Saying yes meant changes…

Sunday September 25th. That morning I received a text about several yucca that needed to be rescued before the homeowner took a saw to them, Yucca rostrata to be specific—trunking Yucca rostrata. Initially I was just acting to save the plants, after all I didn't have room for another large Yucca rostrata. However once the project was underway and my friend Eric asked if I wanted one of the five, as a finders fee... well, how could I say no? 

Obviously I said yes, and that meant changes, a bit of a garden renovation was set in motion. Here's the yucca that became mine—I decided to name it Holman, in honor of the street he used to live on.

These next seven photos are from my year end "state of the garden" post that went up last October. That Fatsia japonica was one of the first things I planted when we moved here in 2005. 

Here it is seen from the driveway, it's legs mirroring those of the Arctostaphylos x 'Austin Griffiths' further out in the front garden. This was my favorite view of the plant.

The view from other side. Behind it is a large edgeworthia; E. chrysantha 'Nanjing Gold'. Growing between the two (from this angle) are Leucothoe fontanesiana 'Rainbow' and Indigofera amblyantha.

At its feet, a pair of Woodwardia unigemmata.

From the same post last October, here's a view of the front garden from the public sidewalk. You can see the fatsia up against the house.

Of interest here though is the annually pollarded Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple'. That's a long loop of it's foliage laying on the Yucca rostrata.

Here it is seen from the sidewalk to the front door (RIP that fabulous agave—a winter loss). 

Fast forward to ugly, photos from the end of January. I'd decided the fatsia had to go, in it's place would go Holman. I'd fallen out of love with the fatsia several years ago, it was time. There was a bit of sentimentality mixed in with losing this 18 year old shrub, as I mentioned it was one of the first things I planted here. However, once the decision was made I was excited to get started.

The Woodwardia unigemmata were moved to the back garden, and one of the two Leucothoe fontanesiana 'Rainbow' was removed to the yard waste bin.

Can you make out the stump of the Cotinus ‘Royal Purple'? It's just to the right of the Agave 'Sharkskin'. Yep, it's going too. I loved the dark foliage in the spring and the colorful autumn version. But I'd grown to hate the imbalance of having a huge space dedicated to a shrub that became a void for half the year—sunny space at that! Since I was at it a long suffering Dasylirion wheeleri and a Callistemon viridiflorus 'Xera Compact' also came out.

I took this photo the day I started to cut back the Fatsia japonica branches. It was going be a long process as that's a lot of material to work out in weekly yard waste pick ups (along with all the other garden debris) so I wanted to pace myself—aiming for a spring planting for Holman.

The remarkable thing about this image (taken at the end of January) is just how good both of those large-ish agaves still look. Things took a very drastic turn in the coming weeks. 

Anyway, here we are, April 26th. It's hard to grasp how many fatsia branches had already been removed!

It's about 1/3 the size it used to be. Oh and one of the agaves is gone (the sharkskin agave would eventually come out too, potted up in an attempt to rehabilitate it).

April 28th, I'd got the fatsia back to this state and it was time for Andrew to get involved. Digging out a 18 year old shrub requires more muscle than I've got.

Gone! The house is visible again, well, from this angle.

Holman spent winter in a container in the driveway. Before the December storm I considered trying to move him into the garage, but realized he was too tall to fit through the door. Since his roots were all broken during the move there was no sense in trying to tip him on a side either, that would have been a disaster. Thankfully he's a trooper and handled the cold well. 

Here I'm giving him a trim before planting day.

Hole dug...

And he's in! He looked so much larger in the pot in the driveway...

Those sticks on the far left under the corner window, that's a pineapple guava, Feijoa sellowiana. It was defoliated with the winter storms and still hadn't leaved out at the end of April. We cut it back to the ground. There are just now (beginning of July) a few little starts growing out of the stump. I am undecided on whether or not I'll let them grow.

Andrew also made quick work of the cotinus stump. Funny I thought I'd do that one myself. Seeing how hard he worked to get it out I was laughing at that idea.

For the spot where the cotinus used to be I planned to relocate a Yucca linearifolia I had growing in a hidden spot in the front garden. I dug it out...

And cleaned it up, including exposing the trunk...before I replanted it. 

I tried to take a couple "before and after" photos showing where it had been so you could laugh at the fact this great plant was completely hidden in my small garden, but I couldn't even get a decent shot of it, that's how well it was hidden.

I also went agave shopping to fill the new sunny empty spots with a couple proven winners, based on which agaves made it through last winter. Sadly, finding some of them proved very difficult. I couldn't believe it when a couple of the exact agaves I was looking for came to me via friends. Alison—yes, the Bonny Lassie—sent me this Agave montana 'Baccarat'...

