Spring preview

Or, "Random notes"



I found some flowers I didn't notice for Garden Blogger Bloom Day. I got both the Zantedeschia and the bromeliad as freebies from the Botanical Garden. I need to learn the name of the bromeliad.

The Geranium maderense was engulfing the bird bath, so I removed a leaf and petiole.



The Ceanothus 'Frosty Blue' flowers about to bloom in front of Geranium maderense should provide a wonderful combination. Just a week or two to go, I guess.



I planted my vegetable garden last week. The tomatoes already have flower buds! (Stupice and Early Cherry--two early season varieties I bought from Territorial Seed.)



From the other side...



That plant at 6 o'clock, the one in front of the terracotta pot, is Alonsoa meridionalis. It's one of the plants I ended up buying from Annie's Annuals. I think those flowers will be a great combination with the silvery artichoke foliage.

I grew all my vegetables from seed, including the pumpkin I put in that pot. (I tried to save seed from our Jack-O-Lanterns, but I must have done a bad job drying the seed before I closed them in a jar, because they rotted.)



Anyhow, I want to run the vine across the back fence as seen on page 23 of Extreme Horticulture, shown here.



I don't even care if I get a fruit. I just love the foliage on winter squash. It's such a cool combination of tropical and cottage.

Next to the pumpkin pot is Fremontodendron californicum 'San Gabriel'.



This cultivar of a native California shrub/tree has a naturally two-dimensional growth habit. It's like a self-espalier. Planting it against the back fence seemed like the obvious thing to do, but now I wish it was growing against the stairs down from the deck.



The foliage really blends into the color of the fence and you hardly notice it's there. But that same foliage, and the beautiful orange/yellow flowers about to open, would contrast stunningly with the redwood used to build the deck. I'm not going to transplant this specimen (very, very delicate plant), but I might buy a new one this year and do that.

I still have one Fuchsia boliviana 'Alba' left. Right now, I think I'm going to plant it somewhere at the community garden.



I planted three of them in my garden. There's one here next to the tree fern growing with cineraria, heuchera, tiarella, and Asarum caudatum...



There's one in the clay pot also surrounded by cineraria, bromeliads and in front of the clinmbing hydrangea. A bench will go here too when I have some pennies to scratch together...



And there's one just to the left of that pot under the stairs down from the deck.



The guy who gave me the pot, also gave me this pottery shard which i used to obscure the concrete block holding up the deck post.



I made a little cavity between the shard and the block, backfilled it with dirt, and stuck in a Pelargonium. On the other side, I planted a second climbing hydrangea to climb the post. It's kind of an experiment; the hydrangea wants to climb a wall or a big tree, not so much a post. Maybe it won't know the difference.

At any rate, there's room in the cavity for another plant, and I chose Cobaea scandens. The seed germinated in the garage last week. It should make it all the way up the post and on to the deck by late summer.

On the post itself, I have three hooks for hanging container baskets. I wasn't so thrilled with my baskets last year, and they sure need a lot of water. I might actually install a drip irrigation line to take care of that for me this year. The baskets would use a lot less water with a drip line than with me standing over them with a water can.

Right now, I just have a bird feeder of suet hanging off the top hook. (Thanks for the tip, Lisa!)