- Mark
- Home gardener & plant fetishist
- Berkeley, California, USA

Re: A Garden Grows in California |
18 Feb '14 3:15 pm |
Yay, it worked. Hello down-under friends. Long time, no see. These are basically before or in-process photos for a newly planted area.
This past fall I hired a guy to take out a forty foot long hedge of Pyrocantha bushes, all of them more than 30 years old and prone to growing way too high and dangerously far out over the side walk each year. I believe I have older photos here of what it looked like with the Kiftsgate rose over the top and interwoven with a tall red blooming Salvia. Any how the guy rooted out all of it accept the rose and that he cut to the ground. As you might be able to see the rose is well on its way to colonizing the new trellis I've put in for it.
The two twenty foot long stretches of trellis are anchored to structures in the back which add support for the fence as well. I managed to salvage the redwood siding facing the fence and paint stained it but I had to replace all of the supporting members and add a few new posts. This past Saturday I found a neighbor who had torn out an old concrete patio. I brought home the pieces in two truck loads to create the raised bed you in the photos. This bed includes the rose and some other plants which will receive more regular water. The rest will be planted to need less or now water once established. I've already moved some plants I had moved from pots and other parts of the garden. Sunday I planted out a couple dozen plants I'd been collecting and then went shopping for more. These I also put in the ground. I'm hoping this area will make a splash this season. I know it will require a lot of weeding to remove anything that sprouts from old bits of missed roots. I'll try to get some after photos later on.
Mark in California
Q: "Do you ever sit down?"
A: "All the time until the urge to 'play' some more becomes too strong."
Q: "Do you ever sit down?"
A: "All the time until the urge to 'play' some more becomes too strong."