut out the lower branches of a bay tree that was beginning to overshade the bed beneath. It looked really good and a lot more sun will come in now.
I finally potted up a Hebe glycophylla 'Variegata' that I should have never planted in the first place, and replaced it with a nice 5-gallon Astelia chathamica. It looks fantastic next to the Phormium and the Dianella tasmanica.
Next was digging up a Salvia leucantha that grew so scraggly this year, and replaced it with a Salvia apiana. I think the silver leaves of the apiana will be a good offset to the Euryops behind it.
I moved the Osteospermum out of the salvia garden where it was grossly overgrown and too shaded to the foot of the Salvia brandegei. That way it gets lots of sun and little water. I also dug up some Salvia spathacea shoots from the back shaded bed and put them in around the base of a Euryops.
Then I dug up two patches of Orostachys iwarenge that got too hot and dry this summer. One I put in the "recuperation" area and the other I am going to take back to SF and nurse to health there. In its place I planted a gallon of Sedum dasyphyllum that was sitting in a pot since I bought it in October. It needs it more dry and hot than the Orostachys.
We had 1.92 inches of rain between midnight and 7 am yesterday and another 0.15 inches this morning. The garden is drenched, the river is up, and it is so hard to imagine the summer drought.
Back to SF this afternoon—lots of potting up to do there too.
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| Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 05:56 pm: |
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Now is the time of year I start feeling so rushed to get everything in place before spring and the dry season. Everything is so growing so fast and there's not enough time on the weekends to get it all done. I played hookey today to go check out why the weather station stopped transmitting (power outage shut the computer down), and decided to stay a few days and try to catch up on the pruning and transplanting. Not much of a start today. It didn't stop raining til 3 pm but then the sun came out and there was an incredible rainbow over the canyons. Maybe a good sign that the garden will do ok this year?
I got 2 Beta vulgaris 'Bull's Blood' in the ground near the cabbages that will be ready in a month or so. Then I moved the Salvia patens forward to a spot near the Anisodontea, and put three transplanted Stachys coccinea 'Hot Spot Coral' that weren't doing well on the rocky hillside in behind them. Should be some red and blue for spring. I pruned back the Salvia elegans 'Honey Melon'--it's already sprouting new growth--and cut back the Salvia elegans to prep it for transplant tomorrow. I also cut back one Salvia microphylla that had a lot of die out in the middle. I chopped back half of the Hedychium stalks to give more light to the Saxifraga, and pruned the lower branches of the lemon.
Tomorrow is 14 transplants and 3 new plantings. Someday I'll get a sense of design and not have to move everything around each year.
Let's see, since Jan. 1 I've planted Astelia chathamica 'Silver Spear', Sedum dasyphyllum, Delosperma brunnthaleri, Delosperma congestum, Lampranthus deltoides, Sedum praealtum, and Aeonium rubrolineatum, and transplanted Hebe glaucophylla 'Variegata' (to a pot), Salvia spathacea, Osteospermum x 'Springstar Arctur', Teucrium majoricum, Lobelia valida, Salvia candelabrum, Phormium 'Thumbelina', Euphorbia 'Blue Haze' (to a pot), and Salvia rubescens.
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| Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 07:32 pm: |
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My arms are aching big time. The day turned out very nice, high of 59 with some sun. I made lots of headway on the transplant work, but I'm not sure if it will look better this year than it did last year. There's still such a collage of plants around.
I started by moving the Anigazanthos flavidus from behind the Echium to the space where the Salvia patens was, then planted the three I dug up from the rocky hillside and put them where the Salvia candelabrum was. Then I got the Lobelia tupa from back and put it at the start of the path where the Raoulia australis was--it died out over winter. Then I moved the Salvia x superba 'Blue Hill' up by the Euphorbia dulcis, and potted up the Coreopsis 'Limerock Ruby'. Then I dug up one of the Salvia elegans from in front of the Echium and put it where the Coreopsis was.
I brought the Salvia nubicola from back and put it near the Echiums so it can have the shade it needs during summer. Then I got the Trifolium rubens and put it back along the path near the Euphorbia dulcis. Then the fun began. I moved the Salvia miltiorhiza (really red roots--that's dan shen of Chinese medicine!) and the Salvia dolicantha over to the terrace, but first had to move the Salvia corrugata and Salvia sagittata over to replace them. The Felicia was in the way too, so I first moved it up to where the Euphorbia 'Blue Mist' was last year by the Teucrium. The pale green leaves really show up around the Euphorbias. Finally I got everything moved and watered in, and decided to call it a day.
