Spring's ups and downs

Spring officially arrived at 9:06PM PDT yesterday, which makes today the first full day of the spring season.  It'd be hard for me to walk into my garden now without feeling the pure joy of it.  The birds are singing, the bees are buzzing, and I've already spotted several butterflies.  I'm not even annoyed when I see a squirrel eating fruit from one of our citrus trees.  Every stroll through the garden is a delight.

I find new flowers virtually every day.  Here are some I spotted after I posted my copious Bloom Day photos just five days ago:

The white-flowered Ageratum I could swear I never planted is 4 feet tall

The Babiana stricta bulbs I planted in April 2018 have returned once more

This noID dwarf white-flowered Cistus is another one I've no record or memory of planting

While the Hippeastrums I planted in pots in the fall are close to finishing up, those I planted in the ground are now gearing up to bloom.  Four Hippeastrum 'Luna' (2 shown here) have bloom stalks coming up and I noted a Hippeastrum 'La Paz' in another area also has a bloom stalk.

The majority of the 12 Iris hollandica 'Eye of the Tiger' I planted in 2021 are already blooming and the rest are close behind

Iris hollandica 'Mystic Beauty' is coming on in large numbers on the heels of 'Sapphire Beauty', which I highlighted in my Bloom Day post

Iris hollandica 'Pink Panther' had a single flower on Bloom Day but now it has a dozen

The Pacific Coast Iris off and running with Iris douglasiana 'Santa Lucia'

Narcissus 'Geranium' (left) and N. 'Sunny Girlfriend' appeared just days ago

Phlomis fruticosa was hard to photograph because its growth is very dense

Salvia 'Bee's Bliss' lives up to its name

I planted one Veltheimia bracteata (forest lily) in 2015 and another in 2017.  They've only bloomed a few times since and there's no guarantee they'll bloom this year but at least their foliage is up!

Despite last year's heavier rain, I got just one calla lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica) but this year's looking much better.  The majority of these plants grow on my back slope, where they're left to their own devices.

But every garden poses its challenges.  At present my biggest headache is still the gophers.  I remain convinced there's more than one, which may be why using deterrents in the form of granules containing castor oil and solar-powered sonic devices to direct them to the selected exit hasn't done the trick this time.

This is a Renga lily (Arthropodium cirratum) I found after it collapsed in late February when its root system was devoured.  I found another one one about 15 feet away in the same condition yesterday.  Nothing was salvageable in either case. 

I initially assumed this Mangave 'Red Wing' hadn't received the water it needed - until I cleaned it up and discovered its roots were gone.  I've replanted it but it remains to be seen if it'll recover.

Phormium 'Tom Thumb' was a nice specimen that'd been in the ground with 2 others since 2016.  It suffered the same fate as the Renga lilies.

I can't bring myself to install any more of the sonic devices - even with the birdsong, it's hard enough to tune out those I already have but I'm gradually shifting them from the areas showing no recent activity to the areas showing the most obvious signs of new activity.  And I'm ordering yet another bag of the deterrent granules in the hope the critters aren't developing a tolerance for castor oil.

We haven't had any more rain in the past two weeks.  A surprise thunderstorm moved into our area late Monday afternoon but, although we saw lightning and heard thunder, we didn't get any measurable rain.  That was disappointing but there's another chance of rain in the forecast for this coming weekend.

The clouds sent mixed messages

I hope your spring experience has more ups than downs!

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

Housebound

Given our climate, I'm seldom housebound by inclement weather for long; however, the relentless rain and cold temperatures associated with the most recent atmospheric river has kept me inside almost continuously for three solid days.  Although I've periodically said I'd welcome a winter break from gardening (as long as it wasn't longer than a month), the present experience suggests otherwise.  After three days, I'm feeling stir-crazy!  There are only so many home chores I can stand in steady succession.

