The Last of My Summer Blooms and Harvest

This spectacular hibiscus bloom on a tiny little plant I got in a Home Depot sale.  Ever since I put it in the ground it stopped blooming :(

This sweet little cacti had 6 of these flowers this summer, and the flowers are almost larger then the whole plant.  One of my pots on the right that I made last school year when I demoed throwing and altering pots from the wheel.   

My topsy-turvy strawberry plant that bore 5 whole fruits.  What a disappointment !  and they weren't sweet at all, I probably should have fertilized more. 

Even though you only see one boysenberry and it's not even ripe yet, I'd say I harvested about 3 dozen off this vine this past summer.  My largest crop in the 3 years I've been growing it.  :)

Even though I had hundreds of fragrant blossoms this spring, I was only left with 5 grapefruits after the Santa Anas got thru with their blowing season.  But hey, at least they all didn't blow away!

This was my first year trying to grow a grape vine, pretty funny, huh?  Even though they look pathetic,  believe it or not, they were sweet and delicious.

And here's the little guy I showed you the other day, and these are his flowers, so delicate.  And all of this growing in an escargot shell.  Roger's Gardens in Newport Beach come with with the most clever planters!

Good-bye Summer, Hello Fall

Finally the terrible summer heat and humidity have broken, and we are having some cooler weather, like in the 70's and 80's.  But that heat did bad things to many of my plants, and I'm giving them extra care right now to hopefully bring them back from the brink.  Fortunately, I was able to get a couple of shots before the heat hit.  

I actually put my garden sphere in the garden, gee, how novel?  And my little ivy birdcage that Jim gave me for Mother's Day is thriving here, but not anymore.  I almost lost it in that searing heat.  I think I counted 3 green leaves left.  But I won't give up on it yet.

Then there's this little guy that my son Zach gave me, believe it or not, this tiny little baby survived the heat and actually bloomed right after I took this pix.

My african daisies are still hanging on barely, but I lost all the yellow orange calendula and nasturtiums below. 

Oh well there's always next year!

Topsy-Turvee Time in my Garden

For a joke this last Xmas, Jim got me 2 topsy-turvees thinking I wouldn't be able to grow anything in them, well then, looky here, tomatoes and strawberries.  But I really didn't like them too much, they are weird to water and drip all over your patio, so they are gonna go bye-bye after the growing season.

I'm having some success with our grapefruit tree we purchased this winter.  Initially it was loaded with fruit, but then the Santa Ana winds came and blew most all the fruits off.  I now have a total of 5 fruits still going strong.

My parsley, basil and swish chard did well this summer, plus I put in another tomato plant just in case the topsy-turvee wasn't a go.

Garden Delights

My mother's amaryillus bulb that comes up every year was especially lovely this year at my ex's.  I forget it's there so it's always such a welcome surprise.

A Little Slice of Heaven

Living in a stacked townhouse really limits my gardening as I'm not supposed to plant anything in the community common areas, but sometimes you just have to break the rules a tiny bit like here right in front our patio.  Originally there were only 3 small agapanthus there, so I put in a camilla (which died so I replaced it with a mini rosebush- yellow/orange), a couple mini nandinas (against the fence), and the little cutie in the front center (forgot it's name).  Plus what you can't see above is that I planted a bunch of bulbs.

But now  you can see them after a bit of watering and bat guano...

and wella!  A splendid English garden, and it's blooms below!!

My momma always told me I had a green thumb like hers  :)

Life is like a Box of Chocolates...

Ya just never know...

what you're gonna get   LOL

The last time I saw this I had placed it on Mary Pinedo's desk at school, a present from one gardener to another.  I promise... I didn't try to grow this on purpose...sometimes s _ _t  just happens  :)