Another Garden Walk!

The Front Garden

It'll be a shorter walk and more of a stroll, actually.  The front garden is much smaller than the back.  Enter through the gap you see, between the bed of osteospermum on the left and the lantana border on the right. 

The lantana, bordering the sidewalk is full of flowers; some osteospermum plants self-seeded themselves among them, and I have allowed them to grow.  This might evolve into a mixed border, eventually, especially as there are two jade plants at the far end of the border (there were three, but, one died).

Lantana  Border

The succulents border is along the sidewall/fence and has several aloe plants, euphorbia, and aeoniums growing.  M has been sharing cuttings from his garden to help fill in my collection:

Aloe Plants

Euphorbia and Aeonium

Another Look

It is my hope that the Euphorbia tirucalli (with green pencil like branches) will grow tall and provide more privacy, over the years.

When you reach the end of the succulents border and turn, again, you see the plantings under the living room window:

Planting Bed Under the Living Room Window

This window faces west and gets the full blast of the late afternoon/evening sun, especially in the summer.  I have struggled to grow any plants as the reflected heat from the window burns the leaves and flowers.  A couple of years ago, M planted cuttings of the Euphorbia tirucalli to see how they will fare.  I've got cuttings of this plant growing everywhere, as it is so easy to grow and it seems to thrive in my garden!  It is not the more colorful "Sticks on Fire" (E. tirucalli "Rosea"), which is currently very popular, here, but, I don't mind.  Like Kermit, I like green!  

In the corner of this planting bed, I planted a few of the aeonium cuttings one of my former supervisors (K) gave me from her garden a few years ago and they have filled in the area!  Some of those rosettes are bigger than a dinner plate!  Unfortunately, this plant does get scorched during the really hot days of late summer/early fall, but, it recovers over winter.  I might take a few cuttings from this plant, to plant elsewhere in the garden:

Aeonium

In the middle of the garden, in front of the living room window, is another planting circle: 

Aloe and Aeonium in the Planting Circle

M originally planted cuttings of aloe plants from his garden in a circle with a different plant in the middle.  The plant in the middle and a few of the other aloe cuttings didn't make it.  But, the aeonium cuttings K gave are thriving!  We had to make the circle bigger, to accommodate them and M brought me a few more variegated aeonium cuttings to fill in a few bare spots.  These aeoniums, too, get scorched on those days when the temperatures soar about 100F, but, they, too, recover:

Continuing our walk along the front of the house, this is the flower bed along the walkway to the front door:

Osteospermum

The osteospermum seems to have taken it over, although, there are a few other plants growing, in there, among them, including the red climbing rose, a jasmine vine, and the pomegranate tree!  A few of the gladioli bulbs are also starting to come up, through them!

The Jasmine Vine

The jasmine vine has almost finished flowering.  I need to pull the tendrils down to prevent them from going up the roof!  This poor jasmine plant has a long history.  My mother bought the original plant to go in front of the living room window.  She had M construct a long trellis, spanning the width of the window, out of PVC piping with a mesh wire over the top to support the weight of the vine and it grew, just like everything else she planted, into a lush vine full of fragrant flowers.  Then, a few years later, when I did the family room and second bathroom addition, I needed to replace the plumbing throughout the house and, guess where the connection from the house to the mains was?  Right where the jasmine vine trellis was!  The vine had to be cut down and dug up and the trellis dismantled in order for the guys to dig up the front garden to replace the water pipes!

My mother was not pleased, but, we moved the dug up plant to the back garden, set up a modified trellis along the side wall, behind the garden shed, and the jasmine vine thrived there, even after my mother died.  Until the drought years, when it, too, died.  I was so sad when that happened.  Fast forward a couple of years and, one day, I noticed a green tendril poking out from a tangle of plants growing behind the garden shed!  Was it?  Could it possibly be?  Yes!  It was!  It was a jasmine plant!  Somehow, deep under the ground, one of the roots of the jasmine plant had survived and remained dormant until there was enough rain to reach it and it grew a new plant!  I had M dig it up and we planted it in a pot, but, then, one of the garden cats decided the flower pot made an ideal bed and broke the plant!  But, it survived and M and I planted it here, to go up along this trellis, in the front, again.  Maybe not exactly where my mother envisioned it would grow, but, away from the water pipes!  I am hoping it will continue to grow and thrive just as the original plant did for my mother.

Not only that!  Another rainy winter and I have seen another jasmine vine growing in the back, behind the shed!  I am leaving it in place, for the time being.  Maybe M can dig it up, too, later, and we'll have two jasmine plants!  And this is why M and I have a running joke between us that my mother's spirit is still at work in the garden! 

Elsewhere in the front garden, the euryops plants (planted in early February) are coming along nicely:

Euryops Plants

They were planted in a sort of semi-circle around the eucalyptus tree, and M also planted three white iris bulbs closer to the base of the eucalyptus tree and they are just starting to sprout!

White Iris Bulbs

These bulbs come with a 'pedigree', being extras from the garden of a sibling of a TV personality!  M is a gardener to the stars!  LOL!

Finally, we come to the planting bed along the drive way.  It is, a mixed border, that is currently mostly osteospermum!  I tried growing roses, here, but, almost all of them died, except for a single burgundy iceberg rose plant; I tried growing a bed of lavender and, again, all but one plant died; I planted thyme, oregano, parsley, and rosemary, and only the rosemary survived.  In the meantime, the osteospermum self-seeded and spread and continues to spread!  I am letting it spread, too, because it brings flowers to the front garden!

Rosemary Plant (and osteospermum seedlings)

Burgundy Iceberg Rose Plant

Lavender Plant

Osteospermum Seedlings

And, last but not least, the pomegranate tree, a gift from the monks at the Temple when I first bought the house, just starting to flower:

Pomegranate Flower

With the promise of more to come:

Pomegranate Flower Buds

Thank you for coming with me for a walk around the front garden with a side detour of a stroll down a memory lane, as well!   I hope you enjoyed it.