My Garden Diary

Drenched the dwarf lemon with systemic insecticide to combat leaf miners. The tree also looks like it might have spider mites, which will also be controlled by the drench.

Some of the wax-leaf begonias in front along the brick walkway are quite puny. I noticed that the soil appears quite dry just hours after the sprinklers run. Running the sprinklers longer might not help because the begonias are at the edge of coverage. So I began soaking the begonias with a slow-trickling hose.

The star jasmine is still not growing vigorously (12 Aug and 28 Jul). Because of the heat, I gave it a slow soaking over the past three days.

Renewed some of the mulch in the camellia bed with the output from my office shredder.

Tied down some new canes from the climbing 'Peace' rose.

The dwarf kumquat is infested with citrus leaf miner. While this pest can be ignored on full-sized, mature trees, it can kill dwarf or young trees. I drenched the soil with a systemic insecticide. The dwarf lemon also needs that treatment, but I did not have enough of the insecticide concentrate to mix a drench for it. I plant to take care of the lemon within the next few days.

Tied a new cane on the climbing 'Dublin Bay' rose to the top of the slough wall behind it.

Raked the decomposed granite walkways around the bad lawn to pick up the residue from when I trimmed the lawn (1, 9 & 12 Aug).

Fed the roses — front and back — with ammonium sulfate. I also fed the star jasmine again (28 Jul). I gave the Alstroemeria and Chrysanthemum morifolium just a trace of the fertilizer. Both of the latter are in pots with a fast-draining mix. That means nutrients leach away quickly, but it also means that roots are confined and can be easily burned with too much fertilizer.

Finished trimming the back lawn. This also meant that I trimmed around the various plants growing within the edges of the lawn.

Tied up the potted Chrysanthemum.

The potted dill (Anethum graveolens) is history. It just did not do well this year. On the other hand, the potted basil (Ocimum basilicum) continues to grow vigorously.

Some of the white Cuphea hyssopifolia in the rose bed in back got severely burned during the July heat wave, which occurred when my sprinklers were shut off for repairs (22 Jul). I trimmed away some dead growth, cutting into live branches to stimulate new growth. Now that irrigation has resumed, the Cuphea should recover.

Trimmed more of the back lawn along the walkways (1 Aug), but got too tired to finish.

Still had to duck and dodge when walking on the east side of the teardrop bed past the tea tree, so I trimmed it some more. I think one more pruning session will be required.

Earlier this week, trimmed the tea tree on the side towards the east bed. Branches extended over the adjacent walkway at eye level or lower, severely interfering with use of that walkway. It still needs some more trimming, but first I want to see how it responds to the cuts I already made.

Replaced two wax-leaf begonias — one in front along the brick walkway and one in back around the raised bed of the tangelo — that either died or were dying.

Some of the pink clover (Persicaria capitata) in front has turned red. This normally happens in the winter, when we have night-time frosts. It should not happen in the summer. I gave the red areas a light feeding of lawn food.

Tied down some new canes on the climbing 'Peace' rose in back. This variety might be the most vigorous of all climbing roses.

Removed and trashed a maroon and yellow daylily from the rose bed (20 Jun). This one was crowding too many adjacent plants and hiding a Camellia sasanqua behind it. As soon as it was removed, I replaced a dead blue fescue (Festuca glauca) that had been completely engulfed by the daylily.

The C. sasanqua where the daylily was removed was growing at a strange angle. On close examination, I discovered it was planted too high; and the top of the root ball was exposed. I dug and replanted it.

Trimmed the cinquefoil (Potentilla neumanniana) growing out of the west bed and over the adjacent walkway.

Fed the dwarf citrus and Gardenia jasminoides with ammonium, iron, and zinc sulfates. I also gave some ammonium sulfate to the star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), which has not been growing as vigorously as it had in the past.

On our return from Canada, I looked into my garden in back. I saw that the grass killer (30 Jun) and RoundUp (3 Jul) had been quite effective on My Hill. Although the RoundUp also killed some of the African daisies, I am not concerned because the daisies had already dropped much seed to start replacement plants.

When I checked my accumulated E-mail that Tuesday, I found a message from our water service. They said that our meter was showing a large volume of water use and that there was much water flowing from our drains into the street gutter. I checked and found that a feeder line for my sprinkler system was leaking. This leak was between the meter and the sprinkler valves. I immediately called my favorite landscape contractor, who discovered he had failed to install a shutoff for the system. After showering and getting ready for bed, I shut off the entire water supply for our house.

It took much of the next day (Wednesday) for the contractor to locate the leak. After repairing it (and also installing a shutoff valve), he advised me not to run the sprinklers until Friday (tomorrow). That meant my garden is receiving no water for five days during which temperatures exceeded 80°F every day (exceeding 90° on three of those days).

Before we left on our trip, the peaches on our peach tree were not yet ripe. When we returned, all the peaches had disappeared! There was no sign of peaches either in the tree or on the ground. The tree did not grow vigorously this year, and I will definitely have it removed.

The artichoke (Cynara scoymus) in the back lawn is going dormant. Today, I remove the dying stalks, two of which were taller than I am.

Fed the roses with a commercial general-purpose fertilizer containing a systemic insecticide. Fed the dwarf citrus, Gardenia jasminoides, and Australian tea tree (Leptospermum laevigatum) with a commercial citrus fertilizer plus an added pinch of zinc sulfate.

Pruned the 'MacBeth' loquat (Eriobotrya japonica). A few years ago, I sadly discovered that heading cuts tend to reduce the amount of fruit produced by this tree; so this time I made only thinning cuts. I opened the center, removed conflicting branches, and eliminated growth that was interfering with the walkways and small patio that surround the circular bed.

• Yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) is quite prickly, nasty when pulling out of the ground by hand. I have actually tried pulling it, but its taproot goes sufficiently deep that I was usually unsuccessful in removing the entire plant.
• Scotch thistle (Onopordum acanthium) can be vicious. The spines on its leaves, stems, and flower bases easily penetrate clothing and even shoes. This is definitely not a weed that I would attempt to pull by hand, even with leather gloves.
• 'Red Apple' iceplant (Aptenia cordifolia) was planted by a previous neighbor on the street behind me. It escaped onto My Hill and onto the hill of my nextdoor neighbor to the east. This grows vigorously and can crowd out the African daisies (Osteospermum fruticosum) and English ivy (Hedera helix) that I want as ground covers on the slope. 'Red Apple' can actually crowd out low growing shrubs. A large mass of this iceplant might have only a central root system — not rooting along its trailing branches as readily as do the African daisies and ivy — and its roots might be quite shallow. According to the Ventura County grading standards, no form of iceplant should be planted on a steep slope such as mine because, when watered by a heavy rain, it can pull down the surface of the slope. (With his permission, I even sprayed my neighbor's 'Red Apple' through the chain-link fence separating our properties.)