Monday, September 3, 2007


The house is finally painted. It turned out well. It’s going to be a great background for the deep evergreens and subtropicals that I’ve put in.
Saturday I went to downtown farmer’s market and got a really beautiful and beautiful-smelling ginger which I put on the north corner. The grower said it will get 6 – 8’. The dwarf palmettos are slow-going but a really wonderful blue-gray green and eventually will anoint the walls with their tropical fans.
I still have a windmill palm that I haven’t planted. I think I’ll hold off and eventually put it on one side of the front path with the oleanders, rose, cactus and yucca that I have planned for the big street-side front bed. I propagated a super-white oleander from a cutting over on Arroyo Seco, but I think it will be a year or two before it’s large enough to put in ground. The shrub on Arroyo Seco is very dark blue-green foliage and milk-white blooms. I could buy another oleander but the nurseries don’t have this variety and you never know what you are getting. Most of the white oleanders in the stores have yellow-green foliage and white flowers with yellow centers.
Another 1-1/2 inches of rain!