Too busy building and planting, sowing and weeding!

Some plants for the planting. All from local wild natives, except for the 2 Catalina currant front right

I go farther over the edge of insanity with every friendly "Hi, isn't this great weather?" NO it is not great weather. It is pleasant for humans maybe, but I want to get my fall planting done! I've finally just jumped the gun (with a bit of hand watering to help things along).

Mr Wood Rat and his Snow Leopard son - hey anything is possible in the blogosphere - have been building the pool garden fence and shade house - more of those in another thrilling post!

Yesterday, Wood Rat built a short flight of wooden steps connecting my Boulder Creek granddaughter's "little stage" to the stone steps I've been building:

Pleased with his steps! As well he should be. Working with what was to hand.

Nice turn to get from the platform to the angle of the stone steps.

I added a few rocks and a couple ferns as starters. I'll plant something on the left - probably grasses.

Small daubs of green indicate plantings - I hope will grow larger. And I'll be doing more planting.

With the builders off the worksite, I've been planting like a demon - a lot of things I propagated and some I've bought, and quite a few that have been languishing in pots too long. It's just a start.

Dryopteris arguta - coastal wood fern. Grown from divisions. About five planted (some small).

There are three different types of baby ferns here - Adiantium jordanii maidenhair fern, polystichum munitum - sword fern, and coastal wood fern. Not sure about the Adiantum.

Carex bolanderi, I think. 

Carex bolanderi grows profusely along the creek nearby but seems to do fine with a bit of irrigation in the garden, so I'm giving it a go. I'm hoping some Carex globosa seeds will germinate. Fingers crossed.

Ribes viburnifolium, catalina perfume currant. 

I like these channel island natives and have had them in the garden for a few years now. They are evergreen! I've got about 9 I think from cuttings, and I planted five at the top of the north garden - four of them to screen the propane tank, hopefully. Flowers are insignificant but foliage is nice.
I put stone circles around most things - partly to hold water till we get some rain, partly for erosion, and partly so I notice them (I don't always remember where I planted things).

Ribes - unknown species. 

I planted five or so of these Ribes around the place so far. They can take quite a bit of morning sun. I'm not sure what species these are but they grow a lot down in the north valley all by themselves. I  plant various nursery bought Ribes  - R. malvaceum, R. aureum, R. sanguinium, R. indecorum, and R. viburnifolium. So I'm  not sure what these are - malvaceum? Some cross? Or maybe the indigenous kind? There was one here when we moved in but it died before I took cuttings.

Frangula californica, coffeeberry. From seed. One in the south garden is huge - we'll see what these do.

I planted two coffee berry in the sunny south garden and one in the sunny westerly part of the north garden that gets afternoon sun.

I planted around five ceanothus papillosus, wartleaf ceanothus, a shrubby sort of leggy ceanothus that likes sun.

Wartleaf ceanothus grows around here on the chaparral side. I'm trying them on the sunny areas of the north garden. Can get to six feet or more. The ones I've grown vary and I'm not sure if some denser darker ones are crosses with C. thyrsiflorus, which grows locally too - or with the nursery bought species I used to grow (but don't any more).

I also planted some redwood sorrel here and there and will try more of that in the shadier areas. Didn't get a photo yet.

Oh — but I have a lot of weeding to do,

Oxalis pes-caprae (shown), weedy grasses, and mustard -oh my! And so many more weeds besides!

while my 450 grass seedlings,

I'm growing Stipa lepida, Stipa cernua, Melica torreyana

 and iris divisions,

Yay - Iris fernaldii sprouts even in the dead-looking ones I had to lift early (and they were stressed besides).

all grow out a bit more.

I'm also going to try some winter cuttings of the local manzanita, and maybe some salvias that are "store-boughten" as some say in the USA.

And I have seeds of this and that sown in the greenhouse of which more in a later post.

Now - all we need is the RAIN! Well, at least we are getting red toyon berries this year - too dry for the soot mold that usually turns them black I guess.