Front yard in late May

I spent a lot of time in the garden this Memorial Day weekend. Yes, a bit of it was relaxing in our new hammock. But I also did some actual work, ranging from repotting plants that had outgrown their previous containers (happens more quickly than you think) to adding more soil to our bamboo stock tanks (the soil had settled a lot) to removing cochineal scale from a prickly pear (isopropyl alcohol and a small brush).

None of these chores were all that exciting—or photogenic—so I didn’t take any pictures. However, I’d like to show you what the front yard looks like at the end of May. I periodically take snapshots like these to have a basis for comparison later on.

The first two panoramas were taken from halfway across the street. The initial wave of spring flowers (Spanish lavender, Jerusalem sage, Cape balsam, red-hot pokers) is over, but the French lavenders are about the bloom and the grasses are beginning to look fantastic.

 

 

This is looking towards the front yard fence from the house. The echinaceas are about to bloom, and the liatris and stokesias are forming flower buds as well.

 

The succulent bed by the front door doesn’t change that much from season to season, but look at that 10 ft. flower stalk next to the pony tail palms! I’ll have a separate post about that soon.

 

Look at the narrow strip between the lawn and the walkway. In the past, it had been difficult to keep this strip looking neat. Last May, i.e. a year ago, I planted two 6-packs of silver carpet (Dymondia margaretae). Check out the before photo here and the after photo below.

 

In the next photo you can see some of the potted succulents on the front porch.

 

And here are some more potted succulents. The ones in the front get sun from early afternoon until sunset. Plants that don’t like the hot afternoon sun are on the south side of the porch (towards the top in the photo below) where they are shaded by the Bradford pear tree.

 

Compared to last year, it seems that the perennials (and especially the large-leafed tropicals like elephant ears and bananas) are a couple of weeks behind. We’ve had a fairly mild spring with just a couple of days in the low 90s. But that is about to change as we head towards 95°F+ degree weather later in the week. The heat will kick things into high gear!