I thought I’d start a garden journal but I know I’ll never get around to printing all the pictures of the garden as it changes so this is the next best thing to do.

I’ll start here at the entryway as it looks now (or last week) with these two red chairs. Scottie is out there giving that hedge a haircut as I type. That is actually the west side of the entry. What is soon to be the entryway garden is currently a sea of blue tarp with a potted gingko tree in the middle. Around the gingko tree up against the studio and bath house I plan on planting lavender, guara, a brilliant pink salvia and a buff beauty rose. I have everything except the buff beauty. I’ll also plant some succulents and something else (?) under the gingko and cover the rest in dg. I can hardly wait to see this part of the garden come to fruition.

Elsewhere in the garden……

This is the central garden. The maple in the center is doing beautifully as is the lavender, guara and grass beneath it. These were perfect choices here and I’m shooting for echoing this look in the entryway. The bed with the soccer ball was ruthlessly invaded by gophers. My gorgeous zucchini plant wilted and died in one day so I opted for pots until I figured out what to do or those little bastards got tired and left. The sweet peas on that post were gorgeous until the roots split the pot. I’ve since planted some portulaca but now the pot doesn’t fit on the post. I’m trying the local gopher remedy of planting bottles, glass or plastic, in the ground next to their tunnels. The vibration of the wind passing through the bottles is supposed to drive them away. We shall see. Patricia said it saved her garden this year. Anything that simple is worth a try.

Meanwhile, Scottie took out the New Dawn rose which never did much blooming and planted it in the pot with the cecile bruner outside the studio door. My 3 little eggplants are doing fine, I’ve got about 4 or 5 eggplants! Evelyn is in bloom again and looks stunning against those orange calendula that pop up everywhere. The oregano in that bed is blooming as well. Tiny little pale green blossoms. I’ll have to wait a couple of days to get a good picture of this as it’s too sunny and gorgeous right now. Tsk tsk.

view from the bench….

The back.

This seems to be the best place for impatiens and johnny-jump-ups along with some of the plants Scottie brought back from his stay in San Diego. They like it much better than inside the house where they were screaming at me every day about how unhappy they were. Happy now!

This is my hidy spot. The bamboo in the corner seems happy and so does the fuschia in the pot with the Hearst Castle guy in the corner there. The fig dropped all it’s leaves in one fell swoop a couple of weeks ago. I have no idea what happened but I suspect Casssius‘ pee since everything back there has suffered damage from his lethal urine. We’re waiting it out but I don’t hold out much hope. Beneath it we planted the succulents that used to be in the wheel barrow. So far Cassius doesn’t deem that an appropriate pee spot. The fairy rose in front of that turned totally brown so I cut it back to the ground and in one week it’s already greened up a bit. The Yolande is full of buds and blooming nicely again as well. The Iceberg doesn’t look so good and the penstemon and salvia are recovering. The plum tree is already creating shade on all of these so I need to start thinking about what I’ll replace them with. The plums from that tree are sweet and marvelous and the birds dig em bad. I’ll clean up and go back an hour later and there’ll be at least a dozen half pecked plums on the ground. Those bastards also ate every single peach on my peach tree so I know next year I’m going to have to tent both those trees.

The lair with plum tree in the foreground.

Here is the back deck with the yummiest hammock in the background. The hammock hasn’t gotten as much use this summer as it has had in the past though I still find it to be one of those magic power spots in the garden. The lair has become its fiercest competitor.

Apple girl lives in the window box by my hidy spot. She’s planted with lobelia and vinca. It’s more of a shade lover but it was all they had at the home depot the day I went to get something for the studio boxes and of course I couldn’t wait another moment to see those planted.

These guys found a home by the hidy spot as well. I’m hoping the shade and less watering will encourage some more growth.

This quail was one of the first things we bought for our garden. It has seen all the transformations and seems none the worse.

Because we can’t seem to have too many bad dogs.

Yesterday I planted 40 daffodil bulbs and just as many tulips. This is also a local gopher cure and seemed too good to not do. No gophers and cheery little flowers in the spring?
I planted them mostly in the front and finished planting the rest in the central garden where the zucchini’s life was cut so tragically short.
I’ll keep buying them as we go along to ensure a good show next spring. This is the first time I feel on top of things in the garden. Planning and planting ahead for continuous bloom. Having it look so dreamy is inspiring.