130223 - New Stairs

Since we moved into the house, we've used tree stumps as steps from the patio to the terraces.

The last batch of stumps rotted at the end of January. Instead of finding and installing new ones, Phil decided to build a staircase this weekend.

The brand stamped into one of the boards says it all.

120429 - Delphiniums

Yesterday afternoon, I took this video of the delphiniums at the bottom, left of the terraces, where you can also see cala lilies, red California poppies, ranunculus, bachelor buttons, snapdragons and echeveria in bloom.

Some of the dephinium flower stocks are two feet long.

09 Summer - Canterbury Bell

Earlier this year, Phil and I bought a rare, perennial canterbury bell and planted it in the garden bed, where we had recently pulled up an echium that had taken over the trail at the top, left of the staircase up the hillside.

I must admit this canterbury bell has exceeded all of my expectations. It grows and grows and weekly sends up gorgeous whitish purple flowers faster than I can count them.

090528- Candy Tuft

I don't think I have a favorite flower - They're all my favorites! - but if you asked me right now which one am I the most excited about, I'd have to say the candy tufts.

In the photo showing the staircase and waterfall, you can see the candy tufts have taken over the bed with the flowering cacti.

At the bottom right of this photo, you can see part of a long, narrow bed just above the lemon tree. It was here where I first encountered candy tufts, which sprang up spring, 2008, from a mixed-seed pack I tossed into this bed when it was clear the pocket gophers had decimated the gladioli.

I love the intricacy of the flowers and its color range from white to pink to dark purple, and I must say I was thrilled and Phil was annoyed by how massive the plants grew when started in early winter, 2008. Phil was annoyed because we literally had to wade through the plants to spot the anemones and ranunculus also in this bed.

090528 - Delphiniums

Here are six photographs of three delphiniums at the bottom of the staircase.

All winter, raccoons persistently dug around and eventually killed the white one that had grown massive and sent up dozens of flower stocks during its blooming cycles over the last two years or so.

I was really disappointed, but these dark purple and pale purple delphiniums have nearly made up for the loss.

In the photo I took at the top of the stairs, you can see the new white one I planted a month or so ago to replace the one wiped out by the raccoons.

Sometime in summer, 2008, I planted the dark purple and pale purple delphiniums. They were unremarkable until late this spring, when they grew massive, their flower stocks almost three feet long.

Nursery

Here you can see growing inside the nursery Phil made for Christmas, 2007, six packs of canterbury bells, winter sweet peas and stock. The columbines planted in the six pack to the far right haven't come up yet.

The bottom row has two pots with clarkia, which readily reseeded itself from fall, 2008. Out of view are six little pots containing a red echium each. These are the descendants of the nine-foot-tall mammoth, commonly called "Tower of Jewels," which grew in the fride (FRont sIDE) garden in 2008.

The second photograph shows the view of the terraced gardens from the nursery. Everything's pretty much dormant or growing steadily for a spring show. The fountain works rather well now, though there's still a leak somewhere.

Phil loves the cala lilies near the blue base of the waterfall.

The tinfoil you see hung from string is the most effective way I've found to scare birds out of the yard. It's a bit unsightly, but not nearly as bad as bird netting I used to string up like beleaguered tents across the backyard.

080511 - Waterfall

Here's a photograph of the waterfall taken yesterday.

Phil hasn't yet repaired the leak, but he's gotten the waterfall to work rather well for a short period of time.

As you can see, the snapdragons, naturtiums, succulents, Australian turf grass and lobelia are doing great.

Behind the garden hose are several sweet peas on the verge of blooming.

080406 - Phil Working On The Waterfall

I stayed inside for most of today to catch up on work, and took this photograph from Phil's bedroom window of him working on the waterfall.

He refoamed in place the sconce that had been damaged in a storm earlier this year, but says there's still a slow leak in a section about where he's standing. He thinks he's going to have to pull out the section and redo it completely before the waterfall runs correctly.

You can see how much the gardens have changed in just over a year by jumping to this post:

07 Late Winter - Gardens

07 Late Fall - Waterfall Views

These are three photographs I took of the waterfall on the same day late last fall.

Phil thought growing nasturtiums over the waterfall would look nice, especially when they were in bloom. But he's recently pulled up whole sections, since the plants grew very densely, blocking the view from the stairs of much of the terraced gardens.

I think the cacti were especially happy to say Bon voyage! to the nasturtiums, which had grown over them and blocked their afternoon sunlight.

In January, 2008, we had a terrific winter storm with hurricane-strength gusts. The wind shoved through that fence at the top of the terraces the huge cactus in its container, shattering both fence and container. It also bent upward the copper sconce draining water into the waterfall's blue basin.

We transplanted the cactus into a larger container and put it to the far left of the stairs, but left the shattered fence where it dropped. We're going to build a trellis there later this year.

The copper sconce hasn't worked properly since the storm, so Phil recently took it apart and is re-foaming it later this spring, when he plans to rework one section of the waterfall that has had a slow leak.

080306 - Terraced Gardens

I took this short video of the gardens this afternoon, when the sun was descending behind the evergreens southwest of our house.

I'll do a similar video in a month or so to show how rapidly the gardens change, as spring approaches.

06 Summer - Hot Tub Fence

We built the hot tub fence in the summer, 2006. The fence posts were sunk in three feet of cement, while the fence itself is louvered vertically to allow in as much light as possible.

One of the first things we did when we moved into this house was build the hot tub's foundation. Its perimeter is cinder blocks held in place by rebar. Twenty-six bags of gravel were used to create the level surface it sits on.

I took this photograph at the top of the stairs, which led to nowhere until we finished the terraces that winter.

The sweet peas and larkspur were incredible. You can see the larkspur closest to the hot tub fence hadn't yet bloomed. When they did, they cut off access to the staircase, and we had to walk through the gardens to climb the hillside. I overplanted.