Finishing Summer Planting

went and got more dirt and such! lots of pumice and sand for the monkeyflower and more succulent mix for the rest. it's good for ca natives, drains well and often has pumice, sand, lava rock, or all three already mixed in. i might have broken up the monardella's old soil a little too much, but it was really packed in! i had to rearrange the shrub shape a little bit, hopefully it's okay. i also repotted its mystery volunteer, probably a fringed willowherb? that's what my id apps say at least. i think it is technically a weed but it's native and good for pollinators with pretty flowers so i might as well let it grow! we are having a nasty heatwave this week so fingers crossed everyone survives. they look pretty good after their first intense sun day today, i watered everything well after repotting so they have the best chance. bonus pics of the monkeyflower against a lovely sunset! heatwaves here always bring beautiful skies with them.

we got a real estate ad in the mail for the unit next door, so i need to tear out my old neighbor's invasive plants before someone thinks they come with the house! they're dying pretty rapidly without her daily waterings, and they harbor rats. i don't really care about the rats, that is their house and my dogs like chasing them, but my mom cares. i think i've finalized my plans for the space, i want a lilac verbena 'de la mina', a sulphur buckwheat, and more milkweed to plant between them. i looked for a vine for the shadier part, but couldn't find anything i liked that stays small enough - its only 4ft deep at the shallowest, up to 6ft but a tree is taking up space in that deeper spot. maybe ferns? i really want a fern, i think they're so cool. ideally a bracken fern, but i might have to trek out to a nursery in the city to get that. i didn't look too closely at the selection last time we went to theodore payne, i'll see if they have something i like later! i'll also do my favorite california poppies on the other side of our gate, it's been landscaped with african irises for as long as i can recall and i'm not sure any other large plants could squeeze between, but poppies could! i plan to get seeds and let winter rain do its thang with them. i want to wait to plant for a couple months, we are only just approaching true summer here in los angeles. summer planting is totally possible, especially for containers that get a lot of water and attention anyway, but i think it'd be better to wait until fall. if october isn't brutally hot, maybe then, but i probably have to wait until mid-november when our temps start to drop. in the mean time, i bought a big shovel, and i will be hacking at those begonias as soon as the weather's tolerable.

Starting the Garden

last week we stopped by the theodore payne foundation nursery and picked up a few things! we want to attract butterflies and hummingbirds as well as other pollinators. we got a san diego willowy monardella (monardella linoides ssp. viminea), a narrow leaf milkweed (asclepias fascicularis), and a jelly bean orange monkeyflower (mimulus aurantiacus variant)! i ordered fabric pots and not quite enough dirt and rocks and sand, the monardella is happiest in its container so i planted the other two. i worry i overwatered them after planting, it hasnt been that hot this week and they only get morning sun, but the advice is to thoroughly soak after planting... i need to get more sand for the monkeyflower. i feel bad to have to replant again especially because a spider has already taken up a home in it but i can already tell the mix is wrong its holding too much water :( however the milkweed looks happier already! its roots were starting to tangle up badly in the nursery container, that was the main one i knew needed a big pot immediately. i thought i accidentally drowned all the aphids that came home on it (semi beneficial insects, i was gonna leave them for now) but i saw some come back! yay. well i hope i dont kill these all