The Garden at the End of Summer

Front Garden

 

Summer, with its triple digit temperatures, is not a good season for my garden.  Several days of temperatures over 110F and everything gets scorched.  Add the watering restrictions and only the hardiest survive, let alone thrive.  We are no longer under drought conditions, but, I am still limited to a certain amount of water at the lower, tier 1 billing rates.  I received the water bill for the latest billing period (July 19 to September 19) today and I went over the tier 1 allocation of 16 hundred cubit feet (billed at $5.67/HCF) and used 17 HCF; that additional 1 HCF is billed at tier 2 rates of $7.30/HCF.  The water portion of my bill for the period of July 19 to September 19 is $98.04.

We had a bit of rain, yesterday morning - enough to wet the ground but probably not enough to do much good.

The majority of these pictures were taken at noon with my cell phone camera.  My photography savvy friends will no doubt tell me that noon is not the best time to take pictures, but I am not entering any photography contests.  :)  A couple were taken a bit later in the afternoon, as I decided I needed one or two additional pictures.

Let's tour the front garden:

View from Front Door

Flower Bed Along the Walkway Leading to/from Front Door

The pomegranate tree is planted at the front because it is supposed to be lucky to have a pomegranate tree near the front entrance; it was a house-warming gift from the monks at the temple.  Every year, I lose some of the fruit to birds and some to passers by who help themselves!

I picked this fruit after I photographed it

This is the flower bed along the drive way.  I had planted several purple iceberg roses in this bed, last year (or was it the year before?).  There is one barely surviving rose bush, left!  The rest have all died.  Some African daisies (osteospermum) have self-seeded themselves and are growing, along with the few gladioli plants that came up from bulbs planted two years ago.

In Need of Replanting

The view of the flower bed along the walkway leading to the front door from the garden:

Front Flower Bed

The rest of the front flower bed:

Mostly Osteospermum and Dusty Miller

Even the succulents planted in the middle aren't doing well.  The garden slopes down ever so slightly, so the water pools at one end and that's the only place where you'll find more than two blades of grass!

Sun-scorched Succulents and Grass!

The succulents planted at the end along the side wall are faring well; the wall provides them some shade.  Euphorbia at the far end, some mixed succulents which are not seen in this picture, aloe plants, and a jade plant in the foreground:

Succulents Along the Side Wall

The top-heavy, self-pruning eucalyptus; it does provide some filtered shade to the front garden:

Eucalyptus

Even the lantana I planted along the front are struggling - they haven't grown at all in the three years since being planted, but, then, again, they haven't died, either!

Lantana

The back yard gets the morning sun, but is shaded by the house in the late afternoon and evening.  It fares a little better than the front garden.

Back Garden from the Back Door

But first, a look at the side yard:

Side Yard

There are two different types of guava trees growing in the side yard.  The cherry guava tree at the far end is all but dead:

Cherry Guava Tree

I might cut it all the way down and see if it regrows.

The feijoa is doing a little better - lots of tiny fruit on it, but usually, by this time, they are ready to be picked!

Feijoa

When the garden looks as sad as it does, I find myself looking for and focusing on the the bright spots; they are there, but not always apparent at first glance.  Under one of the lemon trees, for example, along with the dried out fallen lemons, there are one or two self-seeded yellow four-o-clock plants:

Yellow Four-O-Clocks

The hibiscus plant is doing well, although its flower has already begun to fade when this picture was taken shortly after noon:

Fading Hibiscus Flower

Almost all the rose bushes have died, but, the few that are still alive are trying their best:

Today's Rose

Tomorrow's Rose

Oops!  Out of focus!  I tried again:

Not much better, is it?

Hidden among the leaves of the orange tree is a promise of oranges to come:

Baby Orange

There is still one zucchini plant surviving!  It never produced any zucchini but I kept it because it provides a touch of green.  However, the newer leaves look a bit like they might have developed mosaic leaf virus, so should probably be pulled out.

Zucchini Plant

Remember the bed where I planted green beans and okra?  Well, the vegetable plants came up just in time to get scorched during the first heat wave.  In the meantime, the preparation of the bed disturbed some of the roots of the nearby curry leaf tree, and when the curry leaf tree roots get nicked, they send up new growth!  I now have a bed of curry leaf plants!  I should call the Sri Lankan stores and ask them if they want some plants - they sell for upwards of $10 a plant at the Indian stores!

Baby Curry Leaf Plants

In one corner of the back garden, between the side wall and the back wall, the yucca plant and a schefflera plant are growing very happily:

Yucca and Schefflera

Did you see something else in the picture?  No, not the euphorbia growing along the backwall to the left, but on the ground; yes, that white round thing:

Mushroom

I am not familiar enough with mushrooms to identify this one beyond "white with brown spots"!

The pink oleander is doing well, at least, the one that can be seen:

Pink Oleander

There is a second pink oleander plant next to it, but it can't be seen because this monster of an euphorbia is growing in front of it and covering it all up:

Monster Euphorbia

It was grown from a small cutting and has grown to over 8 feet in height!  My gardener friend has cut it back time and again and it probably needs to be cut back, again!  It seems determined to take over my back garden!  I've cuttings growing in other places along the back wall and the front garden, too.  I think I'll take a few more cuttings and then, have it cut back to give the second oleander a little breathing room!

Speaking of plants determined to take over the garden:

Variegated Schefflera

It was bought in a plastic planter and we kept it under the shade of the calamondin tree with the intention of planting it somewhere, eventually.

From the back

When we went to move it, we found that it had planted itself, through the pot! 

The roots grew right through the pot!

This spot under the pine tree (grown from a seedling given out at an Earth Day celebration about 27 years ago) is another micro-environment.  It looks messy because the dead pine needles have got caught in the branches of the monster euphorbia, growing next to it (and there is another euphorbia on the other side of the pine tree):

Under the Pine Tree

But the shade of the pine tree enables these dayflower plants to grow:

Dayflower plants (and a gazania in the foreground)

It has the prettiest little blue flowers:

Dayflower (Commelina)

Another blue flower in my garden:

Plumbago and Lantana Hedge

The plumbago and lantana grow along the side wall behind the garage and the shed.  It was severely pruned back earlier in the summer and has grown right back.

I wish the lantana in the front will grow like this!

Closer to the house, these plants are still waiting to be planted!  The two grape vines and the lemongrass:

Grapes and Lemongrass

We are enjoying some cooler weather right now (highs of only in the mid 70s), but, it is supposed to warm up again into the mid 80s next week and low 90s by next weekend.  Very typical autumn temperatures for us.

Autumn is the time to start cleaning up the garden.  My gardener friend started, this evening, with the front garden.  He pulled out the dead rose plants and weeded that bed and trimmed back the osteospermum in the adjoining bed.  We will continue to concentrate on the front for the next couple of weeks before we tidy up the back.   

Hope you enjoyed your tour of my garden at the end of the summer.  How is your garden doing?  Better than mine, I hope!