I wanted to wish all the garden bloggers out there (if there are any left because of other platforms consuming them such as instagram etc ...) a Happy New Garden Year when it arrives in your part of the world !! My moon shot from December 25th . Dr. Lakoff , if you ever get to see this blog, make sure you scroll down on the right side,  to "Garden Archive" where you can see much more of my gardens, through out the years . Plus my peony photo, from the British paper "The Telegraph"  garden catalog section, front leading page ..read more

 I'm angry, sad, FRUSTRATED as hell ... but it looks like the end of the season for me till next year. Wednesday morning at 4 AM is when it started .. I woke up half asleep half awake in the middle of a bloody nightmare. Bolted out of bed and crashed into my solid wood nightstand ... Long story short ... I fractured my humerus bone , sheering it off under the head of the ball that fits in the socket ... so it will be over three months before I can do a real post. This is the most painful injury I have ever had and the most frustrating ... the garden is coming into prime and I can't work i ..read more

 It has been so hot and humid these past days that to see a little sun shining on anything was so nice. The days are gray because of weather systems and wildfires. I think we are all hoping things will calm down soon for the earth's sake.  Mean while I try to do what I can in the garden with limited mobility and this wretched knee from hell ?  When  you take a camera from a cool, dry home to a hot humid garden .. it complains and gives you some rather foggy excuses for photos ? The fence on this side is our neighbor's and she seems set on not repairing it. It is rather dis ..read more

 I say to myself every winter not to go overboard on ordering a few plants ! why don't I listen to myself ? It has to be a mixture of things that drives me to distraction, and my mind's eye, my garden brain THINKS it sees how beautiful it could be with these additions. It doesn't really plan how to handle spacing, it never does, but especially when I am not literally in the garden to see that I must be crazy to keep doing what I do EVERY winter. So for the record this is the some what nebulous plan ? Botantus : "Snowy Morning" Martagon lily   This is not my own photo but wow it ..read more

Upper photo "Waterfall" Bottom photo is "Fothergilla gardenii" Hydrangea "Berry White" This bottom photo is "Deft Lace" astilbe hybrid , I have never seen it transition to these colours before. Neighbor's tree Neighbor's tree My Pacific Sunset Maple The weather has been unusually good so the girls get to sniff out door air for a while longer ..read more

Autumn is just about my favorite time of year .. I have to give leeway to Spring when the garden wakes up .. but the garden going to sleep is a beautiful event as well. You watch for specific plants .. such as Kirengeshoma palmata  aka Korean Yellow Wax Bell . Asters , the ones I have shock me with that impossible vivid blue. Sadly ? it is in the wrong spot, not enough sun but it stubbornly hangs on to life where it is and I don't have the heart to try and transplant it because I worry it will die on me. Foliage coloring right now is slow but sure ..  Anemone ... tall and wild loo ..read more

 I don't usually take pictures from the front garden because I am too busy weeding the stones or doing general tidy up, so I was glad to get this as a record of how the plants are doing this time of year. There are nine hydrangea in the raised bed here believe it or not (you can't see them all in this picture).. four BoBo which I think might be a little too crowded, that is on my list for next year This is Pinky Winky ... but it looks like Strawberry Vanilla the way it's colouring advances. PW is also one of my oldest hydrangea. Two Phantom hydrangea against the ally wall has very large ..read more

I have been a bit obsessed with bees in the gardens, mainly because no matter how closely I work near them they have never tried to sting me and I appreciate that ! Also there is a bit of a sad fact concerning insects in the gardens . I  have see next to no butterflies. Yes I was able to find one Black Swallowtail caterpillar .. we had not seen the "mom" who laid the eggs on my withering dill plants. To make it a sadder story, "Harvey" here escaped the luxury home I transferred him/her to .. and ? we never found a trace of him/her ... I have day dreams that suddenly a butterfly will app ..read more

 It is funny as the years pass for a gardener , how your tastes change . I never was that thrilled with spider lilies . I thought why go through all that effort and have a "stringy" flower ? Well I was so wrong about what I have wanted to try lately. I loved "Desert Icicle the minute I saw it on the website. It's size was impressive, the colours blended in with what I had around it. It came as a bare root so I was a little worried about whether it would carry through with blooms it's first year. However it is a wow ! factor in this little section of the garden ... it sadly is not a rebl ..read more

 I have to say 90% of the time I am happy with volunteers because they really do a great job of softening hard edges and directing your eyes right from the ground up if you are paying attention. I love moss so I try to keep it free of too many other volunteers in my shade areas . I was surprised with how many Japanese Painted ferns were popping up in places far from mother plants . Sedum is tough as nails so I did expect those to run when they got a chance but again that is fine with me because it can be cut back or pulled out very easily. I love Angelina especially in the Autumn when co ..read more