tz_garden

 A sunny Saturday in Livermore.  Very early to the party poppy, red glow I'm assuming. Last night my oldest daughter Sophia graduated from college, summa cum laude!  We had a fantastic night, celebrated with a lovely dinner in the city afterwards.  We stayed up very late for this mama, and I'm not very productive today.  A cute picture of all 3 of my wonderful kids, their eyes are all closed but they are laughing together and I love it. It is so warm, sunny and lovely today, t-shirt weather - but we are supposed to get rain this week.  I didn't realize how low our rainfall was this December.  Our average for December is 2.5".  We are just at .84" - look at how crazy last year was with 4.61"!  Our yearly total is only 15", hopefully we will hit that mark.  I'm originally from Portland, OR where the average is a whopping 36" of rain per year.   We moved here about 14 years ago, and while I do love Portland - I can't say I miss all that rain. I

 Anticipation.  Livermore has been the lucky recipient of another .16" of rain.  And now we are just at the beginning of dancing with freezing temps at night.  Important to note, when we do freeze here it is for a few hours only.  In the very early morning.  I'm trying C9 Christmas lights this year for protection.  Most of these plants are totally fine, but the Agave attenuata (foxtail agave) look terrible come spring.  So I'm hoping the warmth from the lights (plus I have little frost fabric covered domes to add when we actually drop below freezing) help them be their best come warmer weather.  We will see! It looks kinda cute at night, which surprised me - since my focus was on warming not the look of it. I have several aloes that are giving me -for the first time buds/blooms.  I am over the moon about it.   After the rain, you are not welcome here little snail. I was surprised to walk around the corner and see a little bud on this Aloe ferox -hybrid I'm guessing. It

 Livermore got a smattering of rain - approx .09" over the last few days.  It was appreciated.  It feels like everything is dying off, but there are still blooms happening in the front garden.  Snaps, salvia, gaura, dahlia, dianthus. Reliable penstemon -front garden And back garden Some nice colored snapdragons for fall.  A perennial here, short-lived.  Blue honeywort has reseeded everywhere, but it is welcome.  Easy to pull when it winds up where I don't want it. Dianthus, I appreciate how they bloom almost year round.  I should add more to the back garden. The rain was perfect to loosen the soil a bit for pulling weeds. Plenty of them sprouting in the slope. And picked up one million dropped olives from the neighbors tree, ugh.  Maybe two million.  hahaha Honestly, I was just happy to be outside puttering around.  Saw a few bulbs sprouting here & there.  I really need to start marking where I poke in bulbs.   Another happy surprise, the native blueberry Ivan gifted - has