We got our first tiny dribble of rain on Monday. There's another chance of rain early this morning, although it's not expected to amount to much either. But something is better than nothing! My garden is very, very dry and, as the summer progressed, I lost more and more plants, especially in the back garden. Although I irrigate twice a week during our extended dry season, I haven't done any of the spot watering I usually do during a long stretch of hot, dry weather and I think the cumulative impact caused some plants to just give up. I also dug up a large area that had been overrun by two invasive species, giving me a significant blank space to fill. I'm still mulling my choices for replacement plants. I'll probably introduce more succulents. And my husband and I plan to reassess our irrigation system coverage. In the meantime, I ordered a truckload of mulch.
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| 3 cubic yards of garden mulch was dumped in the driveway on Wednesday afternoon to be distributed throughout the garden |
The following wide shots were taken at intervals over a period of days. I'll start with the back garden.
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| I took this photo of the back garden looking out toward the Port of Los Angeles early Monday morning. It provides the best view of the area I cleared of an invasive native aster and Liriope spicata last week. |
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| View from the back patio looking north |
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| View from the north end of the back garden looking toward the patio. The area in the foreground was thrown together in July when I had no business planting anything. I think I may replant it with succulents this fall. |
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| View from the back patio looking south. I've removed several dead plants from the bed on the left and there are more to go. The middle section of the back garden on both sides of the flagstone path is drier than anywhere else in the garden (except the back slope). With the addition of mulch and some work on the irrigation system, I hope to remedy the situation. |
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| View from the south end of the back garden looking north. The wire cloche covers the Yucca 'Bright Star' that I decapitated after a well-meaning gardener "pruned" it. So far there's no sign of regeneration. |
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| With the exception of the beheaded Yucca, this is currently the best-looking section of the back border areas, although soon after this photo was taken grub-hunting possums dislodged many of the Gaillardia divisions I'd carefully planted here |
The south side garden handled the dry conditions this year far better than the back garden.
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| View looking west |
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| View looking east. I need to prune the Cotinus coggygria (on the right) differently this year to encourage it to bush out. |
I lost a few plants in the front garden but, overall, it's done relatively well.
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| View of the front garden from the south end looking north |
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| View from the middle of the front garden looking south |
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| The south side of the front garden from the driveway looking east |
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| View of the front entry from the driveway. I still need to come up with a solution to screen the air conditioning unit on the left side. |
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| North side of the front garden. The AC unit isn't as readily visible from this angle. The Hong Kong orchid tree (Bauhinia x blakeana) is looking much better with the return of cooler temperatures. |
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| View of the front garden from the northwest end of the house looking southwest |
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| View of the area on the west side of the driveway looking north. Like the back garden, this area needs work. |
My cutting garden was disappointing this year. Both the dahlias and the zinnias I rely on for color during the summer months were exceptionally slow to get their bloom on for reasons I can't entirely explain.
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| Mildew has affected the zinnias so badly, I've already begun pulling them out |
The north side garden may be my favorite area at the moment.
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| I spruced this area up in August and it's looking good |
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| Despite the low rainfall, the persimmon trees (one shown here and the other in the cutting garden) have produced more fruit this year than any prior year since we moved in over 10 years ago. What's up with that?! |
The gravel path in the north side garden leads to our steep back slope, an area I've largely sacrificed in the interest of water conservation this year.
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| The hedge on the left, marking the property line on the east side, and the lemon tree at the bottom of the slope are the only plants getting regular water now. The ivy on the right side of the concrete stairway benefits from irrigation run-off from the back garden's main level. |
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| The prostrate rosemary planted years ago from plugs, the Agave attentuata I planted from cuttings, and the Echium webbii are the only plants holding their own. Even the sea squill (Drimia maritima) I planted here failed to bloom this year. I'll probably replace most of the rest of what's there, including the fig tree, with succulents. I've given up the idea of replacing the ivy in the area above the stairway with anything for now. |
The last areas to cover are the street-side succulent bed and the area behind it at the front of the property. Both are works in progress but I've no significant issues with either area.
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| The Aeoniums are still in their summer-dormant mode but this area overall looks okay |
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| View of the area behind the street-side bed looking east. The wood structure on the right is my lath (shade) house, still fitted with its extra summer sunscreens. |
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| View of the moderate slope I replanted last November using mostly succulents. It's filling out, albeit very slowly. |
That's it for my quarterly update. Hopefully, by the time I post my next wide shots in January a lot of those empty spots will have been filled. If I'm really lucky, my rain collection tanks will also be full.
Best wishes for a pleasant weekend!
All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
