I started the day with light pruning on the newly transplanted sweet pea. The side that was formerly crushed against the house wall is not taking the change in location well. Evidence of plentiful water on the downward slope.
The shrub rockroses in the front slope garden are showing blossoms. I also see the first tentative blooms on the ceanothus at the entrance to the front border garden. The rhapiolepis in the triangle garden is coming into bloom, but I will need to train it to be less spindly.
Mike was up to attach a hose to the spigot and run irrigation water down into the fire prevention pond. The goal is to have water available to refill later this year when the pond runs dry.
I filled in more topsoil fill on the bare patches of the lawn. I remind myself that two years and three springs of steady effort have raised the level of the lawn as it slopes down the hill, the original goal. I used Mike’s aerator to break up the compacted soil and allow the grass seed to burrow underground.
We tested the feeder lines running in both directions in the newly cleared border garden. Valve 1 runs the water to the border garden lines – I need to have Mike make me a copy of his schematic. I opened up the bubblers down the entire line – nandrina, African daisy, crassula, ice plant, agapanthis and artemesia.
I stopped at the Circle Garden near the barn to clear a few weeds and curb the enthusiasm of the clover. It was originally intended as a necklace around the valley oak and instead grown into a choker. Good cheer from the white blooms all over the cistus, and the first bloom on the oenothera.
A Year at the Snake 