The Back Garden in February

The Backyard on a Sunny February Afternoon

Are you ready to take a short stroll through the back garden?  The photo above is looking straight down the garden; the photo below is taken from the side gate (the big tree in the background is a neighbor's pine tree, which was trimmed late last year.

From a Different Angle

See all that lovely green stuff on the ground?  It almost looks like a lawn from this angle, doesn't it?  It's just a weedy type of grass that grows only in the winter when it is cool and wet.  As soon as summer comes and it starts to get hot, that grass will die back and it'll be just bare ground, again, especially since I won't water it.

The star of the garden, right now, is the peach tree:

Peach Tree

You are going to get tired of pictures of the peach flowers, but, I love seeing them!

Peach Flowers

There are clumps of osteospermum in the back garden, too:

Purple Osteospermum

And the aloe vera flower stalk is still in the process of opening up, with the buds separating from the cluster (the flowers haven't bloomed, yet):

Aloe Vera Flower Stalk in Bud Stage

Looking down along the side wall, with the clumps of crocosmia growing along the wall, the orange tree with osteospermum growing around its base: 

Orange Tree and Companion Plants!

Also growing under the orange tree is this volunteer carob plant!

Volunteer Carob Plant

I might ask M to dig it up and plant it somewhere else!

This clump of crocosmia (and a yucca plant behind them) are growing further down along the side wall.  You can see some of the plants flopped over, which is what happens when they are not staked.  Almost all of the plants will flop over after they've flowered and once the leaves start to die, we will cut them down to the ground.  

Croscosmia

On the other side of the garden, behind the garage, the path to the shed is almost completely hidden by these plants, a mixture of purple Martha Washington geraniums, curry leaf suckers, osteospermum, and gazania, plus weedy grass!  As M says, "Just add water and watch the garden grow!"  

A Hidden Path!

The area near the shed is full of gazanias and commelina (Asiatic dayflower) plants, growing like weeds.  M cleared a whole bunch of them from around the base of the persimmon tree, but they are still growing in other places:

Gazania and Commelina (Asiatic Day Flower) Plants

I've tried transplanting the gazania to other areas in the garden, but, they seem to prefer this particular location.

More Gazania

Finally, the blueberry bushes:

Blueberry Bushes in Flower

The bees are loving the flowers; in fact, there's a bee in the picture above - do you see it?  No?  Check the picture below - I've drawn an arrow pointing to it:

Bee on the Blueberry Flower

Thank you for strolling in the back garden with me.  Hope you enjoyed your visit!