The way Jim and I have traveled in the past, I’m rarely home for daffodils or my spring flowers. The special varieties like these, bloom later than the old standard golden yellows.
I waited so long to take a picture of this variety, it is almost eaten up by bugs.
The goldens are now gone but I did manage to catch a couple.
A golden hybrid with an orange colored center.
Also gone are the forsythia blooms, that come out on bare wood. The green leaves have replaced the flowers.
The grape hyacinths are lost now in tall grasses.
Pink cherry and wild Indian peach blossoms also bloom on bare wood.
They’ve been replaced by pink apple blossoms that bloom after leaf out.
For weeks, now, the air is fragrant with lilacs. They are just beginning to fade, but when warmed by the sun, they still send up that marvelous fragrance.
I took these photos over a period of time and have really enjoyed my yard. Yesterday I pulled weeds for an hour and found out how out of practice I am. The muscles said, “we don’t do this any more.” I used to spend hours pulling foxtails and needle grass, and other undesirables.
This rhododendron is woody and barely blooms because it belongs in a rainforest and here it gets no water except rain, a decision made two years ago. It is still hanging on.
Bulbs don’t mind the drought.
Red Valerian is hardy in a barrel.
My plan for the drought is to replace everything that dies with lavender, rosemary and sages. They are hardy and require little water. Lavender attracts bees as well and they were busy on this plant. What’s not to like?
My housemate loves petunias and she somehow gets two years out of them.
It makes sense to have flowers in containers that don’t require so much water to keep them alive.
Well established plants close to the house will get minimum water. It is a big investment in landscaping, but my choices were not good for a long drought. I’m working on getting my well up and running. Hopefully it still has water. I’m looking into a rainwater catchment system, too. I just read the bad news about melting ice shelfs and the Solomon Islands that are barely above the water and losing ground rapidly to sea levels.we have rough years ahead.
We have to make do with less. I noticed that figs survive on rain. My orchard now has four trees instead of twelve. The almonds and stone fruits are long gone. If I get the well up an running, I’ll try for figs and hazelnuts as orchard food crops. Maybe strawberries in a mini green house along with my chicken eggs. My survivalist mentality.
I am enjoying my yard and my new browser, a relative of Mozilla Firefox that was so contaminated i was afraid to download it a third time. It is called SeaMonkey. I feel like my computer is a friend, again.
Ciao
