Eucalyptus 'Moon Lagoon' Five Years Later And Other Stuff

Fast growing 'Moon Lagoon' at planting in July 2015

The "adult" foliage is starting to appear about a year later--August, 2016.  It is the yellow corona around the silvery juvenile foliage: 

November, 2020.  It needs a trim.  I should have carefully staked it as it grew, to keep it growing vertically.  I did not.  It leaned.  A lot. My bad.  

Trimmed it back: 

I like this shrub more than I expected to.  When it rains, the tips of the leaves hold on to drops of rain and the whole shrub sparkles, as if drenched with diamonds.  Magical when wet.  

Closer examination while pruning led to new discoveries.  Looking up through the foliage is enchanting:

Looking through the foliage is enchanting:

Some of the branches are gold:

Some branches have peeled, creating interesting patterns. 

Some of the branches are red:

Some are red and gold:

Blue juvenile foliage scattered throughout:

No irrigation, no fertilizer, no bugs, no disease.  Little effort.  

Muddy thumbs up!

Other things.  Finally enough cool weather to enclose the former dog kennel with hardware cloth.  This will enable the growing of tomatoes next summer free of rodent damage.  The rodent population plummeted this year due to remove of the Italian Cypress, but I expect they will find other plants to hide in.  

It's taken several days.  The hardware cloth is hard to handle.   Yet another project that was delayed from last winter because of the broken arm.

A "grape" tomato is still producing fruits in the kennel,  I may remove it soon and try carrots, or like last year, plant onion starts.  The onions are ready to harvest about the time tomato plants can go in.   

The entire kennel, including the roof, will be screened in, because rodents can climb and get through the chain link. 

Happy to have that close to completion.  

Winter light streaming through Leucadendron.

 November light is beautiful, without summer's harshness.  The mornings especially

Alluring shadows cast this time of year, too.

Sweet pea plants from seed doing well.  The screen protects the tender seedlings from birds, who last year pulled them out of the soil and left them to die for me to be upset about.  Not this year. 

Re: seeds.  Months ago I planted Aloe seeds in this pot.  They never germinated, so I stuck a beheaded Echeveria in the pot.  Then, of course, Aloe seedlings appeared.  I can't remember which Aloe the seeds came from.  Something good.  I would not have bothered otherwise. 

The Iochroma that the Santa Ana winds stripped cut down to a manageable size...

...is already sprouting lots of new growth:

A few of the fall-blooming Aloes are waking up.  A. thraskii:

There goes the baseboard again.  Sigh.  Good thing I didn't get it replaced yet.  Taste good, Boris?  Actually I think Natasha did the damage.  Boris was sleeping with his tongue out and woke up when I took the photo.   

That's wazzup here.