I went and looked for a bag of compost this morning at Stumptown, but she had only firmulch. I can use that as a mulch, but got some to add to the Mexican salvia soil. She had some cool succulents, and for $2.75 apiece I got nice pots of a Sempervivum with purple leaf tips, two Echeverias and what looks like a Sedum. The Semp is hardy enough for here, and I'm going to test one of the Echs out too, but the others will join the other pots in SF.
A bit more transplanting and planting tomorrow, then back to the City. It's supposed to rain Friday.
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| Posted on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 06:35 pm: |
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Whew. Another busy day, but at least the weather held out. It was full sun by afternoon, but rain is expected tomorrow.
I started with the "easy" stuff this morning, planting up some of the 4" pots of stuff I got from Annies. First in were the two Penstemon heterophyllus, which I placed around the garden Penstemon already on the rocky hillside. I hope the blue will cool some of the reds in that part of the hill. The one I planted last year looks to still be alive, but half the soil was washed off it. I noticed new roots out into the soil, so I put more soil around it and will see what happens. I couldn't figure where to put the Digitalis ferruginea 'Gigantea' since it doesn't really go with many of the plants and appears to want more sun than some of the other digitalis I have. So I stuck it back between the Coreopsis gigantea and the Salvia elegans. It should cover the bare lower parts of those plants but have plenty of room for its giant spike. Then I put in the Sempervivum sp. Purple Tips (my name) near another semp in the succulent terrace. I can't wait to get the rest of the Aeoniums in there. Finally I puzzled over how to use a Brachyscome multifida 'Winter' with white blossoms. I finally put it in behind the Salvia patens along the path since it should only get 12" high.
I had energy for only one transplant..the second Salvia elegans to where the dead Salvia microphylla was. The two are at opposite sides of the garden and I hope they grow as well in the sandy soil as they did in the humusy soil they came from.
I spent about a half-hour taking pictures and more mental notes of what else needs to be done, but with these three days here, I made a lot of headway on our spring projects. I headed back to the city about 3 pm.
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| Posted on Saturday, February 07, 2004 - 07:16 pm: |
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Finally back in the garden again. What a workplan for today--the main task was rebuilding the little wedge bed and raise the soil level, which had fallen 4-5" from when it was first put in. But that alone meant a whole chain of events had to happen. K. went off to get the half-cubic-yard of amended loam, while I planted the chard, Brachyscome 'Toucan Touch', Nemophila menziesii and Leyia platyglossa in the salvia garden.
Then we had to remove the old Salvia greggii 'Variegata' to be replaced by its baby cutting I grew from it last year. It was totally woody and needed replacement. We moved the Aconitum napellus to the main terrace by the Salvia dolicantha, since it should be done blooming by the time the Salvia takes over. Then we had to prep the back for the next move, so we cut down the rest of the ginger stalks, removed the rest of the old soaker hoses, cut back the Salvia cacaliaefolia and moved it over to behind the gingers where the Salvia nubicola used to be. That should give it something to sprawl up against. Then we dug up the Anthriscus sylvestris 'Raven's Wing' and moved it into that spot. Then we went back and dug up the Athyrium nipponicum 'Pretum' and planted it where that unsuitable fern was, and finished emptying the bed by digging up the rest of the plants and storing them in the wheelbarrow while we added new soil to the bed. We ended up using the entire half-yard in there, and raised it almost to the level of the brick wall edging. Looks much better!
We returned the other plants to the bed, but stuck the Astilbes farther back as they will eventually be tossed out, but we have too many other things to do this spring than to find substitutes for them, so they get a reprieve. We replaced several of the Aquilegias, favoring the native A. formosa. We used gallon cans to indicate where the Echium pininana, the Melanoselinum decipiens and the next Dicksonia antarctica will go. We finished it off by digging up some of the Clarkia concinna seedlings from the pot in the driveway and edging the bed with them. They really are stunning plants.
I cleaned out as much of the horrid Gallium odoratum as I could--what a worthless plant, then dug up the Pelargonium sidoides and put it in a sunny spot over in the salvia bed so it can drape over the wall.
I also potted up some Euphorbia griffithii from the main terrace and will see what happens to them in a pot in richer soil. These Himalayan euphorbias aren't really suited for a California climate.
We divided the Sedum in the crescent--I couldn't believe how solid the root mass was--and stuck them over by the steps down the driveway, replacing the Salvia clevelandii that was there. Apparently that planting job wasn't done too well, since it had hardly moved beyond its 4" pot size. We put that in a pot too for the driveway for now.
The weather was great. 60F, sunny and very pleasant. Everything is really growing fast now and not much time to get all this done. Lots more tomorrow...
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