Garden Activity First Half Of December 2018

A wonderful rain storm last Wednesday and Thursday.  We got nearly three inches, and for this rain year have accumulated more than all of last year's pathetic total of 4.13".  The garden sings a joyful song, as does the gardener.  

Good rose activity!

 All sorts of small garden jobs, all to make springtime more beautiful.  

Koi pond shower repaired and re-installed.  Koi happy.

Just before our wonderful soaking rain, the Arbutus 'Marina' replaced a Tea rose stricken with crown gall out on the HOA property. 

Banksia ericifolia took over the empty place where Protea neriifolia perished.  Sigh. 

Sparkling brilliance of The Clean After The Storm, all the dust washed off everything. 

This Aloe ferox candelabra form, planted last year, gift from Succulents And More, is looking great

Grevillea 'Kings Fire' looks dreadful, a mix of dead foliage sprouting new foliage.  What do you want!?!!!?!  I tried some Iron Chelate.  We'll see what that does. 

More Aloe cameronii planted between Agave stricta and Aloe microstigma.  There are now drip outlets ready at the top of the slope;  I'll run lines down to the plants so they'll survive summers.  This area is EXTREMELY dry come summer.  For now the irrigation is shut off;  everything is nicely soaked. 

Flower stem appeared on the largest Aloe ferox last Friday.

This is the street's nut-job Mockingbird, keeping watch from Aloe 'Hercules'.  When a car stops at the bottom of the street, this bird swoops down to attack the car's windows.  Perhaps it sees a reflection of itself and is asserting territorial rights, or perhaps it is just nuts. 

Dust thoroughly washed off 'Karas Choice' Agave, it looks lovely.

Salvia 'Blast', transplanted here a month or two ago, looks vastly happy.

So does Callistemon 'Little John', bought on clearance a year or so back.  Very happy now. 

I moved a volunteer seedling Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) to an empty place between two of the sad 'Marjorie Channon' Pittosporums.  The idea is that eventually the no-summer-water-required Toyons will replace the water-me-in-summer Pittos.

A seedling Toyon between every 'Marjorie'

And what the heck is this bulb? 

Planting the largest 'Blue Glow' plantlets here and there. 

 A strange thing:  one of the 'Blue Glow' Agaves that bloomed had a couple of side shoots that didn't bloom.  Most of the time the side shoots bloom shortly after the main plant.  When I removed one of the bloomed-out 'Blue Glow's, I chopped off the side shoots and left them on the front slope.  This one has developed roots!

 Roots: 

 I planted it out of curiosity, to see if it will grow, or quickly bloom and die. 

 There are lots of 'Blue Glow' plantlets.  I placed them in the idle tomato beds to grow a while, until they are large enough to be planted in tougher conditions.  Three of the five 'Blue Glow' that bloomed recently produced zero plantlets on the flower stalk.  One produced two plantlets on the flower stalk, and one produced--fifty!

 These are just about big enough to plant out. 

 Some decapitating, cleaning up, and re-rooting of succulents. 

 Moving a few Limonium perezii seedlings that came up to spots where their purple flowers will provide color and nectar next spring and summer.  Soaked daily with collected rain water, to get them going as fast as possible.  These are tricky to transplant because the root system is so small--they can't suck up water fast enough to support the foliage immediately after transplanting, so are vulnerable for a while .

 A pause to enjoy an Echeveria bloom stalk.  The plant turned an amazing coral pink.

 Fixed the path here after fixing the leaking valve a few weeks ago.  Had to wait for the soil to dry out enough.

 The Hellebore recently planted is growing and looks great. 

That's what's up here. Lots of Aloe flower stems emerging, getting ready to open their flowers.  More clean up of old foliage in preparation for mulching that will make everything tidy and ready for next spring.  Just generally enjoying being outdoors at this time of year, when it is not miserably hot.  Happy puttering.