And this amazing haul came home with me from our Portland garden bloggers swap. In the middle is a large Agave 'Baccarat' from Dale (exactly what I had been hunting for!), on the left a Yucca aloifolia which I fell in love with in Dale's garden and he shared an extra he had on hand (on the right a Syneilesis aconitifolia from Jane that went in the back garden).

One last photo to share today. Once I was home with that Agave 'Baccarat' and giving it a light clean up I pulled out a dead leaf and got a very big surprise, a frog! See him up against the pot? How often do you bring home an agave with a bonus frog? I put him in the garden but haven't seen him since. Fingers crossed he's out there somewhere having a good life.

On Friday I'll share photos of the new areas all planted up!

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All material © 2009-2023 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude. 

Aliens in the garden

Mid-November I visited the Los Angeles County Arboretum. The garden was set-up for a light show and closing came early, visitors needed to leave so reticketed folks could enter for the show. I see this as an ongoing conflict. Botanical gardens need people to pay their admission fees and die-hard garden-lovers only do so much, the general public needs to be tempted into the garden. That's where the "art in the garden" and "garden light show" ideas come from. Put on a show and they will come. God forbid you just happen to be a regular old plant-lover who finally made it to your bucket-list destination garden while one of their "shows" is happening.

Okay, that's my rant, now back to my Arboretum visit. I mostly managed to ignore all the cords, spotlights, reflectors and other assorted paraphernalia for the show. That light-filled lawn above is the only altered image I captured, well, nearly. 

I'd almost walked out thru the gates when I realized I still had a half hour before I was going to be tossed out of the garden, just enough time to walk over and explore the pre-historic forest...with aliens and disco balls!?

Aliens had invaded the pre-historic forest!

Naked aliens with mirror-ball heads...

I have to admit, I loved this. It was so unexpected and, well, shiny!

As I snapped these photos I wondered what it would all look like after dark. Was I missing out on some serious light-magic? Nope.

As a plant-lover I happened upon this alien-invasion at just the right time. A Google image search for "after dark" photos proved the plants definitely added to the feel of the installation. 

I'll never look at silly botanic garden shows the same way again!

A couple weeks later, back at home and cleaning up the garden, I thought of those aliens again when I pulled back this Woodwardia unigemmata frond...

...and discovered this! Alien goo!

My glove for scale, it was so shiny and gelatinous! 

The white bits are from the Fatsia japonia blooms above.

I shot off a photo to Tiffany, cause she knows fungus, and her best guess was (get this name!) "Crystal Brain Fungus" aka Exidia nucleata. Yep, read all about that business here. The photos in that link definitely look right, even if it says the fungus is found on dead and decaying hardwood and mine was on gravel under a Fatsia japonica. 

To add to my alien feeling about the whole thing, last weekend I found a little more "jelly" in an entirely different part of the garden—although it was still near a fatsia. This time the alien goo was on a Fatsia polycarpa bloom stem. However I have not seen any shiny aliens or disco balls in my garden. Yet.

All material © 2009-2021 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

2021 tour of my garden, the public side

It's that time of the year again, time for the annual garden tour. Today we'll walk the front garden, and on Friday I'll share the back garden. These photos were all taken September 15th, it's hard to believe that was almost two months ago! Since then the garden has undergone its autumn changes, editing these images it was wonderful to see it in it's late summer glory.

I recently learned that my "bulletproof" ground cover—Juniperus conferta 'Blue Pacific'—is actually quite frequently killed—or so says someone on a Facebook plant group whom it appears works at a nursery. I asked why/how and his response: "Amended soil, dead. Planted two millimeters too deep, dead. Walk past it with a water can, dead. Plot twist is that people see that they are drought tolerant so they don’t water them enough the summer, they are actually pretty thirsty right when planted." Who knew!? I guess I got lucky.

I never tire of this image, those are the sexy legs of Arctostaphylos x ‘Austin Griffiths'...

Cozied up to it, Erica arborea var. alpina—I love this combination.

Another image of the combo, with another manzanita—Arctostaphylos 'Monica'—creeping in. I planted 'Monica' thinking it was something else, something that stayed smaller.

As you can see, it's definitely not "small" as it towers over the third manzanita—Arctostaphylos densiflora ‘Harmony’—on the right. I had every intention of doing a rather drastic pruning (lifting the canopy, removing unwanted "filler" branches) this summer, but breaking my ankle over Memorial Day weekend, and having surgery on June 11th, put a damper on a lot of this year's garden plans. It will be there when I get to it, right?

Another view of the mess "collection"...

Corokia cotoneaster, Thuja plicata 'Whipcord' and a bunch of agaves (of course!).

