Wide Shots - April 2015

My garden is sunnier in this month's wide shots.  No, this isn't due to the weather - in fact, we've had fog every morning this week.  Removal of one tree (discussed here), trimming of other trees and foliage, and the sudden demise of a section of hedge in the front garden is letting in more sun.

The change is most pronounced in the backyard border, where a tall Agonis flexuosa was removed in mid-March.

The photo on the left shows the back border on March 1st and the one on the right shows the same area on April 1st

View of the backyard looking south toward the remaining Agonis

Photos of the backyard, looking north toward the mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin), which is just beginning to leaf out

2 views of the backyard from the north, looking south

The mid-section of the back border has been replanted, although I haven't decided if I'm satisfied with it yet.  After great suggestions from commentators, much deliberation, and a round of several nurseries and garden centers, I selected Callistemon 'Cane's Hybrid' to fill the vacancy left by the tree.  The Callistemon, only 3 feet tall now, will reach 10 feet at maturity, not tall enough to become a source of any future complaints on the part of my neighbor about her view of the harbor.  However, it'll be a few years before the area fills in and additional tweaking is likely.

Two-thirds of the plants in the mid-border were in the area before or were moved from nearby sections of the back border.  New plants include the Callistemon (shown in close-up on the lower right), 3 Digiplexis and 2 Salvia 'Wendy's Wish.'

The area on the south side of the house experienced relatively few changes, although it too is getting a bit more light due to the thinning of trees at the front of the property.

The usual view of the south side garden, looking through the arbor toward the harbor

Other views of the south side garden

The area I call the "glen," which sits below the south side garden and next to the street, is a lot sunnier. Two of the neighbors south of us cut back their foliage and we, too, trimmed hedges to eliminate obstructions to the views of the neighbors directly across the street.

From left to right: path from side yard down into the glen; the area looking to the upper level; and the recently pruned hedge material

I've filled in more of the blanks in the front garden area.  Everything is filling in nicely.  I've lost only one of the plants I put in after the front lawn was removed.  However, as mentioned, a large section of hedge died off suddenly this month, leaving a gap on the upper level.  As I'd already lost one of the shrubs along the street, this has left what was a relatively private area of the garden exposed to the street.

The usual view from the driveway looking at the front door

On the left: a view of the bed on the left (north) side of the front walk; on the right: the 'Joseph's Coat' rose that grows up the chimney just outside the frame of the photo on the left

Photos of the garden beds on the right (south) side of the front walkway, viewed from 2 directions

These photos show the gaps left behind by the loss of a large section of Ceanothus hedge on the upper level and removal of the dead Auranticarpa rhombifolium along the street.  I'm currently leaning toward filling the gap along the street with another Xylosma shrub, expanding the existing Xylosma hedge (visible on the left in the photo on the far right).

Circling around the house to the north, I still haven't done much with the vegetable garden.  My Coriandrum (cilantro) and lettuce are bolting in response to the intense heat we had in March.

Like the south side garden, the dry garden on the north end of the house hasn't changed much, except that the grapevine and deciduous trees have leafed out.

More plants are blooming every day along the slope.  Carpenteria californica surprised me by blooming this year.  Centranthus ruber and Oenothera speciosa are flowering but are weeks away from reaching peak bloom.

From left: the view of slope looking down from the stairway behind the dry garden; the view of the area looking up from the bottom level; and a view of the boundary between our property and that of our neighbor, showing the 3 Pittosporum tenuifolium I planted in February

That's it for this month's wide shots update.  My thanks again to Heather of Xericstyle for getting me started with this exercise.  In the future, I'll be moving to a quarterly overview of the entire garden, while perhaps featuring reviews of specific sections of the garden in between.


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