{"id":111529,"date":"2026-10-29T15:56:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T19:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=111529"},"modified":"2026-10-29T15:56:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T19:56:37","slug":"socal-garden-late-october-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=111529","title":{"rendered":"SoCal garden late October 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mangave ‘Lavendar Lady’ outer leaves not protected by the pergola got a bit singed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If gardens could talk, mine would be hurling F bombs and accusing me of woeful neglect. But after calming down and getting reacquainted, I think both the garden and I agree it could have been a lot worse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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a little beaten up, the cuticle burned through in places. There’s a few of these Agave celsii ‘Multicolor’ with varying degrees of sun damage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Aloe lukeana showing some sunburn. Bare ground where a large leucospermum grew. Foreground is anigozanthos aka kangaroo paws<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The garden bears evidence of a very rough summer. Mainstays like large Agave attenuata have been pulled due to sunburn. A large leucospermum perished, as did the last Leucadendron ‘Ebony’ I swear I’ll ever buy. (The proteaceae are touchy and not easy plants to establish with a gardener in absentia.) There’s been lots of shuffling, chucking out, repotting, but not as much weeding as I remember last fall. The heat and drought seemed to be too much even for the African Veldt Grass, though with my hand back on the hose the weeds are resurging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Very glad to see Agave ‘Ripple Effect’ in such good shape after its first summer, a rather hellish one. Notwithstanding plant losses, wider paths aren’t a bad idea in any case<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A fine walkable mulch has been temporarily added to all the newly opened up space, and there’s a lot of it. In addition to plant losses, large gaps have been left by big-framed reseeders like Sonchus palmensis and Geranium maderense. Marty cleared their bloomed-out skeletons when he visited in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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dozens upon dozens of manihot seedlings were weeded out. This gorgeous fellow is a short-timer too<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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not too bad from some angles but there’s a lot of bare ground. Aloe pluridens celebrating our return with fall blooms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After bidding the Oregon garden goodnight for the winter, I have to admit it’s been pure pleasure to have so much to do in this one. I’m in my element sorting it out, making tricky Solomonic decisions, and watching it all take new form, shape and direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Agave titanota unfazed by summer. Calocephalus brownii near pot was another success, which prompted adding the more compact version ‘Silver Stone’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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foreground Coprosma ‘Pacific Night,’ backed by Strobilanthes gossypinus. The pewter bush somehow endures and even flourishes in strong sun and very dry conditions. I wouldn’t have pegged it for a dry garden plant! Both shrubs have been cut back quite a bit especially the coprosma.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Carex ‘Feather Falls’ with a habit like hakenochloa but for sun — nothing fazes it. It becomes more and more prominent as surrounding plants die off<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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a few of newly planted Santolina ‘Grey Tuft.’ Agave ellemeetiana did much better this summer than Agave attenuata, both not recommended for full sun. I really should pull out that nest of sesleria under the agave<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A new experimental direction will be shrubbier, in the spirit of Nicole de Vesian’s French garden and Jo Wakelin’s<\/a> New Zealand garden. (One of the Wonder Garden crew saw Wakelin’s garden last year, a dream trip.). The large Agave attenuatas have been replaced with Grevillea ‘King’s Rainbow,’ and Eucalyptus ‘Moon Lagoon’ has been planted near the east fence. Grevillea lanigera ‘Coastal Gem’ will fill in at the base of Yucca rostrata, which is up and trunking. Shopping local, low-growing Santolina ‘Grey Tuft’ looks promising, and five were brought home along with six-packs of compact Calocephalus ‘Silver Stone.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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the east fence plantings are particularly bare. A lot of the biennial Geranium maderense grew here. Foreground trunk is Euphorbia cotinifolia. Distant trunk is a trevesia, whose lower leaves have been stripped to expose the trunk for the first time. This trevesia survives and grows taller but every leaf has some singe to it and I may pull it out eventually. Big clumps of bromeliads that burned badly were pulled along the fence. Small ‘Moon Lagoon’ found at Flora Grubb’s LA nursery. Agave is ‘Mateo’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Phyllica pubescens planted last year was surprisingly among the survivors, which also included a spiral aloe planted last year as a lark<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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bronzy, leathery-leaved Acacia craspedocarpa is a blessing for a hot, very dry garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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So I resume what I’ve been doing the past six years, rebuilding the garden around what has survived. And there’s a lot of beautiful survivors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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kangaroo paws and other stuff were pulled that were crowding the aloes and Agave salmiana x ferox var. ‘Mediopicta’ and making weeding difficult. Spring-planted Sideritis syriaca in foreground managed to pull through its first summer. Small tree is Grevillea ‘Moonlight’. Tall variegated and grass-like is Lomandra ‘Lucky Stripe’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And some things managed to emerge unscathed, like the planting of bromeliads against the shaded CMU wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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note creeping fig on pot — such a pretty but short-lived effect as it must be eradicated!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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west with the twilight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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looking east, Acacia baileyana ‘Purpurea’ towering over the garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We’ve been in Los Angeles almost two weeks, and this transition has been busier than usual due to a lot of house upkeep — new roof, new HVAC, refinishing floors. Billie was groomed yesterday, removing the last vestiges of salt water from summer beach trips causing her to literally chew her ass off. (On Oregon beaches dogs are welcome, not so on LA beaches.) Squirrels are all over the neighbor’s fruiting avocado tree and drop a few for Billie — thankfully she’s been avoiding eating them so far. And amidst all the chaos I do what I always do, rebuild my little world one plant at a time. Rain expected this weekend — more soon, AGO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If gardens could talk, mine would be hurling F bombs and accusing me of woeful neglect. But after calming down and getting reacquainted, I think both the garden and I agree it could have been a lot worse. The garden … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28,5120,898,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agaves","category-los-angeles-garden-post-2024","category-pots-and-containers","category-succulents"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-t0R","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111529"}],"version-history":[{"count":91,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111624,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111529\/revisions\/111624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}