I like looking at the nectarine tree during the brief time it’s in bloom. Here are several photos of it, while it lasts.
garden
Mid February Yard 2 2016
The first Nemophila menziesii (baby blue eyes) flower of the year!
The nectarine tree is suddenly covered in flowers.
The area with annuals around where the alder tree was has changed somewhat in the last two days. More plants have been planted, and there’s more temporary netting/fencing.
One of the beds with lots of plants….
Another….
Mid February Yard 2016
Everything is growing. Artichoke plants in the lower left. Radishes in the closest raised bed. Kale, lettuce, broccoli in the other raised beds.
I’ve been planting lots of annuals out in the ground that were started in the greenhouse. Most are covered with chicken wire and bird netting to give them a chance to get established and not get completely eaten by the birds.
Peas, mostly shelling and also some sugar peas.
Annual wildflowers near the back door and around where the alder tree was. Looks like a weed patch (there are some of those too) but it should be looking good soon.
Lots of annuals in the front yard getting bigger and bigger also.
Mid February Flowers 2016
Very exciting! One of the two Aristolochia californica (California pipevines) I planted two years ago bloomed for the first time. It has two flowers. The pipevine swallowtail feeds on this plant.
The almond tree is blooming now.
The nectarine tree has also just started to bloom.
Hardenbergia flowers close up.
Rosemary.
Early February Yard 2016
The new Hardenbergia sp. has made it to the top of its trellis.
The Ribes speciosum is blooming now:
The yellow daffodils are blooming:
Nemophila maculata (fivespot), Nemophila menziesii (baby blue eyes), and Collinsia heterophylla (Chinese houses) — annuals I’ve been trying to grow this year for the first time. Seeds planted out in the yard have germinated and all been eaten by slugs. The plants below I started in the greenhouse. As soon as I planted them outside the slugs descended on them. So they’re surrounded by Sluggo now. I hope a few manage to survive.
Phacelia campanularia grown from seeds, waiting to get bigger and get planted outdoors:
Phacelia grandiflora grown from seeds, waiting to get bigger and get planted outdoors:
Phacelia viscida grown from seeds, waiting to get bigger and get planted outdoors:
Late January Yard 2016
The pea barn went up this weekend. It consists of support for the peas, bird netting, and support for the bird netting. There are three double-rows ready for planting.
A partial row of peas was planted — with shelling peas (mostly) and sugar peas. The rest of the rows will be planted during the next month or so.
The small green leaves are radishes that were planted on January 9th. More were planted today.
The giant kale plant.
The first broccolini of the year. It was delicious.
Narcissus.
Rosemary in bloom.
Camelia by the front porch.
Loropetalum sp. (front yard).
The Clarkias have been getting decimated by slugs this year. These are in much better shape than most of them.
Early January Yard 2016
Finally it’s green again. All images below taken January 4, 2016.
I ran out of shelf space for seedlings in the greenhouse, so made a temporary table using old stuff lying around (including wood from the old deck), and sturdy new overly bright blue sawhorse legs.
The Fremontodendron has a new trellis behind it. Hopefully the bush will continue to do well and provide a good screen from the Buttheads.
The pea bed (area of bare soil on the right) is almost ready for planting.
The toyon is growing.
The Ribes will be blooming soon.
Lettuce and broccoli in the raised bed. There’s a kale bush by the other raised bed closer to the greenhouse. It’s a year old and provided kale all spring, summer, fall, and winter. The kale’s roots are in the raised bed, but the rest of the plant is outside the raised bed.
Harry’s Walking Stick (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’)
Phacelia bolanderi, Phacelia californica, and Penstemon heterophyllus.
Eriogonum grande var. rubescens
Epilobium canum, after cutting it back for the winter.
Flags marking where I planted annual wildflowers.
A fungus from the side of the house called “dead man’s foot” (Pisolithus arrhizus) … maybe they got the common name for this one wrong.
Front yard. A lot of wildflowers reseeded from last year. I pulled lots out of the raised bed so I can plant additional (different) flowers from the greenhouse.
In the foreground is mostly Phacelia tanacetifolia, tansy Phacelias. The other flower that has reseeded like crazy in the front yard are two species of Clarkia, Clarkia unguiculata and Clarkia amoena (“farewell to spring”). I like Clarkia’s but it’s nice to have something besides Clarkia’s and tansy Phacelia’s….. A few lupines have reseeded for the first time. I hope they won’t get eaten by the birds.
These are mostly Clarkia’s, and the horrible oxalis or Bermuda buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae) which I’m constantly pulling out.
Tansies and Clarkias, a lupine marked with the flags, a Datura wrightii to the right of the flags.
