Yard and Garden Update

Here's an update on the state of my yard and garden, after several weeks of work to start getting things in shape. Starting with the backyard, the above plant is a succulent next to the south fence. It looked bedraggled when I moved in, but is doing well now after the winter rains. And here are the heuchera and azalea I planted next to it, in what is probably the shadiest spot of the yard:


This is where I planted a bunch of herbs last October, not realizing that it would be dark and wet in this spot for the next four months. But, happily, the lovage that I thought had died is now beginning to come back (in the barren spot in front):

Morgan is sitting next to a cuphea and a poet's jasmine:


This is an abelia bush, which is supposed grow to have a nice form and fragrant flowers, but it's not looking too good right now:


This rose bush has white-shaded leaves, because I poored sulphur powder on it after I found some rust mildew. The house had a total of thirteen rose bushes when I moved in:


This is the area I'm trying to turn into a vegetable garden. So far, I've planted peas, chard, radishes and sorghum. I put a boronia megastigma and a cotoneaster in the old incinerator. The boronia smells very good, but I've read they are hard to keep alive, and this one doesn't look too happy in the incinerator:

The mint patch is slowly spreading:


The calla lillies that the former owner planted seem to be the healthiest thing in the yard:


This is my future hop vine. I pulled up an overgrown lantana to plant it here. Note the golden green leaves:

I transplanted a wormwood and a sage to be next to the hop, because the were looking really down-and-out in the shady spot where I originally put them:


I'm using these peat pellets to try to sprout some seeds for the vegetable garden:


Now to the front yard. I pulled up some more overgrown lantana in this section of the yard, and along with a family of salamanders, I found this bush that had been completely swallowed by the lantana:


This is a blue aster I planted in place of the lantana:


And next to it, a corrugated sage plant, that was only domesticated a decade ago, after being found growing in the foothills of the Andes:


These euryops bushes seem to be very hardy. They survived, and kept on blooming, without getting any water for months:


I believe these flowers are freesias. I almost pulled them out before they bloomed, thinking they were weeds:


This is another cuphea I planted, called the Mexican cigar plant, because it has flowers that look like cigars:


There are a lot of these lilly-type plants in the yard. The flowers are interesting, but they are surrounded by lots of brownish, tangled leaves:


This is the one rose bush I planted. I'm trying slowly to fill in the gravel lawn in front of the house. It's an alba semi-plena rose, and should grow to twelve feet tall. It's a bush that only produces roses once a year, but they were the rose that was used to symbolize the House of York in the Wars of the Roses. Also, it's supposed to be relatively disease and pest free, so no need for sulphur dust:


My next stab to fill in the gravel was this tree peony. It's a Tibetan tree peony:


Finally, I planted this evergreen clematis next to the front door, in place of an overgrown vinca plant, in the hope that it would grow up the side of the house and arch over the door. It hasn't done much yet, but it has a small bud that may point the way to future greatness: