Pitching Pups
Now that we are in September, it seems to be time to get back into the gardening business I around the hilltop. Springtime seems like an obvious time for planting and growing things, but the autumn is not so intuitive. If I lived in the Northeast, autumn would be a time to prepare plantings for the harshness of winter, but this is San Diego, where the harshest month of December has an average high temperature of 66 degrees and a low of 49 degrees. The annual weather charts show the weather as either warm or comfortable for all but about three weeks at the end of the calendar year. Harshness is not unheard of in San Diego weather, but it certainly isn’t something we have to plan for and the autumn is just another comfortable season heading into mostly more comfortable weather. But nevertheless, my instincts are to tend to my garden in one way or another.
It’s been a “normal” year so far in that I have lost a few plants I really didn’t want to lose. I say plants, but they were really more than just plants. I lost both a Candelabra Cactus (Euphorbia ingens) that was maybe 20 years old and about fifteen feet high, and a Saguaro Cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) that was also fifteen feet high, but probably 75 years old. I hated to loose either, but to be honest, our front yard is such a succulent/cactus menagerie that they are hardly missed to look at the landscape. What brought them to their demise was, I suspect, an over abundance of water from a hot tub system leak. The rest of the garden has flourished this year, strangely enough, due to an abundance of water both from the early atmospheric rivers and then the more recent Hurricane Hilary.
Regardless of the water situation, we have a large spreading Sumac shrub/tree that has not fared well. For some reason known only to the Sumac gods, I have been trimming off dead parts of that Sumac all summer long and the most recent pruning has left a big hole in the front foliage, such that it’s too noticeable to be missed. What seems to be needed in that hole is something bigger than a bush, something more like a tree. Since moving here I have planted eight trees at various spots on the hillside. Four of them have been Palo Verde’s, which are a lovely draught-tolerant tree. Add those four to the other mature five Palo Verde’s and I think I am about full-up on that variety. I only have six Mexican Palm trees, but I am not so very partial to them that I want to add more and they really don’t do a good job a filling-in laterally.
The place with the best inventory of trees is the massive Moon Valley Nursery, but as I have explained before, they are a full-service and VERY pricey nursery that is more a business than a nursery. Instead of going there, I stopped at the quaint little Javier Nursery that is very low-key and quite reasonable relative to any other nearby nurseries. I happen to pass it every day now as I head to the gym to either work-out or swim, so I stopped to look around. I found a large, fifteen-foot high and mature Mimosa (Persian Silk) tree (Albizia julibrissin) and a lavender Crepe Myrtle tree/bush that is perhaps eight to ten feet high. The first has a lovely branching shape and the latter is a full bushy tree with lots of lavender flowers. I got a deal on the two together by negotiating directly with Javier, and he would deliver them in their 36” boxes. They probably weigh a half ton between the two.
While all of that was going on, it seems that the people at Cal Fire haven’t had enough wildfire action to keep them busy (which is a very good thing for us homeowners), so to occupy themselves, someone in the higher echelon has told the boys to go out through the neighborhood and look for proximity violations. The County or State (I don’t really know which) have regulations as to how much distance is supposed to exist between various structures and the surrounding vegetation. When we bought the house, our insurer required that we clear all brush within 100 feet of the house. This did not forbid all vegetation, just what would be considered wild and potentially flammable brush. It made sense, so we had it done. Since then we have planted a lot of that open space (mostly on the back hillside), but I am sure we have maintained the general standard required. However, it seems that the propane tanks which we all have around here are almost all in violation since it is required that there be ten feet of “mineral earth” surrounding them. I suppose the idea is that they are particularly vulnerable and explosive in a wildfire and even verdant vegetation (rather than brush) might help the fire get to the tanks faster if there is no gap barrier. From what I’ve seen of wildfires, its not clear to me that the ten feet would make a huge difference with a fast-moving fire, but rules are rules. Cal Fire sent all four of us on this road violation notices. They gave me about 30 days to rectify the situation and since those Cal Fire guys are probably no busier next month than this month, I’m sure they plan to check for compliance.
I went down to the tank and looked around. It is mostly surrounded by agaves, specifically agave attenuatas, of which I have hundreds in the front yard alone. They range from three-feet-wide blooms to small rhizome pups. The exception is that on one far side of the tank is a 20-year-old large yucca tree, which I did not want to lose. I called the inspector and made my case for the yucca and he agreed that if I took care of the agaves he would allow the yucca to stay so long as it didn’t overhang the tank. That was a big relief. So, yesterday I started pruning away the agaves, piling up the large ones on the DG pathway in one spot and the smaller pups in another spot. So far I’ve put in two days of work and expect that I have another full day’s work since I have hired my old friend Omar to come and help with the back-breaking work.
While agaves are sort of a background vegetation in my yard, they are still a lovely succulent that sprouts great candy cane-like seed stalks in the late fall. I have offered the large blooms and the pups to the entire garden club if they will come to take them. So far Winston, Melisa and at least one other garden club member has taken the bait, so I am actually making serious progress on finding a home for the blooms and the pups, though I suspect tomorrow’s work will result in far too many to easily find takers for. I will save some for replanting when Joventino comes by in a week to help me plant the two trees (which are currently sitting on the edge of the road).
While I am in a front garden improvement mode, I have decided to replace a troubled bed of Tree Aeoniums by the front roadside. I went back to Javier today and got a deal on ten white butterfly or fortnight lilies, which aren’t succulents but are used through my garden to highlight spots where some color is needed. These lilies flower regularly through the year and are thus great accent plants for all our greenery. Of course, that will give me some Aeonium blooms and pups to find places for, but that will be easy relative to all those agaves. I had no idea when I got into gardening that I would find myself out here pitching pups.