my Oakland garden

I have never deliberately taken photos of the plants in my garden before. Which is kind of strange considering I have had so many different gardens in the past 5 or so years. And that I spend all summer alternating between engaging in war with crab grass (which is my nemesis) and standing around smiling proudly at my planties and flowies. So here is my first deliberately documented garden.

I love bougainvillea so was really happy to find a bush of it growing in the garden of our new place in Oakland. I quickly noticed that many other people in the neighborhood had bougainvillea growing in their gardens, but their’s were bursting with blooms while ours had just a few flowers and seemed mostly made of sticks.

All it took was a sprinkle of fertilizer to make the blooms burst out of our bougainvillea. Now it is happy-looking and there are so many flowers, I often cut pieces off to bring indoors.

I LOVE fuschia – it really brings back memories of the garden I grew up in.  It was the only decent plant I could find at the Home Depot by my house a month or so ago, and as I was so desperately in need of buying a plant, I bought two.  And of course they are thriving with little bell things everywhere.

My mother bought this sweet succulent for me the first time we went to Annie’s Annuals in Richmond together, which was last year. It had just started to flower at the time, I think. My mom bought one too.  I am fascinated by  flowering succulents – i almost find them unbelievable.

After staring at this green leafy succulent that doesn’t seem to be growing or doing anything for months on end, suddenly I saw some buds the other day and was so glad I held on to this plant and didn’t give it away or leave it behind when I moved to Oakland. Just a couple days later, and look! Full bloom. I wonder how long they will last…

I have been neglecting this little guy for months if not years. I know I got this succulent as a cutting from my neighbor when I lived in Martinez. This plant is so tough looking – it’s surface and shape looks like a barbarian’s battle club or something from the days when knights saved ladies from dragons with swords. Visitors to my garden always like it a lot, too.

I had no idea it flowered like this so it was a wonderful surprise when I saw these blooms peeking out from a very shady, if not dark place under a table on the patio. I was just neglecting it as usual and all of a sudden, it started being happy. Each day, the flowers open in the morning and close again at night. I know this picture isn’t great but I think you can still see how cute and unassuming they are.

I took all of the photos in this post this morning after having watered everything yesterday evening. I look at each plant that is newly in the ground when I water, to make sure it’s doing ok and gets enough to drink. A plant I bought recently at a better Home Depot in Emeryville is the one I have most recently planted and I have been anxiously awaiting the little red trumpet flowers it should sprout any day now.

All was well with the plant last night. But this morning I walked up to it to take a photo and couldn’t believe what I was seeing through the viewfinder. I did a double-take. Wouldn’t you? Although it is far from the prettiest plant in the garden now, I had to include these photos anyway. For all I know the entire thing could be gone tomorrow!

Eaten by Intruder

Of course at first I blamed the warfare on Bama dog, knowing that last night and this morning she was acting antsy because we skipped two walks due to an injured foot pad. My first thought was that she had eaten the leaves the way she eats grass some mornings and I told her off.  Now I am thinking it might have been snails. Can they gang together and eat that many leaves in a morning? I did see a few snails intruding in the corner of the garden a few minutes after I shook my finger at Bama. Poor dog.

Speaking of the poor troubled dog soul, I can hear her destroying something on the patio. So It’s walkies time, and the pad will just have to take it.