Category Archives: Los Angeles garden post 2024
clippings late March 2026
The Long Beach garden is throwing a low-key sendoff, mainly with the blooming of Geranium maderense ‘Alba.’ It is almost distracting enough to take my mind off the delayed cutback urgently needed right now in the Oregon garden — possibly … Continue reading
Posted in clippings, journal, Los Angeles garden post 2024
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notes on the March heatwave
Monday morning dawned fresh and cool with a minor epiphany. Stepping out the backdoor, the opening of the first poppy scrambles a sleepy brain with the sensation of a delicate jellyfish floating over the garden (upside down). This week’s West … Continue reading
modern picnic table
With temps in Los Angeles unable to stay out of the 80s°F for long, the absence of a picnic table in my life rose to the level of an all-consuming void. Marty knows this fixation of mine well and has … Continue reading
Posted in climate, Los Angeles garden post 2024
7 Comments
another spiral aloe
Some plant failures just don’t let go. Three tries is generally considered reasonable, but after that? After that, reason doesn’t have much to do with it anymore. At my local nursery, coming upon a few gallons of the spiral aloe, … Continue reading
Posted in journal, Los Angeles garden post 2024, succulents
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rain journal; Year of the Horse
Because so rare, rain is a big deal in Southern California and stirs up intense feelings. Will it be too much? Not enough? Will the roads flood? Will there be mudslides? Will it be more than we can handle or … Continue reading
Posted in journal, Los Angeles garden post 2024
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Star of the dry garden, my awkward Grevillea ‘Moonlight’
Within a day or two before leaving the Long Beach garden last spring, Grevillea ‘Moonlight’ sheared off an enormous middle branch, violently bifurcating that luminous, stately canopy into goofy ears. The tear was rough and I assumed possibly fatal, but … Continue reading
Posted in journal, Los Angeles garden post 2024
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A quick ‘Hallelujah’
A couple years ago I gave a friend’s new garden some Bilbergia ‘Hallelujah,’ which were recently returned to me, fattened up but congested with conifer debris. Too messy to deal with, was the verdict. Too true. I let the bromeliads … Continue reading
Posted in journal, Los Angeles garden post 2024
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a cautious welcome to 2026
A pot of posole bubbles on the stove as the garden soaks up last night’s downpour. I’ve moved on from coffee to green tea to quiet a scratchy throat. The spicy posole will be therapeutic as well. Then maybe a … Continue reading
rainiest December in LA history
Los Angeles is having its rainiest December ever, which has everyone on edge because wildfire-scarred land doesn’t absorb rain well and tends toward runoff. A good portion of this rainy munificence fell inconveniently on heavy travel days over the 24th, … Continue reading
notes from the December garden/Los Angeles
December temps have been in the 80’sF, astonishing even to this lifelong Angeleno. Fairly quickly I’ve re-adapted to the prevailing attitude that keeping track of the weather is mostly irrelevant here. I left checking hourly weather forecasts behind in Oregon … Continue reading