Wide Shots - January 2020

Up until our home remodel started last June, I'd been publishing wide shots of my garden on a quarterly basis in January, April, July and October.  I skipped the July and October posts entirely in 2019.  However, since the port-a-potty, storage pod and construction equipment are now history, I thought I'd pick up the record again, if only to provide a benchmark against which to judge future changes.

I'll start with the back garden.

This summer, I removed the large Echium webii that sat just to the left of fountain because the plant had lost its shape.  I planted a replacement in September, which is doing well, although I don't know how much I can reasonably expect from it this year.  The gray and green Santolina shrubs I planted in the area in 2015 became woody and failed to respond to pruning this fall so I plan to remove those soon as well.  I haven't identified replacements as yet.

View of the backyard borders looking from the south to the north end.  Aloe ferox x vanbalenii is blooming for the first time!

This is the view from the north end looking back in the other direction.  The Argyranthemum frutescens 'Everest' and pansies in the foreground are providing one of the few spots of floral color in my garden at the moment.

The areas closest to the house suffered the most collateral damage related to the remodel.  In the back, that means the area most closely surrounding the patio.  I haven't gotten round to digging out most of the plants that require replacement yet, partially due to the shortage of plant material in local garden centers.  Last week, I focused mainly on cutting back overgrown shrubs.

I cut back the 3 large Cuphea 'Starfire Pink' shrubs in this area and thinned the Mexican feather grass (Stipa tenuissima),  The upturned flats shown in this photo are protecting bachelor button seeds I sowed to provide a a filler until the Cuphea bulks up again.

Circling the house in a clockwise fashion brings me to the garden on the south side of the house.

The succulent garden on the south side sailed through the remodel without injury

However, the 3 "dwarf" peppermint willows (Acacia flexuosa 'Nana') adjacent to the small patio on this end of the house didn't far nearly as well.  In addition to getting covered in dust and debris, the shrubs were plagued by what I think were thrips, which I treated too late and too lightly.  

I cut back one of the 3 Acacia shrubs a month ago to test its resilience.  New growth appeared almost immediately so I've now given all 3 shrubs a hard pruning and sprayed them with Neem oil.  I'm tempted to fill in the open space I've created here with one of the Leucospermums I have languishing in a pot but laying down a temporary groundcover may make more sense.

Proceeding through the arbor shown in the last photo and going left leads me down the slope overlooking the area containing the lath (shade) house my husband built for me in December 2017.

Not much changed in this area in 2019; however, I'm thinking of pulling out the 'Mutabilis' roses planted on the moderate slope in the foreground to plant another of my pot-bound Leucospermums in their place.  The roses were planted by a prior owner and have never performed well here.

This path leads from the lath house area to the driveway.  It's lined with succulents, Echium, and Leucadendrons on one side and a Xylosma congestum hedge on the other side.

The path shown in the last photo leads up to the front of the house.

The front of the house looks much the same from this angle but the area presents some new challenges.  The new HVAC units on each end of the house (one visible in the background on the left in this photo) need to be screened from view.  In addition, a trench was dug along the house on the left side when a corroded gas line was discovered during construction and much of the area outside the frame on the left requires replanting.

View from the north end of the house looking southwest

View from the path to the front door looking south.  As reports from fire-ravaged areas indicate that wood mulch can spread flames, I'm looking to replace the wood chips in the area surrounding our Magnolia tree with creeping thyme or some living groundcover that can stand up to a moderate amount of foot traffic.

View looking across the front garden from the south end to the north

The area on the other side of the driveway next to the garage

The succulent bed at the end of the path shown in the prior photo

Moving to the other side of the driveway brings me to the cutting garden.

The cutting garden doesn't look like much at the moment but the seeds I sowed there are sprouting, as are the Anemone and Ranunculus bulbs.  The citrus growing along the fence is also ripening.

Beyond the cutting garden is the original dry garden on the north side of the house and the path through that area takes me down to the back slope.

Like the south end of the property, the north end was relatively unscathed by the remodel

Despite my plans, I didn't get much done on the back slope during the remodel.  It was simply too hot to work down there much of the summer.  And the fire ants didn't help me any.

I did sow wildflower and California poppy seeds down at the bottom of the slope.  There are lots of seedlings popping up so I'm hopeful I'll get a decent showing once spring arrives.

I'll end by jumping back to the front of the property, taking in the succulent bed that parallels part of the street on the southwest side.

Two Agaves bloomed in 2019, leaving large holes in the street-side succulent bed I've yet to fill.  (Pardon my neighbor's defrocked Christmas tree on the right - I took this photo prior to trash pick-up.)

That's my baseline for measuring my progress in 2020.  I plan another wide shots post in early April when I hope my garden will be looking more colorful than it is at present.


All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party