Front yard after a little fix’in
My project for this weekend was the front yard. I’ve been disappointed with the single lonely flower-less plant on the front porch, our faded patio set and the lack of flowers in our garden with small bushes that never grow any larger! I wish I had before photos… but I don’t, just afters:
I bought a few flowers and a nice swively tiered planter. I found some summery fabric at the fabric store and sewed some pillows for the front porch. Almost forgot about my succulent on the table there… it’s been there for a little over a month now and doing well. About the only thing that survives in that spot!
In front of the bushes I planted Pacificas. I saw a few neighbors have them and they really take off, so I think/hope they will do well in our yard . Walmart had solar lanterns on sale, so we picked up 8 of those to put along the garden and up the driveway. I’ll take some night photos of it later.
Where the bike path led me…
I went on a bike ride yesterday evening and stopped by the new Bridgeport plaza that’s opening up in Valencia. The big shots in the plaza are going to be a Walgreens, Bristol Farms, Kabuki, and I think it’s called Athena’s, a Greek restaurant. This plaza is so visually stimulating though. There’s a large pond at the corner with bridges and decking over it. There are huge sails coming out of the pond and a neat bird scuplture. Not to mention the smaller water features and landscaping around the plaza. So, I brought my camera and took some pics of it…
Farmer’s Market
So, I’ve decided to get most of my fruits and vegetables and eggs at the Farmer’s market on Sundays now. They cost the same price as what I pay at Albertsons and they are way fresher and support local markets. With the way gas prices are now… I would expect produce prices to go up. Diesel is so much now!
While I was at the Farmer’s market I picked up my favorite, some purple Irises. $3 for a bunch of 5, not too bad. The seller even mentioned that you should put ice in the water and they will last longer because they like it cooler!
Descanso Gardens
Went to Descanso gardens for the first time yesterday. Went with Mom and Dad that are currently in town. It was really nice.. a bit chilly (60) but beautiful gardens. We didn’t even realize it until we got there, but spring time has the most flowers in bloom. The roses weren’t in bloom, but just about everything else was. Camelias, Lilacs, a bunch of irises and lillies, violets, petunias and so much more. By far the most impressive was the lilac garden. The lilac bushes were 6 - 8 feet tall and we walked a path through the garden, it smelled so beautiful I didn’t want to leave.
Here’s a photo of Josh and I at the tulip garden:
Dinner in the garden
Heard a strange buzzing in the garden of what sounded like a fly but I didn’t see any flies. Then I look over to where the sound is coming from and a praying mantis was eating a fly!
I got photos 
now playing: The Smiths - Shoplifters of the World Unite
We got tomatoes!!
3 tomatoes started growing on our “Big Beef” tomato plant. They smell delicious even though they’re no way near ready.
Oh and the plumeria is growing well too. Josh was wrong, I didn’t plant the cutting upside down 
now playing: The Blow - Parenthesis
Getty Villa!
We went to the Getty Villa in Malibu for memorial day and it was beautiful. It was so pretty. The flowers and gardens and fountains were awesome. I took a whole bunch of photos and put a bunch of them in the photo gallery.
Looks like the Getty Villa will be booked thru the rest of summer.
butterfly in the skyyyy…
There were 2 beautiful butterflies hanging out in the garden today and a couple days ago there were like 5 or 6 small humming birds in all the flowers at dusk. Crazy all the pretty harmless creatures in the garden.. and no bees!
spring!
I think spring is here.. esp with the clocks going forward saturday. It’s been really sunny and nice and warm the past week. My garden is appreciating it, all the flowers that survived the frosty winter and blooming again:
and I keep finding lots of these little anoles in my garden scattering everytime I go outside:
and I had a couple as pets in a terrarium back when I lived in Buffalo, but one day they mysteriously were in the garden and Mom and Dad looked guilty. I’m sure they didn’t make it through the winter. So now I have my own native anoles that come every spring/summer in my backyard (Yes, it looks like something sharp got in the way of this one’s tail).
One last pic.. Amritz and Sarah picked me up a plumeria cutting when they visited Hawaii for Christmas and I planted it a couple weeks ago and it’s started doing stuff. It’s the strangest growth I’ve ever seen (looks waxy/fake) but apparantly this is normal for a plumeria cutting and it means good things are happening and those gorgeous plumeria flowers will come next year. The first year is all leaves. I’ll be happy when I see some leaves. It likes little to no water and the soil is 1/2 sand. Strange growing conditions but sounds about accurate for Hawaii. I’ll keep taking pics every couple weeks so I can do a sweet animated gif of it growing!
i got the green thumb gene!!
I’m so excited! I thought I was a gardening failure after my green thumb parents helped me plant a garden in my backyard last year and everything died a month later. But, now my garden in the backyard is flourishing! The bougainvellia are growing like mad and the allysum have been going strong for a loooong time even need trimming!
Even my indoor plants are doing well. My corn plant in the front room started growing shoots of what looked like mini koosh balls out of it and I thought it was infested with something, but then looked it up and it’s very very rare, but corn plant will flower on occassion and when it does, it only does about once every 7 YEARS! And even better it’s one of the most fragrant flowers imagineable, it’s stronger than hyacinth but smells like hyacinth. The entire downstairs and half the upstairs smells of it. I love it!!
Here’s some pics:
The garden in the backyard
A bee buzzing around the allysum
My bougainvellia
My corn plant
The super fragrant flowers on the corn plant
