Ice Plant

I grew up in Southern California, where Ice Plant was (still is) ubiquitous. It covers the banks next to the freeways and probably controls erosion. I never liked it very much. We have a lot of it here, but its eye-popping colors lend the whole landscape a sort of surreal beauty--especially in contrast to the Agaves on the hill behind our house

When we were buying the house we looked it up on Google maps. The entire front bank next to the road was ablaze with this magenta Ice Plant. My neighbor informs me that there are "three or four" blooms there now and she can't wait for it to bloom again. We seem to live in two climate zones--one at street level and a much warmer one at the level of the house. There is a third level, what I call "the upper terrace" at the top of this hill, which will be warmer still. This is where OilMan has his veggie boxes and plans to build an arbor.

As the weather warms up more and more things are blooming in the garden. It's a bit of an adventure just to go out every morning and see what has come up overnight.