Matt went out and watered the garden today, while I was at a horse show! Thanks Matt :)

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Plant profile: Coreopsis

Cheap'n'cheerful is the category usually assigned to Coreopsis, readily available at Home Despot and the like for a couple bucks per pint-sized plant. And of course they usually only have the double golden-yellow variety, and none of the cool burgundy-marked, pink or orangey ones. Oh well.

But what a little winner! Emily added one to the middle back bed and it went nuts.  I grabbed a couple more of these guys to replace the wallflowers who went to seed and looked sad right away recently in the middle back bed. Then I added a couple more, and paired with the blue Scabiosas they have been putting on quite the show. (See pic below, with CA Poppies in the foreground too)

Latin name: Coreopsis ("kor-ee-OP-sis")
Common name: Tickseed, Calliopis
Originally from: 28 species are native to North America, the other 7 are from Central and South America.
Blooms: Spring through Summer - the more you deadhead, the more flowers you get!
Light: Full sun
Water: Rain is plenty.
Where to find in P. Garden: In the middle back bed we have five plants.

The common name, tickseed, comes from the Greek koris (meaning bedbug) and opsis (meaning view) because the seedpod looks like a bedbug. In 1991 the flower of the genus Coreopsis was designated as Florida's official wildflower. And I think we can safely say it's the official flower of the middle back bed right now, too!

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Early morning watering

Dragging the heavy (albeit shiny and new) hose reel around is work! It's worse than hauling your luggage through three plane changes, because luggage is rarely wet and muddy.

Lucky for me, Matt is out hauling the hose reel around and watering right now. And Arum and Leanne also watered the Mariposa Center Garden yesterday.

Contrary to popular belief, watering on a hot, sunny day doesn't burn leaves. I've been out there gaily splashing about on the most roasting day and never had an issue. And think about it: if it did burn leaves, all sorts of plants in many areas of the world would shrivel up and die anytime there was rain during the day.

That said, water does evaporate much faster on a hot or windy day (and as you locals will know, we haven't had a hot day in weeks. Pah.) so in the interests of water conservation, it's best to water in the early morning or at night, and use a system that delivers water to the roots (drip, a wand) versus sprinklers, if you can.

Pic above: Rudbeckia hirta

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Pet profile: Bentley

This is the first in a new series: pets who visit Pennsylvania Garden! Bentley is a regular, along with his owner, Emily.

Name/Nickname: Bentley; Bee, Little Bear, Muffin, Fluffers and Big Red
Breed: Cocker Spaniel
Age: 11
Owner: Emily and Ryan
Loves: Ice cubes, any edible item found on the ground, and of lots of cuddling from humans
Dislikes: Rambunctious puppies or children. Getting a bath. 
How long have you been visiting P. Garden? Almost since the beginning!

If you see us at the garden... Bentley will be sleeping under the bench and I will be weeding/pruning/watering as I volunteer at the garden quite often. Stop and say hello! 
Bio: Abandoned by his 1st owner on the streets of San Antonio, Texas Bentley followed the mail carrier around until his second owner took him in.

Luckily, the second owner was Ryan's Mom, which is how he eventually became our dog. Ryan and I have had Bentley for 6 years, and are now officially crazy dog people. We love Bentley very much and are glad we are his 'forever family' as they say at the SPCA.

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Hard at work - elsewhere!

This weekend Matt and I were hard at work - on our own patio! We did water the garden on Saturday morning, and Emily and I attended the Rebuild Potrero Garden Focus Group, but aside from that little got done in the garden. How unusual!

I did snap a pic this morning showing the Cortaderia selloana "Silver Comet" that's about to flower (or set seed, or make fluff-sticks, or whatever it's doing) for the first time. You'll faint with relief when you hear that this is a sterile cultivar and the entire neighborhood is not, as you had feared, about to be overgrown with pampas grass. What's more, it's timing is very good - the neighboring cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) is just about done for the season, which, when cut down, will be leaving a gigantic, arching, awe-inspiring hole in the bed. No matter - Cortaderia to the rescue!

I'll post more pics as the fluff-sticks emerge further.

In other news, Matt and I enjoyed a nice trail ride with our horses in Pacifica yesterday, and loved the native Dudleya cymosa (Canyon Liveforever) succulents growing all over the coastal hills, and currently flowering. They are tenacious little things - we took this photo of one group clinging to a tree root, dangling in the air, and waving in the breeze! I wonder how long they can survive like that?

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Demolition derby

Yesterday Matt and I went t the garden and found Emily and Ryan there, with their pup Bentley! Emily was trimming the Dahlias, and planting sweet pea seeds for the sale, and Ryan was disparaging the weeds.

Matt set to work rearranging the storage area, throwing out lots of trash and tidying the plant pots for the sale. Then he demolished the cardoon (Cynara cardunculus)!  You can see the before and after pics at left.

This perennial was done flowering and looking really ratty. It'll come back, but in the meantime, he took it down tot he ground and chopped all the parts to go int he compost bin. There's a massive hole in the bed now - eeek!

Meanwhile I set up the horses to water the beds that needed it, deadheaded some roses, weeded the pathways, removed some baby Maxican feather grass that were growing in the paths to pot up for the sale, and deadheaded some Scabiosas and Coreopsis.

I also went down the storm drain with pruners in hand and removed all the spend Aloe nobilis flowers. Much neater now (see before and after pics at left)! The entire cactus was is extremely dry, having had practically no water in about 8 months now from any source. One Agave is even looking... shriveled! I plan to water them today.

Also go to get those redwood boards into position down on the Mariposa Center Garden - they are cluttering up the pathway! I'll need some help with that.

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Vandalism

Today Matt and I went to the garden to potter about a bit before other things we have to do today, and discovered we had a visitor in the garden last night. Someone came and dumped all of Emily's 24 four inch pots of sweet pea seeds she set up yesterday, and a pot of daffodil bulbs. They also knocked the dog poop wheelie bin into the neighboring lavender plant (smashed it) and tried to knock over the poop bag dispenser too.

Lastly, they ripped out the Yucca "Garland's Gold" that was looking really nice (pic above) in the middle back bed. I looked all over the garden, and walked around adjoining streets looking in trash cans. It's gone :(

Days like this make me feel like removing all the nice plants and just leaving cacti...

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