California spring is on the way!

lol to 'a few invasive perennials". I think I'm the queen of invasive perennials...lol..'really serious' gardeners come to my place and grimace at my Mexican Primrose,my perennial morning glories, my centranthus... those who suspiciously ask..."Does it reseed?" Oh, yes, halleujah, yes it certainly does!
I'm wondering about my fruit trees, no buds yet. I'm glad since we'll be getting more rain also, but still..wondering.

I have a 5 yr old fruitless Mulberry with fresh new leaves that I thought was a goner what with gopher holes a couple years ago and the fact that one of those prolific native trees (that, of course like other natives, gophers and squirrels don't bother) has been growing rapidly right next to it. The 2 yr old mulberry in the back has bigger gopher holes and no buds that I can see. Maybe it will come back.... I can plant a vine under it to use the branches as a trellis. The 2 oleanders attacked by the gophers have not died died yet due to sticking them back in the dirt I hope.

My new, last summer, pomegranate tree does have buds. Does it have a chance of bearing fruit this year?

Are you sure you're talking about CA natives that the gophers don't bother? And what prolific native trees? Sure they're not naturalized trees? We sure don't get any trees popping up around here.

I do. Anyone want a pepper tree? I'm thinking of transplanting it between my place and the neighbors, even if I hate them kind of trees. Better yet, ripping it out!
I do have a fruiting Mulberry that I finally got transplanted. I'm hoping that the rains help it to recover, and grow like crazy. I'd really like to have a plant screen between us and the next door neighbors.
Pet peeve of the day. Neighbor called to complain about my dogs barking at 1:30 am.
My dogs (except Spirit) have lived here longer than neighbor has lived next door. The dogs have a job and they are serious about it. These are farm dogs, working dogs. Their job is to chase off coyotes and stray dogs. If they are barking there is a darn good reason for it. The coyotes were out in force that night, ranging the hills between us.
This neighbor and his wife have been PITA's every since they moved in.
I am so glad that I moved the phone out of our bedroom. I wasn't disturbed by his call that night, just when I heard the message. Hey, I'm sleep deprived too, and I don't call my neighbor up in the middle of the night to yell at them.
Everyone important to us has our cell phone #'s.
They aren't on the list.
Thanks for letting me vent. Some people sure have mean spirited hearts and no consideration.
I'm trying to be more tolerant, but some people sure make it hard.
WIB!
SW

Sorry about your neighbor Jules. They certainly can be PITA at times. I'm very cautious about my neighbors. Several have gotten into feuds with each other and it's lasted for years.

Here's a photo of the whole pool and yes those are stone edges.

doss, it just gets better and better every time I see a new photo of your garden!

You've got that right, Ima!

Just to be clear, pepper trees are not native - in fact, they are not even real trees, they are trash. Now I'm going to run real fast before Sherry can beat me over the head! LOL

That's true...I have a great love for what most other people think shouldn't be used. I love eucalyptus, especially e. citriodora and e. nicholii. They grow fast, they're graceful, smell great and I get lots of mulch and firewood from them. I love the schinus molle because it's tough, doesn't need water and I think it's graceful also. Schinus terebinthifolius I use a lot of because I have a lot of them and as above, tough and don't need water. They're interplanted with large myoporum shrubs, acacia, opuntia cactus, yucca and now Cape Honeysuckle along the long backside of the property, providing shelter and berries for the birds, privacy for us, more vegetation for shredding for mulch and all needing very little care or water from us.

I like to LOOK at pepper trees from a distance - like the one at the mission.

I am not so plant term savvy, so am not sure between native and naturalized. I think native is what grows around here if no one planted anything. That is what these trees are, we call them just seed trees. Very prolific. Our 'pasture' (grandiose term for field of dirt horses run on) gets a new crop each spring. Neighbor mows some seedlings regularly in his grass (not many have grass around here). They can grow 4 ft the first year, then slow down a little. I have transplanted them from pasture during winter, but the self sown (blown) seeds start trees everywhere, including some very exasperating places, like under the big AC/Pkg unit we have or between that unit and the house leaning on the gas line!

Here is a first year start that was transplanted:

Here is where seed was blown against sidewalk. It is lifting the concrete a bit at three years old here

And here, at a distance is a full grown version near our gate last summer.

Do not know the name of this tree.

I don't know what they are called either QG. My EB brought some home and now they are weeds.
Pepper trees are not native to CA, they were brought here like the yellow mustard plants by the Spaniards.
Tumbleweeds snuck over here from Russia in a load of wheat seed (I think it was wheat). Also known as Russian Thistle.
There are both native and non native plants around. Thankfully Kudzu hasn't made it out here and wouldn't like the lack of water anyway. : - )
Sherry, DH likes Pepper Trees too, but I'm with KC on this one. They are okay if seen at a distance like the one at the Mission. ROFLOL~
WIB!
SW

The other natives I speak of, I only just learned the names of thanks to Jules' daily walk photo journal. We have the wild tobacco plants that become trees and the buckwheat that I trim and water into pretty green bushes. Here are some buckwheat bushes I have trimmed. Notice one of those seed trees taking over the hose bib on the right. It was higher than the house and was trimmed down with Round Up soaked into the fresh stump - to no avail. There are 3 more going deeper into the photo. The closest is one we moved, the next one back started at the bottom of a 3 ft deep trench and was covered up when the hole was filled, and yet... And the one furthest back was moved, but did not make it. Would make a great bottle tree, huh? Except for the wind.

That's our biggest dog, Tipper, she is 8 years old.

QG, I think your tree is ailanthus. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1699/ Give 'em an inch an they'll take a mile.

