On a rainy day in April, I still take Maggie for her daily walk in the garden. It’s not cold and though Maggie’s not a fan of wet, she loves to walk and sniff, waggy, waggy…she sniffs everything! Just yesterday, I was weeding the meadow, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, with the sun warm on my back. Now rain! But a gardener doesn’t mind..
Both Eastern and Western redbuds do very well in our Sierra Foothills. Eastern has heart shaped leaves and the Western has round leaves. This tree, an Eastern, ‘Don Egolf’ was planted four years ago and is an early bloomer.
The meadow is green as we pass,…I know from yesterday’s weeding meditation that some of the green are filaree. I’ll get to them, but not today…
This path alongside the meadow needs to be leveled, a good project for next week now that the ground is soft. The grey along the edge is lamb’s ear, which grows from seed. I lay down the trimmed seedheads in fall and set them down where I want more. Deer don’t like them and they make great path edges.
Fuji or Gala, I don’t remember, but at the first of April they bloom with a lovely pinky white. Deer don’t bother these for some reason, even though the deer path runs right along side them. The two fruit trees will soon be the ‘bones’ of my new vegetable garden.
We pass a huge puffball filled with powdery spores I guess,…this one looks like a melon with a thick rind.
I like the texture of the Golden Yarrow, Eriophyllum confertiflorum var. confertiflorum, native to the property. It makes neat, round puff and blooms golden like the name. It’s encouraged where ever it appears.
No squirrels yet…, Maggie says. Our place is on a slope and we’ve reached the middle path, ‘main intersection of the garden’ which is our leach line and one of the only flat areas. It’s a good place for shallow rooted perennials and bulbs.
This is the native area I planted back in Fall 2011. I’m hoping it does well this year, A Spice bush, Cleveland sage and monkey flowers. Also a Arctostaphylos ‘Pacific Mist’, a low growing manzanita.
Iris and foxglove grows between two oaks since neither needs lot of water. Endemic, wild California violets grow here, too.
When we arrived here, there was a thicket of poison oak around all these trees, dangerous to me and the grandkiddies. Now we are enjoying keeping the land more park like.
This is a leach line, made into a path. there is a glider at the end, a popular mountain viewing place. Beyond and to the right is the completely native meadow that I keep weeded. Deer grass and daffodils are planted along the edges.
These rock steps make an easy climb, as we head for the house. Rosemary, rockrose, artemesia and native manzanita hold the slope around the house.
Maggie waits as I catch up. The patio pots are filled with violas and pansies planted in December. Beyond the table is my old rusty wheelbarrow with more pansies, tipsy pot and garden shed.
This is just out the back kitchen door and though the marjoram has taken over, I’ll add chives to it and the thyme for easy cutting.
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