Wide Shots - April 2022

On my regular quarterly schedule, I made a few rounds of the house with my camera in hand to capture the broad views of my garden usually missed in my posts.  The photos were taken at various times over the course of a few days in the hope of capturing different areas of the garden in the clearest light possible.

Here we go, starting in the back garden.

View from the back door Looking toward the Port of Los Angeles in the distance.  The Dutch Iris are blooming along with Echium webbii in the area surrounding the fountain. The Freesias along the pathway on the right are finishing up their seasonal display.

View from the back patio area looking north.  My biggest headache with this area concerns the tree-like Leucadendron 'Pisa' on the left, which needs pruning that isn't easy to perform without damaging the surrounding succulents and Acacia 'Cousin Itt'.

View from the north end of the back garden looking back in the direction of the patio.  The succulent bed I planted late last year (foreground) is coming along fairly well despite regular digging operations on the part of visiting possums.

View from the patio area looking south.  The wire cloches are protecting selected plants from the attention of rabbits, which I've recently spotted in the garden.  The local coyotes cull their numbers over the course of the spring season.

View from the small south-end patio looking roughly northeast

View from the south end of the back garden looking back in the direction of the main patio.  Note how nicely the Ginkgo tree in the distance is leafing out!  The upturned black plastic flats (foreground) are protecting certain areas of the garden from the possum patrol, currently working a nightly schedule.

Pivoting to the left, we move into the south side garden. 

This is the south side garden looking west.  Leucospermums 'Goldie' and 'Sunrise' are in full bloom.  Last year the squirrels took to "harvesting" 'Goldie's' flowers, which apparently have nut-like centers so I'm watching for that (not that there's much I can do about it).

Looking south from the south-side patio

Southeast view of the same area

 

Next up is the main level of the front garden, starting on the south end. 

View looking north in the direction of the garage.  Echium candicans 'Star of Madeira' (middle, left) hasn't quite reached bloom stage.  On the other hand, Grevillea 'Superb' (far right) is always in bloom.  I dug out the woody Centaurea 'Silver Feather' that formerly dominated the area on the left, replacing it with 2 rooted cuttings of the same plant.  The Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum' here and elsewhere in the garden have received their annual haircuts.

View from the area encircling the Magnolia tree looking back toward the south end.  The structure in the background on the right is my lath (shade) house, which is situated on the lower level of the front garden.  I sowed nasturtium seeds for flowers, now blooming, to echo those of  Grevillea 'Superb'.

View from the front door area looking roughly southwest

South side of the front garden viewed from the driveway

Before we take a look at the rest of the front garden's main level, we'll take a detour down the path between the area shown in the last photo and the hedge that lines the street to check out the lower level of the front garden on the southwest corner of the property. 

The dirt path leads to the lath house.  The moss growing along the path had just about disappeared before Monday's rainstorm but it may make a brief comeback in response to the 0.72/inch (18mm) of rain we received.

This is view of the area surrounding the lath house (just outside the frame of the photo on the right) looking east

View of the sloped area I replanted in November/December 2020 after gophers built a large den underneath it, destroying an expanse of plants in the process.  The succulents I planted, many of which were cuttings and pups of plants I had on hand, are taking their time bulking up.

Retracing our steps along the dirt path brings us back to the driveway at the front of the house. 

Area on the north side of the front walkway.  The gardeners, whose primary job is to shear our hedges, apparently decided to treat Coleonema 'Sunset Gold' as a hedge, much to my dismay.

View from the far side of the driveway near the garage looking southeast

This is the garden area on the west side of the driveway and garage.  It was partially replanted earlier this year.  The pineapple guava tree (Feijoa sellowiana, on the right next to the hedge) has just begun to bloom.

This succulent bed sits on the north side of the garbage bin path.  Despite several attempts, I've yet to pull this area together.  Some of the Mangaves I've placed here are doing fine, while others are barely hanging on.  In addition, the smaller succulents I'd hoped would fill out to serve as ground covers haven't lived up to my expectations.  I need a new plan.

On the other (east) side of the garage is the cutting garden and the gate in that area leads to the north side garden. 

I addressed the cutting garden in two recent posts, which you can find here and here

This is the dry north-side garden.  I'm currently eyeing the mass of not-so-prostrate rosemary on the left for partial removal to clear the way for more interesting plants.  Even if I took it all out, there'd be no shortage of rosemary in the garden.

 

This is where I'll end the tour for now.  I skipped two areas of my garden in this post.  The first is the back slope, which lies at the end of the gravel path you see in the last photo.  The slope is briefly at its best in April so I'm going to give it separate coverage within the next week or two.  I've also skipped the street-side succulent bed, mainly because my neighbors are having work done on their house and at the moment you can't see the area for all the cars parked in front of it.  As I've started a minor cleanup there, I expect I'll cover that area in a separate post at a later time as well.  Meanwhile, I'm on-call for jury duty next week (and possible beyond) so I don't know what I may be doing in the garden next week.

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