20201015 Around the garden

I love this plant/pot combination, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to move it to a bigger pot before it bursts this one.

Discorea Elephantipes

This little sedum died back when it got to 110 F, but it’s showing signs of coming back and I really like it so it stays.

This aloe turns a really vibrant red on the edges when it gets enough light. I recently repotted it and moved it to a new location. I’m hoping it gets more light there.

I love the peach/pistachio colors of these little gasteria blossoms.

I love the form and color of this echevaria. Spud the tortoise loves the flavor. I set it up on another pot to try to keep it out of his reach.

20200812 Garden

Pulled down the Boston this morning. Way overdue. Had nearly a trash can full by the time I was done. But at least I felt like I accomplished something.

One thing off the endless list. I’m sure something will grow to take its place. At least it gives me a sense of purpose in this totally senseless time.

Watching

Spent a while watching butterflies on Saturday. A big monarch seems to have claimed the yard for her own. At least I think it was a she. She would patrol from one end of the garden to the other and back again, looping around the butterfly milkweed plants to make sure there were no interlopers.

There was also a cabbage butterfly and a couple of what I think were hairstreaks, but I didn’t get close enough to see them clearly.

The monarch left the smaller butterflies alone, but when a gulf fritillary wandered into the yard it promptly got chased back out again. I think it’s larger size and orange and black colors make it too monarch-like. It was an immediate target.

I was glad to see a good number of bees. When everyone stopped watering everything the bee population seemed to take a real dive. There were days in the beginning of the year where there’d be only one or two in the front yard and none at all inside the gates. Now there’s a good mix of pollinators, bees, butterflies and hoverflies. It was a good day for bugwatching.

Lack of Larvae

I have these:

There’s one that I’ve seen patrolling the yard, flitting from one end of the yard to the other, stopping occasionally to lay eggs on the butterfly plant. She chases off any interlopers. Butterfly fights are interesting to watch. They look like leaves caught in a whirlwind. It’s hard to believe they’re battles for territory.

I was hoping for more of these:

But this is only the second one I’ve seen this season.

New Flier

This cooperative, but rather unphotogenic new flier was hopping around outside the office the other day. I kept an eye on it as I went in and out during the day. It was gone when I was left for the day.

Garden Status 20170613

Fiddled around quite a bit in the garden this weekend. It’s amazing how much work I can do out there and still no one else can see the difference. I ended up with a full trash barrel of pruning and even I can barely tell the difference.

I think these are going to be green zebra tomatoes. I’m looking forward to trying them, I’ve never had any. They might be tiger tomatoes, but they’re the wrong shape. More like to be the green zebras.

I got this echevaria imbricata because I love the way the rosettes grow in tightly packed mounds. I potted it so it could develop a bigger root system before I put it out in the yard. It’s also starting to produce offsets.

I got this euphorbia guiengola plant because the description said that it would develop a caudex over time. I’ve had it for a couple of years now and it shows no sign of developing a thickening trunk. I’m still pretty happy with it, even if it is basically just sticks with flowers on them. I haven’t seen this plant anywhere before, so at least it has the advantage of being unusual.

This poor little aloe is getting a little sun stressed. It looks better when the leaves a re a darker green, so I moved it to a spot where it doesn’t get quite so much sun.

This aloe is apparently happy with a crowded root system. The pot it’s in might hold two cups of soil at most. It’s one of the first things I got when I found the Orange County Cactus and Succulent Society. I couldn’t resist the colors. These guys are as close to cactus as I get. I just don’t like pokey things. Had a bad experience when I was a kid. Pliers were required to remove the spines.

My ledebouria socialis is doing pretty well. I’m anticipating moving this one, too, when the heat of summer moves in. I love how well it goes with the pot it’s in.

Oh, that’s why

A couple of months ago the silver dichondra in my atrium started to looked really ragged, missing a lot of leaves. Because it’s been a rainy year and I had slug problems in other parts of the yard I thought slugs were the cause. Yesterday I was at my workbench and saw movement in the atrium out of the corner of my eye. This visitor was plucking the leaves off of the dichondra. It’s one of a pair that I’ve seen in the yard lately. They often make me anxious by hopping around on the ground when we’re out there with the cats. A bird on the ground never fails to rivet their attention.

Jacaranda Season

It’s jacaranda season in Southern California right now. I saw this street in morning sun a few days ago, thought “I should take a picture” and drove on by. Kicking myself now. I have always loved jacaranda trees, although I understand why some people don’t. I especially love it when the trees are covered in delirious purple blossoms. They were widely used in landscapes for a while, until people figured out that all those purple blossoms fall off. I still love seeing them, The big purple crowns of the trees dotted across the landscape. Let’s me know it’s spring.

Raven’s nest

I was running around the yard, hurrying to get a little yard work done in the five minutes we didn’t have rain when I noticed this nest in the finally bare trees around the house. I initially thought it was a crow’s nest, but when I thought about it, it’s probably a raven’s nest. Raven’s have had a nest in that for a while now. On several occasions I’ve heard a knocking sound that I’m pretty sure is part of a raven’s vocabulary, but not a crow’s. I’ll have to keep an eye on it, see what happens this year.

Stop here

I’ve come to the conclusion that the boston ivy that covers most of the patio wall has to go. It’s just too hot for it now. It never really looks good except in early spring. Then the weather heats up all the leaves burn and I’m left with a wall of toast. So I’ve been pulling it down, a few feet at a time. It’s easier on me than trying to do the whole wall at once and it gives the local wildlife a chance to move to a new location. I was out trimming this weekend when I found my stopping point. A mantid egg case. Between that and the fact that the trash was full, a good place to stop.