With Temperature in the high 70s, what's a town mouse to do but tackle some of the garden chores. Here's what I did:- Saturday morning, hand-watered everything that looked needy, which was all the new plants and all the cuttings I'm trying to root.
- Also spent two hours pulling weeds and removing leaves from the dry streambed in my newly planted front yard. I don't mind leaves in the yard itself, but I like to keep the streambed mostly free of debris.
- Planted some wild ginger and removed a lot of hummingbird sage (Salvia spatacea) from an area that's too moist and shady so it's moldy all year. Thought of planting more, but decided it would just mean a larger area to drag the hose through.
- Removed some oxalis between some cracks in the driveway.
- Edged my new path in the front with flagstone.
- Planted a few native bulbs: Tritelea laxa (Ithuriel's spear) and Dichelostemma ida-maia (Firecracker plant). I'm including photos in this post, in the great hope that I'll get to see these beauties in my own yard in the spring. I did protect with chicken wire to deter the squirrels. We'll see.
And of course I had to go for a hike, with the weather being so beautiful, and went to see a very beautiful California native garden. This visit was an interesting experience, with the gracious host explaining all the plants that were to come (Gilia, Clarkia, Nessela, and so on) and all of use nodding delightedly while looking at a steep expanse of dirt. As they say, it's in the eye of the beholder, and we all could envision the beauty in the spring.
Meanwhile, I'm hoping for rain so I can rest for a weekend. And besides, the plants really prefer the real stuff to the hose...
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