End Of September 2024 Activities

 Blogging neglected.   After being stuck indoors for too many 100F days (was it five?  six?) I've been gardening a lot.  Also working hard at physical therapy for my new knee.  That leg is still much weaker than the other one.  The physical therapist pointed out the leg with the new knee has been weakened for many years, so I can't expect it to be strong again in five months.  Oh.  Good point.  

Out in the garden, a lot of chopping down of summer growth.  There's a lot of this out there:

The rampaging patch of Salvia 'Amistad', chopped small, filled an entire green waste bin.  About a quarter of it pilled there in the shadows before I lugged it out of the gully:

Chopping down some (not all) of the Cuphea 'Vermillionaires', leaving several to continue to feed hummingbirds.  

Nicely self mulching!

Ditto for some of the 'Mystic Spires Blue' Salvias, important for various bees.  This one badly needs chopping, but it is still feeding so many bees I need to wait.

An elegant "S" curve around the tutuer ain't bad:

I chopped a different 'Mystic Spires Blue' back in early August, leaving just new growth emerging from the plant's center:

And by August 31st...

So they recover pretty quickly--in warm weather, anyway.  It will be warm here through October at least.  Hopefully just October.  

Had a strange situation with rose 'Moondance', which for fifteen years at least lived in front of this pilaster aside the driveway:

It was getting shaded more and more by the oak tree, which seemed to benefit the rose because of fierce reflected heat from the driveway and street.  Last week, I noticed piles of loose soil all around the rose's base.  Uh-oh.  Gopher.  So I quickly dug around in the loose soil, hoping to save the rose and get the gopher.  I had to trim a few more low-hanging branches off the oak tree to be able to dig, but it needed it anyway:

Very strangely, there was no gopher, or else the gopher tried to tunnel in that area, and gave up.  The rose roots were fine.  A mole?  It would have to have been a huge mole, and there was no sign of that, either.  Since the rose was already disturbed I dug it up, temporarily popping it in an empty space until I could pot it.   

It neared time to either move the rose or discard it anyway, because of the oak tree.  The area is mostly Agaves now, so the rose, good as it was, was a stylistic outlier.

Hopefully it can recover:

Worth effort to save it:

September means time to buy and sow sweet pea seeds.  A fun weekend trip to Plant Depot in San Juan Capistrano.

Yes indeed!  Hooray!

 Sweet Pea seeds purchased and started, 'April In Paris' and 'Jewels of Albion': 

Also finally time to try Acacia 'Cousin Itt' again.  Attempt #4.  I've killed it three times.  Traditionally you get three tries at a plant, and if you fail three times, you quit.   I'm giving it one more try in a location I think it might work.  Another reason:  this particular plant had a far healthier root system than the previous three.  We'll see what happens!

Please don't die.  Please become so annoyingly large and thriving and outgrow the space, I get sick of trimming you and rip you out:

A nice surprise:  clearing away some 'Vermillionaire',  there grew good-sized Matthiola incana (Stock) seedlings, ready to grow larger and flower in the coming cool season.   I'd tossed a stem of seeds in the area early this year:

Some beauty shots to end this post.   'The Ambridge Rose' peeks through the gate:

'Harlequin' Leucadendron colors up again:

Cosmos still going.  The extreme heat killed a few, but others continue:

'Holyhill Spider Woman' Dahlia:

Cosmos and Bee:

Pelargonium sidoides

'Souvenir de la Malmaison':

'Princess Alexandra of Kent':

A surprise Orlaya grandiflora in amidst mighty, sprawling Protea 'Sylvia':

There's another 'Sylvia' flower:

Cactus...something like Echinopsis chamacereus?  A gift from SucculentsAndMore:

Pentas lanceolata, a rooted cutting of a lovely tall seedling that appeared in the garden of a neighbor:

The activities of September's end this year.