Six-on-Saturday garden report: early December

The rain hasn’t really begun, and the roses are still blooming.

I turned the watering system off, then on again when I realized that November’s barely-there rain-slash-mist wasn’t going to become a trend. There are leaks in the system that still need fixing, but that’s for tomorrow.

Today, I’m grateful for the cat that left a dead gopher on the path – a gopher that I assume was responsible for these holes:

which used to be not so much holes, as dill plants. You can see a few fronds of a remaining dill plant in the upper part of the photo. I am hoping there was only one gopher.

It’s very definitely fall. The leaves are golden, and the apples and pomegranates are in the last days of ripe.

The flowering sage plant continues to be ridiculous. It’s taller and more aggressive than the baby citrus tree behind it – we have to keep cutting the sage plant back so it doesn’t entirely overwhelm the poor kumquat. We keep saying we should remove the sage, because it doesn’t remotely fit in the space or make any sense at all with anything planted near it (a maple tree, two citrus trees, a yellow daisy, two agapanthus, some kind of weird low ball-shaped shrub – admittedly, those things don’t make sense relative to each other either, and the tall ones are all entirely in front of the short ones; this is what happens when a bunch of plants get planted right before selling a house to two poor saps who’ve never had a proper garden and thus don’t realize the difference between mature and just-got-it-from-Home-Depot landscaping – but oh well, we’re learning) – but it blooms year round and the hummingbirds love it, so so far it stays.

The lavatera maritima which I planted in place of a hibiscus which did not thrive, is thriving:

And at least to my eye, there are few things more hot-sun gorgeous than a bougainvillea in front of a cream stuccoed wall – even if the weather isn’t actually hot, but just looks as if it might be.

Happy Saturday! I was glad to be out in the garden today. Good weather to you, whatever version of weather that might mean. And if not in the garden, then good dreaming & planning for gardening days to come.

For other gardeners’ posts in the #SixOnSaturday series, complete with lovely or interesting seasonal photos, click through here!