The Last Days Of August 2022

Touched up the mulch
 

 This week, a shopping trip to the nearby big box home improvement store.   Thinning mulch on the front slope acted as an excuse. 

 Got there, got mulch.  Naturally, purusing the Garden department's Death Rack was necessary.  The Death Rack is where staff stick the plants too damaged to sell at full price, in hopes someone will buy them at discounted prices.

Possibly the employees had done a thorough an end-of-summer clear-out, because the Death Rack was multiple racks, all full of battered, scorched plants. Waiting for me was exactly one Leucospermum, in remarkably good shape compared to its Rack companions--brown ferns, wilting petunias. 

Only 50% off, but $10 for a healthy Leucospermum is a deal.  Sold!

I got a laugh from this note on the label: 

 Okay, I won't.  Or is that warning intended for rabbits? 

I'd bought a Leucospermum at that same store back in late April...

This one:

 ...and thought about going back the next day for another, but didn't. This new one must have been from the same shipment, accidentally tucked where it managed to survive summer.  

The first lived all summer in its nursery pot, tucked between a Salvia and a rose.  I have a spot for both new Leucospermums when it finally cools down.  Botanical "level-coil" will be involved.  

Not much else gardening activity--too hot.  

Flower stem appeared on Aloe reitzii:

Aloe reitzii's flowers appear dried up and ruined when they first appear, but they are not.  Perhaps this is an adaptation to fool herbivores, or to keep the flowers dry through the emergence process?  
 

The water company came and read the meter Thursday.  Worried about staying within our drought-determined allowance, I cut back on spot-watering the past two weeks.  It was dismaying to discover that was unnecessary.  We're far under our allowance for this bill, far more than required.  Time to spot water again.  The 'Oshio Bene' Acer is extremely stressed and dropping foliage.   

 Perhaps an Arctostaphylos of about the same eventual size, open habit and beautiful silhouette would be better.   Certainly more climate-appropriate.  However this is the one area that can be described as having relatively (relatively) poor drainage due to a retaining wall.   Just on the other side of that wall, an 'Austin Griffiths' Arctostaphylos is doing very well.  Staked it because it was starting to grow at an angle.  

 Poor Acer.  I'll have to think over what to do with it if the drought persists.

Unfortunately, despite spot watering, the Hakea petiolaris planted this spring has died.  It had been getting spot watering and twice a week irrigation besides, but apparently the plant was not ready for summer heat and reflected heat from the wall.  The root system may have been insufficiently developed.  The drainage there is extremely sharp.  My bad--should have left it in the pot in mostly shade until October or November.  

#^$@*@&% !  &#!*!

Planted at the same time, the small Metrosideros behind the Hakea has doubled in size, has flowered, and appears to be thriving.   It sat on asphalt at the garden center for a year or more, old stock, but I bought it anyway, believing them to be exceptionally tough.  They are.  

Some months back I did buy another Hakea.  It's awaiting fall planting, in the meantime living in a few hours of morning sun and bright shade the rest of the day.  I've been watering it regularly as the foliage indicates needs.  Different species:  H. laurina:

Replace the H. petiolaris with H. laurina?  Or another Metrosideros 'Springfire'?  To Be Decided.  The poor Hakea is not the only fatality.  One of the neighbor's sad trees looks pretty bad:

They had their mow-blow guy nuke the Bougainvillea below it with herbicide.  Several times.  You can see the tree's trunk on the left: 

 Herbicide and drought.  Poor tree.  I hope it doesn't fall and smash something, like one of their eucalyptus did to another neighbor's fence back in January:

The dead-tree neighbors seemed to have stopped watering entirely.  They planted a big new lawn, a saucer Magnolia, Lavenders, Cistus, and a bunch of other stuff a couple of years ago; This year they let it all die.  

Tags still on that poor Magnolia soulangiana:

They spent months building a raised bed for vegetables.  They put some potting soil in, and bought a bunch of six packs of vegetables, which they left almost entirely un-planted and completely un-watered.  The onions lived a while. 

At one point they planted an Avocado tree a foot from the fence.  I explained to them that the tree would get 30 feet wide and planting it a foot from my fence wasn't a good idea.  "Oh no, it won't grow much!  It's a dwarf tree!"  I pointed out to them the little tree had a nursery tag attached to it, and the tag listed the size: 30-40' tall and wide.  This fact was met with astonishment.  Their mow-blow guys subsequently moved the Avocado about 20' away from the fence but the homeowners didn't water it, and it died.   They had planted about six other Avocado trees on the slope with the Bougainvillea they killed.  All those avocado trees died, too.  Then they got a few new ones and planted those, and they died, too.   They never watered them. 

The funny thing is they still have mow-blow guys come and blow off everything in their dead garden.  

August.  Not my favorite month.  I feel bad about the Hakea.  I did water it.