Category Archives: agaves, woody lilies

touring summer gardens

Lately I’ve been dipping more and more frequently into photos taken while garden touring last summer with the Garden Fling, a highly recommended garden tour group. Compared to what’s being reported in this crazy news cycle, making and caring for … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, climate, garden travel, garden visit, Oregon garden, pots and containers | 7 Comments

Erodium pelargoniflorum and other indispensable reseeders

Erodium pelargoniflorum is commonly described as a perennial, but it behaves as a late winter/spring annual in my zone 10 Long Beach CA garden. It reseeds as prolifically as California poppies, and sheets of seedlings carpeted the front garden every … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, journal, Los Angeles garden post 2024, succulents | 5 Comments

caudiciform plants for the win

I confess the loss of Beaucarnea ‘Gold Star’ was one I dreaded the most during our extended absence. It was one of the first plants I rushed to check upon return. Survival of caudiciform plants was a theme. Right up … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, journal, pots and containers, succulents | 10 Comments

taking stock of the runaway garden

I know “runaway garden” is an oxymoron, but even so the SoCal garden (zone 10) seems to have been on a journey without me, cycling through various caretakers, some benign, some less so. The last few days have been the … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, journal, pots and containers, succulents | 11 Comments

checking in on the zone 10 garden

The Long Beach, CA zone 10 garden had a caretaker in residence for almost a year while we’ve been on the Oregon coast. I think they may have been watering the containers before decamping in July, but I’m not really … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, climate, garden visit, pots and containers, succulents | 6 Comments

clippings 7/24/23; new views

Some recent small changes at home. This stock tank held that incredibly generous friend to bees, Anisodontea ‘Strybing Beauty,’ that I brought up from the zone 10 garden. In its second season here, the unexpected girth and height now completely … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, clippings, Oregon garden | 9 Comments

catching up with the zone 10 garden

We arrived last Friday, and other than sleeping, I don’t think a broom has left my hand since. The informal team of neighbors and friends who took turns watching over the garden since we left the second week of October … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, journal, pots and containers, succulents | 6 Comments

garden clippings 9/7/21

Yes, that is a box full of chrysanthemums. Let me explain why such a wildly uncharacteristic flower, for me, is blooming in my otherwise mostly austere and dryish garden. It’s part of the ongoing experiment of trying cut flowers in … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, clippings, cut flowers, journal, pots and containers, succulents | 10 Comments

the path not taken (August fidgets)

There are as many ways and reasons to design a garden as their are gardeners — but Im with Billie. Its all about the feet (and paws). I love to play with the varying scale that moving through a garden … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, journal, pots and containers, succulents | 7 Comments

while I was away

We have a new member of the family, so of course I had to immediately become acquainted with little Hannah, who resides in a foggy coastal Oregon town. And even though she’s only days’ old, I began deliberating before leaving, … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, journal, succulents | 4 Comments