It's time again for First Views - views of the garden as a whole, instead of closeups of plants which are fine too of course. October finds our gardens in various degrees of attractiveness this year. Next year I wonder where we'll be!
I've been busier propagating than gardening lately, but yesterday Wood Rat cleared the path along the curve of the north-facing valley, through the disaster zone that resulted from me being too busy to do the usual spring weeding this year. Thistle seeds are clustered everywhere. So much progress wiped out in one season. Well, picking self up, brushing self off...
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| Wood Rat cleared this whole path! I'm inspired to return to this area. The pool garden is above and to the left of this picture - you can sort of make out the pool fence just behind the scrim of foliage that's "blown out" - not such a great picture. |
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| A view down into the north valley, and the dead madrone that I love but that will probably have to go one day. |
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| The red blossoms of the California fuschia are still popping out - hoping to propagate and plant a lot more of these later this year. Hoping the seeds will be ready by late October. |
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| Through the gate from the pool garden to the south garden. |
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| Pool garden is still looking quite nice, with salvias and verbenas and sunflowers and a rambling rose. |
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| The pool. |
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| On the south side of the house, looking over the valley to the south east. |
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| South garden's "Experimental Bed #1" on the left with mad madia, and new beds on the right and ahead to work on this fall. |
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| Looking down into the chaparral, neighbor's house over there down on the left. Hard to convey the down-ness of the slope. Needs work after all the thinning we had to do. |
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| Looking along the south garden to the left of Experimental Bed #1. (Chaparral slopes down to the road on the left, and continues past the road.) |
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| This is the area where I'll plant today: three spreading Ceanothus gloriosus 'Anchor Point,' a selection of Point Reyes ceanothus, and three Salvia 'Bees' Bliss' which is a cultivar of Salvia sonomensis I think. Attentive viewers may note that the front of the greenhouse is now shingled, thanks again to Wood Rat who was on vacation. And what do you do when on vacation? Shingle, of course! |
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| A closer view of the greenhouse - been so sunny I've had the shade cloth on the south facing windows. I also have a little shade area to the left of the greenhouse, with some potted wetland plants growing there. We hope to make a little patio in that nook between the greenhouse door and gate into the pool area. The shrub on the left of the picture is a volunteer coffeeberry. I'll probably be planting a spreading ceanothus in the bottom central area of the photo today. |
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| Another area awaiting inspiration and planting, to the right of the greenhouse. I'd like to put a lot of succulents in here. We'll see. Have to mound up a little to cover the concrete post bottoms. Also these stones acting as path markers will need to be replaced with more solid rows of the round and reddish-brown sonoma rocks, about head size and smaller. |
Thanks, Town Mouse for starting this meme. I'm off to your
First Views blog post to add my post to your mister linky thingy! Hope if you're a blogger reading this that you'll join in and show us some garden views.
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