A Garden Grows in California

17 Nov '08 3:22 am

Thanks. Fletcher is a looker isn't he? He is the dog we inherited from Lia's aunt and uncle when they died. We put them up to getting him when they were in their early 80's. They were being practical and not getting another dog when their last one died, sensing they wouldn't be around for him. So when he was between 3 and 4 years old we got him. I wonder if his breed is at all popular in Australia? He is called an Australian Sheppard, but the breed was developed in the U.S. about 60 years ago. When my wife Lia was in your country a few years ago she naively assumed everyone would know what that was. No one she talked to knew.

I think pathways on a sloping lot are not only practical but can be almost sculptural. My father-in-law's house -photographed in my last post- sits on a fairly steep hill which he had to terrace in order to garden at all. I think his pathways are stunning. On a flat lot like mine a meandering pathway can look/feel so arbitrary. On a sloped lot there is logic to the choices which can be admired. Visually, you get a kind of layering of scenery which is really nice too.

Thanks for stopping in. You must be outside a lot right now with Spring in the air. I've really been enjoying all the posts from down under which have photos of gardens waking up.

17 Nov '08 11:15 am

Hi Mark,

I also like the look of Fletcher. He's the sort of dog I would have to talk to and pat.

I haven't heard of Australian Sheppard dogs either. They look far too woolly to be working on a sheep station here. Perhaps the breeders got Australia confused with Austria. It happens!

Love the little spots in your garden where each one seems to tell a story.

17 Nov '08 12:02 pm

I agree that Fletcher's long coat would do him much more good in the alps than in your outback. There is another breed here called the Australian Cattle Dog. Gordon has one of these. It has a short coat, it's shorter but probably more muscular. It is also an extremely confidant dog. Fletcher is that way and likes psyching out other dogs but we have met a coupld of true Australian Cattle Dogs who've called his bluff and intimidated him.

Glad you found parts of the garden you liked, Waratah. It had been a while since I'd posted here so it felt like time.

17 Nov '08 10:59 pm

I've heard of Australian Sheppards. I think it was on a tv show and someone was asking why did they name these after us?

18 Nov '08 7:23 am

I think I've said it before, but I really admire those holey tiles in the wall. They are attractive, useful, architectural, and a bit different. Really nice.

Aussie cattle dogs are well known in Australasia. They really are a very popular working dog in Australia where they are used on vast cattle farms but are more of a pet breed in NZ. As for the infamous Australian Sheppard (no offence Fletcher), I believe it began in the US from an Aussie dog or two but the breed is an American invention. Waratah is right - far too hairy for the heat of a dusty outback cattle station (ranch).

27 Nov '08 3:39 am

I think most of you know about our Thanksgiving holiday .. big meal w/ turkey, family, college football (the kind with the pointy ball) and reflections on the bounty in your life. Anyhow, after hosting this meal for aunts, uncles, brothers and others for years, I have a reprieve this year. Lia is in China for a show, in fact she was given a medal for the pieces she brought. Anyhow, without her out of town I decided I would take the holiday off. So I have a five day weekend to play and work.

Yesterday was quite productive. I stopped on the way home and picked up a galvanized planter I'd had made up at a sheet metal place to slip into the deck near the hot tub. Then I walked the dogs and on the way home picked up wood and concrete for a fence I'm building above the creek. Last weekend I'd dug two post holes. It was past dark when I got home but fortunately there is alot of night lighting from my neighbor across the creek in the area where the fence is going. So last night I set the anchors and mixed and poured the concrete for the two posts. I cleaned up and was sitting in the hot tub by 8 pm. I so prefer to do dirty work like this at the end of a day.

Today I hope to set the new planter in place. Yesterday at lunch I stopped by a nearby nursery and was found a one gallon Lapagaria in flower so that I can be sure of the flower color. It is white with just the slightest blush pink cast to it. It will be joined in the planter by a New Zealand native whose name is escaping me just now. It's a spiky thing, somewhat like a phormium but it grows tree like. Anyhow its narrower than most and a nice dark green with a slight purple tinge. I'll plant these two in the new planter today. If all goes well I'll come back and add a couple photos.

27 Nov '08 6:10 am

Cordyline?Cabbage tree.
I think Fletcher is a Blue-heeler/BorderCollie cross-beautiful dog.
The Cordylines here are now flowering.I took this photo last week-it is beside the road leading to my home,and you can see how big they can grow if left to grow naturally.

27 Nov '08 4:05 pm

G'lord, Dixie!

I'd never made the connection, even though I knew Cordyline was called a Cabbage Tree: we too have a Cabbage Tree - a tall, thin stemmy thing with a knot of leaves at the top, a popular garden subject since long before natives were fashionable: the leaves are greyish and rather like fig leaves and the stem nicely fissured. Usually it is nowhere near a tree. But in the forests it can grow to be one of the largest trees. I posted pictures of it on my birding day post at http://forums.mooseyscountrygarden.com/viewtopic.php?t=1673&start=60

Mark: is this the start of the amazing new project you were describing a few weeks back? Next week I can get down and dirty: a week from today it will all be over!

This (off the internet) is what our Cussonia, or Cabbage Tree usually looks like: (in fact, it is a very 'Mark' kind of a plant!)

27 Nov '08 5:20 pm

That picture of a cabbage tree reminds me of the euphorbia seedlings that I grew from the seeds Mark sent me! Even though leaves gradually fall off, they never branch out but just keep a "topknot" of leaves at the ends of light brown, corklike stems! Rather cool plants! I'm beginning to wonder whether they'll EVER branch!

-gordonf

27 Nov '08 5:38 pm

I'll just have to find the plant name to see if you know this species. It is much narrower than most and doesn't grow as tall. I'll try to get a photo too. Around here its another plant altogether that goes by the name "Cabbage Trees". It has leaves more like Jack's photos.

It rained all day today so I'm all the more glad to have poured the piers yesterday evening. If it lets up I'd like to get the framing up tomorrow as well as take a couple of photos. I turned down two more dinner invitations in order to keep open the possibility of finishing up.

Hang in there, Jack the finish line is just ahead. But no, the fence I'm putting in now is much more utilitarian. The city put in an extension of the culvert our creek feeds into to pass under the street. As a result a clear pathway now exists over to our side of the creek, which is very steep and not very stable. We're afraid that the kids who like to explore up the creek will come over the new 'bridge' from the other side which is much easier to access from the creek. It's mostly a liability concern but we also don't want our side to fill up with garbage.

That other, more ambitious project has been backburnered by the need to repair that fence I'm afraid.

How about that. As I've been writing I got an incoming email telling me Gordon has just left a post on this thread too. Hi Gordon. Don't worry about the branching. You should get three branches growing from the old head soon. Then every year thereafter, after each of those heads drops its leaves, each of those should sprout three more branches and so on. However they are delicate when they first start to grow and if you pull the old folliage off too soon you could yank one or more of the branches at the same time. If that happens that branch won't regrow.

So after a productive day yesterday today was very layback. Went out to breakfast. Walked the dogs. Napped in the afternoon. Read two newspapers. Watched two movies. Not very inspiring. Well here's to tomorrow,

A Garden Grows in California

Hi Macflax

Hi Waratah,

A productive start to the holiday.

Cordyline?

Cabbage trees?!

Cabbage Trees & Euphorbias

Cordyline, that's it Dixie.