--GK Chesterton
Clearing out the dying sweet peas...
One last little bouquet, with lavender Pentas. Farewell, O lovely springtime!
Dahlias in need of sun and water:
An Aloe aculeata, recovered from being re-rooted, looks fine:
I plunged it immediately into a bucket of water. Somehow it's still alive, but in bad shape.
In deep shade now under 'Oshio Bene', it's recovering, maybe. I failed it.
Why did you do this to me, human?
The one surviving Leucospermum seedling looks exceptionally strong and healthy at the moment.
And bigger:
Rodents of unknown species ate the other two. I failed them.
Moving on. I should have read the section on grapes in The Sunset Western Garden Book. I should have paid attention to this sentence: "Grapes are rampant".
Yes, they are. A little cutting stuck in the ground two years ago is now reaching out to grab and strangle Aloe 'Hercules':
The original grape vine sited in the kennel grew its way out of the enclosure last year. It did this year, too. Enough of it is still safe from rodents...so far. I got the grape in the kennel under control--sort of:
Anticipating the ripening of these beauties:
At least at the moment, the grapes are a success of sorts, if rodent defenses hold up. Last year's small grape harvest proved home-grown grapes are like home-grown tomatoes--better than anything we can buy at a store.
And the large leaves of the former cutting (upper center-right) have added something to this view:
This trio of roses looked down upon me with disgust.
At least it felt like that. But I took heart in the G.K. Chesterton quote. Anything worth doing (gardening) is worth doing badly--because even when you fail, the trying was worth doing.
Good thing the plants know what they are doing.
Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' backlit:
Yes, that Chesterton quote is fabulous. Tee hee...I giggled several times while reading this post. It's fun to see the "do overs" and "ooopses" along with the beautiful successes. Your roses always brighten my day, and this is the time of year when I can enjoy my roses, too. The grapes look yummy, and they're definitely worth protecting.
ReplyDeleteI see far more wins there than failures. I've killed a Grevillea (or two or three) the same. They need more time to grow into the "drought tolerant" category than I first realized. The cage on the grapes looks very serious - grape jail. Lots of beauty, and that pathway photo is glorious.
ReplyDeleteLots of failures here too. Like watering a brand new, expensive podophyllum with a half-strength fertilizer to get it growing and burning it to a crisp within days after purchasing it... Lovely Eucomis 'Sparkling Burgundy' with the Dymondia groundcover. I'm going to try rampant grapes myself. I have three plants waiting in the wings for a new pergola. Just hoping the rodents don't get them like they do yours. I don't have the energy to kennel them away.
ReplyDeleteDespite the mistakes here and there, your garden does you proud, HB! I've tried growing both Salvia 'Black and Blue' AND 'Amistad' and neither one survived, much less demonstrated thuggery. I wonder what's different with my soil, sun exposure, or watering that contributed to the difference? I recently noticed that the "dead" grape vine we inherited with the garden seems to have decided to make a reappearance now that we finally removed the wood arbor my husband had built to support it (out of fire concerns)...
ReplyDeleteI can't recall seeing things done badly at your place. Maybe a few plants which didn't try hard enough, but the plan was always executed wonderfully!
ReplyDeleteI've tried salvia in pots, it always ended up looking miserable unless fertilized endlessly.
Any "fails" are more than offset by a garden that produces seedling leucospermums! Incredible, as is your success with hunnemania. I had a wonderful purple leaf grape years ago in Long Beach, possibly 'Roger's Red' named for Roger Raiche -- it proved too much to handle but what a glory it was! And carpenterias are just plain finicky, no need to beat yourself up about it!
ReplyDelete