--GK Chesterton
Clearing out the dying sweet peas...
One last little bouquet, with lavender Pentas. Farewell, O lovely springtime!
Dahlias in need of sun and water:
An Aloe aculeata, recovered from being re-rooted, looks fine:
I plunged it immediately into a bucket of water. Somehow it's still alive, but in bad shape.
In deep shade now under 'Oshio Bene', it's recovering, maybe. I failed it.
Why did you do this to me, human?
The one surviving Leucospermum seedling looks exceptionally strong and healthy at the moment.
And bigger:
Rodents of unknown species ate the other two. I failed them.
Moving on. I should have read the section on grapes in The Sunset Western Garden Book. I should have paid attention to this sentence: "Grapes are rampant".
Yes, they are. A little cutting stuck in the ground two years ago is now reaching out to grab and strangle Aloe 'Hercules':
The original grape vine sited in the kennel grew its way out of the enclosure last year. It did this year, too. Enough of it is still safe from rodents...so far. I got the grape in the kennel under control--sort of:
Anticipating the ripening of these beauties:
At least at the moment, the grapes are a success of sorts, if rodent defenses hold up. Last year's small grape harvest proved home-grown grapes are like home-grown tomatoes--better than anything we can buy at a store.
And the large leaves of the former cutting (upper center-right) have added something to this view:
This trio of roses looked down upon me with disgust.
At least it felt like that. But I took heart in the G.K. Chesterton quote. Anything worth doing (gardening) is worth doing badly--because even when you fail, the trying was worth doing.
Good thing the plants know what they are doing.
Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' backlit:
Yes, that Chesterton quote is fabulous. Tee hee...I giggled several times while reading this post. It's fun to see the "do overs" and "ooopses" along with the beautiful successes. Your roses always brighten my day, and this is the time of year when I can enjoy my roses, too. The grapes look yummy, and they're definitely worth protecting.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really understand that quote at first--sometimes my brain is frozen tundra--or dried out clay. It's an encouraging idea, a good one. Try even if your result is imperfect. It's the trying that matters. Definitely applies to gardening!
DeleteI see far more wins there than failures. I've killed a Grevillea (or two or three) the same. They need more time to grow into the "drought tolerant" category than I first realized. The cage on the grapes looks very serious - grape jail. Lots of beauty, and that pathway photo is glorious.
ReplyDeleteWell I don't blog about the failures that much (surprise, surprise!). I water the Leucodendrons and Leucospermums and Grevilleas quite a bit--relatively speaking--they need it! Though my soil is light and dries out quick.
DeleteLots of failures here too. Like watering a brand new, expensive podophyllum with a half-strength fertilizer to get it growing and burning it to a crisp within days after purchasing it... Lovely Eucomis 'Sparkling Burgundy' with the Dymondia groundcover. I'm going to try rampant grapes myself. I have three plants waiting in the wings for a new pergola. Just hoping the rodents don't get them like they do yours. I don't have the energy to kennel them away.
ReplyDeleteOuch! Podophyllum--that must have hurt. The professional plants-people and botanists and gardening legends all say they've killed a whole lot of plants--its in the end how we learn, and if the victim is a particularly precious gem of a plant--a lesson we don't forget. The choice Hakea petiolaris, the FIVE Acacia 'Cousin Itt's, the Banksia that grew fast and glorious to 8' tall and then died in two days...my list is getting longer and longer....
DeleteGood luck with the grapes! Perhaps you won't get any fruit, but the foliage is beautiful, and autumn color beckons...
Despite the mistakes here and there, your garden does you proud, HB! I've tried growing both Salvia 'Black and Blue' AND 'Amistad' and neither one survived, much less demonstrated thuggery. I wonder what's different with my soil, sun exposure, or watering that contributed to the difference? I recently noticed that the "dead" grape vine we inherited with the garden seems to have decided to make a reappearance now that we finally removed the wood arbor my husband had built to support it (out of fire concerns)...
