We’re thinking over some container ideas for the late winter / early spring planting time. Last year we went with this Linaria reticulata ‘Flamenco’. Man that’s been a gorgeous plant.
Planted April 1st ish..no foolin
For some reason, I thought we started this planting a lot earlier, but looks lie it was on April 1st…ish. I bet would do fine with seed, but opted using 4inch starters instead.
April 16th.
Amazing how fast the Linaria ‘Flamenco’ took and started to flower…in less than a month. Those red and golden blooms are mouthwatering.
April 30th
May 22
Besides being a showstopper, Linaria reticulata ‘Flamenco’ is one of those bloomers that keep on giving. It flowered for us for at least half a year. We did cut it back a couple times and that seemed to extend the flowering. Oh, bonus…after established, we didn’t have to feed it much water.
July 2nd Linaria reticulata 'Flamenco'
As we sit and ponder what to plant next, we wonder what sort of plant combinations are you peeps are getting ready for this (upcoming) season. Share them…we would love to know!
Is the grass greener on the other side? Well, our neighbors have been clearing out a lot of the junky weeds and getting it prep to do something with it. Their challenge? What to plant, little time to spend, & and not sure where to start… Well, we decided to jump over the fence to our neighbor’s yard to plant some stuff and do a little maintenance.
Before.
Before we get going here, I want to mention one of our regrets. I wish we took more pictures of our garden back in the day, especially the crappy looking parts. There’s nothing better than seeing an old pic of your yard and being able to say…wow…it real does look a lot better…I can’t believe that it looked like that back then.
That said, here’s their before picture. You can see a couple of the succulent cuttings that we plugged in last winter and that’s about it. Not too exciting, but it was a start.
Last February, they did a major attack on the hip height weeds that were smothering their yard and you can see that the baby weeds are coming back. First thing we did was just do a quick razzing of the sandy soil to get reclaim the garden again.
After
A little cleanup and it already looks better. Plus we planted a bunch of rejects that both Megan and I can get from work. The rejects are not bad plants…just not looking their ‘retail’ best.
Before.
On the other side of the yard, we kept the Zantedeschia which seem to be thriving on this shadier side plus the neighbors love them.
After.
To keep the momentum going, we popped in some of our iris that we divided from our garden.
Before.
Here’s the Fortnight Lily (Dietes vegeta) that plucked out of our garden ages ago. We dug it out of our garden and put it at the curb for someone to take. Little did we know that our next door neighbors thought it was cool and replanted it in their space. LOL, we could have saved them a couple steps and just passed it over the fence.
After.
Today, the north side is looking pretty sweet, and those Blue Chalk Stick succulents (Senecio mandraliscae) are coming back. Considering how fast they grew in our yard, they should quickly fill a lot of this space. We are trying to teach them a good solution to the “Hey, we’re on a budget and can’t buy everything at once and need bang for our buck.”
Here’s what you do: Divide plants that grow fast to get some good fill. Keep an eye out for freebies from your friends and neighbors. Keep looking for deals on anchor plants at your local nurseries. Over a short time, your garden will impress your buddies.
Our garden back in the day.
Our two apartment backyards are nearly identical. Ours above, man…I can remember back to when we were amazed how awesome it looked after weeks of experimenting with plants back there. I estimate that this pic was about 3 years ago.
Our garden recent.
Today, it looks crazy. One thing I can safely say is that if you think it’s cool now…wait a couple months. It always get better.
I’ve been writing a paper for my Pest Control class about garden plants that escape when the circumstances are right, and have wanted to show the horrible battle of what happens when a sweet little innocent topiary plant goes crazy. I still see this evil vine sold at nurseries in the Bay Area.
It's eating me!!!!
Our backyard was not a beauteous place when we moved in. Crap hole was a good way to describe it. It’s been a year since we got rid of the evil Mattress Vine (Muehlenbeckia axillaris), but its shriveled wiry skeleton still hangs on the side of the house as a reminder. Bits of it try to creep back in from our neighbors as well, but we keep it in check.
Ripping the thing down and out of the ground was a horrible task (Matti did most of it), and it took weeks for us to get of it. We even offered the cut bundles up free on Craigslist as a bonfire starter or Art Project, but no takers. Matti was able to bundle it in such a way that the compost dudes would take extra each week.
Why wouldn't someone want this?
Cleared out
Sadly we’ve been having some technical difficulties with our SD card… so I don’t have a good after shot. We’ll get something up soon though. I’m shocked at the difference a year makes.
