It will be a welcome change when the weather turns a bit cooler! Of course, only a little more than a month ago we were wondering (complaining?) why it was so unseasonably cold late into the spring and early summer! At least we’re not experiencing hurricanes and tornadoes (knock on wood!).
Today we threw open the decision as to where to start, and one of the group (who shall remain anonymous, but whose initials are BK) opted to visit the native sections first. That area was in good shape; I was particularly happy that the Santa Cruz ironwood trees planted only a few years ago seem to be thriving. My hope is that those saplings will fill in on the up-hill side across from the mature ironwoods and create a little copse of trees through which one can walk and get a sense of walking on a path on one of the Channel Islands where ironwoods are endemic — particularly Santa Cruz Island.
Today, the team comprised Dale Hershberger, Beverly Kemmerling, Nancy Taylor Walker, Janet Wall and myself. Bill Dobner was on site tending to the compost. Jim Cyr overlapped toward the end of our morning and helped with carting green waste and trimming honey bush away from the edge of the southwestern path through the desert garden.
The first area we worked in was the new Salvia Garden where we dead headed the long-stemmed dead flower stalks or white sage and related sages.
Nancy, Janet, me and Dale.
Because viable seed was apparent in some the flower stalks, we stripped the seed heads and spread some on the ground for wildlife food and/or volunteer germination. Janet (below) collected some of the seed for her native restoration area.
Janet, me and Dale.
Next thing we finished off was removing the dead tops of the chasmanthe at the 2nd 4-corners.
Beverly removing what had been green last week and was now brown.
On the way up the hill we dead-headed some plants in the upper S. African section — primarily Agapanthus (lily of the Nile).
Finally we worked on the aloe at the entrance of the Desert Garden.
Beverly, Janet, Dale and I trimming the dead flower stalks from the yellow-flowered Aloe arborescens.
A good shot of the dead flower stalks with me and Dale.
Janet in an area where most of the stalks had been removed (an “after” shot). Getting to the center of the clump is a challenge to be tackled another day. In our ongoing effort to get ahead of the gall-producing aloe mite, I’m happy to report that we found only 2 galls today.
Finally a flower familiar to most of us in SoCal is blooming now in various places in the garden. Amaryllis belladonna (naked lady) is native to S. Africa and is naturalized widely including in Southern California.
This clump was found in Lillian’s Meadow. Another clump was found at the 2nd 4-corners pictured above.
Many thanks to Beverly and Nancy for their pictorial contributions!
Enjoy the garden! KMM
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