A little progress and a few lost causes

Given that the feeling of spring has been in the air for some time now, I've done remarkably little plant shopping and not a lot of planting either.  My focus has been on maintenance and weeding, more weeding and still more weeding.  However, earlier this week I finally hunkered down and transplanted a few agave pups that have been waiting for their forever home for months.

This is a wide shot of my northeast side garden area taken in early January.  The pots have been sitting there for months.

I ended up planting just the 2 'Blue Glow' Agave pups I harvested from their bloomed-out parent last September, and one still tiny Agave colorata pup I'd potted up in 2024.  I plan to add filler plants, Pelargoniums perhaps, to soften the look there.

Closeup of the 3 agaves.  The shape of the 'Blue Glow' in the middle concerns me a little but I'm hoping it loosens up now that it's in the ground.

I relocated the Agave geminiflora in a pot but it may not stay there

I'd planned to plant the large Agave 'Mateo' in the ground but it was badly root-bound and infested with ants so I gave up on that once I broke it out of its pot.  I saved 2 good-sized pups for placement elsewhere.

I've continued to my pruning efforts, although I'm by no means done there.  It's been my number two maintenance project after weeding.

Pruning the 'Wilson Wonder's Leucadendrons is a biannual task.  The photo on the left was taken in early January.  Its colorful bracts had faded and the stems were above the roofline before I trimmed it back, as shown on the right.  Bringing down its height and girth also required cutting back the Pittosporum tobira hedge next to it to allow me to reach the back of the Leucadendron.

I pruned the Senna bicapsularis back by a third and I was surprised how quickly and how well it's bounced back

Working on the ivy that takes off whenever I so much as blink feels pointless at times but things would be worse if I sloughed off that task entirely.  The back slope provides the biggest challenge as I'm not in control of the mass of ivy that spreads across the property line on our southeast side - there's no fence or other barrier there and the property line itself isn't clear.  In addition, the ground drops off sharply in some places, which isn't readily apparent because they're buried under ivy.

I didn't take a "before" photo of this area.  This photo was taken an hour or more after I cut back the ivy and grass weeds that covered the area in the foreground.  There's still a lot of work to be done to push the ivy back another foot or more closer to the property line, which I need to tackle before warmer temperatures bring out the fire ants.

The mass of ivy to the left of the area shown in the earlier photo (shown on the left in this collage) included woody branches I initially thought were leftovers of the dead Ceanothus I had removed in November.  As it turns out, those are trunks of ivy plants that have grown several feet tall.  I cut those back as shown in the photo on the right but, once again, more work is required. 

I recently spent hours working on another project that could very well be a lost cause too: the removal of a massive clump of Boston fern (Nephrolepsis exaltata) that's crept under the fence between us and our neighbor on our north side.  I made two runs at it before I was even partially satisfied.

The "before" photo is on the left and the "after" photo is on the right.  The bulbous roots of the Boston ferns are everywhere but I dug up as much of them out as I could.  Routine scrutiny will be required. 

The list of what may be other lost causes is growing too.

The lime tree is still producing fruit but it nonetheless looks sad - and I haven't even tried to remove the Boston ferns at its base.  I'm leaning in the direction of removing the tree next fall, in which case the ferns will come out with the tree.

It made no good sense planting this Grevillea lavandulacea 'Penola' between a fence and the narrow path that leads down our back slope in the first place back in 2011.  Although it's flowered well, it's become woody and rangy with lots of dead branches.  Grevilleas don't like being pruned to bare wood but I may give that a try to see if there's any hope of rejuvenating it.

This Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl'  looked awkward here even when it was backed by a fence.  Its trunk now leans like the Tower of Pisa (as a result of that fence), although it's blooming better than it did before.  I'll try reducing it by a foot in height but I suspect there are plants that would fit better into this spot.

This dwarf Japanese maple (Acer palmatum 'Mikawa Yatsubusa') isn't looking so good now that it's no longer protected from the sun and wind by the former fence.  I'll wait awhile to see how it looks a month or two from now.

I'm not the only one working on my garden either.  I watched two major projects in the works over the past week.

