My Neglected Templeton Garden in June

June 19, 2017

What Happens When a Garden Takes Care of Itself

The Butterfly Bush

This is the same butterfly bush that fell in 2014. See this post for contrast photos.

Recovered Butterfly Bush Growing Upright Again, © B. Radisavljevic

Butterfly Bush in Context of Rest of Herb Garden,  © B. Radisavljevic

In the left background is an Italian CyrpeCypress tree. In the foreground is a combination of black sage and rosemary.  The orchard is in the background on the right. This is quite a contrast from my original herb garden when I planted it a couple of decades ago. This is what this section looked like in April, 2007.

Expanding Herb Garden in April, 2007, © B. Radisavljevic

Apples

I was happy to see our remaining apple tree is producing this year. 

Young Apples, June 19, 2017, © B. Radisavljevic

Walnuts on the Tree

Walnut Tree with Immature Nuts, © B. Radisavljevic

June 20, 2017

Papa Quail 

Papa Quail Watches Over Family, Which Is Hidden in Brush,  © B. Radisavljevic

Papa Quail in Context. Quail Family is Hidden in Brush, © B. Radisavljevic

It was too hot to stand still and wait for the quail family to come out of hiding so I could get a photo, but I often see the mother with her chicks running for cover in the brush as I go by. They live on the section of our land that is near the entrance. That's our oak tree in the background.

The Herbs on the Slope

I planted my first herbs in Templeton on the slope close to the front door. For years they've grown wild, and I discovered when I took these photos that a coyote brush plant had sneaked in under the  rosemary on the back edge and grown large enough to smoother whatever is under it. Probably my oregano and tricolor sage. Rosemary is still growing strong in back. But I'd like to concentrate on the flowers here. 

The lavender was among the first plants I placed on the slope. I got it from the now gone Sycamore Farms herb farm. The sage below was planted at the same time and came from the same place. The santolina (golden) was planted later. It probably also came from there. 

Bee Foraging on Lavender, © B. Radisavljevic

Santolina and Lavender Close Up, © B. Radisavljevic

Common Sage in Bloom, © B. Radisavljevic, 

Thyme on the Slope, © B. Radisavljevic 

This last photo shows an overview of the slope. The taller yellow flowers are volunteer dusty miller plants that reseeded from some older transplants. The santolina and lavender are on its left. You see mostly rosemary and sage on the right, with thyme in the foreground. All these plants originally came from four-inch pots around 2006, so you can see how much they have grown. For the last three years they have had little attention. 

Overview of West Side of Slope, © B. Radisavljevic

I hope you've enjoyed seeing what can happen to a neglected garden. It's amazing so much of it survived the drought with almost no irrigation.

Do you grow herbs? What are your most memorable experiences with them? Which are your favorites to grow?

*****

Monarda Didyma (Bee Balm) Is Blooming

I planted this mother monarda didyma plant last year on June 14.  It stayed mostly low to the ground, competing for space with all the gazanias surrounding it. I had to dig out a clearing in the middle of the gazanias. You can see the monarda (bee balm) freshly planted there near the center of the photo. That was a good year for gazanias, which bloom yellow, but they don't bloom as much in this partial shade as they do in full sun all day. 

I planted the bee balm here because I wanted its red flowers to contrast with the green and yellow around it. It took the monarda longer to bloom that first year. The flowers were few. Maybe all that competition from the gazanias hurt it, and I had planted it later than I should have. In the photo below you can see how it looked in its surroundings when it did bloom. The photo was taken in the middle of August. The bee balm flower is the one rising in back over the other flowers. The photo is a bit over exposed so the red color is faint. The flowers in front are opal basil, borage, catmint (in the pot), African basil, and calendula. 

During our very cold winter, most of the gazanias died back, as did all the basils, leaving less competition. In the early spring.  I thought the monarda had died, too. I didn't see it anywhere. I thought this was a perennial plant, but I've never had it last more than one year.

This spring, several monarda plants sprung up in a row. The mother plant must have reseeded itself. I saw the first bud on May 25. See it in the photo to the right? I took the photo from the back of the flower bed looking out toward the dying lawn. 

To the right of the foreground is my mullein, with the very large leaves, which I planted last year. It's a biennial which should bloom this year. I think it was attacked by a tomato hornworm I found on a borage plant in this flower bed. I have the snails under control.


You can see the row of blooming monardas below. They almost appear to be dancing. Some of the gazanias in back are reviving, but not enough to give my bee balm much competition. I hope my bee balm reseeds again next year. I would like to have an entire clump back there next June. 

