Monday, August 27, 2007

Vacation, Part 2: San Diego


After visiting NYC and a two day layover at home to water and pick veggies it was time to visit my other garden...the one connected to the condo where the sweet granddaughter lives. Since her mom and dad are busy with baby business (among other things) I get to have fun in their courtyard when she's napping or otherwise occupied. My job is to give them something pleasant to look at out the windows but not create anything that requires too much maintenance. When the condo was first purchased my daughter sent a photo of the red flowered vine on the trellis. I couldn't tell what it was...and when I saw it in person I realized why. I had never seen an ivy geranium cover an six foot trellis! OK...San Diego is certainly a different climate than Davis! Other existing plants included pink pandorea, lots of liriope, a red shrub rose and a palm tree. Over the last two years I've added a few boxwoods, nemesia, salvias, allysum, and blue margaurites. I dug up a few clumps of Biokova Cranesbill the morning of one trip last spring, popped it in a plastic bag in my carry-on and planted it in the courtyard that afternoon. It's doing well! One job I've been planning since the spring was to dig and divide a large clump of yellow iris planted by a past owner. It had gotten beyond crowded and didn't bloom well this spring. So the day before this trip I dug a variety of blue and purple iris in my yard to take and mix with her yellow. I ended up with 34 yellow rhizomes, 24 of which I planted around the courtyard. The rest went into my luggage and are now making new friends in Davis. My dad drove the 90 miles to come visit his great granddaughter and was nice enough to trim the dead fronds in the palm tree...a messy job...and harder to trim than one would think. He had already redone their non-functioning sprinkler system on a previous visit...he's my hero! I had hoped to plant some pansies for color but couldn't find any on my quick trip to the store (time with the granddaughter being precious) so I settled for some dianthus...maybe when we return next month I'll have more luck...or maybe that's what will be in my carry-on !

4 comments:

Connie said...

How fun to get to design TWO gardens! That Ivy geranium is amazing on that trellis...very pretty! And is that a palm tree I see in the corner? A different climate indeed!

Annie in Austin said...

Is your head in a whirl after visiting two such different places, Leslie? They sure counterbalance each other well - one so urban [how I envy you the Cloisters!] and one so intimate and nurturing with the garden designer being flown in for consultation and installation.

These are two cool posts!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

growingagardenindavis said...

Connie...yes, that's the palm my dad pruned...the sweet granddaughter loves to watch the shadows from the fronds when the wind blows so it's very popular right now!
Annie...it's been hard to return to my everyday life but I have good memories!

Unknown said...

Oh my gosh... I am astounded. I never thought about "ivy geraniums" growing on a trellis--much less that they would be that huge! When I saw them in the first post (without clicking to enlarge) I assumed "climbing rose" right away.

Glad that you got to spend some time with the Sweet Granddaughter. :)