ReplyDeleteThey do like water, those Salvias.
DeleteMetal arbor an option? As long as you can do without the fruit--plenty of critters like grapes.
I can't recall seeing things done badly at your place. Maybe a few plants which didn't try hard enough, but the plan was always executed wonderfully!
ReplyDeleteI've tried salvia in pots, it always ended up looking miserable unless fertilized endlessly.
Thanks for that observation--good to know others find Salvias in pots tricky. Every one I've tried wants to be in the earth even those with more modest root systems than 'B&B'.
DeleteAny "fails" are more than offset by a garden that produces seedling leucospermums! Incredible, as is your success with hunnemania. I had a wonderful purple leaf grape years ago in Long Beach, possibly 'Roger's Red' named for Roger Raiche -- it proved too much to handle but what a glory it was! And carpenterias are just plain finicky, no need to beat yourself up about it!
ReplyDeleteI think the Leucospermums and Hunnemannia did that themselves--I just watched. In awe and delight.
DeleteI looked up 'Roger's Red'. San Marcos, beloved San Marcos, their site said theirs was covering a fence 60' long. The Carpenteria I'm hoping to save. If Woolly Blue Curls can thrive here, so can a Carpenteria. Or so I delude myself into thinking.
Success would not taste as sweet if not the few failures along the way.
ReplyDeleteThe look on the trio of roses seems to be that of relief, for not being a grevillea... :-D They are looking stunning with the saturated purple something-or-other in the background.
Chavli
NO those roses were glaring at me. I think they wanted a drink. That's Trachelium caeruleum, the purple thing. When it's good, its very good.
DeleteFail is a strong word. More like good intentions that didn't go as planned. I am sure everyone has the same experience especially at the start of the growing season when everything demands your attention immediately. Some fall by the wayside. Grapes are indeed rampant. I have two in my greenhouse and go after them 3-4 times per season and hack them back. Within a week you would never know. it
ReplyDelete3-4 times a season? Whoa, thanks--I'll keep that in mind and keep an eye on them lest one succeeds in strangling 'Hercules'.
DeleteVines. Love 'em. Bougainvilla, honeysuckle, wisteria, jasmine, and especially Heavenly Blue morning glories. I know. But I love 'em anyway. They grew everywhere when I was a kid in San Diego. One of my earliest memories (I think I was three), is eating cucumbers and watermelon fresh from my grandfather's garden in Georgia, with that lovely little creek running just down the slope behind it. Back on the beach, plucking honeysuckle blossoms and sucking out their nectar was a favorite thing to do on our ramblings around the neighborhood. Breaking off a spray of them just to smell their scent throughout the day is still a simple pleasure. A wisteria once took out the roof on a cabin we owned, along with the chimney. And seeing morning glories wide open first thing in the morning before the sun is too high will always take my breath away. On the other hand, I won't be planting one. I just don't have the space for them. Never saw one in jail before though. That brought a chuckle. The other chuckle came from your Greek chorus. You can just see them nodding and hear them tisking -- three fragrant proper old aunts. Thank you for sharing your trials and tribulations. Your garden is always a pleasure to visit.
ReplyDeleteTook me 10 years to finally get rid of the Wisteria that kept coming back, like a zombie. It's finally gone, along with 'Black and Blue'.
DeleteLovely memories of your early years--I remember pressing the Fuchsia flowers in our garden to pop them open to see the bright centers inside, the smell of Lantana and the Lantana flowers covered with skipper butterflies, the muted orange-pink Oleander flowers by the back gate. Is that what turned us into gardeners, or did we notice them and remember them because we were born to?
A house in Mom & Dad's neighborhood--the owners allowed it to be completely covered in morning glories, including the windows. Looked incredible. I think the neighbors got the city after them because the morning glories started invading the adjacent properties--drove by that house recently--no more morning glories.
Yes, vines! Something to be careful with.