I grow monarda primarily for its ornamental value. I'm also hoping it will attract hummingbirds and bees as it is supposed to.  My Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs  tells me bee balm flowers are also tasty in salads and the leaves are good for tea. I just may experiment with the culinary uses of monarda this year. 

Have you ever grown monarda? If so, it it meet your expectations? Have you used it in the kitchen or for medical conditions? I'd love to have you share your experiences. 

How My Garden Has Progressed in Two Years Since 2012

First Ladybug I've Seen This Year on Catmint Plant

I'm back in the garden now.This morning was typical because it held a surprise for me -- this first ladybug I've seen this year. Something new is always happening in my garden, but I only know if I keep my eyes open for it.  I keep my camera handy to record anything I want to remember.

2012 and early 2013 were not good gardening years for me. I was caught up in freelance writing on Squidoo and HubPages, and I was also building up my Zazzle stores. I simply did not have time to do much gardening. I had inherited a house from my mother in Paso Robles, California in 2006 and in 2013 I decided I had to do something with the front yard there. My mother had done nothing with it in the almost ten years she lived there, and there were a few green shrubs and not much else.

The city of Paso Robles was getting stricter about water rationing in landscaping, so I knew if I were going to makeover the garden, I'd better use drought resistant plants.  I began my project just about this time in 2013. By then I had started writing for Bubblews, so I started a Garden Journal there. Every time I did something new to my garden or when changes such as a plant starting to bloom for the first time occurred,  I reported it, with photos, in a Garden Journal post. Unfortunately Bubblews removed almost all the photos from our posts in a big update to the site, and last year Bubblews quit. Except for my written back-ups and saved photos in a different place, all those visual journal posts are gone. From now on, I'll be keeping my gardening journal here again.


Is that garden now a showpiece? Definitely not. It will always be a work in progress and there will always be surprises. I write about it because I know there are many hobby gardeners like me who like to get ideas from ordinary gardeners like themselves and see what works and what doesn't in other gardens. I have learned new techniques and gotten many hints from those who have commented on my gardening posts at Bubblews. But now I want to bring some of those gardening posts back here to Blogger.

I have two garden areas -- one in Templeton, California, and one in Paso Robles. Both are very close to being in Sunset's Zone 16 (USDA Zone 9). We have hot dry summers, and sometimes have temperatures in the triple digits in May or October.  Our winters normally have lows ranging from 25 degrees down to 17 degrees F but a couple of the last twenty winters had temperatures down to 12 degrees F. This was cold enough to kill almost everything above ground on my gazanias. Fortunately, they regrew when temperatures warmed up again. Our summers are hot and dry in the daytime, but usually cool down when the sun sets.

Grapes and oak trees flourish here, so the Paso Robles and Templeton Gap areas are home to many vineyards. Olive trees also do well. Drought resistant public plantings include a lot of lavender, yarrow, artemisia, sages, rosemary. and santolina. I have grown all of these, and once established, they need little care. I find I can learn a lot about what to plant by seeing what the businesses use in their drought-resistant landscapes.

Flowers that work well for me year after year include irises, calendula, and daffodils. These are also plants that gophers tend to stay away from. Herbs also work well in my gardens and add summer color. The photo above shows the first ladybug I've seen all year nestled in my catmint, which grows in a pot in my flower bed closest to the house. It will be blooming soon. I also grow oregano, thyme, basil, cilantro, catmint, spearmint, sages, clary sage, mullein, monarda, borage,  hyssop, wormwood, rue, tansy, parsley.

So far my pansies I planted in winter and the petunias I planted last year are still blooming. That surprised me, since they usually don't last so long. My hyssop started to bloom about a week ago. So did my Chomley Farren carnations. They are a deep pink with lavender markings. I will try to show you the photos in future posts.

Spanish sage in bloom April 25, 2014, next to yellow pansies. Lamb's ear is in front of pansies. Godetia is just starting to bloom in foreground. Back right is rue next to a volunteer gopher plant. Behind all is jasmine.

My Spanish lavender blooms are dying down now after blooming last month. My Spanish sage is still going, though my jasmine, which is starting to spread and bloom is trying to bury it. I need to give that jasmine a haircut. My wild watermelon sage is still blooming red in my side bed, and my Fruity Teucrium, a germander, is producing purple flowers that look good in the middle of my spreading tansy. My small Windy City Rose is also in bloom, as is the light blue scabiosa I planted last year. I will show individual photos of these in future posts.  They are growing in other flower beds.

What is your favorite drought-resistant plant?

