New Blooms!

Sorry, just overly excited about the succession of blooms we're having- especially since all the rain has put a damper on my vegetable garden. I swear, I'll get back to vegetables soon. And not just artichokes.

How about this blue? I couldn't get a decent shot of this- but it's actually purple and blue right now, and it's stunning! I'm really hoping today's storm doesn't knock it over. This is Larkspur 'Chorus Violet'.


Coreopsis 'Early Sunrise'

Marigolds....

An occasional Rudbeckia bloom here and there, it's a bit early for them though....

Another Bachelor Button....

Our first daylily bloom of the year, a yellow one that I don't know the name of.

Jupiter's Beard....

I believe this is Cheiranthus x allionii "Siberian Wallflower". I really need to do a better job at remembering all of the names of my plants.

Watsonia 'Raspberry Delight' (I think?! I have two- and can never remember which is which!)

The Meyer lemon tree is still covered in blooms.......

A Kangaroo Paw is just about to bloom...if my neighbors ivy doesn't smother it to death beforehand.....

Achillea

When we bought our house it had about 100 rose bushes surrounding the whole perimeter. I ripped them all out. This one comes back every year, despite me hacking away at it with a shovel. Because of its persistent nature, I've decided to let it stay, since it seems to be almost as stubborn as me. I don't know what kind it is though.

Oh- thanks to the rain, we still have lettuce! Normally it's bolting at this point from prolonged periods of heat. Since we're experiencing weather we should be having in March, the lettuce gets a longer season.

I think that's all I'll show for now. Guess I should save some of my hodge podge garden to show you next week :)

Design on a Dime- Grandparents Edition

This weekend kiddo and I are going over to my grandparents house to help spruce up their backyard. They moved into this house in a retirement community a few years ago after living most of their lives on acres of land. This past winter they lost a lot of plants (thanks to the hard frost we had), so I'm going to come in and add some new life to this little piece of space. Among the dead are a palm tree (which my mom and I are kinda happy to see didn't make it), a fern from mine & hubby's wedding, and a geranium (shocker right? What person over 70 DOESN'T have a geranium?!)

What I'm struggling with is trying to find a nice mix of plants to fill in the space- that I can afford! Sure, it's easy to stick in a bunch of cheap annuals to brighten up the space- but they'll die! And we'd be right back to this in a few months.....

I'm also going to be adding some edibles to the space. I got a few extra tomato plants from kiddo's school garden project, along with a lemon cucumber plant, and I'm thinking they could use some herbs too.... basil, rosemary, maybe a sage....

So, my question to you would be: what do I do? If you had limited funds, how would you go about sprucing it up? Keep in mind it should be low maintenance, and there is a drip system in this space that I easily manage the watering with. Any ideas are welcome! (Pictures are courtesy of my mom- Thanks mom!)

What a Difference a Year Can Make

Today I'm emotional. No, I'm not PMS'ing. I was looking through old pictures of my yard, and came across a bunch from when I started my front yard garden- a year ago. I didn't even realize that it has officially been a year since I've started this project, and all of a sudden I'm proud (ecstatic!) of what I've accomplished in such a short period of time. Sure, if I was rich I could lay down some major coin and have someone else do it all for me in a weekend- but I wouldn't be as attached to it as I am now, because I did it myself.

May 19th, 2009 we started with having a bunch of old trees removed. Before you bash me for having trees removed, you have to understand they were 60 year old Modesto Ash trees, heavily infested with mistle toe. Modesto Ash have a lifespan of 50 years, their time was over.

