tz_garden

This morning, while reading the news/blogs & enjoying my coffee, I felt an earthquake.  Small, but still enough to make my stomach do a flip flop.  It seems like we've had quite a few lately, so I looked it up.  24 in the past 24 hours, although it's California and quakes are common - that doesn't feel very reassuring!   Livermore has had:  (M1.5 or greater) 24 earthquakes in the past 24 hours 27 earthquakes in the past 7 days 131 earthquakes in the past 30 days 580 earthquakes in the past 365 days *Livermore would be just inside the second outer ring, pretty much to the right of epicenter (San Ramon) We do have earthquake insurance, does that cover large tree aloes?  My first instinct was to go outside and take a few videos.  Well, really I've been meaning to document the garden - not my normal too "focused in on one plant" style. This diary blog of sorts, I'm still very much learning how to do it.  So for a change of pace, it's video da...

On our return home, we had 2 days of dense FOG blocking out the sun.  Very rare for around here, we're inland from the Bay. It was chilly, so I kept myself busy by spiffing up the house for Christmas.  Banksia, acacia & eucalyptus branches made a nice holiday-ish messy display.     When the skies cleared Tuesday, and the sun was shining LET ME OUT -ahhhh, pure joy!   I untangled a couple of strings of Christmas lights for the outside, covered the walls of the shade house- and snapped a few shots to share.  Golden barrel. Yucca linearfolia.   And another light catching grassy thing, xanthorrhoea preisii.  Slow growing Western Australian grass tree.  Banksia integrifolia, these are so hard to photograph.  The underside of the leaves are very silvery.  Nope, doesn't show in photos. Well, I keep trying - lol. Nothing better than backlit Cleistocactus strausii, I'm a fool for fuzzy plants. a beacon for slugs & snai...

 I'm back home in Livermore, and it is cold enough to flip on that furnace! During our short trip to Portland, we stayed at "The Asylum" apartment building in the Hawthorne District.  In 1861, James & Loryea Hawthorne opened the Hawthorne Asylum. None of us had heard of the asylum before, and were slightly confused why the building we were staying in was called that.    Oregon encyclopedia  for James Hawthorne history. Back in May of '96, we bought a house in the not as sought after Creston neighborhood.  When we stay in Portland, I take a nice leisurely run outside to visit what we refer to as the "little house".  This may or may not be interesting to you, but I took some fun house photos during my run- houses I used to dream of owning. Ladd's Addition area Loved this peek-a-boo gate. I like modern architecture, but a new build stuck in this neighborhood felt real stupid  out of place.  There were a couple gardens loaded with everything....

hoping everyone has a great week, celebrating and indulging a bit! I'm thrilled to have lots of time with my core 5 plus extended family.  I wanted to share that the front garden renovation list has had a big project knocked off!  I can't find a before photo (will I ever learn?) to show the size- let's pretend this Liriodendron tulipifera, tulip tree is in my yard.  About 44' tall. * Google images Of course, the leaves have fallen -large leaves which actually makes them easier to deal with.  However, the tree  didn't fit in with my cactus & succulent plans for the area. While the flowers were pretty, they were all so high in the sky you couldn't see them. Still, thank you tree. First plan of attack, Ivan used the extension saw to take off as many bulky branches as possible. After he had taken a few branches off, he reminded me I might want a photo, lol.  Ivan in action, I couldn't have come close to getting these way up there branches.  We were cle...

Basically I'm going overboard with winter protection in zone 9b. Our lowest winter temp (that I can remember) was 26° for a few hours in early morning hours.  Typically in the "winter" (December-February)  our high is 62°/low 40°.  It's really a few rainy days followed by a cold morning freeze that can cause damage or sudden death. And what else would I do with myself if I couldn't fuss around outside, time in the sunshine is always better than mopping floors & cleaning toilets :).  So, as I posted a week ago - I was setting up winter shop in front of the garage.  It dawned on me, what the heck am I doing - I have a mostly empty greenhouse?!  Look at the sad state of affairs! This greenhouse probably has a year or two left in it's brittle plastic walls.  After, not really cleaned up so much as filled up! It's difficult to lift big pots over the lip of the bottom door, but I managed to heave the tri-headed Pachypodium lamerei up & inside.  ...