Pared Down Garden

June 2016

The garden is looking quite bare. You can see right through to the back of garden to Pomelo and Kumquat trees.

The banana grove has been removed. I miss those gorgeous banana leaves swagging in the wind. In all the years I never put up window dressing on the windows. The Banana leaves from the outside provides all the window dressing I ever needed.

How Do You Move a Garden?

May, 2016
The past couple of months and weeks has been strange and uneasy for me. I had been purging and packing our offices for the office move. If that is not unsettling enough, I had also started the same purging and packing on our own San Diego home. But my most ambivalent feeling might be regarding my garden. Over the years, we have grown our San Diego garden in the style of the lush tropical garden we grew up with. The San Diego weather has allowed us to grow tropical fruits like bananas, mangoes, Sapote Ciku, longan as well as figs, persimmons, and citrus like pomelos and kumquats. In anticipation of our move and sale of the house, we had started clearing out and tidying our San Diego garden. Not everyone appreciate the "Jungle Look" we favored. 

The plan is after we tidy up the garden, we can plant a more acceptable palate of plants to prospective buyers.

Broken Treasures

In my garden, broken flower pots are never thrown away. I use the shards to cover drainage holes in flower pots to prevent soil from washing out. They are incorporated in the  planting medium I use for repotting orchids. Most of all, I have a fondness for succulents displayed in broken pots. I like the organic and rustic feel of succuelnts spilling over and out of pots.

I woke up with that thought in my mind and excitedly headed into my garden to do just that. Luckily for me, I found two small pots that were broken when they were either toppled over by strong winds or knocked over by my dog, Frasier or the landscapers. Strange how one can regard finding broken pot as lucky! No precious plants were damaged when those pots were broken.... In fact, the plants that were originally in the pots, spilled out and rooted themself in the ground, leaving me with the perfect containers for my succulent garden.

The fun part is deciding which succulents to include in the display. I made use of smaller specimens that I started a few months ago together with bigger cuttings from existing display plants. I chose a balance of sizes and colors for each of the two pots. The pot at the back was intact enough to be planted vertically with aloes "Red Riding Hood" and Oscularia Deltoids drapping over the sides. The pot in front had to be laid on its side to be planted. It was planted with Sempervinum Arachnoidem (cobweb in center) and Echeveria "Doris Taylor" (red tip with fine white hair)  of various sizes. The trick is to fill the pots enough plants of the right size to be attractive but leave enough space for the specimens to grow. The plants will grow larger and have pups, filling in the broken pots until the broken edges are conceal.

Continously propogate the succulents so that you will always have specimens to use when an inspiration strikes you as it did that morning. Check out post on my spring time propogating.

Spring time sprucing and making babies!

My body is aching from the hours spent hunched over my succulent collection yesterday. It is a good ache...I got a lot done. It is nice to be outside again, without being burdened by heavy winter coats. Much as I enjoyed the change of being in wintery New York these past two weeks, I did not enjoy donning the heavy coats outside, the hot dry air inside, looking at the bare gardens and how early it darken each day. I am glad to be back in San Diego.

Reviving Succulent

I worked on neglected succulents to rejunevate them for the new year. As a testimont to their hardiness, you can see the rosette of the live echiveria in the center of the brown ring of the dead leaves. They were in a pot that was not connected to any water source, totally dependent on San Diego 11" of annual rainfall and the occasional douse of water from the hose should I notice it at the times it needed water. Echeveria will become leggy as it grows. Most of the brown leaves will still be green and not shrivel brown like in this picture....that is why I say I have neglected it.

Succulent Basket

It is a miracle. It is January 1, 2013 and I am blogging!! Actually, I am blogging because I following through with my "resolution" to put me first this year. I signed up for a gym membership at the local YMCA with my daughter just before the new year so physically I will get back to being more active. Hoping to finally take some yoga and pilates classes. 2013 I am committed to devoting more time to my creative pursuits.

I started the year on the right note. I spent some time gardening- my first love. It was kind of chilly but the need to garden was overwhelming. I needed to create something not just potter around. I recycled an old metal toiletry metal basket/ container/ caddy for a lovely succulent garden. I lined the basket with damp sphaghum moss, tied the moss to the basket with some twine and filled the center with some fast draining soil and perlite mix.

Front Succulent Garden

On any one day, I do not visit my whole garden... in fact in any one week, I do not visit my whole garden. With a busy work schedule, most days, I enter and exit the house through the garage. This means the  part of the garden I view the most, is my back yard which is visible through the sliding glass door of the family room and through the windows of the kitchen. I go out through those glass doors to feed and play with my dog, Frasier. I putter around the backyard the most, gathering blueberries and strawberries for my cereal. Depending what is fruiting or ready for harvest, that is the section of the garden I would visit. Otherwise, I almost never go to my front yard, unless the door bell rings! This more often then not, means the UPS man is here with a package. Or the tutor is here for my son.

The good thing is I kept the the front yard mainly as a succulent yard, which needs minimal work. It looks good- or at least, not terrible, even with the neglect I have subjected it to. Today, the UPS man brought me into the front yard. Looks like it is time I give this part of my garden some tender loving care.