This was all of the lawn I used to have. Now, keep in mind, this is only my side yard. For those of you who are lawn lovers, I still have plenty! But this entire section is now gone. And I don't miss it.Last fall we started with having the fence built, and the 10 feet on the outside of the fence had its lawn removed. Thanks to neighborhood CCR's, this is where I had to put my fence, and this is as tall as my fence could be. Last fall I put in a bunch of plants out here, along with six citrus trees. This picture was taken December 7th, 2009, after we got snow. In Sacramento. Yes, I know my Christmas light/sheet covered citrus trees are ugly to look at from the road, but they MADE IT. They are all still alive! It's worth it to me to have a few neighbors turn their noses up at me in order to save these trees. Not many of the other plants I planted in this section made it.
Here we're at March 21st, 2010. You might recognize this picture from my Ugly Garden post. This is still much more prettier than the lawn I had before. This is what we jokingly referred to as Xeriscaping. It has changed quite a bit over the past two months.

It's now May 23rd, 2010. No more lawn, no more plain dirt. Our garden is started. It has a long ways to go before it is the picture that I have in my head, but gosh darn it I am so proud of it! This used to be several thousand square feet of lawn that we never walked on....but now....

now we have Tomato Alley.... where you will find several varieties of tomatoes that should last us through the summer- such as Great White, Black Krim, Mr. Stripey, Black Cherry, and Japanese Black Trifele. The tomatoes are mixed in with various peppers and herbs- like sage, cilantro, tons of basil (can you ever have too much basil?), cumin, and black sesame.
And on the street side the citrus are doing awesome. Here we have Chandler pummelo, Yosemite Gold mandarin, Owari Satsuma mandarin, Red Rio grapefruit, Midknight Valencia orange, and a Bearss lime. Plant-wise we'll have year round color- starting with the citrus in the winter, followed by the poppies, daffodils, lavender, and irises in the spring, with a variety of coneflowers, gaillardia, achillea, sedum, and salvia's taking us from summer to fall.

The biggest reward would be that we're actually enjoying the space now. We never even walked over to this side of the yard before, we just kind of ignored it. Now, we come out here every evening. I think we'll enjoy it more once we install french doors on this side of the house (now we have to walk around the house to get here), and I think it will look much nicer once we install the patio and walkways (I mulched them as a temporary measure). Arbors over the gates covered in climbing roses will help add some vertical height, as will the Garden Prince almond tree, the Fuji apple, and the two pomegranate trees that are also planted in here. But, if I finished all of that now, what would I have to work on in 2011?

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day Post- May 2010

We have a lot going on for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, and I will warn you that this is only a small portion of what I have blooming ( or find interesting). I took over 200 pictures for this month- it is exciting and overwhelming at the same time!

Tomatillo- I think this was one of our purple varieties (sorry, I mixed them all)

Erysimum and achillea. In other words, wallflower and yarrow. Basic, easy, reliable. Oh- and bee's love them.

Columbine. Otherwise known as Aquilegia formosa, the Californian native Columbine. It took me two years from seed to get this to flower, but now I easily have 30 or so blooms. Very pretty!

Heuchera blooms

Nemophila menziesii"Baby Blue Eyes"

Nicotiana alata "Lime Green", from Annie's Annuals

The California poppies just won't stop.....

Artichokes

Nolana Reichei from Annie's Annuals

Dianthus gratianopolitanus ‘Firewitch’

Nigella Hispanica "African Bride"

Centaurea gymnocarpa“Velvet Centaurea"

Chandler Pummelo from Four Wind's Growers. It looks battered, but that's all fruit you're seeing! It's a young tree though, this will have to be heavily thinned. That makes me sad.......

Euphorbia "Breathless Brush"

A newly planted Mimulus "Richard's Red' from Annie's Annuals. It's already a big hit with the hummingbirds.

Meyer's Lemon. My favorite plant of all times. We have two of them, chuckered full of blooms. Chuckered full of FRUIT. You can never have too many lemons, I swear.

Marigolds. Ugh. I hate these, visually. But, Alex picked them out. So they stay.

Trandescantia "Sweet Kate"

Fringe Flower. Otherwise known as Tellima grandiflora, another purchase from Annie's Annuals. It is doing wonderful under our huge 60 year old coastal redwood, where nothing else will grow!