Daily Walks - 3

Ditto what amarantha said. Lovely photos!
I am so happy you shared them with us. : - )
Bluecurl. You can try transplanting some I have here Kathleen, they may not be the woolly kind, but we do have blue curl here. I'll see if I can find some before the RU for you to try. You have sandy/dg type soil. They don't like water at the wrong time, kind of particular when then come up and where they come up. DH is the expert on them, and will know what kind we do have, when he gets back from Bakersfield, I'll show him Kelli's photo and ask him if it is the same kind.
I'm amazed Kelli found one in bloom, since they don't usually bloom till late July and August. They do make a really good honey, so high in sugar content that the honey sugars up fast. Usually they mix it with other kinds of honey (from different flowers) because it does sugar up so fast. Who would think that such a smelly plant would make such good honey? Not me.
Kelli, I don't have those Shooting Stars, wild flowers but they are gorgeous!
I'm so glad you jumped in with one of my favorite flowers, the California Peony. I've tried to get them to grow here, with no luck so far. I just have to find the right place for them.
Great job, Kelli. Feel free to pop in anytime and share your walks. It's nice to see what other people do and see.
Sometimes my daily walk is only out to the gh, or my backyard (the fenced in part), and down at the beach I might just walk out to the balcony. Just depends on how much I hurt that day.
More soon!
WIB!
SW

We have lots of different soil here - dg to clay, some heavy with iron and we have many different types of Ceanothus growing here and in clay soil. We have one area at the top of a slope that has terrible drainage - the builders must have compacted it a lot or it's just the soil mix. I planted two mounding varieties there - C. Joyce Coulter http://www.laspilitas.com/s/images/plants/185/Ceanothus_Joyce_Coulter.jpg and they have finally taken off. Las Pilitas says they will tolerate sand or clay. We also have C. Tassajara Blue - about 6 of them - planted in areas with clay. Las Pilitas has this to say:

Jules, what a lovely tour! I also loved the info about your trees, so interesting! Great pics of the birds!
Kelli, great to see you here ! You and Jules have so much to share about your hikings!
Adina

KC,
I checked with DH, and he told me that the kind of Blue Curl we have here is not the Wooly Blue Curl, and he was surprised it was blooming out of season.
He also told me he saw a red salamander at one of his bee locations (he keeps them secret, 'cause there is a lot of competition for bee locations). I told him that we need to get him a small camera so he can bring home photos to show me.
I didn't take much of a walk on the 30th, but I did take some photos walking around the yard. This first one is of a little project I had going.

Yup, even though I have a thermometer in the gh, I don't have one outside, so I decided to mount one.
I am not afraid of power tools. I am very careful especially with power saws. LOL!
Sometimes though the hardest part is getting the stuff out of the packaging.

First I had to install this strip of metal bracket on the side of a post.

Then I inserted the thermometer. Since it swivels so you can read it from several directions, I really liked it. I just hope it holds up to the weather, the kids, and clumsy me. I can read it from the backdoor which is a plus on cold mornings.
A little job, but one I am proud of.

One chore done, countless more to go!
I spotted this color, and had to go look closer.

I think it's a Daffie, that my EB#1 planted a few years back. And something has been munching on it.

A different angle, and a better photo of the same daffie.

The Rosemary is beginning to bloom. : - )

A pretty little lantana bloom.

This is how DH vacuumed the water outside the pool to get rid of all the dirt in there. The water went out the pipe, and down that green corrugated sheet to Lake Wicked. It ain't pretty, but it worked.

DH brought in some dirt to fill in the low spots on the side of the gh where it had flooded. It's nice to have a DH with a tractor. Now if only he'd teach me to drive it!

My iris's desperately need to be separated. So I'm going to expand my iris garden. : - )
BTW, except for the ones Weegy gave me, all of them are purple iris's.
I got my first iris' from a neighbor who had been driving down the road and saw a pile of them on the ground with a FREE sign on them. She stopped and picked them up. She brought them home, and then she shared some with me. I shared some with Mom. I have been keeping my eye open to see if the fellow who set them out before will be doing so again.
I am also sharing some of these with my friend Casey, who loves plants and doesn't have any, (well she does have one that I have nursed back to health, poor baby.)
Can't wait to see what kind Weegy gave me. : - )

Right next to the gh, I planted the Hollyhocks that wcgypsy gave me. A little late, but I was waiting a long time for that dirt. As you can also see, my God Son helped me to dig holes, and once I showed him how to separate and plant the iris, he took over. I believe this was the day I blew out my knee, so I was happy to let him.

