Fellemberg Plum

I purchased 2 Fellemberg plum trees (also known as "Italian Plum") from Stark Bros. nursery. One of them had a trunk that was bowed, and since it's in the front yard meant to flank the garden entry, I asked them to send a new one. They did so on the spot - I have to say I'm 100% thrilled with their customer service.

I removed the bowed one and gave it to Kerry H. - I hope they get a lot of years of enjoyment out of it!

Unfortunately, when I pruned the other plum, I left a wound on the trunk. Some of the bark was left in a flap. I cut it off clean this morning so hopefully it will heal without any borers or infection.
 This one I will be calling the "west plum".

NEW GROWTH

Many new photos to share today. To keep it short and sweet - tons of new growth to take note of!

Front bed

East Wall

Lemon #1 (tan pot)

Little Ollie

Little Ollie has a split bark, but still growing

Miss Willmott sweet peas



Rosemary planted spring 2014 filling out

Lemon #2 (blue pot)

Chardonnay vine

Santolina (west)

Red Twig Dogwood

Sweet Autumn Clematis

Baltic Ivy

Teeny Chardonnay grapes

Allium heads opening

Skyrocket junipers filling out

Hopvines coming up - after dividing and giving some to Tyla

Lamb's Ears flower stalks

The Greek oregano from last year is booming

Golden sentinel in bloom - apples? No sign yet.

Kerry's lemon and a mock orange

Even the little Sweet Bay is putting on new growth!

The large Bay is budding

Bay buds

Haircuts

Pictures from April 14th, when I gave all the lavender, the santolina and some of the rosemary a haircut.

Lamb's Ears....compare to next date April 29th

Really took back the santolina

Post-pruning

Post pruning

The Azalea at its best moment

The house as of 4/14/2015.

Moving Day

A few things have needed moving/replanting in the garden. First, the tulips needed to be spread out down the garden, one, two or groupings of three here and there.

Second, the bay just seemed to far back, so I moved it forward to a more prominent spot.

I added two red Cordyline plants to the front bed. They require "full sun" (so, 6+ hours of sun), so we'll see if they get enough sun at the second half of the day. I hope they do, because they sure do add a nice tropical touch.

I pruned the two olive trees today (little Ollie and Arbequina) and fertilized them both.

Arbequina

Arbequina

Little Ollie

New Things

I just potted up an Acanthus Mollis as I don't know where it could go in the garden just yet. Perhaps the northwest corner of the yard if the cypress doesn't work out. Anyhow, I put it in the Greek-est pot I have and it will live in the sun on the back deck for now.

A couple of other things I have going: A begonia called "Golden Balcony" for the front porch (2 of them actually, but I started the first one much earlier indoors) and the Thumbergia - it's growing well but I just nicked the ends off this morning which made it smaller.

Observations as of April 3, 2015

1       The grass is down, which was the last major project this year. Just in the nick of time too - I got it down just before the flu ran through the family (including me) and the weather turned nice. I used Pennington 1-Step, which is a combo of seed, mulch and fertilizer. Total cost was about $140.00. Just trying to keep it moist all the time, and the temperatures are fluctuating quite a bit between mid-30's (at night) to mid-50's and mid-60's during the day.





2     There are too many tulips clustered at the northern end of the IG. They really are beautiful! But it's meant to be a more spare coastal atmosphere - just a few pops of hot color here and there amongst the more subdued greens and grays. And for some reason, the southern half turned up few tulips so it's too bare. The red hot pokers and the Cleopatra foxtails are showing growth however, so it shouldn't be devoid of color for long. Just need to move some of these tulips down that way in the fall.

3     Things are looking pretty nice! We've been fortunate this year, the winter was so mild except for a couple of week-long cold snaps last November. Time for some before-and-after snaps I think:

May 2013



May 2013



 

April 2015

 

April 2015