Finally, an Early Evening in the Herb Garden

I finally attacked the weeds that have been overwhelming my herb garden. This pile shows what I accomplished. The picture below shows the bare ground the weeds were occupying. 

The bare ground shows where the weeds used to cover.

What's left is mostly leggy or almost dead calendula -- the yellow flowers. The blue one is the lily of the Nile I planted about two years ago, blooming here for the first time after I transplanted it. I also noticed as I weeded the distinct smell of mint, and discovered some had escaped the pot it was planted in and spread. I didn't care. If I'm going to have weeds, I prefer good ones. The yellow wave in the back of this next picture are the weeds I couldn't get to this evening.

Herb Garden

In the picture above, are some of the surprises I discovered. One was the tall plant left of the blue Lily of the Nile. I have no idea what it is. I planted it a couple of years ago, and I'd thought it was dead. When I first saw it tonight, I thought a tree had mysteriously appeared, perhaps planted by a bird. A closer look revealed it was in a gopher cage, so I must have planted it. I can hardly wait to see if it blooms. ( As I later discovered, it was a variety of yarrow I had not grown before.)

Right behind the blue lily is the clump of mint that's still growing in its small pot. To the right of the lily, in front, are two unlikely companions -- a purple bull thistle and a pot of lambs ears. The bull thistle is definitely a weed, but somehow it seems to fit and I didn't have the heart to yank it out. I think its flowers are lovely -- even if prickly.

To the right outside the picture I have another lambs ear plant in the ground. When I was weeding part of that side last week, I noticed it had numerous progeny -- even quite far from it. I didn't mind that, either, since I prefer it to the weeds that would displace it were it not there. I wish the little ones much success in their growth.

The oregano, marjoram, and thyme are lower plants and they are behind the taller ones that have grown up in front of them. I was delighted to see they have survived my neglect. One thing I've learned over the years is how much neglect members of the mint family can take and still thrive. 

Butterfly Bush

The butterfly bush I planted about three years ago has really taken off. It is surrounded on either side by different varieties of sage. It all needs pruning, but only after it has finished blooming. This morning I saw a hummingbird visiting the purple flowers, so I guess it's not just for butterflies. I planted a white version of it on the left side, but it doesn't seem to be growing much or blooming. I suspect it's hidden in the sage and / or the rosemary that has really spread.

As I was pulling weeds tonight, it was very difficult to avoid accidentally pulling up some of the calendula with them. Their roots often intermingled. Also, right near the inside edge of the gopher cage where the tall mystery plant is, was a large mustard growing part inside and part outside the cage. It was also very difficult to extract and separate. I had to cut it down on both sides with pruners so I could isolate the root. It reminded me of the sins that so easily become rooted in our lives and even intermingle with the good things so that they are hard to separate. It often takes drastic measures for the Master Gardener to remove them from us. The picture at left I took of the intermingled roots of weed and flower. The skinny weed stem is at the top of the heap. The broad green leaves are from the calendula plant. 

The Bees are a Buzzin' in My Herb Garden

The bees especially like these plants now. You can hear the lamb's ear plant (front, next to what's left of the irises) as you walk  by it. And the bees are also all over the tall butterfly bush in the back and the sage plants on either side of it.

The plant on the left side of the tall butterfly bush is California Black Sage. You can see a close-up of the black sage flowers and leaves below. 

Bee on Black Sage Flower in Early April

You can see that the flowers are grouped in little balls the length of the stem.  What amazes me is how much it has grown in two or three years from the four-inch pot transplant that went into the ground here. It's at least six feet in diameter, and that's after a brutal pruning last fall. It's almost completely covering the new white butterfly bush I put in last fall.

Mostly Maintenance

Yesterday and today I mostly watered, checked my vegetables  to make sure there were no problems, and pulled a few weeds in the herb garden. (part of which is pictured here. )


Today I planted my remaining seedlings in pots -- catnip and  Greek basil. My borage in the tall raised bed has sprouted, and a few more radishes in the ground have raised their heads through the dirt. Haven't found any dead gophers yet from the bubble gum, but I did put a few more pieces down some holes in the herb garden.

Expanding and Improving the Herb Garden

This past two weeks I've put a lot into weeding, transplanting, and building new paths around the herb garden. I've been laying down cardboard or newspaper around the front edges which I need to finish covering in bark. 

The paths through the garden were made accidentally as I took the rock out and put it to the side while preparing the soil. These were the old borders. Then whenever I have planted a new section, a new border was added. The borders were important to mark so that our weed abatement man wouldn't come through when I wasn't around and spray what appeared to him as weeds.