And then there were ... ?

Ten days ago I dug out some tunnels under the corner lawn until I reached a Y junction, then set two gopher traps in the tunnels I hadn't dug. An hour or two later, I found a little rodent dead on the walkway by the lemon tree, looking as if a cat had surprised it. Two days later I took out the traps, expecting that they would both be empty. One of them was. Since then, I haven't seen any more mounds or signs of tunnelling. So perhaps the garden is safe for planting again.

In celebration whereof I've planted three shrubs today. One was a Berberis thunbergii var. atropurpurea (please pardon my spelling) in place of the Camellia sasanqua, which looked pretty dead. The second was a Grevillea lavandulacea "Penola" in the place to which I had tried to transplant my previous Grevillea. The third is an unidentified Ceanothus hybrid in the place where the C. thyrsiflorus "Skylark" was also looking very dead.

Of the new daylilies, one, "New Testament", has bloomed, though the flowers did not look good. That could have been because of the lateness of the season: I hear that pink daylilies need a lot of sun to look their best. Besides that, the Godzilla still has two flowers, and the Solanum and Plumbago are still looking great. The original Epilobium looked dead and I've taken it out, but one of its children has bloomed prettily. The "Ziva" in the south-east corner are nearly over; those along the western edge are doing nicely. The Teucrium fruticans looks wonderful. The Perovskia don't, and I am progressively trimming them back, though the Godzilla keeps me busy that way. There are more morning glory seedlings than anyone could count, and plenty of sweet peas; my first planting of snap peas is well above ground.

Rumours of Winter

There are some shoots coming up that can hardly be anything but the 'Ziva' paperwhite narcissi. There are also some oenothera coming up just where I don't want them (and some where I do). Yesterday there were two Happy Returns daylily blooms, quite a nice surprise. The alstroemeria is long out of bloom and today I pulled out its second last stalk. The godzilla is stil fiercely in bloom, and one of the salvia nemorosa is bravely blooming under it; I cut away a big hunk of the godzilla to let more sun onto the salvia (and because tearing the whole thing down at the end of the year is utterly unrealistic). The teucrium is showing a few more flowers and seems to want to get bigger. I've hacked off one more set of faded blooms from the various perovskia, and what's left (not too bad-looking) will have to carry us until December or whenever I demolish them. Of the new daylilies in front, two still refuse to grow leaves. I've planted a couple of yarrows that my neighour gave me in the corner lawn; we'll see if I got them right. The solanum and the plumbagos do well ... I must remember to give the southerly plumbago plenty of nitrgoen this winter. The dietes bloomed just today, opening almost as I watched.

I launched an attack on the lemon tree this morning. Yes, it defends itself. The epilobium and one of its children are blooming perhaps a little more than before. The gazania was long out of bloom, but when the gopher took it out anyway, I took out the gopher. (No, I don't enjoy handling corpses.)

By the back door, that was a white nigella, Still is, in fact: just bloomed today. The echinops there has one faded bloom and two still blue. The catharanthi are doing very well, as is the red begonia in the south-east corner. And that's all I have time for.

... or at least autumn

The teucrium fruticans is rather shyly blooming. The maroon cyclamen in the front walkway is not shy at all. Most other plants are as they were ... the epilobium has very few blooms. The echinops outside the back door has finally bloomed. I'm looking for some coloured yarrow seed for the corner "lawn", but it seems expensive.

winter comes early

... when the watsonia starts sending up shoots (the one east of the garage, which gets some irrigation). So are the muscari in the front walkway. Some of the ipomopsis are reblooming, as is one of the salvia nemorosa; the others are lost to sight. The caryopteris has one tiny flower. The echinops in front are almost finished; the one behind the house is just starting. Down by the street, one of the new catharanthus has put forth a white bloom with a small red eye; the ones behind the house are blooming strongly. The burgundy snapdragon blooms on, and there's even one nasturtium flower under the perovskia. The epilobium is pretty sparse, but the plumbago and solanum are superb. And I hardly need mention the Godzilla. The "red elf" escallonia has some nice green leaves and looks healthy; it's much harder to tell how the loropetalum is doing. The salvia chamaedryoides still looks good, and the malacothamnus is covered with flowers if I bother to examine it.

One of the pardancanda actually put out some blooms on days when I could see them, but they're not as pretty as in the catalogue. I may not grow any more of those. Something intriguingly feathery is sprouting just outside the back door. I wonder what it will turn out to be.

quiet mostly

The Godzilla has more flowers than ever, almost hard to believe. The malacothamnus is in bloom, and both plumbago are looking quite good, except that the smaller one has its leaves all yellow. I did fertilise it over the winter, but .... The only daylilies still blooming are Stella d'Oro, the big yellow, and occasionally Happy Returns. Some of the ones I recently bought are growing and some not.

The sweet peas are definitely over, and even the morning glories are doing badly; something is eating them. The catharanthus are OK, as are the dietes and alstroemeria; the latter, in fact, surprises me that it is still doing anything. The Paraguay nightshade looks fine. The epilobium is not in very profuse bloom yet.

The rose is OK. I'm still wondering what to replace it with, when I do that.

pull and trim

Pretty quiet this week. I've neatened up the epilobium and hauled out most of the remaining clarkia (harvesting some more seed, not a lot). And sheared the lavender. The morning glory by the east fence is six feet high but very leggy, for some reason I haven't yet thought of. The white snapdragon has one bloom.

new arrivals

Wow! It has been a long time. A few daylilies have rebloomed, but more importantly, or at least more fun, I've planted eighteen new ones. I ordered sixteen, dug holes for eighteen, but the grower sent me four bonus plants. Two of them are still sitting in water while I decide what (if anything) to do with them. [OK, I've planted them behind the house.]

The Godzilla is even bigger, and I've cut it back away from the road and footpath. The California fuchsia (Epilobium canum canum) has started to bloom, which adds a good spot of colour; some montbretia (Crocosmia crocosmifloria or something) are also blooming. The gaura still look good. I've pulled out several white gladioli. The sweet peas by the east fence offersome late flowers; the ones in the front walkway are still growing and looking lovely, as are the morning glories. I haven't looked lately at the morning glory by the east fence. The gazania still has about six flowers. The plumbago are gradually improving, but the bigger (northern) one has had to be trimmed. The burgundy snapdragon is still blooming, the only one of its kind; the alstroemeria by the gate is also blooming on three or four stalks. I've harvested some clarkia seed; the ipomopsis seem about over for the time being. Oddly, the malacothamnus has a few flowers. Of the ceratostigma that I moved, one looks very dead, one very alive, and two are in limbo.

We had a morning's rain ten days ago. It made little enough difference.

I've trimmed off the old flowers from those perovskia that I sheared six weeks ago.