Our neighbors across the street had their back slope cleared of rosemary shrubs and replanted with other shrubs.  I think there's Coleonema 'Sunset Gold', Salvia leucantha and another shrub I can't identify in the mix but I haven't had the opportunity to ask them what they included.  The work took most of 2 weeks, interrupted at times by rain.

Work restarted across the canyon after a lengthy pause (since my September post) but it's still focused on that neighbor's sprawling patio.  The contractors resurfaced the stairs to match the adjacent walls and pillars.  It looks as though they may be installing a water feature too, as well as adding more metal pieces to the guardrails along the elevated walkway.  There's no evidence of new plant installations, though.  

That's in for me this week.  I plan to make another pass at the ivy on the back slope this weekend and hopefully prune my other 'Wilson's Wonder' Leucadendron, with more weeding thrown in of course.  Enjoy your weekend!

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Hardscaping in Progress

The title of this post doesn't apply to my garden but rather to a property across the canyon, readily visible from my backyard.  I used to walk through that neighborhood on occasion but this home is located at the dead end of a spur road and I've never seen it in person.  The house was under renovation for years but, when it was put up for sale in 2021, I looked up the listing online as I was curious about the garden surrounding the house.  The only "garden" shots included in the listing were small fenced areas close to the house.  From a distance, it appears that the land is more sloped than flat and most of the plants I can see appear to be common coastal scrub.  Like mine, the property is a over half an acre in size.

Earlier this year I noticed that the homeowners were doing a bit of puttering with plants but I didn't see much in the way of significant activity until this summer.  A concrete mixer moved in at one point and it looked as though raised planters might be under construction.  I wondered if the homeowners might be planning to terrace the area below the house (which I can't see).  After a lull, hardscaping activity started in August.

Another step was added to the pink stairway extending from the driveway and rails went up in mid-August

A couple days later a raised platform was under construction

Several days later, another stairway attached to the raised platform was being constructed

By September 1st the platform had become another patio level and handrails were in place

It looked as though the new patio space was closed off on the right by a wood fence for a few days

However, instead of ending the patio where the fence stood on September 4th, work on a raised walkway began days later.

The right side fence came down and construction moved along the wall adjacent to the driveway

My latest photo on September 15 shows a continuation of the raised walkway, feet above the bare ground, just above where the slope drops further down

The workers have been there every day.  Luckily, they don't make a lot of noise but I'm still unclear on whether there are any plans for the garden landscaping around the hardscaping.  There's a lot of land to work with both below the new structure and in the upper areas of the lot.

There's a huge sloped area above the house and driveway.  The photo on the left shows another stairway leading to the upper reaches of the property and a concrete gulley.  I spotted another garden platform higher up (shown on the right).  Initially, I wasn't sure it was part of the property as boundary lines often aren't clear in our area.

However, when I noticed pots matching those on the upper outlook on the main level patio, I realized that the upper area must also belong to the same homeowners

I do hope to see some landscaping at some point.  Surely they don't plan on leaving the area below the new, lower-level patio or the new raised walkway empty to collect weeds?  

As California's Board of Forestry and Fire Protection works to complete the regulations associated with "zone zero" by the end of the year, I also had to wonder if the homeowners new patio and walkways have been checked against the draft guidelines.  (A new Los Angeles Times article concerning "zone zero" guidelines can be found here.)  Although those guidelines won't apply to existing structures immediately, it sounds as though compliance will be required within three years of their publication.  In the case of our own property, that highlights the issue of the connection between the gate and fence on the northeast side of our house.  Even if the State doesn't have the resources to enforce the new regulations, it appears that insurers are poised to take up the issue when it comes to approving fire insurance coverage.  There may be some challenges on the horizon for all homeowners in high fire risk areas like mine in the upcoming years.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

What's going on with that bird?

Glancing at the horizon several days ago I noticed a bird behaving oddly.  It was a long-distance sighting as the activity occurred across the canyon in a nearby neighborhood.  The bird was large and repetitively swooped over a lawn area with its wings fully extended as if preparing to grab prey.  But its movements were erratic and its wingspan appeared wider than the hawks that frequent our area.  I moved on to other things but, hours later, I noticed it again behaving similarly in the same area.  I pulled out both my cell phone and my Canon, using their zoom features to get a closer look.  Here's a very short video documenting what I saw:

The camera's still shots cleared up matters a bit.

