There are TV shows that make California seem like a gardening paradise. Well, it is, of course, too much of a good thing. I’m a midwestern gardener, transplanted. Sadly, the whole “6 months off for winter” thing just doesn't apply here. Plant stuff in spring, fertilize occasionally, weed sometimes, ignore it mostly till it dies or goes dormant. Clean it up for winter, or leave it if it looks good with snow on it—just won’t do here. Stuff keeps growing, and growing, and growing. Its oppressive. Planting time is November-ish. Or now. Or, whenever. I've found though, that stuff planted much past March doesn't stand a chance in the summer heat.
As far as I can tell, there are only two actual gardeners in our neighborhood, who do plant maintenance themselves. Everyone but SysGuy and one other family employs “mow and blow” crews, who are responsible for waking everyone up at exactly 7am during the week, and for blowing leftover snippets and dirt from the weed whackers into the street, so they can be blown back by traffic during the week. It is my opinion that smog is mostly made up of dirt blown into the air by these crews. The mow and blow guys will trim bushes, but they're not particularly creative about it.
I’ve embarked on what should be an ongoing process (that I totally skipped last year out of laziness and just being sick of the whole operation) of pruning and trimming and cleaning up the yard for the continuous growth explosion. I have some catching up to do.
Last weekend, it was the mini Meyer lemon tree (with the 2" thorns, yay!), the totally overgrown lavender, and the heavenly-scented Double Delight roses. The lemon was getting huge, the lavender was 4' tall and 3' wide, and the roses were sad. I didn't take a before photo, but this is the after:
I know, the lavender looks totally pitiful. Trust me, it will be trying to climb into the window again by May, and I will have to trim it. I never know what is the right time for the lavender, it seems to always be blooming. In the corner is a blighted yellow hibiscus. Not sure what its problem is, it was a lush treeish thing, till we had terrific rains a few years ago. Its mate on the other side fell completely over and died, and this one has just not been the same since. This is the only grass in the back yard, and it was probably stupid of me to put it in. Its “Marathon.” Which is marketing-speak for “dies if you set anything on it for more than 15 minutes.” Mostly, I’ve tried to replace the elderly plants on the property with drought-tolerant low-maintenance plants, but the grass was a loony departure from that plan, we’ve spent an inordinate amount of effort to keep it alive. This area was planted with normally shade-loving, and so, burnt-looking azaleas, camellias and some kind of invasive ground cover that was perpetually wilted without constant care. (I moved them to where they’d be happier.)
This weekend, I undertook the trimming of an almond-shaped cut-out in the vast cement plain that is our back yard. Its about 6' long and 4' wide. When we moved in it was filled with pretty purple long-stemmed prairie grass that was about 5' tall. Unfortunately, the grass put out a billion pretty purple longstemmed-grass seeds, which sprouted everywhere in the yard, and constantly clogged the pool filter. The previous owner had a bird-of-paradise in a big pot near the pool—they managed to break the pot trying to take the plant with them, and threw it into a back area near the pool pump. So I dug out the pretty purple grass and put the (incredibly heavy my god what was I thinking) bird-of-paradise in the almond of dirt. Also, I planted a 6' queen palm, just because I could. I knew it would get big, but.... Then, in the remaining dirt, I planted Santa Barbara Daisies, which are teensy flowers that look like this:
Cute, no?
Well, it turns out that if you let them go for a couple of years, they totally take over, and become less cute. Today, I whacked them back, and then dug up probably 70% of the bird-of-paradise, because it was slowly spreading corms to fill all of the space. I really should hire a couple of guys to do this, it was heavy work. This is the end result of my day’s labor:
Its a long scrolldown, be patient....
So, the palm tree is considerably taller than 6' now, apparently it grows about 4' per year. Doh. We will have to get a new and more exciting ladder to trim the dead fronds this year. The bird-of-paradise is way skinnier than it was, when I started it was a bush that hung over the sidewalk in 360 degrees. You can see from the dark area on the cement where the daisies had escaped to. Naturally, I managed to sever the drip irrigation, so that will be fun to fix tomorrow. Both weekends I managed to entirely fill the greenwaste container we are allotted by the trash company. If we actually kept up with the gardening the way we should, we would fill it every damn week. As it is, we go in fits and spurts and usually have piles that get sent away in stages.
Next week, I will be tackling this area:
This is a semicircle with a couple of giant coral roses on standards, rosemary and Mexican heather. The roses have particularly evil thorns, and I haven't trimmed them in a couple of years. The rosemary, is, well, rosemary. If you need some, tell me. I’m thinking of ripping out the the heather and putting in lambs ear or something that has a different foliage color than the rosemary. Probably I’ll also be able to work on the gardenias and camellia next weekend, too. (Note the broken vanes from the pool filter in the background. One more thing on the list....)
This weekend was good practice with the bird-of-paradise dig out. After I finish the back yard (and by back yard, I mean the safe side of the pool fence—the pool side is just a mind-boggling jungle) I’ll be starting the front yard with these dainty growths that haven’t been looked after in a couple of years:
Yeah, they’re a little intimidating; a chain saw is required just to get started. That’s why I try to ignore them. Remember this when you see them in the flower shop. Augh.
Lest you think its all a horror show of maintenance, I do get these lovely flowers outside the kitchen window in February, the first photo is a closeup of one of the jillions of bracts with tiny orchid-looking blooms, the second is the actual vine going crazy outside the window and over the gate. I love that it’s so unruly:
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