The 10-minute gardener - Sept. 19, 2009

Image by dewelch via Flickr

Our temperatures are supposed to rise into the triple digit again this week, so I took some time this morning to do a little cleanup in the front garden. There is a lot of work to do there, including pruning the large azalea beds, but today was more cleanup than anything else. The line trimmer brought all the grass in the paths down to a manageable level. I have given up trying to exclude the grass from these paths and now just "mow" it down to a level where it looks planned instead of just wild.

Then, I went through the entire front garden and removed every volunteer I found in the beds. We get saplings from the large elm popping up everywhere, along with the occasional camphor, ash and Mexican Fan Palm (Washingtonia robusta). These palms are the only native palm to California and pop up everywhere due to the birds. If let be, they can grow to enormous size quite quickly. You often see large "plantations" on empty lots and along unkempt property lines. The area below the utility pole in my back garden is a constant battle as new palms sprout with each new rain shower.

Rosanne did some cleanup work on the leaves in the garden, her typical and welcome job in the garden. She always makes sure the garden bin is filled to the brim before each trash pickup day, so we can keep a regular flow of materials out of the garden. As it is, even with this and the 2 composters, we have much more leave mold thatn we know what to do with. That will happen when you have so many trees.

Speaking of trees, the drought is hitting us pretty hard in that regard. We have at east 4 small trees that have died, probably because they had not set their root deep enough when first getting established in the garden. Most of these are conifers of some sort. We need to bring in a arborist to take them out before the winds and rain bring them down of their own accord. They are not too large, but just big enough that I can't take them out by myself. A misplaced cut could bring them down on the house or other garden structure, so I figure it is best to call in the pros.

There is always so much to do in the garden, especially when life gets in the way, so I am trying to get back into my 10-minutes a day habit, attacking one small area or task everyday. I already have quite a list, including...

• Repair drip irrigation line that has broken down under UV
• Agapanthus divisions and replanting
• Dead tree removal
• Dead vine removal on North wall (probably another casualty of the drought)
• Get quotes for fence replacement on south property line
• Clean leaves from house roof before first rain

That should keep me buy for a while. (SMILE)

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