Wide Shots - January 2022

To change things up just a little this go-round, I'm starting my quarterly wide shots post with my street-side succulent bed and will proceed around our lot moving counterclockwise.  Usually left at the end of the post, the street-side bed doesn't get the attention it deserves.

I tweaked this area a few times over the course of last year but haven't made any major changes

View of the same area from its south end looking north

After taking the prior photos, I changed out the pots sitting on the stumps behind the bed for a collection that balance one another to a greater extent

Immediately behind the street-side bed is the area surrounding the lath structure used to house my shade plants.

View of the area looking east with the lath house to the right just outside the frame.  The succulent bed on the slope (left), replanted late in 2020, is slowly filling in.

Heading up a mulched path to the main level of the garden brings us to the south side succulent garden.

View from the south side patio looking south.  The Olearia albida (tree daisy) I planted in November 2020 after we removed a dead native Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) is still dinky and can't be seen behind the succulents in this view.  I'm considering trying a different tree (in a larger size).

View of the area looking east.  The Agonis flexuosa 'Nana' on the left, severely pruned in January 2020, is once again in need of serious pruning.

View of the south side garden looking west.  Leucospermum 'Goldie' on the right already has flower buds.

Pivoting to the right and looking north we move into the back garden.

I dug up the mid-sections of the beds both left and right of the flagstone path in late September, removing a rampant aster and several dead and dying plants.  I've replanted parts of both beds but the new plants have yet to spread out and there are still gaps to be filled.

Looking back to the south from the back patio

View from the back door looking toward the harbor

View from the back patio looking north

The north end of the back garden looking back in the direction of the back patio.  The succulent bed in the foreground is doing well so far despite the activity of some pesky possums.

Next, we move through the north side garden and look down into the back slope.

I've done some additional pruning in this area since I posted on work to open up the view of the Agave ovatifolia in the distance.  I cut back an old and overgrown Lavandula dentata and may just go ahead and replace it with another agave (or two).  I also hard pruned the Senna bicapsularis along the fence after the cloudless sulphur butterfly caterpillars completed their transformation.

With rain levels at record lows last year and new calls to conserve water, I almost entirely ignored my back slope and the area shows this.  As the lemon tree at the bottom of the concrete stairway began showing signs of decline, I started deep watering it but it still looks sad.  The Agave attenuata pups I planted near the lemon tree years ago are the only things that look fairly good.

View from midway down the stairs.  I've made stabs at cleaning up the area but there's a lot more work to do.  I'm planning to replace some of the plants on the left side of the stairway with more succulents.  I've given up the dream of clearing and replanting the area on the right.  It's too steep for me to handle and the ivy is too difficult to remove.

Turning around and walking back through the north side garden, we come to the cutting garden.

Bulbs and plugs have been planted in the raised beds and seeds have been sown but everything seems to be on hold pending longer days and the return of warmer temperatures.  However, as you can see in the background on the right, the navel and Mandarin oranges are nearly ripe.

This brings us to the front garden.

The area in front of the garage is in serious need of a refresh

This cross-sectional view of the front garden looking from the north side of the house to the southwest is perhaps my favorite

Looking toward the front door from the driveway.  I still haven't come up with a strategy to hide the air conditioning unit in the background on the left.

View from the doorway area looking west at the area under the Magnolia tree

With this photo from one side of the Magnolia tree looking to the south we've come full circle

That's it for this quarterly review.  I'll be back in April with another one, when hopefully the garden will be more colorful.  In the meantime, I'm planning to provide a closer look at some of the succulent beds in a future post.

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party