Yes, we have no bananas

No bananas on this tree, which we planted about two years ago, but it adds a tropical look to the lagoon sitting area in our pool.  We planted the "Little John" bottlebrush at the same time.

Mood regulators

Whenever I find myself in a bad mood, I go for a walk in our backyard. Today was one of those days.

We've been working on a project in the front yard and have run into a few complications that will take some time to resolve. Water has been running into the street from the sprinklers in our small grass lawn, probably because of a combination of slope, clay soil, and type of grass. We're trying to resolve the problem by tiering the area, rather than having the grass slope all the way down to the sidewalk. We haven't got it right yet, and this morning I was again greeted with the unwelcome sight of wasted water and less than verdantly green grass.

First of all, I don't enjoy working in the front yard nearly as much as in the back yard. The front yard is our public, HOA-mandated persona. In the back yard I am free to express myself and experiment, which adds to my enjoyment. In the front yard I am constrained to do pretty much what everyone else in the neighborhood does. It's rather like wearing uncomfortable but socially correct business attire to go to work, and changing into something comfortable when you get home.

Secondly, I don't enjoy working with grass. I am not an anti-grass crusader like some people I know. I think there is a strong case to be made for its use, especially as a play areas for children and pets. I think it probably has a little bit of an evaporative cooling effect due to transpiration, making outdoor activities more enjoyable (tolerable?) I think it mitigates the urban heat island effect, as well as removing some carbon dioxide and pollutants from the air. But since our children are grown, and our cats stay indoors, it isn't particularly important to me. All in all, I'd rather be surrounded by fruits, vegetables, and flowers than grass. However, that's not really an option for our front yard.

Anyway, I was in a bad mood, so I went for a walk in the backyard, knowing I will never fail to find something to make me smile. I found these yummy yellow pear tomatoes, the first of the season, hiding at the base of a tomato plant, and then I enjoyed strolling by these bottlebrushes which are loaded with blooms. Not only are they beautiful to see, they are softly pleasurable to touch, and literally singing with bees and other insects.

For me at least, bad moods and backyard gardens don't mix. Front yards are another story.

Iris in bloom

The iris we got from Paul the Pond Gnome last year has been fruitful and multiplied. Instead of trying to grow it in baskets on the pond shelf, we piled rocks on the shelf to hold the plants down. Clearly, they prefer this setup because there are now dozens of iris spikes where there once were a couple of plants. I've already divided them once and need to do so again. That is a fairly messy and muddy procedure as it involves contorting myself into awkward positions in order to saw through the thick underwater rhizomes. Also, the plants don't like having their comfortable growing spaces disturbed, and react accordingly by not looking so nice for a while. I think I'll wait until later to this...maybe a lot later.

The red plant in the background is Little John bottlebrush. We planted three small plants when we first began our gardening adventures, and they have grown and spread. This is a great plant for our area...not too frost sensitive or messy, long blooming period, not too thirsty, and hummingbirds love it.

Poolside in the garden

I haven't posted a picture of this corner of our yard in a while, so here is one. There are rosebushes along the block wall, and this year we added two new bare-root peach trees that we got from a Valley Permaculture Guild plant sale. We also added trellises for vines on the wall, made from recycled metal pieces of an old gazebo that had begun to deteriorate.

We planted two banana trees in the planter areas behind the pool last year. One died, but the other has come back nicely and appears to be multiplying...there's a baby banana tree next to this one which isn't visible in this photo.

I don't think we will get any key limes this year because of the freeze. The same thing happened a few years ago when we had another hard freeze. Limes are more susceptible to frost damage than other citrus fruits, but surprisingly enough we have a few limes on the Bears lime tree, which is a lot younger than the key lime. Luckily for my grapefruit-loving mother, grapefruit is the least susceptible and our Ruby Red tree wasn't affected at all.

The rosebushes are still blooming, but the nasturtiums and larkspur are gone, to be replaced with marigolds and zinnias. The large marigold directly behind the waterfall is a holdover from last fall which survived the frost. I've collected seeds from it and scattered them along the perimeter of this raised bed, the planters behind the pool, and other places in the yard.

The bushes in the center left edge of the picture are yellow and orange Tecomas ("Yellow bells") Like the banana, they were taken to the ground in last winter's frost, but have rebounded vigorously. The plants in the center right edge of the photo, and in the planter in the foreground, are Little John bottlebrushes, which seem to be quite frost-tolerant.