The front side of the house basks in the morning sun, and my work follows the sun and the warmth. Morning temperatures are still in the high 40s and low 50s.
The ceanothus in the front slope garden is having a spectacular year.
I reviewed the archives, and March appears to be its time. However, I do not remember it being this splendiforous.
And my favorite variegated geranium in the front border garden is coming into bloom again.
Jerry’s ice plant is in full bloom under the white oleander. I cut it away from the wall and watered it in. I also trimmed dead blooms off the white oleander – perhaps it was lured into blooming by warmer days and then hit by colder nights. While at it, I trimmed all the dead branches off the Grandmother oleander, down to bare branches. Those bare ruins’d choirs where late the sweet birds sang are showing new buds.
I work towards the back of the house as the sun travels over it. Today’s task was to prune all the dead buds off the large crape myrtle at the edge of the back yard, part of my March routine. I trimmed back the taller branches for uniform height.
I replaced a sprinkler head and directed it to the patch of lawn that burned out last year. The lawn grows quickly and needed mowing again, after only a week. Removing dead growth from the aptenia is an ongoing project. The phacelia in the terra cotta planter seems to settling in, but the dichondra may need to be replaced.
A Year at the Snake 