queerbychoice (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
queerbychoice) wrote2012-08-15 12:07 am
queerbychoice) wrote2012-08-15 12:07 am
Entry tags:
Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day in a Brand-New Garden
It's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day again, and the garden I had a month ago is no more. And I do mean is no more, not just is no longer mine. On August 9 - four days before we were scheduled to officially move out, since we had paid rent through August 13 - our landlady made her son mow the front garden flat to the ground. She didn't give us any advance warning that she was going to do this, but luckily I happened to have already finished digging up one of every plant species that I wanted to keep before she killed all the others.
I'm not sure whether she's done the same thing to the back yard yet, but when Susan did the final walkthrough with her (without me present), the landlady avoided using my name (since she chooses to refer to me only as Susan's "roommate") but demanded of Susan, "When is she going to get all that crap out of the back yard? There was lawn there when you moved in, so there should be lawn there when you move out" - even though (1) there wasn't lawn when Susan moved in, just weedy thistles and occasional straggly patches of Bermuda grass in a predominantly brown, dead yard, and (2) the landlady specifically gave us permission to plant a garden.
Anyway, it's all gone now, or probably soon will be. But there was one exciting final bloom in the back yard before we left: Sacramento rose mallow (Hibiscus lasiocarpus), an endangered species with flowers four to five inches in diameter.
And now, here are a few pictures of the garden we inherited from the former owners of our new house. Here's some Agapanthus in front of our gate (that's the neighbor's house in the background):
Here's an azalea and what I think are impatiens:
A hydrangea and some pink flowers that I haven't identified yet:
A pelargonium in front of the brand-new back fence that we've just paid to have built (you can still see the price tags sticking out from the bottoms of the fence boards):
I showed our cat Spider the front yard for the first time - he's our indoor-outdoor cat, whereas Stardust is our indoor-only cat - and he immediately jumped over the short brick wall and started rolling around happily in the neighbor's yard. I tried to explain to him that that was the wrong yard. Here he is in the neighbor's yard, with roses in the foreground that are now ours:
And here's the gigantic southern magnolia in the backyard, with Boston in the background:
Under the magnolia tree, you can see some of the potted plants I dug up from the old garden and brought here. I haven't figured out where to put most of them yet, so I'm just trying to water them mutiple times every day to try to keep them alive during the 108-degree days we've been having. These are certainly not ideal conditions for keeping plants alive in, but we haven't finished unpacking the stuff in the house yet, so it's difficult to find time to figure out what to do with the plants.
I'm not sure whether she's done the same thing to the back yard yet, but when Susan did the final walkthrough with her (without me present), the landlady avoided using my name (since she chooses to refer to me only as Susan's "roommate") but demanded of Susan, "When is she going to get all that crap out of the back yard? There was lawn there when you moved in, so there should be lawn there when you move out" - even though (1) there wasn't lawn when Susan moved in, just weedy thistles and occasional straggly patches of Bermuda grass in a predominantly brown, dead yard, and (2) the landlady specifically gave us permission to plant a garden.
Anyway, it's all gone now, or probably soon will be. But there was one exciting final bloom in the back yard before we left: Sacramento rose mallow (Hibiscus lasiocarpus), an endangered species with flowers four to five inches in diameter.
And now, here are a few pictures of the garden we inherited from the former owners of our new house. Here's some Agapanthus in front of our gate (that's the neighbor's house in the background):
Here's an azalea and what I think are impatiens:
A hydrangea and some pink flowers that I haven't identified yet:
A pelargonium in front of the brand-new back fence that we've just paid to have built (you can still see the price tags sticking out from the bottoms of the fence boards):
I showed our cat Spider the front yard for the first time - he's our indoor-outdoor cat, whereas Stardust is our indoor-only cat - and he immediately jumped over the short brick wall and started rolling around happily in the neighbor's yard. I tried to explain to him that that was the wrong yard. Here he is in the neighbor's yard, with roses in the foreground that are now ours:
And here's the gigantic southern magnolia in the backyard, with Boston in the background:
Under the magnolia tree, you can see some of the potted plants I dug up from the old garden and brought here. I haven't figured out where to put most of them yet, so I'm just trying to water them mutiple times every day to try to keep them alive during the 108-degree days we've been having. These are certainly not ideal conditions for keeping plants alive in, but we haven't finished unpacking the stuff in the house yet, so it's difficult to find time to figure out what to do with the plants.
no subject
I love that pelargonium, but it's not native to California is it?
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I'm not in a hurry to get rid of anything other than the lawn anytime soon, but the only non-native plants I'm definitely committed to trying to keep are the two huge trees, a southern magnolia and a pecan tree. They were both probably planted at around the time the house was built, which would make them more than 50 years old. And they're both native to the United States, which I suppose might count for something.
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(Anonymous) 2012-08-16 03:26 am (UTC)(link)Town Mouse
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(Anonymous) 2012-08-16 06:51 am (UTC)(link)ryan
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(Anonymous) 2012-08-18 04:15 am (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2012-08-18 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)That mystery pink thing...I had one once. I'm forgetting its name, but it was a tough plant that liked more water than I wanted to give it.
James