California Coastal Gardening

As fall continues on the north coast I'm still finding growth happening with new and established plants. The sword fern I planted next to the front porch is sending up a new curled white fern shoot from the base of the fern I planted in spring. I originally dug up from the main fern plant from under the holly trees, one of two sword ferns I brought with me from Petaluma. When first planted this fern it had a rhiazome with two frond stems and some roots; now a third frond is curling up from the soil. Having had good success in dividing and ... Read Full Story

The kiwi vines are starting their rapid growth during the warmer coastal weather. Now warmer coastal weather here means 60 to 70 degrees. We're still in the mid 50's to 60's most days in April. Once March hits the kiwi leaves start budding out and forming. The kiwi vines produce very small, pretty ivory cream colored flowers before setting fruit. This vine covers many months of leafing out, flowering then setting fruit for the winter season. This last winter the fruit just didn't ripen correctly. This could be due to the lower amounts of rain we received here on the north coast this past ... Read Full Story

One of the four semi-hardwood fuchsia pieces my neighbor gave me looks like it is rooting already. This particular cutting is the biggest of the semi-hardwood pieces she gave me and was planted directly in the long back yard border where gorgeous two toned pink fuchsias are planted on either end of the border. The original fuchsia from the neighbor's yard has giant sized flowers of dark purple and red and are really beautiful. This past weekend I gently pulled on the cutting stem and it seemed rooted. I noticed some new bright green growth forming all over the stem. I'm hoping this cutting ... Read Full Story

In our garden the summer heaths and heathers are starting to bloom. The heaths are new in the garden this year and are producing quite a few large bell shaped flowers for being such new plants in the garden. This past October the heather farm was selling larger sized plants at a low cost, the heaths and heathers were $3.50 for a gallon size plant which is a great price for heaths and heathers. Normally a four inch pot costs more than this, I've paid anywhere from $4.50 to $7.00 for a four inch pot. I'm really happy with the flowering of the gallon ... Read Full Story

This past weekend was spent pruning, weeding, watering and mowing, the usual summer activities in our north coast garden. Growth is rampant for the pink jasmine vines and the green and purple flowered passionflower vines on the fence. I pruned back the rampant growth of the pink jasmine vine on the porch to keep it shaped. Next weekend I'll need to prune back the runners on the jasmine vines on the back deck. The pruning never ends here in summer season. The passionflower vines on the fence finally started to flower this year. Not much flowering yet but between the weekly soak from the ... Read Full Story