The joys of gardening.

Thanks for the nice compliment, Cal, - hope to see some of yours soon. I have some new irises coming in the first week in August -- just a couple of weeks away, as a matter of fact-- so stay tuned.

And-


Here are pics of an identifying feature of ferns, their sorii - spores- on the leaf's underside.

From my garden: (click photos to enlarge)




From the web:

Shaggy Wood Fern


Just wanted to clarify my last post, having linked to to an unintended picture...

A nice 1044 x 783 wall paper image for my loyal following:
(two clicks to get full size)

The Red Dahlia

Such nice colors neko.
Unfortunately, we're severely water rationed here in southern California
and all I have now is ivy geranium and some drought resistant plants. All of
us have to rethink our landscaping as water utilities have tripled in price and
we should expect some fines if we're above a certain limit.

Looks like I will admire flowers from the distance only - just like yours neko

it's just the opposite here, cal; everything - particularly weeds- is continually bolting up and outward.

the hedge for the west wall needed attention three times this season,
and may need another trim before November.

Now over to the other border, the east wall, where some shrubs,
namely the lilac and Nanking cherry, werelowered to acommodate
the scots pine and yew hedge. Foliage recovered as shown in these
then and now shots.

Last September:



Today:

This one shows the net effect as of May. A shipment
of yellow irises is due in next week destined for
that blank space to the right of BB Orinoco Flow:

The spore pix are wonderful. Ferns are so interesting.

Kinda add refinement to a garden, don't they? Good gap fillers in the border, I've found.

Okay....
Here's the size I want to maintain the cherry bush, and
the lilac next to it should eventually keep the same height,
bush outward and provide an eyelevel display of magenta colored blooms.

..That's the plan, anyway.

Your garden is so full of green foliage and colors, neko. I like it!

My pleasure, cal; more should come in from here on ,as more plants and shrubs become established.

I busied myself this morning trimming the flowering apple
up front, which had become ragged looking with an abundance
of new growth.



I'm kind of hoping for a better show than last spring's, which was modestly impressive, in my opinion.

Tools used intouching up its profile:
a small stepladder and an adjustable pole
pruner.

And shears for the lowest limbs.




This decorative truss of fruit hangs above
the edge of the driveway to greet passersby
and visitors as a seasonal motif, being
harvest time just weeks away.

Fine tuned the top, to round it off a bit, this morning.
Did this by thrusting the pruner from underneath, groping
after that last offending shoot by guess and by golly,
not that difficult,really, since it was highlighted by
the morning sunlight.

I love the shape of your apple tree, neko. It looks spectacular when in bloom
and pretty good all year long. Are the apples any good?

They're okay: hard, mostly seed core to them,
but sweet and juicy. I suspect the tree came
from a delicious variety's seed.

Here are some pictures of our drought resistant plants. This is a (yet) small
echium. It will get big and blooms in May


This is a succulent that has spread out quite a bit already. I forgot the name now...


...but I still have flowers. Geraniums don't mind if they get dry.

I do love echium...

I had another semi zen, semi woman in pain experience at twilight last evening - twilight being the sane time to weed in this hot sand town. Well, I would never weed at sunrise time, however wise that might be. I attacked the festering goathead clumps. This is an art, a delicate art. Sometimes I'm smart and wear gloves, but I've often hated gloves for the clumsiness if they are protective enough to the gouges of goathead spines. The trick is to finesse the weeding without gloves..
.. harvesting the clustered goatheads by picking at the stem and transporting gently to the soon to be trash container. Then underdigging the clump with a scoop, and trying to get it all out in one piece, collecting any stray clump starters by picking them up at the base..

Satisfying to get it done. Now for the parkway.

osso, put some wood chips down that helps with the weeds and also keeps the
moisture in. How hot is it now in ABQ?

I can't put chips, et al, down, until I get rid of some piles of stones - no room. I've plans to market them on that free stuff site. I've also taken to throwing out some sand in the trash surrepticiously, to make room. I am a fan of mulch, and plan on it. I'm not sure you remember - I've designed gardens since the early eighties, in California. Featured once in LA Times mag (and so what?).
I know a bunch, but am constrained by finances from acting out. To some extent, my present circumstances are interesting, from a design pov. I always liked the small jobs best...

On the temp, it's been varying within the nineties, which is on the low side for August here, I take it. It used to get in the nineties in Venice and West LA too, and hundreds in the San Fernando valley where I did a lot of designs.. but we had actual soil there. The soil changes across Abq - on my side of town, it is virtually pure sand, like the beach (very strange, strange), more clayey as you go east, or so they say. Most people in my neighborhood handle gardening by pouring stones on top of the sand.

I like gravel or small cut rock myself - think classic gardens. I just don't like two to three inch rocks tossed around an entire site. Hard to walk on to start with. And - gravel - I've always used it in a kind of minimal way, and much enjoyed it. Rock burns the soil, such as the soil is, and can be tough if you want lively soil. What I deal with in my yard is a lot of underlay black plastic with four inches of fat rocks, on top of what must have been leftover sand for the developer. I've designed development landscape for years, and loathe whomever did this one.

Indeed, the firm we designed with was one of the ten big developers in the country, and I did a lot of the work. I also pulled out of that, as what I didn't want to be doing.

Doing good. Four tomato plants, four tomatoes - so far!