As we were flooded with warnings about this second storm, I took care of grocery shopping and outdoor activities in advance of its arrival.  In the course of surveying the garden, I cleaned up my lath house and discovered two issues.  The first was that I'd been unsuccessful driving away the gopher(s).

I discovered mounds inside and outside the structure.  The floor's comprised of concrete pavers.  It was my idea to leave planting pockets along the edges of the pavers but I didn't factor gophers into the equation.  Now I think I need to add concrete bricks to fill those gaps.

There's also a gap in the short retaining wall that came with the garden on its southwest corner that wasn't there before.  It's visible from inside the lath house.  I'm inclined to blame gopher activity but time and weather could also have played a role in this break.

The second issue was that the first atmospheric river had an impact on the lath house structure itself.

I think critters may have contributed to breaks in the lath house roof but tree trimming activity could also be a factor; however, the recent storms have made things much worse

My husband, who built the lath house for me in 2018, will make repairs to it once our rainy season is over in late March or early April.  Meanwhile, I ordered more gopher repellent and yesterday took advantage of a brief break in the rain in another effort to drive it/them away.

I sprinkled the gopher repellent in what appeared to be entry/exit holes, pounded the soil back into place, watered in more of the castor oil pellets they hate, and added a solar-powered sonic deterrent device

Earlier efforts to drive the gopher(s) out of the back garden seem to have yielded results but whether the activity near the lath house can be attributed to the same animal or a different one isn't clear, especially as I've found evidence of activity on the back slope.

This gopher mound on the lower level of the back slope suggests that the critter that'd made a mess of my back garden had moved downward through the garden in the direction of the eastern canyon area.  It's hard to imagine that the same animal is responsible for the new activity on the southwestern edge of our property adjacent to the lath house.  Gophers may be solitary creatures but they seem to have subdivided our property into at least 2 territories.

I've made a couple of other brief excursions into the garden, usually involving picking up the mail or taking out trash, but I've pulled a few weeds and cleaned up the fruit littering the driveway under the ornamental pear tree and the Camellia petals shattered by the rain.  

The photo of Camellia 'Taylor's Perfection' on the left was taken just as the first storm started last Thursday.  The photo of the same plant on the right was taken yesterday.

I noticed the first sweet pea flower when I passed through the cutting garden and the first Arctotis flower as I walked through the back garden.

This is still the only open sweet pea bloom but there are other buds biding their time, waiting for more sun and warmth to open

Arctotis 'Pink Sugar' is also waiting on some sun

Other than the quick passages through my garden, I've had to make do with checking it from inside the house looking out.

View from the living room looking at the back garden.  The Callistemon 'Cane's Hybrid' in the background (center) is getting top heavy and could use pruning.

View of the north side garden from the master bathroom (with a bit of glare from the window glass apparently created by a night light).  I've yet to even start cutting back the Leucadendron 'Chief' in the background on the right.

My husband's kept himself busy with a woodworking project in the garage, where he has his own small hobby shop.  It's times like this when I'd really like a smallish greenhouse to putter in.  If we get a lot more atmospheric river events as some climate scientists predict we will in the future due to climate change, I may campaign for a greenhouse, if I can only figure out where to put one.

Pipig's company is helpful.

She spends most of her days now sleeping on the afghan covering her heating pad in my office.  Her gait suggests arthritis and I think the extra warmth offers comfort.  She insists that I leave the guest chair by my desk askew, though, so she can jump on my desk when she wants attention.  She lodges a vocal complaint if the chair is improperly positioned as she's no longer prepared to jump on the desk in a single leap as she once did. 

It looks like we have one more day of rain left, although we may be lucky and get several hours of partly sunny skies. 

View looking northeast from our backyard late yesterday afternoon.  I saw traces of blue sky as I took a quick spin around the neighborhood to walk-off some pent-up energy.  About 90 minutes later, the skies opened and we had the biggest downpour we've had yet.