I love that at some point I just randomly stuck a sun-loving fern in there, I think it might be Cheilanthes lanosa (Myriopteris lanosa), but sadly I've kind of lost track.

Moving north along the public sidewalk, the neighbor's driveway is now visible on the right, through the tetrapanax trunks (the driveway you saw in the first couple of photos, at the top, is ours, at the south end). I planted another Erica arborea var. alpina here, it looks small but has grown so much since I planted it. I hope to have situated it so it doesn't block the agave's sun from the south.

This brave Agave parryi 'JC Raulston' pup popped up in the middle of the juniper, I'm trying to make sure it doesn't get lost.

The pup's mama, with Erica texture.

Another plant I wish I could have given some attention to this summer, the massive Cordyline australis. I planted the original back in 2006 and it's been killed back to the ground and resprouted a few times—each time developing more trunks. I want to cut a few out and trim the other ones up. If it lives through this winter then I'll definitely be tackling it in the new gardening year.

Turning back to admire the tall Tetrapanax papyrifer.

And then we stop to admire this favorite vignette before...

... walking on up the north side of our house/our neighbor's driveway.

On the left, Mahonia x media 'Charity', and I was thrilled to see our Trachycarpus  fortunei (palm) looking so good from this vantage point—and a little surprised at the size of the Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate' (chocolate mimosa tree, the brown leaves).

Turning back towards our front garden and the northeast corner of the house, and yes, that's the neighbor's other car just visible on the left of the photo—our lots are ridiculously close (good thing we like our neighbors).

Self-planted Euphorbia rigida and Imperata cylindrica (Japanese blood grass) kept in check by shade and lack of water (the gutter downspout you see flows away from this area).

I adore the foliage of this Rhamnus frangula (fine line buckthorn), the only thing that would make it better is if it was evergreen. Oh and that tetrapanax against the house? A pup from the plants out at the corner, it traveled all the way across the garden to come up against the house. I kind of love the big leaves next to the small leaves, so it stays but gets cut down so as not to attain height and block the window.

*Sigh*... so dreamy. Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue' with Yucca rostrata.

Turning to the left, towards the street, we see the foliage of the hardy orange, Poncirus trifoliata, just starting to color up. The leaves have all dropped now.

Turning back, to take it in from another angle...

Now I've walked back along the public sidewalk and up our driveway to share this view towards the same area.

These legs belong to a Fatsia japonica, in front are a pair of Woodwardia unigemmata.

I planted the ferns here unsure how they would do, too much sun? Not enough water? (nearly none in the summertime) They've really surprised me.

The next colorful leaves belong to Leucothoe fontanesiana 'Rainbow', a plant that wants to get big, like five ft tall, and six ft wide big... 

Luckily it also works fantastically in a vase so I'm always cutting on it and keeping it from reaching that size.

I think both the white-marbled and red-accented foliage is lovely.

Moving a little closer to the front door...

After completely ignoring the plants in my hanging Hover Dish planter for months, I looked up one day and realized they were mostly crispy dead—they were mostly succulents but still need some water. Another ankle injury loss. I replanted with scads of Agave bracteosa, a curling mass of agave leaves will be most welcome (fingers crossed for that).

Multiple agaves are the star of the area to the left of the front door.

As well as the Feijoa sellowiana (pineapple guava) in the large pot.

To the left of the area above is our a/c unit which I've finally managed to somewhat hide with a large Coniogramme japonica (bamboo fern).

It's a fabulous plant.

Here we are again. Hopefully you'll forgive me for including more than a few photos of this vignette.

Just for fun, an unusual angle—I took this shot standing on the front porch looking down at the Amsonia hubrichtii, Mahonia gracilipes, Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue', and Daphne x houtteana.

Now I'm back on our driveway and looking at the planting area on the other side of the a/c unit.

These things were all freshly planted this spring and are settling in nicely.

Just a few more photos...this is normally my veggie garden area over the summer. However, since Andrew had plans to paint this side of the house I was told not to plant tomatoes, since they would inevitably make painting even more difficult. As you can see the painting was finally in progress when I took these photos.

Instead of veggies the stock tanks became a holding space for my mini-agave nursery. Friends have given me pups, and I've pulled pups from my plants. I have plans to use these in new "upcycle and plant" creations in the coming year. 

The one edible that made it into this area was a big pot of basil—it wouldn't be summer without basil.

These aeoniums colored up nicely over the summer and I enjoyed their bright faces near the back door.

And that's it for this (long) look at the public facing sides of my garden. If you made it through this post and are left wanting more then come back on Friday for a look at what lies beyond the agavegate...

All material © 2009-2021 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.