Wide Shots - March 2015

Rain was predicted for Friday through Monday this weekend but it didn't show up here until last night and it has been light thus far.  In anticipation of the rain, I took my wide shot photos yesterday, when the skies just held the portent of rain.

View of clouds over the Los Angeles harbor

The front garden, irrigated by sprinklers once a week and hand-watered as needed during dry spells, continues to fill in nicely.

Inspired by a recent series of photos from Rock Rose, I took a few pictures from inside the house this month.  This one, taken from our master bedroom, turned out better than many of my exterior shots.

Closer look of the front garden beds on the north side of the front walkway

Closer view of the area on the south side of the front walkway

View looking toward the driveway near the arbor entrance to the south side yard

Although raccoons still rummage through the south side yard one or two times a week, they seem to be doing less damage.  I've used the prickly seed cones that fall from the Magnolia tree and thorny stems from my pruned rose bushes to create rings around the newer and more fragile plants, which, amazingly, seems to put them off a bit even if it hasn't sent them packing.

The usual view through the harbor looking toward the harbor

Another photo taken from inside the house - this one was taken from the living room looking out on the side yard

The usual view looking at the side yard from the backyard

The backyard beds still have holes here and there that need to be filled but I'm holding off any work there until the tree trimming scheduled for next Saturday is completed.

View of the backyard taken from inside our dining room

Exterior view of the backyard, looking south

A longer view looking in the same direction - that "lawn" walkway is little more than a collection of weeds now

View in the other direction, looking north - the tree in the mid-border on the right, at the edge of the frame, is the one we're taking out next week to accommodate a neighbor who claims our trees obstruct her views

The backyard borders north of the main patio, both created last year, are also filling in well.

View of the 2 newest backyard beds, both filled with drought tolerant plants

View of the same beds looking in the opposite direction

Nothing much has been done with the dry garden in the last month.

Photo of the dry garden taken from inside the master bathroom

My husband helped me weed the back slope last weekend.  I did a little planting along the lower slope last month, adding 3 small Pelargoniums and two Agave attenuata pups taken from elsewhere in the garden.  I continue to hand-water the 3 Pittosporum tenuifolium I planted to create a screen between us and our neighbors but I expect it'll be a good year before we have any kind of real barrier there.  Meanwhile, I think the existing lemon, fig and peach trees are benefiting from the increased sunlight.

View of the slope looking down the cement block stairway - you can see the fig tree midway down is already leafing out

The usual view of the slope, looking up

I planted more sugar snap pea seeds to replace the seedlings previously nibbled by critters of some kind but the second round of seedlings disappeared as soon as they broke through the soil as well.  However, one of the sweet pea seedlings has already produced a bloom.  I'm seriously considering skipping vegetables altogether and using the raised beds to grow flowers for cutting instead.

A single sweet pea bloom can be seen on the plant growing up the yellow tomato cage on the right

I haven't touched the street-side succulent bed or the adjoining area I call the "glen" in the past month so little has changed there.

The succulents have filled in some but the shrub on the far left is clearly dead and will need to be taken out.  A neighbor told me that these shrubs, which I think are Auranticarpa rhombifolium, once ran the entire boundary along the street but, when they began dying soon after installation, most were were replaced with Xylosma congestum. 

The glen area is enjoying more light since the neighbors trimmed their trees and I just noticed that the pineapple gauva (Feijoa sellowiana) has already begun to bloom. (It's partially concealed in this photo, which shows it backed by other trees in the distance.)

That's it for this month's wide shots post.  My continuing thanks go to Heather of Xericstyle for inaugurating this monthly exercise.


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