May 2020 Gardening Report

We've lived here for a year now and I'm feeling more comfortable with my garden plan. I know where the sun rises and sets, where the pretty views are, where it's shady, where it's sunny, and even where the good soil is.

I'm starting to move plants to different locations to fit my plan, but I'm still stymied by all the ROCKS! We have way too many rocks here! Below are the ones that made up the old patio which I've moved out to the jungle to create a rustic pathway.

We have lots of these awful red lava rocks and I'm trying to make lemonade out of lemons so to speak. I've arranged some of them near the porch and planted Ajuga next to them to crawl over and conceal them.

But I'm seriously thinking of putting a sign out front saying, "FREE ROCKS".

The rhododendrons are finishing their bloom while the Clematis and Philadelphus are just starting to put on a show.

I had to remove the rose that was next to the side door because when it bloomed, it wasn't a Joseph's Coat. I found the real deal and planted it last month. The other roses I've planted are struggling with an unexpected heat wave (105° today), while I run around watering, watering, watering.

These Brazilian Plume flowers that came with the place are nice, but extremely thirsty; they will probably be eliminated eventually.

The strawbale garden is doing well. Below you see last night's harvest. We've also harvested kale, chard, and lots of herbs, and some of the cherry tomatoes are almost ready.

I'll leave you with the soothing sounds of this Mother's Day gift windchime.

Progress on the Landscape Plan

First, just let me say, I'm not an architect and I'm using my phone to create these mock-ups, so they are pretty loose.

Here is our lot with all its issues. The gray outline is the house, the orange lines are existing fences, and the light gray is the sidewalk and driveway. The dark gray is the street. The green represents existing shrubs; mainly azaleas.

Our half acre lot is highly irregular and the house sits on it at an angle to the street and the back fences. The pool is not aligned with the axis of the house. All those brown dots are mature trees, with the four huge ones being heritage oaks which cannot be removed. There are also at least fourteen other trees to take into consideration.

We'd  like to create a service area for gardening equipment, trash bins, firewood storage, and a vegetable garden. We'd like to have a large rectangle of lawn for croquet. We want to create an azalea garden in the shadiest part of the garden where most of the azaleas already are. We want low maintenance pavers almost everwhere else. We need large shrubs to screen the back fence because it's wrought iron and everyone can see right through it. We also want to add more off-street parking and eliminate all the lawn in the front. And it would be nice to leave some space for a future garage/workshop.

Is that too much to ask?

Here's the plan I've come up with. The terracotta color is brick porches, walkways, and pavers. The green rectangle will be lawn. I've added a fence to separate the public area from the service area. I've tried to create view lines along the pool axis, out the dining room windows through the azalea beds, and through the public gate into the garden. I hope to accent these view lines with a fountain and trellises for wisteria.

I've added a U-shaped driveway to make it easier to get out of the driveway. It's not a busy street but seeing traffic around the curve is sometimes difficult. It looks like a lot of paving, but with all these trees, and all those leaves, and we need an easy-to-clean landscape.

We still have enough space to add a workshop on the right side, and create more garden rooms in the outlying areas. Here's what might happen later.

The white lines represent trellises on which to grow vines. The lawn in front has been replaced with decomposed granite and a rail fence has been added for roses. On the right you see a possible workshop and driveway.

Here's some inspiration:

Rail Fence

Fountain with Trellis Beyond

A girl can dream, can't she?

May 2020 House Progress

May 18, 2020

We have been living in the house for over a year now and things are really starting to look normal. 

Same View, May 6, 2019

The kitchen floor tile is all done and Handyman is starting to build the kitchen cabinets.

The corner cupboards are almost finished in the breakfast room.  We just need the granite countertops so we can attach the upper units and finish the crown molding. 

We got a quote for diamond pane leaded glass panels for the corner cupboards. They wanted $170 each. We need four. Um, no thanks.

So I found this self stick lead stripping on a roll, and I'm making my own. It looks surprising good!

In other news, we ran the copper tubing and set a concrete pad for the condenser unit. The contractor set it in place and made the connections, so we have air conditioning! We also got a larger gate because the 36" wide unit wouldn't fit through the old 28" gate.

And finally, here's a mola I bought almost five years ago when we sailed through the San Blas Islands and met the native Kuna Yala people. Traditionally the molas are in bright shades of red, orange, yellow, and green. But occasionally the artists use other colors and I was drawn to this one.

It's been in a box for ages and I pulled it out a few days ago, framed it, and plan to hang it in the laundry room. It's almost eerie how the colors are the same as the ones I selected for this house.