Hello from San Diego! My wife and I had a garden with a pond back in Connecticut for 15 years. Many beautiful perennials - daylillies, hostas, coneflower, yellow flag iris, etc. Now we live in San Diego, and everything is totally different! This past winter (first difference - do your serious work in winter) we ripped out our front lawn and planted drought tolerant stuff like aloe and sempervivum. Front Yard in Progress ( photo / image / picture from SanDiegoLarry's Garden )
Hi Larry, welcome to GardenStew from north Texas. Connecticut to California is certainly a big change in gardening weather. Your front yard is looking great. Looking forward to seeing it during the year especially any additions you make to it over the summer.
Hi Larry and welcome to GardenStew. I agree with Toni, your front yard looks very neat and fine looking Don't forget to check out our blogs, member map and upload any plant images you have to PlantStew for all to see Details here: http://www.gardenstew.com/plantstew/help#3 // frank
Welcome! I'm sure that has been a big adjustment! Bet you miss your garden but not the winter weather.
Hi Larry from Central Texas welcome to our Stew.You really did make a big different in climates.Your garden will be wonderful when it all is filled in.
Your garden is certainly coming along very nicely Larry and before you realise it'll be equally as lovely as the one you left behind. Do keep us up to date with your progress won't you as we love to see before and after photographs? WELCOME to GardenStew. :-D
Welcome, Larry, from the mid-Norwegian coast. I can't imagine the difference in climates, but your front garden looks good.
Thanks everyone! We have pretty much finished what we can do before the long hot summer starts here. The yard slopes to the south, so it really gets baked on a sunny summer day. Now I'm pretty much focusing on keeping things as watered as I can until our summer ends in late October (summer goes long here). My wife put drip irrigation on some parts of the garden, but not all - so there is a lot watering with a can. So far I've only had to pull one aloe that didn't seem like it was going to make it. (Don't worry, the little aloe is recuperating in a shady spot in the back yard.)
Summer update: September is the hottest month here in San Diego, and we got a pretty good test of what could take the heat. Almost all of the aloe did well, with only two looking peaked - and both still alive and recuperating in a shadier spot. About half of the sempervivum needed to be rescued. It seems that only the ones with thicker leaves could stand the heat. The "cobweb" varieties pretty much melted. The sea lavendar looked fine and then started dying one by one practically overnight. A puzzle. And the two sedum I planted look just fantastic. More sedum will fill empty spaces this winter!
I just braved the heat (it must be 95% out there!) to get a few photos of my front garden. September is our hottest and dryest month. You really can't do much in the garden but water and hope that everything lives. We have been pretty lucky, with only a few fatalities. Can't wait for winter so I can really dig in and get back to gardening! My Front Yard on a HOT September Day ( photo / image / picture from SanDiegoLarry's Garden ) Another Shot of My Front Yard on a HOT September Day ( photo / image / picture from SanDiegoLarry's Garden )
