Oh. January.

 

Egretta thula, 'Snowy Egret'

 

The holidays interfered with blogging (a lot) and with gardening (somewhat).  

The stuff before Christmas:

The stuff after Christmas:

Most of the beautiful Noble Fir is now beautiful mulch around the boxwoods down in the gully. 
 

 Stretches of chilly (for here) and gloomy (ditto) weather didn't help the garden blogging or gardening, either. 

 

Time spent at the gym weight-training involved no gardening, but improvements to strength and balance have been obvious--and make gardening much safer!

We managed to get to the beach on a warm, beautiful morning.  Warm and beautiful at home.  At the beach it was chilly and foggy.  We did enjoy it anyway--the birds, the fog, the Pacific.  

We didn't go there to play with our phones:

Osprey.  Those wires are to keep pigeons off the lights:

Well, off that light.  Not these:

Palms in the fog.

Aloes blooming by the pier:

Back at home,  that difficult gardening game called "Where shall I plant that?" is dragging on as long as a game of Monopoly.  

Aloe on right recovered from too little water,  Aloe on left recovered from its stay in New Hampshire.  Where to plant them?

Many plants waiting for a real place.  No retail therapy until they get them.

Many, many...

I dug out the flowered out A. parrasana.  It wasn't bad.  Still no sign of further gopher damage, so apparently there was only the one.  So no excuse not to plant.  

I've been mostly puttering, like clearing out old Gerbera foliage as the new leaves and flower buds appear:

And of course still chopping.  Does this much-loved Hydrangea need to come out?  It's far too big for the spot, even when cut down to nothing every winter:

 I thought one of those dark-foliaged or dark-stemmed Hydrangeas would be fun to try as a replacement--one that doesn't get too big.

I enjoy the garden between putters. 

 

 This woody swelling on sprawling, mighty Protea 'Sylvia' might be a lignotuber.  That means eventually 'Sylvia' can be cut to the ground and she'll grow back, refreshed, from the lignotuber:

I have learned that Leucadendron 'Peaches and Cream' can also develop a lignotuber.  I'd like to cut it back: it desperately needs a refresh. 

 I wish I'd tried that with the two 'Superb's removed a couple of years ago.  Happily the replacements are finally doing well:

Hah!  Still getting some tomatoes!

The start of winter is exactly when Pentas start their winter awfulness.  I read you can cut them to the ground and they'll re-sprout and be beautiful again come spring. 

Their appearance as winter continues is strong motivation to try that.

Fuchsias, mostly bare and gangling though they are, don't mind winter here:

With all the time I spend staring at plants, I still missed something hiding here in Leucadendron 'Pom Pom':

A six-foot tall weed tree,  Schinus terebinthifolius aka Brazillian Pepper, planted by a bird's back end.  Hopefully I got enough of the root system to prevent its return. 

Better one giant weed than hundreds of tiny ones?

This morning the wind is roaring--a strong Santa Ana event ripping through the region, sucking what moisture there is out of the garden.  Oh, January!