Bloom Day — Construction Zone
This is probably the paltriest bloom day I’ve had in a long time. A few months ago, when we started working on our new garden shed, I cut a lot of the plants back hard to get them out of the way while we’re working. I expected them to come back with the winter rains, but that was depending on it actually raining this winter. We’ll see if that eventually happens, but until then a lot of the plants are still dormant. Overall, though, the weather has been great for our project. Later today the window goes in; tomorrow we do the sheetrock. Then we’re mostly just waiting on the door. After that I’m going to stucco the exterior to match the house and do a stone floor. By early February it should look finished, though there’ll likely still be more finish work to do.
Between the construction and the time of year, the calendulas are the only plant that really makes a show of color in the garden. They’ve been kicked, stepped on, hit with two by fours, buried under stacks of bamboo, and they just spring right back up and keep blooming. The original seeds were blessed by Amma the Hugging Saint, apparently a powerful blessing.
Anita started looking after the veggie garden after the construction started. Not much happening in January.
The Chasmanthe is blooming well in our hell strip. I should appreciate them more than I do.
The Iochroma has some flowers up at the top of the plant. It seems able to bloom at any time of the year in our garden.
With all the sun we’ve been having lately, I thought there might be a lot of out of season blooms, but the Salvia ‘Green Carpet’ is the only one I would call truly out of season. There are a few token flowers on the Galvezia, the Sidalcea, and the Huechera maxima, but that’s happened in past years, too.
This little manzanita cluster has a berry, old flowers, and new flowers. I feel like this isn’t a good year for the manzanitas, with the lack of rain, but I don’t really know yet. This guy, A. ‘John Dourley,’ is doing pretty well considering he’s been covered in sawdust several times.
We have a few other things in bloom but nothing else of note. Mostly the garden is hunkered down, waiting for the construction to finish and the rains to come. Thanks to Carol for hosting Bloom Day. Check out MayDreamsGardens for lots of gardens showing off their flowers.
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 15th, 2012 at 1:39 pm and is filed under garden bloom day, plants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 15th, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Sure looks like you timed your shed building well – 2 months without rain are pretty rare in winter. Nicely done. Are you sure this is a shed and not an office?
Yeah, I’m not so sure about the manzanitas either. Let’s have some rain and we’ll see whether the recover.
Happy bloom day!
January 15th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Projects like yours are a lot of work but rewards are great… enjoyed your post… Larry
January 15th, 2012 at 10:21 pm
I’ve been watering my garden-planted manzanita and they are doing fine. I don’t mind supplementing for the garden plants, a few deep waterings. The native indigenous ones I don’t water are still looking OK, some semi-shaded ones are blooming. The oaks look stressed though. Fingers crossed for rain by next weekend, eh!
January 16th, 2012 at 1:21 pm
Congrats on the shed project. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished and especially the stone floor. Judging from the blooms it looks like sawdust has been a good thing to dust on your plants… Happy belated GBBD!
January 16th, 2012 at 2:36 pm
The shed is looking great…can’t wait to see it finished! You gotta love the Calendulas for their forgiving nature!
January 18th, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Townmouse, you’re right, we’re planning to use it as an office. I guess because it’s in the same spot and is the same size as the old garden shed, I still call it that.
Larry, yep, an I’m at that point where fatigue can set in, so I gotta focus on those end rewards.
Countrymouse, our manzanitas are okay without any extra water, I just wonder if they’ll bloom well this year.
James, I think the sawdust has bothered me more than the plants.
Scott, I sometimes forget, but a forgiving nature is one of my favorite things in a plant.
January 18th, 2012 at 9:33 pm
Hey Ryan: That Crocosmia… isn’t that Chasmanthe?
January 18th, 2012 at 10:20 pm
You might be right. Crocosmia has a better flower doesn’t it? I was saying I should appreciate it more, and that would start with knowing what it is I guess. Very poor on my part.