I set out some rocks to keep certain people from weed whacking, but still allowing access to the pool stuff. (Not in this photo, but you can see it in the one where DH is draining off the dirty water).
I haven't figured out yet how to hide the pool pump stuff, I guess I'll have to build something to disguise it. Better yet I'll plant some POB's around it! : - )

Looking straight up at the china berry tree. Don't know if that is the right name for it. I never wanted one, but it went and volunteered. It's kind of pretty in the winter time.

Our current backyard mess. In the foreground is the "Time Portal", so named after a Star Trek (original series) episode.
I found this piece of hollowed out wood, and DH found the log pedestal. When you sit on the bench you have a view of Red Hawk Hill.
I'm still a little miffed that DH's temp fence cut my iris garden in half, you can see the fence. You can also see the ugly propane tank, part of the back porch with the boxes of firewood and the Bounder where Casey is staying temporarily.
The cat hanging out on the time portal is Blackbeard Jr. This is also where I've been seeing a lot of baby alligator lizards lately. : - )

If KC is right, and she usually is, this is a King Bird up in the walnut tree.

The King has left the walnut tree, and is now hiding in the China Berry tree. Compliments his colors. LOL! : - )
Probably my favorite photo of the day.

My messy back patio. You notice that BB Jr. is taking advantage of that bale of straw I had DH bring me for critter bedding? (Chickens and the pig). He loved to sit there. It was dry and partially sheltered. Now he hangs out with the dogs. LOL!
This is the last photo I took on Jan. 30th.
More to follow of my next walk.

For some reason, I guess I didn't take too many photos over the next few days. These were taken on Jan. 31st, but not downloaded till Feb. 6th.
So today, you'll get to see what is growing in the gh.
My beloved Brazilian Plume plants are very happy. They remind me of my surrogate parents, Chuck and Pat Erickson, who got me started with flowers in the garden. I always think of them with a smile in my heart when I see these plants.
It comforts me to believe that they are in Heaven in their shade garden curled up with a good book and a cat on their lap.



This message was edited Feb 24, 2010 9:53 AM

Another Plumer.

Looking straight down at the Brazilian Plume plants, also can see the "Mother of Thousands(?) plant.

This is a close up of a single Brazilian Plume. Gorgeous! : - )

I got some explaining to do here. When I had the gh set up over the pool, I had enough space to leave some bare ground. Well, you know how weeds are. I have tried the pre-emergents, and they work to a point, and I've had to use Round up. I don't like chemicals and the rotten weeds came back anyway. So I decided to collect all those adverts that come in the newspaper and recycle them. I placed them on the ground in that narrow (PITA) dirt strip. Then I put potted plants over them.
At the time I was still fighting (and still am) those lousy Mealy bugs. (They are only on my Hibiscus right now. And due to die very soon!)
The flood covered the newspaper ads with dirt, you can also see some of my drip irrigation lines. It's so much easier to have them on a drip system than to try to hand water all of them every day. Thanks to KC's smart DH, my DH had them set up on an auto timer for me. : - )

One of the Fuchsia's that I hope to plant in my yard.

I really love this Quasar Fuchsia. Such a pretty little fairy dress. Can't you picture a fairy going to the ball wearing this flower?

You can see the color in this one better.

Did you know that Fuchsia's have berries? Did you know that they are edible? I didn't until I read about it on the Fuchsia Forum. Then I had to go and try one. You know, they are pretty tasty. They have a texture like a grape (the kind with seeds), but they are sweet, and I don't know how else to describe except to say, I like them.
CatSmiling makes jelly or jam out of hers. I can see why. Once you remove the seeds, they'd make yummy jams or jelly.
This one is almost ready to harvest. Drool!

Not a good photo of my Waltz Bella, but wait till she blooms! It could be a Temptation. It's hard to get the labels in the photo with the flower. Rats!

This message was edited Feb 24, 2010 10:14 AM

My Christmas Cactus, looks happy and is ready to bloom. : - )

The Cineria (sp?) look happy.

A pink Hyacinth getting ready to bloom.

I don't know what this pretty blue flower is, I rec'd it in the Piggy Swap last year. It seems to be very happy in the window box with the allysum(sp?) and the portulaca.

The allysum (sp?).

Nicer photo, of the Allysum. The Portulaca is hiding right now.

Um, KC help me out here. You gave me this plant. Should I start taking cuttings and planting these roots? This is the one with the pretty purple flowers that bloomed for months. Can you tell me what it is? I went and forgot, again. Rats! (I finally remembered the only cactus I like is the RatTail Cactus, but for the life of me, can't remember this one's name!)

My Plumeria, which lives in the gh in the winter and on the Courtyard in the summer. This one has white blooms.