Eeek! We will check your shoes for seeds at the RoundUp, QG! LOL

Those Ailanthus trees...ugh. Think twice, and think VERY carefully.
Just ask CalTrans what they think of them...
Those trees should have stayed in Brooklyn.

Oh dear, that is apparently what is growing here. Now I feel threatened. I worry that the trees we tried to kill against the house, may have sent runners under the house (raised floor). We have more to take out that are literally right against the house. There are 2 lifting concrete. One good thing, I have a very keen sense of smell, and have not smelled it at all. So those are naturalized from China - see, at least I learned something.

Now, what bad new does anyone have on the buckwheat plants, wild tobacco and that other one?

The buckwheat shouldn't be a problem, as far as I know. I'm guessing that the tobacco is what we call tree tobacco down here. It isn't native but I don't see that it really causes problems, at least not around here, and hummingbirds like the flowers.

With regard to weather, we seem to be running about a month ahead of schedule here......it's making me a little frantic about getting my pruning done!

I agree with Kelli. I have native buckwheat growing all over our lot - I even bought some and it's gorgeous - it's good to have around. We had tobacco, but once we got some heavy mulch down in those areas, it stopped coming back.

I read a lot of the comments on that evil tree - :-) - and it seemed that digging them out was the only sure way to get rid of them.

Eeeeek, diggin' 'em out?! Geez! Mostly you cut trees down and that's it, isn't it? I'm experiencing some shifts in the ground below my above-ground foundation house, I think. My doors aren't shutting cleanly like they used to do, for example. And I have one Fruitless Mulberry within 20 feet of one end of the bedroom-hallway. Not sure what to do, but I'm thinking I need to have someone come out with one of those blade-thingees to cut into the surface roots between it and the house. The tree's old enough, I think, to manage the damage, if you will. It's probably 50-years-old, now.

Hmmm, something to contemplate. Here it is in July. It covers the west side of my house and is one of two I have on the west side. The other covers the patio. I can't even imagine living without them in our summers. Lots'a leaves in summer, leafless branches in winter. It doesn't get any better than that!

Linda

Spring has definitely arrived in my garden! Narcissus 'Trevithian' and several hyacinths--all fragrant.

This bed was planted in Dec 2006. It seems to be blooming at least 2 wks earlier than usual. Maybe the early(we had a heavy rainstorm in Oct) and more plentiful rain? Any other theories?

Chris

OOO00 Chris, your flowers look so beautiful and certain;y DO scream spring.

Indeed they do !

Don't forget: 2 weeks from today we change the clocks for daylight savings time. That's always a major help for the mind that Spring has sprung. It's all good after that !

Our mockingbird started singing his heart out yesterday and mister frogger has been visiting the pond a LOT!

The hydrangeas are pushing out new growth and so are some of the hostas and the clematis and also the daylilies. So much new tender growth. Thank goodness for snail bait!

YAAAAAY, longer days!!! This is the living I work for.

Linda

Longer days and cool enough to enjoy them. Neighbor's yard has had frog voices going at it for a month now.

There is a literal bird explosion going on here right now. Every tree around here seems to be full of babies chirping away. I like that.

The wisteria is starting to bloom.

Beautiful - just love those!

My Japanese Maples are starting to send out leaves. This cultivar is called "Butterfly"

I'm still recovering from driving 4860.3 miles. (not that I kept track or anything!) So I haven't really gotten out to see what's blooming or growing. I did notice new pads on the prickly pear along my driveway. And I got out into the veggie garden to see my onion seeds sprouting, also broccoli and cabbage.

QG, your Ailanthus trees are truly a menace in Arizona. I refer to them as Bermuda grass in tree form. In their defense, they have two good properties. First they provide great shade in the summer (and they do it in only a few years). Second, they will survive the most menacing drought conditions and stay beautifully green and full. They really never need water except to get established and that will happen whenever the rainy season occurs no matter what time of year it is.

We have those all over the Central Valley, too. There is one growing on the side of the house. It is supporting a falling fence. So, we left it there. Every year, I am digging out little trees popping up all over the yard. This is what happens when a beautiful, non-native, hardy plant is sold at garden supply centers without regard for how it will act in our ecosystems.

They got their start in central AZ in the 1930's. The copper mining town of Jerome (just south of Sedona) had a smelter that killed all the vegetation for a couple of miles around it. Jerome, being a mountainside town, began having surface slides because there was no vegetation to hold the ground in place. A bright young exec at the mine discovered this tree with a prolific root system to help hold the ground in place. They sowed seeds across the hilltops which immediately washed down into the town and down the creek to the valley below. There are no trees on the hilltop where the seeds were sown, but plenty down stream.

I have a small lot (50' X 80') in Old Town Cottonwood. When I first bought my house there, I cut over a hundred of them and still had 22 left. It's an early summer ritual plucking all the seedlings from the beds and lawn.

Though I don't know a whole lot about it, but from what I gather, the California Native Plant Society tries to avoid using chemicals in their "weed wars", but they will use Roundup to get rid of ailanthus. (I think they apply the chemical to the cut surface of the stumps, rather than spraying the leaves the manufacturer-recomended way.)

That is what we did to the 2 that were growing between the AC and the house, Round up and freshly cut stump. Semi worked, DH was actually able to pull them out. Ditto for 2 growing next to slider in a planter this year. I put a big pot over where the ones came out in planter. We'll see.

The best way to get rid of the stump re-growth is to drill a large hole into the stump with a wood bit in your drill, (a flat 'paddle' bit)
fill the hole with copper sulfate and then water. As the water gets 'drank up' by the stump keep refilling the hole with water and then more copper sulfate. It will kill the root system in short order. You can get copper sulfate in most any hardware store in the plumbing department. It's used to repel roots from drain pipes.