Do you have daffs yet? I have a few different kinds. I'm not as good as Frances at cataloging the bulb inventory--link, link. All my bulb tags are piled in a garage cabinet. When all the flowers are up, I'll go through the pile o' tags and assign names to everyone.
We also have some crocus.
I remember picking these oddly colored croci out, but cannot recall the name off the top of my head.
Some of the natives are coming in to season too. Ceanothus arboreus 'Ray Hartman'.
A few inflorescences began to bloom a month or two ago.
But now the whole thing is starting to bloom. It's a thrill.
Many plants, like the grape, will remain dormant for several more weeks.
Pruning time approacheth. I want to build some nice structure into this plant while it's still young.
The V in the trunk is a fine start.
But there's a lot of mess on top that needs some careful clipping away.
In this picture I'm trying to show you larkspur roots growing out the bottom of these 2-inch pots, ready to be planted out.
I planted out 14 of these today. 2" pots are the perfect size. Anything larger is hard to find room for right now. I keep bigger plants around in pots in case inspiration strikes and I decide that something needs to go. Senecio cristobalensis is one such standby I have ready in the wings.
Its stems have a purple tomentose.
The manzanita flowers are about half gone. This Vanessa came for the sunny perch and lingered all day.
The sun was very nice in the garden today.
I feel like this year will be the best year yet in the garden.
The Hardenbergia was buzzing with bees up on the deck.
Now we have nothing but "unsettled" weather in the forecast. I see we had more rainy days after the 22nd last January too.
So winter returns to California.
Here's the thermometer I bought last month to record the min/max temperatures in the last 24 hours. It has two parts, one part goes outdoors, and one part stays indoors. The outdoor part transmits a temperature reading to the indoor part by radio wave every 5 seconds. The top number is the current outdoor temperature, and the bottom number is the temperature in the garage. Currently it's 53 outdoors, and 60 in the garage.
The maximum outdoor temperature in the last 24 hours was about 62.
The minimum outdoor temperature in the last 24 hours was 50.
Brrrr! :P
No dramatic changes in the garden since I last talked to you two days ago.
But the weight of the rain has the bamboo weeping nearly to the ground. I may have to prune it or take out a few stalks.
(Yeah, I have a garbage can in my garden right now. The potato vines were getting really long and I didn't have anything to stack them in. So I cut the bottom out of an old kitchen garbage can and plopped it on top. Then I filled it halfway up with compost. More potatoes? I hope so. Next time I need something better than a garbage can tho'. This is a fabulous Bernal Heights estate garden and I cannot have my potatoes stacked in a garbage can.)
Daffodil flowers, coming soon.
Hopefully lots of them.
And Ceanothus 'Ray Hartman' is right on the cusp.
Do you see the purple pot?
I believe that's an artichoke.
It's what grew from this mystery "bulb" I found in the compost bin a few weeks ago. I discarded an artichoke from the garden two years ago. Has it been sitting in there ever since?
I added gravel to the cobblestone paths recently. New gravel and recent rain always give the place a nice, fresh look. Over here I even banked a bed that was slowly sliding into the path.
Much better.
I turned the Christmas tree into mulch.
A few things wait patiently for warmer days, like larkspur seedlings.
Winter seems like an iffy proposition in many parts of California this year. We have a warm spell every January, but this year is unprecedented. It felt like summer, driving around with the windows rolled down and my left elbow out in the sun. Nothing in the forecast but more sun and mild weather.
I visited the Blake Garden. I've been here many times and I've shown you many pictures from these 10 acres. I have a real affinity for this place and whenever I visit, there are some key areas I always look forward to seeing and lingering in. We're going to look at just a few of those areas today.
One is the vegetable garden, which is fairly inactive right now.
I like to see all the structures--very basic homespun. I wouldn't want to have anything "nicer" in my garden.
This bench is new. Put some rambling roses up that thing!
And I like the clutches of pots massed here and there. I do this in my own garden for sure.
I think there are just a few fixed rows and beds in this vegetable garden. Things seem very different every time I visit. The big structures are fixed, and there is a drip system. I think they must decide something they want to grow or a design they want to execute and then find a way to work it in around the established elements. In between times, the drip lines get rounded up and the beds get sheet composted.
Right now there is just one row of coles.
And that's Italian Parsley, right?
Here's something you don't see in a garden very often!
Do you know what this is? I guess you could say its presence here adds that vital, ineffable "sense of place" to the garden.
This is also new--a play area obstensibly inspired by Andy Goldsworthy.
There isn't much here right here right now, but this could be interesting.
Moving on...
Another garden area that I like is this little pond. The Blake Garden has five ponds, varying in style and scope. The simplest one is my favorite.
Very simple pots. I like this a lot.
Small gravel is better than large gravel, and it's nice to have a little pink in it.
Two neatly clipped cones anchor the entrance to the pond area.
The neatness help makes the chaotic elements more enjoyable. You could have these grasses without those cones, but in a small area like this I think my interest in their dying state would exhaust itself sooner.
The grandest pond is the reflecting pool and koi pond in front of the house.
For me it's the simultaneous sense of movement and stillness that that makes me feel reflective around a pond.
And I think it's ideal to have a pond under trees to reflect that picture of the sky.
I mentioned before how much I like the house. I think the front entrance strikes the perfect balance between formality and informality, and it's very hard to do that. Wouldn't be good enough for a Garden Design magazine cover, but I find this very desirable.
I like the random layout of the flagstone.
I like the Mexican fleabane, or Santa Barbara daisy if you prefer, (Erigeron karvinskianus) allowed to come up between spaces.
I like the beautiful empty pot.
Tree ferns look beautiful all year long.
I think it's perfect.
Veg garden, small pond, front door--those are the three vignettes that I specifically wanted to blog about.
But there is one other element that I also want to include. This is a four-square spring bulb and summer cutting garden featuring Magnolia kobus.
The magnolias are flowering now...
And underneath, blackened seedheads.
But it's Cryptomeria japonica in its winter coat looming over the top in the backgound in the picture above that really draws the eye.
I don't know if you can see the same colors I do, but the tree is pink, purple, and green.
