Wide Shots - January 2015

The monthly wide shot meme was launched by Heather of Xericstyle in 2013 and I have joined in with photos from my garden since September of that year.  This month I thought I'd change things up a little and focus on two areas of my garden: my "new" front yard and an area I call the "glen," which I don't often show.

As anyone who has read my posts over the last few months knows, the front garden has undergone a major change.  We removed roughly 800 square feet of lawn surrounding our central walkway this fall and, after lots of work preparing the area, I began planting it in late November.  It's still a work in progress but it's coming along.

Usual view of the front of the house from the driveway

The area to the left (north side) of the front door walkway

The larger area to the right (south side) of the front door walkway

View of the same area, photographed from the south side garden

Although the front garden is far from finished, I've begun thinking about my next project, one that was originally on my mental list to tackle in 2014 but which dropped to the wayside when efforts shifted to the front garden and the street-side succulent bed last year.  I want to make the area I call the "glen" (for little reason other than I need to call it something) more usable.  The area sits inside a hedge (or what used to be a hedge) along the street on the southwest side of our property.  It's accessible by two separate dirt paths.  One path slopes down from the arbor in the south side garden and the other runs behind the Xylosma hedge on south side of the driveway entrance.  I've fiddled with the area off and on since we moved in but, since I mutilated the Pittosporum hedge that formerly hid it from view and planted a succulent bed along the street in front, I think I need to do more to transform the area, starting with building an extension to the existing dry-stacked wall.

This photo shows the path into the area from the upper level

The path leads toward the street, disappearing behind the Xylosma hedge that formerly connected to the Pittosporum hedge

For unknown reasons, the low dry stacked wall holding back the slope ends halfway through the space (roughly in the middle of this photo).  I added some rocks and rubble collected on-site to extend the wall our first year here but that isn't doing the job.

I've added succulent cuttings above the wall and, more recently, planted a small succulent cutting bed  at ground level (partially visible here in the right foreground)

I'll close with collages showing the seasonal progression of other areas of the garden I usually include in my wide shot posts.

Counterclockwise from the top left: The back garden in April, July, and October 2014 and, top right, in January 2015

Counterclockwise from top left: The southeast side garden in April, July, and October 2014 and, top right, in January 2015

Counterclockwise from top left: The dry garden in April, July, and October 2014 and, top right, in January 2015

Counterclockwise from top left: The back slope in April, July, and November 2014 and, top right, in January 2015

The first project of the year will be to address that hideous stump at the bottom of the slope.  The tree service that cut the Yucca elephantipes down to its current height of 4+ feet will be back in mid-January to try cutting it closer to flush with the surface of the soil.  We'll then do our best to expedite the stump's decay and construct a living or man-made screen to create privacy between us and our neighbors on the other side of the stump.  There's always something that needs doing in a garden.


All material © 2012-2015 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party