That bird is plastic and attached to pole

Its erratic movements were dictated by the wind.  When there was no wind, there was no movement.

Another photo taken at a different time showed that there was more than one "species" of bird swooping over the area.

This one was blue rather than brown.  The structures in the distance are part of the Port of Los Angeles complex.

The "birds" have been flying for about a week.  The question now is why?  Do you have any theories?

The birds soared above this area underneath a tall flagpole, bordered by a sharp slope.  The "lawn" is also fake - I saw it being installed a year or 2 ago.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Summer Doldrums

I'm suffering from cabin fever.  It's been too hot to do much of anything outside for most of the past week.  I've gotten in an hour or so of gardening during the early morning and the early evening hours now and then but my activities have been largely limited to hand-watering container plants.  I started one project I hadn't planned to tackle until cooler temperatures return but I've made minimal progress.  Since temperatures soared into the mid-90sF and above I haven't even walked the neighborhood in several days.

With the exception of delivering emergency water rations on a periodic basis, I've spent too much time staring out the window thinking about what needs to be done in the garden.  Over a two-day period I was briefly diverted by spying on the garden activities of a homeowner in the neighborhood across the canyon from us.  This homeowner (who I've never met) has demonstrated an obsession with his lawn over the ten plus years we've lived here.  I've seen him change out his sod twice.  The second time, I thought he must be replacing it with artificial turf, only to witness a crew installing new sod.  When another crew showed up, I assumed he was doing that again but I was wrong.

I didn't see them remove the sod but, when they brought in a small mountain of gravel, I thought maybe they were creating a patio extension

The next day I saw a team unrolling what looked like a large rug.  They spent hours cutting it to fit the space and rolling it flat.

It's great that they're saving water by eliminating the lawn, although I couldn't help thinking they could have done better with natural groundcovers.  However, for all I know, the owner uses that flat surface to practice his golf putt.

 

On my brief forays outside, I've collected a variety of insect bites.  The spiders are out in force and, every morning when I clean up Pipig's catio, I carry a big stick, waving it in front of me to take down any webs I'd otherwise walk right into.  I didn't anticipate I'd have to contend with webs inside the house as well but an ambitious spider managed to hitchhike in with flowers I cut on Sunday.

For a relatively tiny spider, overnight it'd created a large web stretching from the top of my sunflower bouquet to the dining table below.  According to my cell phone's ID function, this is some kind of orb weaver.  (I enlarged the photo to show more detail.)

 

Staring out my office window, I've seen butterflies, including giant swallowtails and cloudless sulphurs, as well as hummingbirds, but I repeatedly failed to get photographs of them every time I've hustled outside with my camera.

The lazy pace of the bumble bees makes them easier to catch on camera

and the fiery skippers were more accommodating as well

While I missed out on hummingbird photos, I caught photos of finches at the feeders from inside the house.  The 2 birds with brown backs are spice finches, aka nutmeg mannikins or scaly-breasted munia (Lonchura punctulata).  These birds are native to Asia but are thought to have escaped into the wild as pets.  Sightings were first recorded in Southern California in 1997.  I first saw them in December 2022

 

On the bright side, the seed-sown sunflowers in my cutting garden are now bursting into bloom one after another.

The majority of the sunflowers in this bed are Helianthus annuus 'Joker'.  As a side note, filling the backyard bird feeders has not stopped the finches from pecking at the large sunflower leaves.

 

I also noticed that bulbs planted in the area next to our garage are starting to bloom for the first time.

I planted 5 bulbs of Hymenocallis festalis 'Zwanenburg' (aka Peruvian daffodil) in March 2022.  They produced foliage but not flowers last September.  I'm guessing that the recent tropical storm may have prompted the blooms.

Even though I created three floral arrangements earlier this week, I felt compelled to cut more flowers while watering my raised planters on Monday morning rather than risk losing them to the heatwave.

