Garden Explorations

Continuing my explorations around the awakening garden, I came across this especially vigorous Crimson Spot Cistus by the front lawn. We planted it last year as part of our "softening" effort. Now the crinkled petals have emerged from their cocooning buds like butterflies in the midst of Formiums, Agaves and some particularly spiky grasses. We planted more of these in back and they seem to like it there. They aren't called 'rock roses" for nothing!

Our neighbors' beautiful yellow and blue bearded iris are in full bloom, so I took some pictures of them to send her. He is a pilot for Delta Airlines and flies out of Miami. They bought the house next door when he thought he would be able to fly out of San Francisco, but American closed that hub when they merged with Delta. They live in Key West, and won't be moving here until he retires in August, and they sell their house there.

We had the wisteria pruned and it is now reaching for the arbor, sending out a few tendrils over the top as well as some fragrant white clusters of blooms.

No such luck with the ice plant down by the street. It is clearly visible in all its brilliant fuschia and orange glory in the pictures of our house on Google Earth, but died in last winter's frost. We are going to take it out and replace it with natives--Ceanothus and Manzanita.

The mounds of Spanish lavender have put forth brilliant purple stalks, and patches of coneflower and calendula are a riot of yellow, orange and red. Verbena and Lantana , which until recently looked like dead sticks, now form a walt of purple and attract lots of butterflies.

Dozens of Western Fence Lizards scamper out of crevices in the stone walls to do push ups on the warm rocks. Unknown and unseen creatures--gophers? moles? tunnel beneath the surface sending OilMan on the warpath with smoke bombs, mallets and poison, in an effort to stop their relentless girdling of roots and collapsing of steps.

Time to spruce up the outdoor furniture, clean the cushions, scatter the colorful pillows and dream of an outdoor pizza oven….