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

I bought a few Christmas presents for myself

Shopping for Christmas presents can lead one astray.  When considering gift prospects for a friend, I decided to visit Flora Grubb Gardens in Marina Del Rey following a pre-Christmas lunch with other friends at a nearby restaurant.  I initially focused on a Protea, as my friend was impressed by one we saw in bloom during our trip to Seaside Gardens in late October.  However, when making my selection, I started to worry about whether it would be a good fit as she hasn't grown anything in the Protea family and the conditions in her garden, nearly fifty miles north of mine, are very different.  I decided to buy one Protea and one tropical Rhododendron and offer her a choice, as I've considered getting both plants for myself and wouldn't mind keeping whichever one she rejected.  She chose the Protea and took it home last weekend.  Meanwhile, I'd convinced myself I had just the right spot for another Protea, so I decided to make another trip to Marina Del Rey this week to pick one up for myself.

Flora Grubb Gardens is about a fifty mile round trip for me so of course I had to make another round of the nursery once I arrived.  By comparison to the other local garden centers I frequent, the plants at this one are always exuberantly healthy.  In all three trips I've made there, I've yet to see a plant that wasn't in pristine condition.

Assorted Leucadendrons and what looks like Agave vilmoriniana (I didn't check)

Cordylines, Grevilleas, and Opuntias

These sculptures reminded me of Dustin Gimbel's creations but I didn't see a label

Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire' looks its best at this time of year but I'll never need to buy any as I have an endless supply

Various other displays, including one featuring Proteas currently in bloom (upper left)

I was briefly entranced with this Stenocarpus sinuatus (aka firewheel tree).  It was tempting but it could get bigger than the space I have available for another tree.  The one I've seen at South Coast Botanic Garden always looks a little sickly but this one looked exceptionally healthy.

Even after checking other options, I decided to stick with with the same Protea I gave my friend.

Here's my own Protea 'Claire', slated to be planted in a bed at the front of the house.  I have another Protea, P. neriifolia 'Pink Ice', planted in a sunny spot in my north side garden.  It's yet to bloom but it's getting closer.

This is a Vireya Rhododendron, labeled 'Mitch Mitchell', which is the name of a prominent breeder of the tropical varieties.   I can't grow the Rhododendrons common in the Pacific Northwest but long ago another blogger suggested that I might be able to grow the Vireya types.  This will be an experiment and I plan to plant it in a large terracotta container. 

I made a couple other unexpected purchases for myself this week as well when I discovered that a very ambitious gopher has moved into my garden.  I had a gopher problem several years ago but it moved on after a little encouragement.  These critters are rampant in my area so it was just a matter of time before they returned.  My husband read that they're mostly solitary creatures, occupying territories of approximately one acre but, given the amount of movement this one has made recently, it's hard to believe he doesn't have an entire platoon accompanying him.

The mounds provide solid evidence of the sandy condition of my soil

I bought more solar-powered sonic gopher repellents.  I've tried the ones with replaceable batteries but they don't seem to last any longer than those with batteries that can't be replaced.  I bought 2 new sets, all of which have on-off buttons so, if and when they do their jobs, I can turn them off and store them away to be brought out as needed.  Hopefully, that'll give them a longer life span and reduce my use of disposable plastic items.

In addition to the 12 new sonic stakes, I've got 3 remaining stakes with replaceable batteries for a total of 15 in my back garden.  Three of the new stakes are shown here.  The 4th location shown above (lower left) is a new mound discovered the day after I installed the stakes, demonstrating that sonic irritation by itself won't immediately get rid of the annoying creature.

To further bolster my effort, I also bought a bag of a granular gopher deterrent, scattering it throughout the back garden beds.  The granules must be watered into the soil to have an effect.  I was counting on rain to hasten the gopher's departure but we didn't receive any measurable precipitation until last night and even that was light.  The forecasters are now projecting that first of two "real" rainstorms will arrive late Wednesday or early Thursday.  I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas.

All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party