Mother's Day at the Filoli Estate

I got to spend a lovely Mother's Day at Filoli. For those of you who haven't had a chance to pop by, Filoli is a large mansion from the early 1900's with an equally amazing estate garden. And it a prime Mother's Day destination. After the crowds thinned out, I got a few shots of the house and garden.

There was a floral show happening the same weekend so we got to enjoy some amazing arrangements. Some of my favorite were the miniature ones - they must have been 2" tall max. And of course the house is breathtaking with beautiful details from the murals to the "rustic" wood floors.

It was a great family day for everyone!

The highlight for Parker must have been when the (baby?) gopher got up on the entry courtyard and couldn't get past the edging and back into the lawn. We first saw it when a woman screamed as the gopher ran between her legs. This quickly caught the attention of all the children in the vicinity, who chased the poor thing around for about 10 minutes.

Every now and then the gopher would turn around facing his young tormentors, stand on his hind legs and give his most vicious gopher snarl. Of course the kids loved that! Parker kept trying to feed him one of his crackers and getting his face inches away from him until I would pull him away. The poor thing finally found his way out of the courtyard into some shrubbery. Oh well, I don't feel too bad about all the chasing after all the gopher damage I've had to deal with at clients' gardens!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, March 2011

The fruit trees we planted a few years ago are really putting on a show right now, which I hope will translate into lots of fruit this summer! The best lookers are the donut peach and the Blenheim apricot. The bees are out in force.

Gotta do something about the aphids that appear on my hellebores about now. They've been getting them for a few years but it hasn't bothered me enough to get the spray bottle out. Hellebores are meant to be neglected right?

I'm loving this new Arctotis, curtesy of the Flora Grubb sale section; the Euphorbs are doing their thing in the parking strip; I forget the name of this Aloe, I think it might be a hybrid I picked up at the Ruth Bancroft Garden; I try to rip out the Geranium 'Bill Wallis' when I see it but I do like it combined with the Cal poppies right now.

I'm excited my Meyer lemon is putting out more flowers. Hopefully it is established enough now that I'll start getting lemons year-round now instead of just in winter. I let some leeks bloom and was surprised at the shape of the flowers - rather leek like! I need to bring in a bouquet of these yummy scented freesias.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Blogger's Bloom Day!

Foliage Follow Up - June 2010

Yesterday on Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day I mentioned how I'm loving my Encelia farinosa. It has silvery foliage that looks great with Stipa arundinacea. My Aeonium glandulosum continues to shoot up new foliage. Last year's foliage is looking a bit neglected. One can tell all the nutrients are going to the new growth.



My Athanasia pinnata is starting to do its octopus impression. And the broccoli leaves look great next to the Golden Feverfew. My silver/gold combos are everywhere! I love the contrast but I wonder if it sets other peoples' teeth on edge. What do you think? OK or garish?



I'm trying to back off a bit from all my close-ups, so here's a shot of my foliage-dominant front yard. Getting to the front door usually involves navigating around miscellaneous waiting-to-be-planted items, not to mention hurdling bags of compost. I'm sure the postman curses me often. The three yuccas under the persimmon tree are now gone. When I planted them they were a pretty purple color but have since reverted to green. And they have a nasty temperament. They were great for protecting our persimmons but they were becoming impossible to garden around without protective eye wear. I did keep the large Aloe plant, or as my son calls it "the owie plant", out front.



I heart Jovibarba! I brought a plant home years ago and it has multiplied quite nicely along the edge of my front porch. Super cute and super tough. I'm putting in a request that we bring this one back into production. Next to it is my Aloe KG14. Nice name huh? I picked up this cutie at a California Horticultural Society meeting. It was donated by the UC Davis greenhouse. Lovely edges to it, love to know what it is!



And here's that pink-red flowered mystery succulent from yesterday's Bloom Day post. It spreads very nicely under my beloved Sophora secundiflora. I got it a couple of years ago from the succulent shelf at the local drug store nursery. It was just tagged "Assorted Succulent". Thanks, that's helpful. I'm thinking it is a Graptopetalum. Any other guesses? Another mystery succulent I got from that same shelf is this Echeveria. It's been fantastic and has spread enthusiastically to form a very pretty border for one of my herb/veggie beds.



Dino kale. Yum, yum, yum, yum. And Squash is pretty even without the harvest!Beans are coming along. I've had a lot of leaf munching in the garden this year. And not just from snails (which are just about eradicated). I'm thinking the earwigs are getting to my blackberries. Gonna have to learn how to catch those suckers. Tried the rolled up newspaper trick last year but that didn't work.



Thanks to Pam at Digging for hosting Foliage Follow Up! Tomorrow I'm going to post what I'll call the Fruit and Veggie Finale. After each Bloom Day and Foliage Follow Up, I'll be letting you know what fruits and veggies are coming out of my garden. Send me a link and let me know what you're harvesting in your garden!