Planting and Weeding and Planting and Weeding

Yes, in hopes that rain cannot surely be far off - I've been trying to get everything I've propagated into the ground. Oxalis oregana, sedges, heuchera and grasses, grasses, grasses.

And as I go I'm pulling the most persistent of the weeds before they propagate! Oxalis per caprae, weedy geraniums, and grasses, grasses, grasses!

While the warm sunny weather feels a bit surreal and quite a bit disturbing - it seems pointless not to enjoy it and it has been a great pleasure to spend time in the garden among all the fall-migrating visitor birds, as well as our local humming birds. True I'll have to hand water the new plantings - but they are babies and don't take that much.

I bought four plants at the CNPS sale - below are photos two of them. A cleveland sage, Salvia clevelandii; a scarlet flowered island bush snapdragon, Galvezia speciosa, a Phacelia californica - tough and attractive to pollinators; and most wonderful, a yellow flowered, bluish green leaved, channel island bush poppy, Dendromecon harfordii. It should grow about six feet tall and wide. It's away from deer, as is the Galvezia - not so deer resistant as the others.

Phacelia californica

Channel island bush poppy, Dendromecon harfordii

For the rest, I'm doing mostly "restoration plantings." Well, I'm planting natives that I propagated from local wild natives (within a mile or so of my home). Maybe not in the assemblages they would occur in in nature though. I figure if I get them growing and setting seed here, eventually they will naturalize where they are happiest, which is where they would naturally be.

A rush maybe Juncus patens - from locally gathered seeds.

Stipa lepida from local seed. Not as robust a grower as S. cernua, in my garden. I'm trying to get more going this year. I also planted some Iris fernaldii among the grasses - hoping that will look pretty.

Oak behind where grasses and sedges and rushes are planted (too small to see)

Heuchera micrantha, these in the pool garden. Deer have been relentlessly munching the ones outside the fence.

Rhamnus californica, from local seed, and a little Stipa cernua

I also emptied the bulb boxes of their treasures: bulbs of fairy lanterns (Calochortus albus), Fremont's star lily (Toxicoscordion fremontii), checker lily (Fritillaria affinis), and soap lily (Chlorogalum pomeridianum). I put all the bulbs in some kind of container as the critters love to eat them. Except I did try a couple of the Fremont's star lily in the ground as they are - as the name suggests - toxic. Their other common name is Fremont's death camas. Star lily and soap lily are the only ones to grow unassisted on our property. And one great year - some fairy lantern. I grew these bulbs from seeds. It takes a while. I've had flowers from them all - just not the vast quantity I hoped for - yet.

Bulbs of Fritillaria affinis

Mystery bulbs in a container! No idea what they are. Found them while planting other bulbs.

As I worked today I noticed some kinda mud bug houses on ribes stem? Any ideas?

I also noticed that the plant they were on - Ribes indecorum - is already coming into bloom!

Ribes malvaceum from cutting - beside dead R. nevidense. I don't have local wild Ribes in my garden or locally (though there are some, I just haven't found them). So I plant nursery Ribes.

Among my worst weeds are calla lilies -  garden flowers that shouldn't have been planted here. They get out into the wild and are just about impossible to get rid of.

Calla lilies keep on popping up years after I've tried to eliminate them.

Root of calla lily - this is why it's hard to eliminate them.  I took about half a big garbage bag of roots out of one small area of the garden. Well, hopefully it will knock them back a bit. But I fully expect them to rebound. GRRR!

I have a lot more projects lined up - more planting and weeding of course, and working on the long path that splits the upper from the lower slope of our "north garden" area. It's weedy and I'm going to try sheet mulching it and planting on the immediate downslope where it's slipping a bit. I just hope I can get to all of it — before the rains come!