Going Bananas!

A year ago we were hard at work getting our landscaping done.  We planted two of our three banana trees on June 4th:

The third one went in about a week later:

 

 

By July 1st, they looked like this:

One year later, here they are, higher than the wall and over 50 inches tall!

It is amazing to watch their progress.  They took a beating during our Santa Ana wind season, but they are coming back strong.

Spring Cleaning

I know I've been pretty quiet over here.  I've been busy spring cleaning.  We had to dig up all our Canna lilies, that's all 24 of our Canna lilies!  They are loving where they are, so much that they decided to keep on growing, moving into our yard.  They are now in pots and we're hoping that will keep them contained a little better.  The plan going forward is to thin them out each year, removing old roots, and watching them grow some more!

 

In addition to gardening, I also washed all the windows inside our house, plus the outside of all the downstairs windows.  Les will do the outside of the upstairs.  The windows were in desperate need - we spent two years redoing our landscaping so there was a lot of dust, dirt and grime.

 

 

 

Les has other things on his list.  That includes replacing all the handles on our showers.  The insides were corroded and we had trouble turning the water on.  They are working great now!

 

Yesterday I started in on my kitchen.  I took everything out of every drawer and cupboard.  My dining room table is now covered with things ready for Goodwill.  Does anyone really need three crock pots?   I'm getting rid of glasses and vases, along with a lot of miscellaneous pots and pans.  I also put any expired food in the trash.  I really don't like doing that, but when I say "expired" I'm talking expired in 2003!  Yes, it was past time.

I have to say, it's hard work but so satisfying!

Landscape Update

It's been a few months now since we finished our landscaping project.  I usually spend one to two hours a week on maintenance and Les does the mowing every other week.  Maintenance is so much easier than trying to get things under control!  (There's a real life lesson there.)

Our variety of cannas continue to be the heroes.  They have grown significantly.  These are the Intrigues in the back yard, planted on May 29th:

 

 

This picture was taken on July 1st:

These pictures were taken last Saturday, September 25th.  The wall is slightly over five feet high:

 

We had ordered boulders for the strip between the sidewalk and the street and they finally came.  We love the look!

We had one problem area.  Our succulents behind the pool were dying.  We think we might have been over-watering them but they were on the same zone as plants that need more water.  We pulled them out and re-planted them in the front planter with our Agave and other succulents.  You can't really see them, but they haven't died yet so we're hopeful!

 

Les dug up several cannas and transplanted them where the succulents had been.  They are already growing.

This one has a brand new shoot coming up:

A few more pictures in the back:

While doing maintenance this morning I noticed many of our geraniums are ready to explode:

There really is nothing like enjoying the fruit of your own labor!

A Few More Pictures

I didn't post any pictures that got the entire front of our house yesterday.  I didn't have any on my phone that didn't also have piles of flagstone or rocks in the driveway.  It's hard to get any good shots in the morning because of the angle of the sun.  This morning, our sky looked like this when I headed out for my run:

I was lightly sprinkled on a couple of times and even saw a rainbow.

It was still mostly cloudy when I got home, so I was able to get some really good shots:

Welcome to Our Home!

The day has finally arrived ~ our landscaping project is complete!  Finished!  Done!  Much labor went in to this project and it actually feels a little strange (in a good way) to not have it hanging over our heads anymore.   We ordered all of our plants from Plants Express and we are extremely happy with what we got.  After we placed our order it was sent to a local nursery.  The plants came to us in great condition and they are starting to flourish.

 

So without further ado, please join me in a walk around our yard. Let's start in the front.  This is on the side of our driveway.  Three banana trees and a Japanese maple tree:

 

Between the sidewalk and the street, we have agave with stone.  We used leftover flagstone the fill it out.  We wanted simple, drought tolerant for these spaces:

 

Across the driveway is another Japanese maple tree:

 

In our planters (you remember the planters that started this whole project?) we have succulents, agave and geraniums:

Along the side wall are two types of Canna lilies, Tropicannas and Chocolate Infernos:

 

Across from the cannas is a bougainvillea:

 

And our third Japanese maple tree is between the cannas and the bougainvillea:

 

 

Under the kitchen window are geraniums:

Directly across from them are three more Tropicannas:

 

On the other side of that wall are three rose bushes:

A view from the front door:

Looking left of the front door, we have calla lilies and more roses:

I thought this guy was perfect for the back corner:

On the other side of the wall from the roses is a cordyline:

I tried my hand at some panoramic shots:

Now let's head into the back!  This is from the gate shown in the above picture.  Just outside my kitchen window is another variety of canna lilies - the Intrigue:

I can see this one from the window at my kitchen sink.  It has been growing like crazy!  It was about 24 inches when I planted it on May 29th.  I measured it on July 1st and it was 34 inches.  Today it is 59 inches!  That is two feet in eleven days!!

Next to the Intrigues are four palm trees:

 

 Another panoramic view:

Along the back wall, starting in the corner is a bougainvillea.  It needs a little attention so it won't lean so much:

Along the back wall are more rose bushes, geraniums, and a palm tree cluster:

Continuing along the back wall, behind the pool are a variety of succulents and another cordyline:

 

Turning the corner, we start with another cordyline:

 

We have more geraniums, Wyoming canna lilies, another Tropicanna, and one more cordyline:

These are the only mature geraniums we bought.  We originally bought 4 flats of 16 plants in four inch pots for 64 total.  We planted all of them and needed just a few more.  We could only find larger ones locally.

This is one of the few plants that was not removed for this project.  We call it the "jungle plant" which seems to fit:

From the jungle plant to the gate are more geraniums, Intrigue cannas, and two more bougainvilleas:

 

Now we'll turn around and walk along the house.  A few more geraniums:

 

 

 

cast-iron:

 

and variegated shell ginger:

 

Along the back patio we start with a couple more calla lilies:

Around the corner is a geranium and two rose bushes.  Some of our geraniums have really struggled and all of our roses went into shock when we planted them.  These two are the last ones we planted, so they're the last to recover:

Our final Tropicannas:

Even when the flowers fade and are pruned off, the leaves are spectacular:

Our final geranium and rose bush:

And a couple more panoramas of the back:

And there it is!  Thanks for visiting!