The mug contains Dahlias 'Lavender Ruffles' and 'Mikayla Miranda' as well as Zinnia elegans 'Benary's Giant Purple' and the foliage of Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata'

Today, temperatures are expected to drop as much as ten degrees from yesterday's high of 97F, then fall again on Thursday, settling into the mid-70sF for the following week.  I'm hoping that forecast holds.

Pipig could care less

 

 

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

The trees get spiffed up

Years ago, blogger friend Denise of A Growing Obsession said that my recently pruned trees looked as if they'd had a trip to the beauty parlor.  That image stuck with me.  Our trees got their annual spiff up on Monday.  Actually, I don't have all my trees trimmed each year, although several of them do receive that treatment.  I didn't take "before" photos of this year's contestants but I'll share their beauty shots anyway.

All 4 Arbutus 'Marina' get pruned annually.  This one sits on the northeast side of the house.

They receive annual pruning to maintain airflow within their canopies, which prevents the leaves from developing sooty mildew

This smaller tree sits alongside the larger one shown in the previous shot.  All 4 Arbutus were here when we moved in 12 years ago.

My concern with this Arbutus on the northwest side of the house is always the prospect of damage to the succulents below but the tree trimmers used tarps to protect them, which worked well

This is the largest of the 4 Arbutus.  It sits atop a moderate slope covered by more succulents.  That area usually sustains the most damage but I discovered only one relatively minor casualty this year.

I don't usually have the citrus trees pruned but they're now large enough to present a challenge for me so I had the one on the left, a Mandarin orange, and the one on the right, a lime, trimmed.  The crew reduced the height a little and cleaned out dead stems.  All 3 trees badly need to be fertilized but, according to the experts, I should wait until February for that.

The Magnolia grandiflora has been looking stressed, possibly due to our persistent drought, so I had the trimmers remove just sucker growth and deadwood

The ornamental pear, Pyrus calleryana, got only a light pruning as well

 

Several large shrubs also received a beauty treatment.

This cherry laurel hedge (Prunus ilicifolia) stands along one side of our property line overlooking a neighbor's driveway.  It consists of 5 shrubs, all of which received a buzz cut.

I asked the arborist to have his team trim my tree-like Leucadendron 'Pisa' for the first time.  I was very nervous about it.  I've discovered that, if cut back too hard, the branches won't leaf out.  They took out the worst of the top-heavy growth and plucked out all the dead cones that detracted from its appearance, restoring a semblance of its formerly graceful shape.

I'm still finding little cones everywhere

 

All told, my annual tree trimming exercise was relatively drama-free this year.  There was very little collateral damage, for which I'm grateful.

This is Aeonium 'Cabernet', which in its current spot doesn't get enough sun to color up properly.  Whether it was stepped on or simply hit by a falling branch, it lost a few arms but I think it's time to take cuttings and replant it in any case.

Much more dramatic was the trimming of the neighbors' giant pine trees earlier this month.

I looked out the kitchen window early on a Saturday morning and saw the work already underway.  There were 2 men in the adjacent pine trees already hard at work using hand tools.  The only sounds I heard were occasional verbal exchanges between them.

You can make out both men here - plus the rope used to help ensure their safety - if you look closely

At this point, the tree trimmers were about one-third the way through the process with these 2 trees.  My photographs were taken from the main level of our back garden.  These 2 trees are planted many feet below that in a canyon that sits significantly lower than the lowest level of my back slope.

This is what the trees looked like from my back patio when trimming was completed

This photo was taken a day later from the bottom of my slope.  Even from this angle you can't see the base of these 2 trees.  Some commentators on Instagram expressed concern about the amount of foliage that was removed.  All I can say is that these neighbors have had these pine trees pruned this severely before and they've always spring back.

As best as I can tell, the neighbors had all their trees trimmed at the same time, which literally took all day with some followup the next morning.  In contrast, because all my trimming was relatively light and only about one-third of my trees were pruned, the crew at my house were done in just over four hours.  I'm glad to have the project behind me so I can focus on other garden projects in the new year, including my own pruning of some of my larger shrubs.

Happy Winter Solstice to those of you in the Northern Hemisphere!

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