California Gardening: California Backyards, 1 by SingingWolf

SingingWolf wrote:
Thanks for starting this thread, (I had the same idea, but you beat me to it! :- ) ). I have got to get up earlier and get my chores done sooner. I'm so glad, because sometimes I just don't know where to share photos, or weird things that show up around here. Especially when it is a one of a kind thing.
KC, I love that flagstone idea. Plan on covering part of my backyard with concrete. I remember a real flagstone patio from my childhood and the countless hours we spent playing on it. You can also dye and paint concrete.
wcgypsy, your DS is going to love that breeze way, and so will you! I know I love mine. Great photos too.
Here is a canna lily that someone (imapigeon, I believe), sent to me earlier this year. Isn't that a happy grouping! They are taller than the five foot fence, and taking advantage of a leak problem. Don't care, because they really brighten up that corner of the yard. Silly things keep blooming like crazy too!
Most of the birds around here are used to foraging on their own. I have only this year put up feeders again. I have my h.bird feeders in the gh, because the wind blows all the nectar out if I don't. Thank goodness that the seed feeders are heavier and are in a more sheltered part of the yard. Even still if it is windy enough the bowl feeder looses it's seed.
I'm kinda of disappointed in that feeder. It was beautiful when I first bought it, but it isn't real stained glass but painted glass, and the paint is peeling. I guess I will scrape the rest of it off this winter and repaint it. The cage feeder is really great, and my house finches love it. I should probably go refill it before I go to the store and see if I need more food for them. They really love that black nyger(sp?) seed. Even though I don't have my bench where I can sit yet and take their photos, I will. Just have to get them used to it.
It would also help if my constant companions, one dog, and at least two cats wouldn't keep joining me when I try to get the bird photos. I've been working with Spirit pup, and he is getting really good about laying down next to me while I take photos. The cats are cats and are looking for their chance to pounce.
My yard is never boring. Frustrating, a lot of work, definitely, but it repays all that work. Right now everything that we don't water has already turned brown, with the exception of the Oaks, the buckwheat, some sage, and that native walnut. Everything is stressed out. Including Gma Oak. Some of that wild tobacco bush has survived, but I don't know how. Most of their leaves are gone.
On our recent visit to OK, I was amazed at how green it was for this time of the year in TX, and OK, and some parts of New Mexico. We just live in a strange place, and people who have never lived here don't realize that we have our own unique problems to cope with.
Hope you enjoy the cannas, to their right is a hedge of honeysuckle which covers a really ugly chain link fence. It has been there so long that my critters have made shade caves under it and regularly keep an eye out while resting undetected in their honeysuckle shade caves. If it keeps them from digging in my garden I'm good with it! LOL!
Hey you all,
WIB,
SW