Working On...

Echeveria 'Evening Glow'
 
Working on...cutting back lush growth.  The poor sad Syzygium australe screen that looked so horribly bad during the drought regained considerable health and beauty after the last three-out-of-four years of good rainfall.  Now it can be shaped a little.  A work in progress.  All the clippings are becoming mulch--the small leaves decompose beautifully.   
Needs more narrowing at the top. 
It's July now.  Whatever work happens, it has to happen early in the day.  That's not so bad--the play of light and shadow just after sunrise is magic.  





Working on...the front slope.  Research confirmed variegated Agave salmiana gets big, at least as big as the black circle, 5-6' wide, so I moved it to the front slope from a place too small for its mature size.  Aloe alooides, a shorter tree aloe, went in above it (pink arrow), and Agave 'Mateo' went to salmiana's right (pink arrow)
 Agave 'Mateo' was previously directly below the big gorgeous Aloe rubroviolacea, and looked peculiar placed thus.   Some--a lot--of the blue Senecio mandraliscae needs to come out...more work. 
 Aloe 'Mateo' is particularly elegant.  It has remained solitary rather than offsetting into a chaotic cluster.  I kept putting off moving it, fearing the move would cause it to offset.  
Working on...removed an unattractive seedling daylily...that created...an empty place for a new plant!  Wheee! 
Working on...still working on...a better picture of the chicks in the nest.  
Not any better.  Wait...are they still alive?!?!??
Yesterday morning I peeked into the nest.  The chicks looked as though they were dead, and the parents were nowhere to be seen.  I was horrified.  Glancing out the window a little later, Lady F. was feeding the chicks, their little fuzzy heads bobbing around.  They fooled me by playing dead.  Ha ha!  Good for them! 
They are just fine:
Lady F. was screeching by the time I got this not-great shot: 


We know what Lady Flycatcher has been working on.  What are you working on these days?

Comments

  1. Echeveria 'Evening Glow' pix is absolutely stunning.

    Have you had the Syzygium australe long? Can you remember when it was Eugenia? My Australian friend (a strine) calls it lilly-pilly tree. Cute name. Fruit is edible. Haven't tried it. Long time ago it was devastated by eugenia psyllids. Looked very ugly, but it was easy to keep under control. Then the good rains came and the psyllids went. It grew very tall to about 20 feet. Very healthy. I grew to like it for its clusters of frothy white flowers followed by the masses of magenta fruits. The birds love it especially the squawky noisy parrot-types that descend upon it daily.

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    1. The 'Evening Glow' recovered in spectacular fashion once it got out of a badly neglected pot and into the ground. It's one of the best Echies.

      I planted Syzygiums back around...2007. They've had a rough time of it--the neighbor's trash palms (now gone) were hanging over them dropping litter and doing damage, then the drought arrived. Psyllid damage on top of that. It is only the last two years they have looked happy again. This is a classic old SoCal screening plant. SoCal was full of them before the psyllid arrived. In their native rage 35 meters tall!!!

      Australian common plant names are so fun! Lilly-pilly, pencil pine, ear-pod wattle, bottle tree...

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  2. Keeping my head down, as we are promised some frightening wind on Monday, after a sunny Sunday. Then, tidying up after?

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    1. I hate wind! I hope yours wasn't as bad as predicted. Then there's the clean up after...good luck!

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  3. You're doing a LOT! I have an Agave 'Mateo' in a pot that deserves to be set free if I can identify a spot for it. It was on the Plan B/C list for the succulent bed along the street as my Tithonia diversifolia seeds have still not germinated but then a friend pointed out that Annie's had the plant available during their 20% off sale so now that's off the table. I've started cutting back the Agapanthus stems and I've got one corner of the north side dry garden partially cleaned up (self-seeded Erigeon karvinskianus, Centranthus and Western sword fern had gone crazy there) - I have to finish that up and tweak the 2 New Zealand tea trees I started cutting back last week.

    Lady F has done a great job and I think you did a respectable job of getting photos of the baby birds without actually scaring them to death. Stay cool.

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    1. You have been garden-busy too! Missed Annie's sale, but that's probably for the best. Watch out for that Western Sword Fern. It's very hard to get rid of. A tuft re-appeared this week in the koi pond waterfall--after what happened before, I knew to pull it quick.

      The chicks are near fledging. We watched the parents encouraging them all yesterday afternoon. One chick flapped hard enough to get about an inch above the nest, but then they all gave up for the night. Not quite ready--maybe today.

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  4. The light IS magical, and your photos are magical; the combination is...perfect! That first photo of the Echeveria took my breath away when I first opened your page. Yum. I need to do more gardening in the morning. Thanks for the reminder.

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    1. Early morning is my favorite time of day in all seasons. It's quiet, the birds are singing, so peaceful. The sun here is too harsh and bright in the afternoons.

      That Echeveria is one of the very prettiest succulents. A favorite for obvious reasons!

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