Gardening During Pandemic

Thank God for gardening! Between dealing with my demented mother and this pandemic, gardening has been my savior. 

I did a number of fairy gardens this year. This arrangement if my favorite! 

In 2009, I changed my yard from grass to dymondia, a drought tolerant ground cover. I started with plugs. I noticed that not only had it made an excellent ground cover, but it was starting to encroach the flower bed area and covered the stepping stone path.

So, I took care of that problem this past winter, 2020. To the bedding area, I removed some of the carpet roses and have planted different drought tolerant flowering plants--new to me. It's an experiment to see what works.

One of the plants is a California native called Sticky Monkey Flower. It comes in numerous colors. The first time I saw this plant was during a hike at Arroyo Seco. Yes, a true native plant! That plant's flower was orange. My Sticky Monkey Flower plant is planted under a volunteer oak tree since they love growing under oaks. I plan on adding a couple more Sticky Monkey Flowers to my yard this year.

Sunflowers

One mammoth sunflower stalk before it developed lots of heads.

A droopy stalk with lots of droopy heads needing to be cut off the main stalk.

I want to save my sunflowers from critters and birds getting to the seeds. 

All the tiny flowers have dried.

What it looks after some of flowers have been removed.

All of these heads will come inside to dry. Once the green part has turned brown the seeds are ready to be removed. Some seeds will be saved for next year, some we will eat, and the remainder will be feed to the birds this winter.

COVID-19 Garden

I planted some veggies for fun; just something to do while sitting at home. I would starve to death if I relied on my garden for food.

This bed has zucchini, basil, sage, spring onions, and tomato plants. Orange tree is in the background.

First time for growing potatoes. I cut up some red store bought potatoes that were forming eyes.

Yellow squash and cucumber plants that were started from seeds that my kids gave me for my birthday.

Rewards!

Nature provides one with wonderful gifts.

This year my wisteria is putting on a beautiful show for me.

It smells so heavenly...thank you!

Hen and Chicks

A couple of years ago, I placed some hens around my yard. This popular succulent, sempervivum, is an easy one to grow. It thrives in low or strong light and in cold or hot temperatures.

One of the hens that I planted in a very sunny location had lots of off-spring. The other day, I noticed one of the chicks blooming and some others getting ready to bloom.

Please NO Bedbugs

Coreopsis is such a pretty plant with a very peculiar name.

The name Coreopsis is derived from the Greek word koris, which means bedbug.
Another common name is tickseed. No ticks here, only the bees frequent these beauties.

When the Weeds are Sweet

One definition of a weed is a misplaced plant. While weeding this spring, I noticed a volunteer. Instead of pulling the plant or moving it to a different location, I left the plant alone. Last fall when I amended the soil for the citrus that I planted, I used some of my compost dirt. There must of been a seed in that compost just waiting for its chance to produce.

Well today, that volunteer rewarded me with its fruits, four to be exact. The fruit aren't very large, but they sure are sweet and juicy.