My "Garden"

I took some great pictures that make it look like I am a gardener. I like to plant things, and drag the hose around watering plants, and I like to look at flowers, and eat vegetables. But that definitely does not make me a gardener. I don’t have the “know-how”, the soil, the energy or time or patience to be a real gardener. Most of my “garden” is planted in pots due to our hard-pan soil. Whatever isn’t growing in pots, is just due to time and circumstances.
Most of the garden is red geraniums. The hummingbirds love them and they are so hardy that I can stand on them with no damage. They don’t freeze over winter. They don’t burn up when it is 120 degrees. They don’t shrivel up if they don’t get watered for a week. It takes no skill to grow geraniums and they show up well. If you want another geranium, just break off a branch and stick it in the ground.

The area I photographed is the strip between our driveway and our neighbor’s driveway. We have been friends and neighbors for many years, and they are great neighbors, but we have different ideas regarding what makes a good yard. They prefer concrete and dirt, and refer to the strip between our driveways as “the weeds”. The strip with the flowers has taken me at least 10 years to get growing, due to my minimal skills and interest, and our lawn guy's best efforts to destroy anything he hasn't planted himself. But when this little strip finally took off, I was definitely proud. The pink flowers are Mexican evening primroses. There are white four o’clocks springing up that won’t bloom for a while yet, but they are very fragrant. There is a carpet of scarlet pimpernel (it’s native; this development used to be a cow pasture), violas, and spearmint running wild. There are garlic chives that I can’t control. There is a pot of Shasta daisies and a couple of pots of African daisies. And of course, there are California golden poppies. I am really hoping that Round-Up doesn’t happen when the neighbor comes home. I apologize for the TV cable tower; we think it is an eyesore, too, and doesn't really fit the scheme of the "garden". But, on second glance, in the picture, it looks kind of Asian and modern, doesn't it?