2017 Garden Plans

I shared my 2012-2014 gardens here.  In 2015 my garden plans were listed here.  This year, I made some great plans for 2016.  We had a really hot summer, and lots of things sprouted but never bloomed.  Maybe I got too busy, teaching two summer classes simultaneously, and didn't water the garden regularly.  The drought limited our outdoor watering, and the Zika virus scare made water collection impossible.

I can't say the drought is over, but at least Gov. Brown's water restrictions have been partially lifted.  We can now water between 6pm and 9am for 10 minutes on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. There is no time limit for watering by hand, but the three-days-per-week rule still applies.

I don't have automatic sprinklers, and in the past I have used rain barrels as well as greywater reclamation. I got so depressed at the sight of my empty containers in July 2016 that I planted a bunch of colorful pinwheels to look like beautiful flowers, and thought about the best layout for companion planting.  Instead of putting my energy into the outdoors, I did a bunch of online research that may someday be part of a grant proposal for a community garden space.

Then I got the idea to go for drought-tolerant plants.  It would beautify the space, although not produce edible leaves.  I researched cacti.  Then we got a variety of new plants at the Cactus and Succulent Society of America (CSSA) Inter-City Show at the LA County Arboretum.  Some of the recent planting calendars for LA that I've made, together with a "care guide" for the succulents, cacti, and bromeliads I bought are here.

So I bought some new seeds and rearranged the garden layout to start some of them this month.  I don't totally care if things don't work out.  I'll let you know how it goes.

"There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments," ~ J. K. Philips