Adjusting to Form
There are times when everything in the garden seems perfect and stable. There’s been enough sunshine and enough water and the weather has not been too hot or too cold. Everything is prospering and there is no reason to make changes just for changes sake. There are whole stretches of time when that seems to be the case and nothing is amiss. And then there are other times when everything seems to be up for grabs. A plant here or a tree there starts to look a bottle brown at the edges when it shouldn’t. I would call those organic or natural issues which need to be addressed in due course. And then, sometimes there are external factors which come into play. It’s hard to say which of these two sources for change is more common. With the weather here in San Diego being as moderate as it is, we do not have temperature issues the way you might in other areas of the country. I suppose we can have heat waves that burn the plants and that did happen a bit in 2020, but since then we have had much more temperate weather in the summers. I read that the National Weather Service is predicting a big El Niño effect his winter which will render the southern part of the country, including this area wetter than normal. I was talking to my irrigation guy today and he mentioned the same thing, and I think its fair to suggest that he should know since it very much impacts his irrigation business when something like that takes hold.
Recently I had several unexpected things happen. First, I had one large Sumac tree go sideways and gradually see half of its trunks gradually die and leave a big hole in the front landscape. Just after that I was the proud recipient of a Cal Fire Violation Notice about the vegetation clearance around my propane tank, which just happens to be located about twenty-five feet south of where that Sumac died. That meant that the two together created a meaningful change to that area of the front garden and it was no longer business as usual. The area needed some relandscaping. The propane tank was basically surrounded by a gaggle of agaves that had grown both thick and large. I know from experience that with just a few days to dry out, those agaves take well to replanting. I had more than I needed, even after giving some away to three different neighbors. I considered planting some of the agaves where the Sumac had been, but instead decided to buy a meaningful tree for the spot. I found a good deal on a Mimosa tree and then bought a dozen white lily plants for variety and a crepe myrtle tree to block the newly exposed propane tank from the road.
While I was away last week I had three yards of gravel delivered and asked Handy Brad to spread it around the cleared propane tank to lend added assurance to the Cal Fire folks that I was serious about their clearance issues. I guess there was leftover gravel, because Brad decided to spread the rest around the newly planted Mimosa tree. It wasn’t what I had intended for that landscape and would have put in bark mulch after planting the new lilies, but the gravel looked OK enough to just go with it. I also know Handy Brad well enough to know that if I removed the gravel he would feel like he screwed up and he lives with enough boss-man intimidation from his years of apprenticeship and craftsmanship that i felt it best to just roll with the gravel as my random ground cover for that area. That means that when Joventino plants the dozen 5-gallon lilies, he will be planting them into the graveled area and that will look just fine.
In addition to all the front garden renewal work, my neighbor to the south has decided to put up a fence between his parking area and my side garden. My property is on the top of the hill and that makes his parking area downhill from me. I’m not sure a visual barrier was really needed there, but he said his wife wanted to not have their dog, a young Doberman named Summa, get riled up when she saw Betty taking a pee walk around the side garden. I know my neighbor to be a man who respects the sanctity of his castle and rights to do as he pleases and I saw no reason to object to the fence. What he built was actually a lovely wooden horizontal slat fence built from redwood, so it actually is very attractive. If someone came and looked, they would assume that I had built it to visually block his cars from my view, and it actually defines the property separation in a way that seems to give me more property credit than I think I am probably due by a few feet. What it does is create a whole new area for me to beautify with plantings and I know just where I can get some available agaves and aeonium plants that are dried out enough to plant and take root.
I even had my irrigation guy come by yesterday and asked him to extend some of my front irrigation to take care of the new trees and lilies and then to run a soaker line down to where the new plantings at the base of the new fence will be. He will do that next week and I will then have adjusted my garden to the changes that nature and man have both forced upon me. I enjoy this sort of reactive gardening since it feels very natural and not forced. Both of the recent changes are at the outer peripheries of my property, so not very central to the areas I like to enjoy like the patio or the back hillside. I have perhaps three other peripheral areas in the very distant parts of my back hillside that are available for future improvement if I ever feel the desperate need to undertake a new garden project. Some people who have toured my property have even commented that they are sure I have plans for those areas…which I decidedly do not. The longer I live on this hillside, the more I find myself thinking that I will leave this or that alone and then eventually find that I want to chang it in some way to expand my garden. It has all been very unplanned and random, but there seems to be a steady flow of these projects especially during the spring and fall, as one might imagine.
I seem to cycle my changes to the rhythm of Joventino’s once every three weeks visits. When I look at the one large agave tree stalk that juts up in the front garden from one of my Century Agaves, and I see its blooms starting to fade and the stalk starting to brown, I estimate when it should be removed (not a small feat given its 30 or so foot height) and think in terms of which thrice-weekly Joventino visit will put it at the top of the list. I have rattled off my daily list this morning to Joventino starting with the new lilies to be planted and the agave prunings to be discarded. Then there were the half dozen agaves to transplant at the base of the new fence. I added some lower branch tree trimming for one of the lower palo verde trees and the patio bottle tree. I feel that a list for Joventino has to be only so long if I expect him to remember all of the items. But just like with the changes from nature and man that visit my garden, if Joventino remembers to do it, fine, if not, I have three weeks to do it. My gardening is all about adjusting to form with both my work and the garden overall. I enjoy the randomness of it all and don’t fuss too much about the timing. The truth is that I am not in control of much of it and so, I just go with the flow.