This morning I mulched the next section of the front slope garden, from the cotoneaster and lantana at the top of the slope down to the bottle brush. The mulch is advertised to be color fast for a year. We’ll see. Mulching has the unlooked-for benefit of making the plantings pop out from the dark brown background. The English lavender continues to thrive and add to new growth. I added to the stone retaining border down slope from the lavender and will see if the mulch helps with water conservation when the dry season comes.
The ground is now almost unworkably hard as concrete. Just an inch below the surface is dry clods of earth. I continued my practice of turning over and breaking up the soil in the hopes of allowing drip irrigation and supplemental water to penetrate.
A Year at the Snake 