Vacation, Part 2: San Diego

After visiting NYC and a two day layover at home to water and pick veggies it was time to visit my other garden...the one connected to the condo where the sweet granddaughter lives. Since her mom and dad are busy with baby business (among other things) I get to have fun in their courtyard when she's napping or otherwise occupied. My job is to give them something pleasant to look at out the windows but not create anything that requires too much maintenance. When the condo was first purchased my daughter sent a photo of the red flowered vine on the trellis. I couldn't tell what it was...and when I saw it in person I realized why. I had never seen an ivy geranium cover an six foot trellis! OK...San Diego is certainly a different climate than Davis! Other existing plants included pink pandorea, lots of liriope, a red shrub rose and a palm tree. Over the last two years I've added a few boxwoods, nemesia, salvias, allysum, and blue margaurites. I dug up a few clumps of Biokova Cranesbill the morning of one trip last spring, popped it in a plastic bag in my carry-on and planted it in the courtyard that afternoon. It's doing well! One job I've been planning since the spring was to dig and divide a large clump of yellow iris planted by a past owner. It had gotten beyond crowded and didn't bloom well this spring. So the day before this trip I dug a variety of blue and purple iris in my yard to take and mix with her yellow. I ended up with 34 yellow rhizomes, 24 of which I planted around the courtyard. The rest went into my luggage and are now making new friends in Davis. My dad drove the 90 miles to come visit his great granddaughter and was nice enough to trim the dead fronds in the palm tree...a messy job...and harder to trim than one would think. He had already redone their non-functioning sprinkler system on a previous visit...he's my hero! I had hoped to plant some pansies for color but couldn't find any on my quick trip to the store (time with the granddaughter being precious) so I settled for some dianthus...maybe when we return next month I'll have more luck...or maybe that's what will be in my carry-on !