First Views of August (Country Mouse)

I'm adopting Town Mouse's new First Views meme idea, for garden views taken on the first of each month -- even if it doesn't become a meme.

I consider these "baseline" views! Everything looks pretty bare. So much in my garden needs development - I'll have to choose where I focus this fall. Too little spread too thin does not lead to anything looking too good!

Also we are having June Gloom into August this year - so the colors are a bit dull. Oh well, for the record...

Pool garden, from Woodrat's office:

The pool looks bad because we're having a filter malfunction. Have to tear it apart and see what's going on, but been too busy.

Pool garden bed along woodland side, from poolshed. It's actually looking quite nice:

Standing at that corner of concrete you can see in the distance in the photo above, looking more closely at the woodland path:


Looking back towards the house from the beginning of the woodland path. Sure need some color on that deck:


Rotating to the right to look along the neighbor-fence from woodland path. This area is also looking pretty good, but those hollyhocks got really top heavy and look a bit drunk. Tied them up kinda sorta:

Closer view of new shady area (seen above at the end of the bed) with madia going mad and naked buckwheat going nearly bananas. Got some ceanothus and thimble berry in 5 gal pots doing nicely too:


Walked past the greenhouse, towards Woodrat's office door, and out through the pool fence gate to view -- The "in place" plan for the south garden development, one bed in use currently:


Walked over to the other end of Experimental Bed No. 1, looking back towards the greenhouse - which needs finishing this year - trim, paint... Also new deck just visible on right.


Swiveling right and behind me from above location, to take shot of porch area. Window on left is one of my office windows. Lucky me! Dutchman's pipevine and spice bush happy here.


View across valley/hills from near there too (the views are definitely part of the garden!):


View to cottage from edge of porch trellis, with innocent-looking Duncan (the bunny killer - but that's another story):


Just behind Duncan above and to the right, you can see the beginning of the steps going down into the chaparral:


View back towards the porch from the driveway near Dad's cottage:


Walked across the driveway/turnaround to view Dad's cottage, from top of the path down to the corral:

Turning to look down the path towards the corral - the wildlife garden:


Looking down the driveway from the other side of Dad's cottage:


Duncan's Steps, half way down the driveway. Planted a whole ton of stuff on that hill but you can hardly see it yet - had to plant in summer because the poor things were languishing in their pots (I need to finetune my annual propagation routine):

Another view, much prettier in real life to be sure:


The road, looking up the driveway. Still trying to get something to grow on that wedge:



And that's it for this month! Thanks for taking a walk around the place with me! If you haven't yet visited, go see the very lovely garden views at First Views of August (Town Mouse)

Comments

James said…
It's nice to see how the plantings fit into the bigger picture of the house and pool. I guess folks don't like the thought of swimming in a green pool but for some reason don't think twice about diving into an emerald pond out in the woods. I wonder if "greener" pool practices are next on the horizon. Some of this season's new starts are biding their time in the greenhouse, waiting for ideal planting weather. Like you I'm having a hard time getting the timing perfect. It's always so motivating to get going as quickly as you can in the fall, but I guess that's not always the best time for it. Hopefully the May Gray and June Gloom depart since not many useful words rhyme with August.
Town Mouse said…
Wow, the madia is just amazing! These photos are also inspiration for me to see what I could plant for next year. Thanks for coming along on the view tour!