Adjustments

I met a good friend for lunch earlier this week.  We'd worked together at a start-up company many years ago, she as legal counsel and me in human resource management.  After that company was acquired by a larger one, we both moved on to different opportunities but we got together once or twice a year until the pandemic.  Meeting up again after five years, we had a lot of catching up to do so it was a very long lunch!  She told me about her kids, the eldest already in his second year of college, another on the brink of launching out into the world on his own terms, and the youngest looking for ways to meld her love of ballet with a future career.  I brought her up to speed on my nieces and nephews, my trip to the Puget Sound, and my recent bout with COVID, among other things.  A non-gardener, she asked me if I was "done" with my garden, and I replied with the familiar refrain that "gardens are never done."  I also mentioned the situation in progress five miles away from me, where a very old landslide has stepped up its pace, apparently as a result of two years of heavier-than-usual rainfall.  She lives fifty miles to the south and it's not daily news there as it is in Los Angeles County.  Land movement, once measured in inches or less a year, has accelerated to feet per month.  As power lines fell and underground utilities were affected, electricity has been indefinitely turned off to some three hundred homes and gas was cut to nearly the same number.  Efforts were underway to pump the water "seepage," measured in gallons per minutes in spots, into special wells as a way of slowing the slide when another geologic survey was ordered prior to expansion of that plan.  They found a second, bigger, faster-moving slide hundreds of feet underneath the first one so plans are now uncertain.  It's a chilling example of the challenges nature can impose.  Still, the affected residents are trying to find ways to stay in their homes.

Anxious as I am to see the start of our rainy season after our long dry period, I also have to hope that any rain we get this year may fall only lightly on the affected area.  Meanwhile, I'm making adjustments to my garden as circumstances change.  In the front garden, I've done a lot of tweaking.

I planted 6 'Maori Queen' Phormiums in my front garden in late 2014.  Three got very big and 2 of those started looking ungainly.  I removed those 2 last week.  Before and after shots are shown above, reflecting the removal of the one flopping over the Lomandra longifolia surrounding it.

The photo on the left shows the second Phormium I removed several feet away from the first one.  I left the most stately Phormium in place as you can see in both after shots.

I also refurbished 3 of the 6 barrels surrounding the Magnolia tree.  In addition to Dahlia 'Labyrinth' the barrel shown here had held a peach foxglove and Calibrachoa, both of which had died back.  I filled in the holes with an a 'Skyscraper Orange' Salvia and a 'Little Pink Splash' Pelargonium.  The black rocks are intended to deter digging on the part of raccoons.

Before I replanted this barrel, all the annual Dianthus had died back, leaving only an Argyranthemum with dark pink flowers and one small 'Choco Chili' Alternanthera.  I cut back the scraggly Argyranthemum and added another Alternanthera, 2 coleus (Plectranthus scutellairiodes 'Wasabi' and 'Down Town Columbus'), as well as a small polka dot plant (Hypoestes phyllostachys).

I pulled everything that had been in this barrel and planted coleus 'Indian Summer', 2 Pentas lanceolata, white Impatiens, and another polka dot plant

The Dutch Iris and Primula vulgaris I had growing at the front of this bed earlier this year were done for the season so I recently added another 'Choco Chili' Alternanthera and more Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Wasabi' to the other coleus I've been tucking in whenever I find more I like

Three of the 4 Prostanthera ovatifolia 'Variegata' growing in my garden suddenly fell into decline last week.  I've cut back the 3 that occupied pots to their bare bones.  Its before and after shots are shown here.  I don't really expect them to rebound but I'm giving them a chance rather than replanting the containers from scratch.

This Prostanthera ovalifolia (aka mint bush) planted in the back garden shows you what it should look like.  It's one of my favorite plants.

I finally got around to planting the 18 tiny 2-inch succulents I received by mail order before the heatwave.  Three Echeveria agavoides prolifera are shown here, along with an Agave 'Blue Glow' pup I'd saved last year.  The rest were used to fill in a variety of empty spots.

In the north-side garden, I'm still holding off on cleaning up the large Phormium 'Apricot Queen' that was scorched during our recent heatwave but I took steps to protect my whale's tongue agave.

I realized that my largest and oldest Agave ovatifolia was in danger of having sticky persimmon fruit fall into its crevices from the tree branches directly above it (as shown in the left photo).  I cut several branches hanging above the Agave, sacrificing the unripe fruits. 

I lost 10 persimmons in the process.  I don't personally care for the fruit but my neighbors do.

I've started tidying up the back garden but I've little to show for it other than some cuttings so far.

All my Arctotis look shabby at summer's end but they're perennial in my climate, if somewhat short-lived.  I've already cut the 'Pink Sugar' plants down to the ground but I took some cuttings as a backup.

I haven't done much with the south-side garden yet either beyond pruning away the worst of the dead foliage on Coprosma 'Plum Hussey'.

Before and after photos of the tall Coprosma are shown above

The pruning looks more severe from the back

The cooler temperatures this past week have raised my spirits despite the damage summer's heat has inflicted on my garden.  I'll be chipping away at my other projects well into November.  I got another energy boost yesterday when I saw these:

My Proteas are about to bloom!  These are both Protea neriifolia.  The one on the left is 'Claire' and the one on the right is 'Pink Ice' but at the moment they look close to identical to me.

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party