Apres le Deluge, Moi

In other news, this morning we made the arrangements to have the front stairs reattached, which will bring to a close the foundation work. No pictures yet, because, well, nothing happened, but we expect that if the weather stays fine the work will start this week.

The weather cooperated today, so I give you some pictures of the garden:

The quince has nice big leaves and is flowering. It is definitely the winner in the tree olympics, though the Strawberry Free peach put in a good show and gets the silver.

Quince flowers are actually quite lovely, and very subtle. I like the very delicate pink colour. Such a difference from the ornamental quince.

The anemone under the Asian pears are coming up, finally. I was beginning to wonder if they were duds.

The Asian pears are pretty far behind in the leafing out, but they are getting there. They're a late-season fruit, so I've not been too worried.

The strawberries are going utterly mad. I know you're supposed to pinch off the flowers the first year for maximum crops the second, but I can't bring myself to do it. I may pinch off half of them. Look at the little strawberries growing there. So cute. And because we're giving up all the fruit from the trees, this is our consolation.

The peaches and nectarines, in the mean time, have moved on to full-on fruiting and leafing out.

Little tiny nectarines all over the branch. Of course, they have to be pinched off this first year. Noel watched me doing that this morning and asked, "Can't we leave one fruit on each tree?" I suppose we could, but it would not be very good. Patience is so hard.

Look at the tiny little fuzzy peaches, and the cute little nectarines. It did seem like a shame to pinch them off, but I will console myself with thoughts of fruit in years to come.

The apples finally have leaves, and will probably bloom soon.

The ranunculus I planted are doing well, despite being trampled by dogs (other gardeners have deer; I have dogs), and the ranunculus bulbs are starting to appear.

Lilies coming up. They are already almost as tall as the citrus trees. It should be pretty funny when they get to full height and you can barely see the trees behind them.

The dahlias are also starting to put in an appearance.

Yet another lily, looking almighty weird.

I'm going to let the blueberries set fruit this year. They are thriving back there. I guess my patented "just plant them in peat moss and compost" method works well.

The big grower over the last four weeks, though, is the grass. It has rained so often that it is past my knees. It's a combination of lots of water and light, and us not being able to mow because it has been too wet.

The grass is so tall that the dogs are staying out of it except when I call them to pose for a photo.

This morning Noel mowed it after I took these photos, stopping every few rows to empty the collector. We spread it over the non-grass areas around the edges of the lawn, because there was way too much for the city green bin and compost pile, and why waste good mulch? Sure, many of those areas will end up with pathways on them, but I don't see any reason why a path can't go over good soil.

Yummy: flowers on the wisteria, and leaves, too. Such a pretty vine, even if it is an aggressive pain in the butt.

The happiest of the ferns is the foxtail fern, which has doubled in size.

The toad lilies are starting to come up. Ugh, I really need to do a lot of weeding in the fern walk. Sitting down and doing the tedious small-weed weeding is really hard for me: I'd rather wait until it's a crisis and tackle it as a big project. But the only way to reduce your weeding is to do it when the weeds are small. If I leave that Bermuda grass there, it will be a bad scene for the toad lilies.

And the columbines are doing much better now that they are away from dog trampling. I guess I have to think more carefully about how to deal with that back area if the dogs are going to stomp on anything I put there. I should be more careful about making sure an area is not a general play zone before planting it out.

My magnolia is showing signs of recovery. It may yet recover from the year in the container. It's still a long time from blooming, though.

The roses are vigourous and happy, lots of leaves and new growth. The Gertrude Jeckyll is the only one showing no signs of growth, which has me a little but not a lot worried. Heaven knows I have enough roses right now. If need be, I will replace her next year.

I do love lavender. This stuff is cast iron. This particular plant spent almost a year with a pile of bricks on it and look how well it is doing. Amazing.

The little California natives garden out front is coming along nicely. The plants have grown reasonably well and are settling in, although of course the $%#&!! Bermuda grass is coming back.

The brugmansia is doing well, too. I wonder how tall it will grow before it Ys.

And pleasant surprises abound: chamomile has self-seeded in the garden all over the place. I'm just letting it go because it is a sweet little plant. I may come to regret this, but for now it's nice to have some space filled in for less than $4 a pot.

posted by ayse on 04/22/06