Natural Gopher Control

 

photo by neighbor K.B.

Ardea herodius, Great Blue Heron was commonly seen in our neighborhood prior to the long drought of 2011-2017.  This winter's generous rainfall brought some back inland.  This individual has been stalking the local park the past few days, hunting gophers.  

In the garden, more chopping down the exuberant growth of spring.  Many distractions slow down the process, though.   These Sweet Peas still looks good:

Not chopping this:

The Carpenter bees like the 'Mystic Spires' Salvias.  Other sustenance for them besides the rapidly declining Sweet Peas:

 Which Clematis is that?  It looks different than it's immediate neighbor, 'Etoile Violette'.

 But back to chop, chop...

 

Hmm.  What's eating that particular 'Rozanne'? 

A neighbor saw this on his driveway yesterday:

 photo by neighbor A.B.

Oh my.  Hopefully there are no pea hens around.

 I'm more accustomed to birds like this female Hooded Oriole, nicely camouflaged, drinking agave nectar:

 

Leucanthemum in the sun

 

Across the path from the sun-splashed Leucanthemum, I plan to put foxglove starts or seedlings along the wall, which is shaded much of the day.

I got some of the Zinnia seedlings pinched to make them bushier--something I did not know to do last year.  Making effort for better Zinnias this year.  Unfortunately the Zinnias have not enjoyed the long stretch of cool overcast as much as this gardener has.  They've not grown much at all during the long gloom. 

However, the wee Hydrangea cutting I stuck in the ground last fall has prospered: 

When she's grown up, she could look like Mom:

 There's the Euphorbia tirucallii reappearing as the Sweet Peas decline.  None the worse for wear:

Hemerocallis 'Sabine Bauer' always a little later than most of the rest of the Hems by two weeks or so:

The masses of Sweet Peas engulfed some of the succulents either recovering or growing in the veggie/cutting garden.  Aloe gariepensis looks recovered and could be planted somewhere on the front slope.  It can take a lot of heat:

Some of the other plants covered up by Sweet Peas.  They look decent for the most part, despite being under a mass of foliage for a couple of months.   

I combined all the succulents to one raised bed, to add amendment to the others. 

The piece of 'Provence' lavender moved this winter suffered the most from being under the Sweet Pea mass.  It has a good chance of recovery now:

 Elsewhere in the veggie/cutting garden I was taken aback by the grape vine now living in the tomato kennel.  After great effort, time, and some expense to protect the grape from rodents, look what it did with its first bunch of fruit--grew them through the screening:

Sometimes all you can do is laugh.  The grape vine (and the rain) did give me two successful cuttings.  Here's one:

 I've been working at recycling as much green waste back into the garden as possible.  Chop-and-drop.  I chopped up the Sweet Pea material, filled a compost barrel and spread the rest around in the gully as mulch.  This whole area near the new 'Valencia' orange has several layers of leaves and cuttings now.  The color and texture even out pretty quickly.  Not as attractive as purchased mulch, but environmentally sound:

Removing the Pittosporum had an unexpected consequence.  I now take the time to actually sit down and relax in the garden.  This is a lovely view, especially in the late afternoon when the sun backlights the area.   Sit here quietly for a few minutes and the area comes alive with birds of all sorts.  

The plan is to mass-plant all those Zinnia seedlings around the 'Valencia'.  They seem to be spared by rabbits. 

There's the first Dahlia flower of the year: 

That's what's up here.