Time to launch those fall projects!

I got started on my fall garden projects in early October but, mindful of the fact that I'd scheduled removal of two trees and the annual pruning of several others in late October, I held off on much of what I'd planned for a time.  Another round of hot weather, vicious Santa Ana winds, and smoke from fires fueled by those winds put the skids on even the work thought I could tackle before the tree service arrived.  I did manage to get a little planting done, however.

I pulled all the zinnias I had in this bed and replanted it using Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow', Heuchera 'Marmalade' and Osteospermum 'Sunshine Beauty'

I cleared space for Ceanothus x pallidus 'Marie Simon' by moving Salvia 'Bee's Bliss', digging out a lot of the horrible roots of asparagus fern in the process

In an effort to diminish the wood mulch covering the area around our Magnolia tree, I planted a few herbs there, including Origanum 'Compacta Nana'.  If these plants thrive and spread, I'll add more herbs throughout the area.  Wood mulch can pose a fire risk here.

I've planted a variety of bulbs, including four more giant sea squill (Drimia maritima) bulbs at the bottom of my back slope.  Those four bulbs weighed more than 10 pounds!  I caged them for now as last year the raccoons pulled my original bulb up when it was first planted.  In other areas of the garden I've planted Freesias and Sparaxis.  I'm still waiting for delivery of other bulb orders.

Since the trees were taken care of last week, my focus has shifted to addressing the areas affected by the removal of the mimosa (Albizia julibrissin) and toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) trees.  The area formerly occupied by the mimosa needs major work and I've only just gotten started there.

For some reason, a prior owner installed parallel hedges of Ceanothus and Xylosma in both the front and back gardens.  The Ceanothus in the front died out years ago and we removed them.  I removed part of the back Ceanothus hedge earlier and removal of the mimosa tree prompted me to chip away at it still further.  These are before and after shots from one end.

This is a before and after shot of the other end.  Honeysuckle was planted between the Ceanothus shrubs here and it'd run amok.  At some point, I may break down and pull the rest of the Ceanothus here but this is not the year.  My focus was only on cleaning it up.

On the south end of the garden, the biggest issue has been finding room to plant a tree that will help hide views of neighbor properties and the street.  I've identified a suitable spot and plant for that area but more work is required before I dig it into place.

Squeezing a new tree in here is complicated by the presence of a huge tree stump near the property line (here when we moved in), the existing Xylosma hedge, and the fact that there's a sharp slope on the other side of that hedge.  I'm in the process of moving rock and succulents to clear a space for the tree daisy (Olearia albida) shown on the right.  It's said to grow 11 feet tall (possibly taller) and about 6 feet wide.

In both of the areas in which we removed trees, I needed to move bird feeder poles, which I did this week.

I moved the bird feeder pole on the east side just a few feet, putting it between an Arbutus 'Marina' and Leucadendron 'Pisa', both of which provide the birds safe perches from which to visit the feeder.  I moved the feeder pole that formerly sat on the south end of the garden near the toyon to the front of the house under one of our peppermint willows (Agonis flexuosa).  The feeders on the south end were implicated in too many window strikes but there are very few windows at the front of the house.

I haven't gotten nearly as much done in the area of the front slope facing my shade house as I'd intended but I've made a little progress.

This is what the area looked like in early October

This is what it looks like now.  I've added rock saved when we took down a rock-faced structure during our home remodel last year.  It doesn't exactly "match" the rock used in this stone-stacked wall but, once planted, most of that rock should be hidden anyway.  I still need to move more rock and dig in soil supplements before I plant.

I expect to plant one Agave colorata (moved from the back garden before the mimosa tree was taken down) on the front slope but this one may get planted along the street (to the right of the hose bib)

I haven't entirely ignored other areas of the garden.  I finally dug up all of the badly mildewed dahlias and zinnias in my cutting garden to clear the way for my cool season flower crop.

I've cleaned, divided and stored the dahlia tubers I want to hang onto.  Two of the raised planters have been prepared for planting.  I sowed sweet pea seeds last weekend but held off on sowing other seeds until the temperatures came back down, which happened today.  It was 88F (31C) here yesterday!

My husband and I've returned most of the furniture we'd moved from the back patio in advance of the mimosa tree's removal and I replanted several pots to improve the area's appearance.

The circle pot on the patio dining table (left)was replanted using succulent cuttings.  I replanted all the pots shown on the right with the exception of the one containing the Agave.  It's been in that pot for a good 10 years or more and I don't think I can get it out without breaking the pot.

There's still a lot to do but hopefully cooler weather is here to stay.  For now, I'll close with a couple of sunset views captured last weekend.

There's no mimosa tree here to obscure the view to the northeast but I'm still hopeful of convincing my husband to accept a replacement.  I'm currently considering a Gingko biloba.

The sunset scene on the south end of our property was enough to temporarily distract me from the neighbor's house on this occasion but I'm still hoping the tree daisy grows quickly

I hope you enjoy your weekend!

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