tz_garden

The San Francisco Succulent Expo was June 13-15, and I wanted to go on Friday.  However, I was busy getting ready for Father's Day family dinner- and mostly prepping for a friend coming to stay this week.  Sophia thankfully taking over the fussy part, I was getting frustrated.  I grabbed a ravioli and fried it in butter, just to test it out!  Mmmmmm. Olivia made the Tiramisu the day before so it could set.    It appears I didn't do anything, I assure you I was busy. As luck would have it, Ivan would be at the SFSCS show working with Martin Grantham.  He offered to shop for me, YES PLEASE! He was texting photos, and I'd reply with a thumbs up if I was interested.  He sent the photo below of Aloe Pachydactylos hybrid, to which I immediately thumbs up'd.  Then received this text! Fortunately, Ivan was able to nab some great things for me.  Even with eagle eye  Gerhard  shopping like it was Black Friday! First box from various vend...

For the most part, rocks and plants are moved and top dressing is poured on.    The area feels fresher, of course I'll share more as things fill in.  Oh, I guess I should do something about those abandoned golden barrels.  The perennials are exploding in the front garden.  Momentarily making me forget about changing it.  I took this photo a day too late, Hibiscus Madame Chiang Kai Shek.  An old cultivar from Southern California - a part of my "weed tree" experiment.  Supposedly can grow to 30' tall (hilarious!) this is about 1' and it pushed out this chiffon-y soft apricot flower.  Delightful. The  Tanacetum parthenium, feverfew has overtaken the pathway.  I'll chop it today so I can clean-up this area a bit. The flower is fantastic in vases and lasts 2 weeks+. *Reseeds mostly politely from a plant I bought years ago from Annie's Annuals.   The dahlias are beginning to bloom. I am not sure about this color?  Thankfull...

 Well folks, I thought I'd be done with the makeover in one day.  Ha ha ha, what a fool I was.  This is going to be a 3 parter.  Going down the back pathway, the bed straight down the path in the middle there is where I removed just about everything.  The bed to the left of it and to the right of it (by the fence) are where the Furcraea MacDougallii were added.   The "left" bed is just about sorted out.  Added Aloe mawii, a shrubbier type Aloe I don't usually go for - but I like the marlothii-like horizontal bloom stalks.  As well as adding rando sempervivum and this cute Raoulia tenuicaulis. I'm willing this to dive into those crevices and build a little nest.  The "center" bed - I partially topped with black lava, against my better judgement.  I think when everything settles in it will work - I added a good amount of silver foliage things. They look so nice and pop on the black.  I tried to do splotches of the black lava rock...

 From my last  post ,  David  and Ivan brought over 2 massive Furcraea macdougaliis and got them into the ground for me.  We moved some things around to make room. They are a little worse for the wear, they've been sitting in David's driveway for a while.  Plus the van rides :).  But I have faith they'll recover nicely.  Sitting next to them, the 2 Aloidendron 'Moonglow' cuttings  Gerhard  and  Kyle  brought over from Gerhard's garden. When I saw Gerhard carrying these to the front, I didn't realize how heavy they were.  Until I picked them up to carry to the back!   The large plants in place, it really gives a more "established" air to the garden.  Then I looked down at the bed in between the two.  What am I doing here?  Well nothing,  it's boring.  I knew I needed to revamp this while I was putting the other 2 beds back together.   All big and messy on one side, and smaller pl...