Plant sale of note: Recon Native Plants is a wholesale nursery in San Diego. They are open to the public on occasion, including this Saturday, January 26. Its an opportunity to pick up some interesting things as they grow a few things that are not commonly available.
For this weekend, then, here's the plan:
1. Planting. I've got about 15 pots that have been sitting around, plants that are waiting to get into the ground. I'll test a few spots out to see if the soils have dried out enough to plant. The thing about planting in wet soil is that they can become too compacted. Keep in mind the planting process. You dig the whole, place the plant, back fill, tamp it down a bit, then water to fill in any large ga. ps. If the soils are already wet and then you tamp down, then the soil becomes very compacted. On top of that, any water would have difficulty draining. I've got clay soils, so the water would just sit. By the weekend, things will have been dry for over a week and its a good time to see if I can get the rest of these plants into the ground.
2. Weeding. There are a lot of weeds coming up now. I don't know the names of most of them. There's the low creeping thing with small round leaves and inconspicuous flowers that form dense mats. There's Euphorbia crenulata, which is actually a California native but manages to push into wet spots and push out everything else. And there are plenty of Sow Thistle, onesies and twosies. But if you let them go, it'll be hudredsies and two hundresies next year. Since the soils are still a little moist, its easier to weed. The roots pull out easier. I was once weeding out at the Payne Foundation and pulled a mustard plant. The soils were moist and I was able to get about six feet of root out of the ground! Those things have deep roots.
3. More weeding... Evil Ehrharta. There is a weedy grass from South Africa called Ehrharta erecta that seems to be especially happy in the Winter months. I think its rampant growth has more to do with the rains than anything, and we've had plenty of rain. So I'm especially on the lookout for this stuff. It will push its way up through all sorts of plants, all of its seeds seem to be fertile, and it will absolutely take over when given the slightest opportunity. And the seeds live a long while in the soil. The laves are Granny Smith apple green and once you recognize the inflorescence you will always know what to pull. In my yard, they always seem to come up with seedlings of Sisyrinchium bellum and I invariably wind up pulling the blue-eyed grass with the evil Ehrharta. Small price to pay.
4. The New Fence. I'll spend more time thinking about the fence I want to build. I've been thinking about it for a couple of years now, since I took out the old one. I need to build it but I don't want to remove the cement plugs from the old fence. So I'll spend some more time thinking about it. I'll probably stretch out the string to see exactly where it should go, too. That sounds productive without requiring any back-breaking effort....just some scratches from the climbing rose.
5. Admiration. The Arctostaphylos 'Dr. Hurd' are blooming in the front yard. They started last week and should be peaking in another week or two. Its always good to stop and admire your work once in awhile. When this plant goes into bloom, and I have two at my front pathway, its well worth stopping to enjoy. The bees and hummingbirds love this one, as they did the A. glauca from last month.
