tz_garden

Probably not much change, but I wanted to "lift" this bed and freshen the top dressing.  Here is a before, sorry for the "hot" photos, this area really gets blasted by the sun.  I was working on a timeline, I had a 3pm dentist appointment.  *I'm just about at the end of a 7 month invisalign treatment to move a molar back in line. THIS was the main reason, this ground cover is beautiful in spring covered with tiny pink flowers.  Then as we get hotter it turns into a brown crispy blob.  Not tough enough!  And the blue elf aloe does ZILCH for me.  Scorched ends.  I find that when plants are labeled drought tolerant full sun, that doesn't always cover my full sun situation.  We are headed into 7 days of 100°, Wednesday is supposed to be 106°.  Thankfully we do cool down at night, I'll go out in the mornings and hopefully clean my house in the afternoons. :) Some big fruits on Echinopsis had split open.   I set aside the silver torc...

 It was HOT over the weekend, 100's.  Yesterday afternoon I ran to the grocery store, as I left the store I was shocked to feel rain, real RAINDROPS!  Although Livermore is fairly close to San Francisco (44 miles approx.) we have drastically different weather.  No June gloom, barely get morning fog and can easily be 30° hotter than the Bay cities.  It couldn't have amounted to anything but was still very exciting.  I thought I would take advantage of the kooky weather for some pictures.  Here are some long shots of the garden this morning, under the nice protection of some rare summer clouds. My hope with the back garden is to someday walk out, and not be able to "see" everything.  Hopefully to make a person want to walk down the pathways to check everything out. Sorry for the almost duplicates, this shows the side of the house to the left is part of the veggie garden (behind the sunflowers).    You can see haphazard shade cloth to prote...

We were out of town and out of touch for a bit.   I ca't wait to get caught up with everyone's blog posts and see what you've been up to! This tall bright gladiola was a surprise to come home to.   We celebrated Father's Day on Sunday, and Olivia's UCSB graduation -and moved her from her housing there.  She was the last one to move out of her apartment, I had a large refrigerator to clean out (6 roomates, hahaha). We had such a fun busy weekend! My three 💖, we had a great Father's Day lunch -Mexican, James's favorite.   Delphinium 'Cobalt Blue' sent a second bloom. I'm anxious to have a good look around the garden. Dr. never enjoys it when we leave for a few days, I think he's saying "don't do that again"

 I was down & out a couple days with a stomach bug, no fun.  Am feeling better today and will be going out to tame the tomatoes & dead head with vigor!  A few weeks back, I picked some flowers to preserve in silica.   I'm not sure if I can re-use the silica to dry again?   I had done this with my daughters in the Fall, and was delighted with the outcome.  Below is the after.  Most flowers came through nicely, with a couple roses looking like they'd been left in Grandma's underthings drawer too long.   Our tulip tree that nicely shades the front perennial garden is blooming, however I only get to see the blooms when they fall off.  They are all scattered at the very tippy top of the tree.   This Parodia magnifica balloon cactus looks like a little frosted cupcake.  I love the coloring on this Agave chazaroi.  I am going to need to move it so it has proper space to grow.   Also need to move t...