Just came in from the garden,…perfect day to be out there, especially with my camera. There was really nice, even lighting. Come see what I’m doing in the garden and what is blooming now in June. I’ve been trimming the lower branches off oaks and manzanita, …I’ll pull all that ivy, (from 1 4″ pot!)…
Half the year is over and in the garden I’m walking around taking stock. June usually means the real riotous bloom of the Iris, fruit trees and bulbs is dying down. Now the dry garden can be the spotlight. Our climate is very close to that of the Mediterranean. We can grow all the plants…
“What’s blooming Wednesday” In the Sierra foothills, after the blues, of Lupine, Vetch and Blue dicks, the early Spring wildflowers: The blues, come the yellows and whites of April. Have you seen these? All over the roadsides now you’ll see blooming Elderberry bushes, with lemony white umbrel (Umbrella) shaped flowers. have you wondered about them?…
Our ‘bad’ soil…? I get comments all the time from discouraged local gardeners about ‘our bad soil’ in the Oakhurst, Coarsegold and North Fork areas. Giving this some thought, I’m wondering if gardeners are making use of the natural ‘mulch’ we have in pine needles and oak leaves? Using the resources we have here was…
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…
Do you get up early? I do,…but have found that many couples have one. One that gets up at dawn and the other who sleeps through it all. The cool air, the purplish cast in the early, early dawn, the soft peeping of the first birds all draw me out to sleepily make my coffee.…
The natural meadow in the second year By that, I mean, this is the second year that I have weeded but not planted here. I’ve planted my 5 year old garden in irrigation zones. The area around the house gets the most water and has the most ‘non-native, but Mediterranean plants.’ We’re on a slope…
Big changes all around The meadow in May…checking the progress and weeding, weeding… Last year, here in the Sierra foothills, I started a meadow project in a weedy field below the south side of our home. Bounded by a sycamore tree on the south a path on the north, a rock garden on the west,…
Many of us here in the California Sierra foothills have gravel driveways, paths and roads. This can be a help or a hindrance to gardeners searching for more space in which to garden. Gravel gardens could have their origin in formal Japanese ‘dry landscape’ gardens located on the grounds of Zen Buddhist temples. The raked…
Butterfly gardeners begin this way….they see a colorful butterfly in their garden and start paying attention. They want to see more so they wait and observe during the spring and summer. How can they see more kinds, they wonder. That’s how I began, I’m sure. Once you begin observing, you notice more and more about…
First views of my garden at the first of April…. First views is the brainchild of Town Mouse, with the idea that wider views will give a better idea of what our gardens look like and a record of how they change throughout the year. Join in by visiting her post here! *** I have…
Euphorbia is one of the most diverse family of plants, with many different shapes, sizes and colors, from shrubs to cactus-like succulents. The common name for the perennials and shrubs is spurge, a not very glamorous name to be sure, I have learned to pronounce the Latin, ‘You-for-bia’. You may already know one type, Poinsettias!…
Everyone has seen these garden spheres in the garden, but recently after finding a bowling ball at Oakhurst’s “Clutter Clearance” I decided to try decorating one. I was inspired by an example found online on Google images, bought some bags of ‘gems’ used for filling vases to hold stems straight.
First the materials were gathered, 5 or 6 bags of 'gems', stones or tiles and 2 tubes of G.E. Silicone II for outdoors, in clear.
Start with a clean and prepped bowling ball. Use rubbing alcohol or vinegar to get any wax finish off. Sand lightly, then wash and dry the ball before painting. I filled the two smaller holes with tin foil and just glued right over them. Leave one hole uncovered and positioned at the bottom so if you want you can set it onto a piece of rebar in the garden. It helps to print out a photo of a design you like from Google images, shown. I used 5 0r 6 bags of ‘gems’, shown, and 2 tubes of G.E. Silicone II for outdoors, in clear.
With pencil I marked the top, opposite the largest hole and cut a five pointed star for a design to fill in
I used pencil to mark a dot on the top, opposite the hole I left unfilled. Then I drew freehand lines vertically to mark four sections, then used a paper cut-out of a star to trace around as a starting point.…
I heard a huge truck coming down the driveway just now and my ears perked up. Tractor Man had walked up to the mailbox with Maggie, so it wasn’t him. Turns out the Asplundh tree trimmer guys came down with a huge load of nice fine textured mulch to dump at the end of the driveway Oh, joy! Oh, …I know…geeky gardener fun, but you all here understand.
2011 Asplundh truck dumps the mulch here, then we'll use the tractor to move it.
Last week, I had stopped them as they worked on our circle up at the street and asked if they’d mind coming down our long steep driveway and dumping their load of chips down here. Worked!…
Lewis Creek is about 7 miles south of Yosemite National Park, CA. The trail all along it with the flowers,waterfalls and natural beauty are a lovely alternative to visiting the Park if you have limited time, or if you want to avoid crowds, or if the roads are snowy in the Spring. I described the trail and…
In May, I decided to take my camera to explore Lewis Creek Trail, just 7 miles south of Yosemite. The creek is named for Washington B. Lewis, one of the Park’s early superintendents and is a few miles of us along Hwy 41 heading north. Part One: The trail and the bugs The trail This is a favorite walk…
Notes on what I am really doing in the garden.
Mexican Primrose, with fleshy bulb-like root.
Mexican Primrose eradication in front beds
Last Fall I decided to sift the soil of the front beds after the first quick weeding did nothing to get rid of this stubborn pretty. It is pretty at one stage, but dries to tall sticks throughout the planting beds. So, there I was taking bit by bit, each area and making sure.
Mexican Primrose coming through root ball of killed plant. Yellowish fleshy root shows at the bottom.
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I got all the roots, I think, with a sharp trowel. All the plants affected were dug up, shaken out, forbidden roots found and placed in nursery pots in the shade. The roots have a thick, fleshy root, which is yellowish, rather than red like the stems of this plant. This must be romoved completely or it will come back.
Fast forward to last month when a second thorough check was done and more stragglers found and dug.
Germander, Teucrium chamaedrys 'Prostratum'
Last weekend, another month later, I put all the plants back, added a few monkey flowers and sages to go with the existing conifers, Germander, Teucrium chamaedrys ‘Prostratum’, (below), Thyme and Snow-in-summer, Cerastrum tomentosum. These last three are some of the most useful Mediteranneans for a California garden.…
When we first saw our property and took the first photos there was somewhat of a circle drive that became our house pad. There was a slope of about 15 degrees, so to make the “pad” level, they bulldozer guy did what is called ‘cut and fill’. The hill was cut into to, and that…
