Not a complaint so much as an observation.
A complaint might be, this garden has too many plants.
The lily stalks are poking up everywhere. I love them.
The nasturtium are giants this year. Nasturtiums? Whatever. Like geraniums are really pelargoniums, nasturtium is a totally different plant than trapaeolum. Maybe you already knew that. Or maybe you really could not care less. Well, I'm not trying to talk down to you.
The California native juju has really left my garden. Some of it died (my beloved Keckiella cordifolia), some of it fell over in heavy rain (my beloved Fremontodendron californicum) and some of it, I decided, was getting on my nerves with its stubborn refusal to grow up (my beloved Arctostaphylos pajaroensis). But I still have my as-yet non-flowering buckeye (Aesculus californica) and my getting-too-big ceanothus (C. arboreus 'Ray Hartman'), both in this picture:
I need to replant a Keckiella cordifolia, but what I really miss having are the California annuals, my beloved wildflowers -- phacelias, nemophilas, madias. I have none this year. Instead I have a few perennials from Annie's Annuals I tucked in last fall, like Alonsoa meridionalis and Cerinthe major 'purpurascens' -- well, no, that's an annual too.
And I have a lot of Heracleum lanatum. Boy, you let that one go to seed and you have it abundance the next year. It's okay, I'm a fan. I also love the common name, cow parsnip. I don't think cows would like to eat it. But what do I know about cows. Anyway, its flowers seem to attract a lot of creepy-looking predator insects in late spring and summer. Black things with big wings and sharp, pointed abdomens. Maybe I'm overreacting. I'll show you pictures later on. When they come.
When I look back, my plant additions have been tilting toward cloud forest for a long time now. It works for San Francisco, as I have said many times. Fuchsia boliviana.
The giant asters (my favorites) with their big fabulous leaves (and flowers, on their way).
And the monocots too. The monocot thing is serious.
2 comments:
I love your overgrown backyard. It is a wonderful sight. Unfortunately, with the shade and heat and the poor soil, I cannot get flowers to grow in our backyard. Nandinas and other shrubs do well, but no flowers.
I love your garden. Every single plant seems so happy there. I like how it's a little wild and messy, not manicured all over the place.
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