The small, insignificant garden

Maybe I should call it the Garden of Self-Pity. The garden feels especially small and insignificant after spending the day in Big Trees. Small, insignificant, ill-conceived, ineffective, and unappealing.



And I'm losing patience with my container clutter.



Seriously, I'm ready for an intervention.



Time to come to Jesus.



Someone call Hoarders.



I'm not even showing you the nursery area. Don't go there.

Let's move on to other topics, but you can leave enabling comments if you want.

We're leaving the tomato cages out for the winter in case any birds need a spot to perch. I think I said that already. I stuffed a tuft of dead grass between the bars in case someone needs some nesting material. And I'm picking raspberries.



I decided containerized raspberries are definitely the way to go. And not because I was worried about the running roots, but because it's easier to water and fertilize the container than it is to cultivate a patch of ground.

I'm very fond of the giant asters from South America--they love San Francisco and grow vigorously with minimal care. This is Tithonia diversifolia which makes yellow, chocolate-scented daisies starting in a month or two. It started putting out a lot of growth recently too.



I can't believe how fast Senecio cristobalensis has grown. I've never seen anything grow so fast. Flowers are insignificant, but the foliage and texture are top-notch.



I generally don't pay much attention to the cyclamen under the deck stairs, but I appreciated their foliage today too.



A drift of cyclamen is really nice, but I have mixed results getting them to come back from year to year. They go on sale for half off right now so I get one or two every year and hope for the best. A 25% return rate will eventually get me a nice, small drift.

The Passiflora citrina I got a couple months ago at Filoli is doing well. They seem to grow okay in shade which is not surprising considering how competitive they are.



The Wikipedia page says Passiflora are found worldwide except for Africa (and Antarctica, duh), including nine species that are native to the USA, one of which is found in California! How can that be?! I must find out what it is.

Watching the leaves turn colors on everyone's blogs recently, I'm struck by how green my neighbor's neglected cherry tree remains.



I wonder if I can find a record of it changing color in my archives.

Second Spring

Warm weather and recent rain (half-inch yesterday, 2.5" from last week, not to mention the 120 gallons of supplemental watering I did using water from the rain barrels) have set off a growth spurt in the garden and polished everything to a clean green.











Tibouchina urvilleana seems particularly delighted.





Also fuchsia







And believe it or not, Rosa 'Honey Bouquet' has a dozen buds on it!



The mystery bulb I was having problems identifying on Bloom Day is a Nerine. Duh!



Spring wildflower seedlings are coming up everywhere





The LBBs still visit every day.



In fact they come several times a day.





The tomato plants are gone, but I'm leaving up the cages for visitors who need a perch.



There are some beautiful green leaves













But the buckeye's bare branches attest to the fact that this is not spring.



And the grape leaves are very clear about it.

We're expecting substantial rain

tomorrow. Right now we're waiting.



The pots on the roof need some attention.



Many things have died and most of what's left is pretty boring. This one is nice. That's Nassella tenuissima, Echeveria 'Afterglow' and Cotyledon orbiculata v. longifolium.



(In the background you can see the former pan o' succulents, now a pan o' species tulips and crocus bulbs. We'll find out soon if those bulbs will come back after baking in situ all summer on the roof. If so, great. If not, it's back to succulents. But no cactus next time--nothing prickly that makes it hard to weed out the hundreds of Nassella volunteers.)

Agastache does okay up here. The hummingbirds come for it, so I'll have some more next year. I believe this is 'Heronswood Purple'. (Sorry about this picture; looking at it hurts my eyes.)



We need a handyman to come out and replace some rain gutter. I tried snaking it clean, but that didn't work. Then we tried to flush it clean with a hose. That didn't work either and now the hose is stuck inside the drain!



It's a five foot length, and it's clogged right here, in the middle.



The line ends here and drops straight down to the sewer.



The gutter on the other side of the house empties into rain barrels before they overflow and run into the garden. A cistern would be great, if only it was feasible.

You can only see a glimpse of the garden from up here.



But we can go down.







So, this is the garden at the end of summer. Once the rains come, our fall-winter pattern begins. I predict there will still be warm days in October, and again in January. But the fun is mostly over until April or so.





















I'm not having any luck yet getting fall color from any Acer. Maple leaves go straight from green to brown without passing through yellow, orange, or red. But Vitis works.



I recently added a second grape to the garden; fall 2010 will be more fun.



Obviously, I have a thing for vines...



Sometime in the next few months, these guys all need to find homes.



And there's more after that.



Always more. More, more, more.



It's the garden of unrestrained appetite.



Speaking of appetite, the favas have sprouted.



And I have put some snap peas over here in the area reclaimed from the bamboo that I haven't gotten inspired about yet.



Emma suggested putting a rose on the fence, an idea that had occurred to me. I have 'Honey Bouquet' in a pot, taking up one of my prime sitting locations.



Inspiration will come. In the meantime, we're expecting rain.