Tomatoes

The city poured in the new concrete, but they haven't repaired my parkway strip sprinklers yet. I'm toying with the idea of putting in drip irrigation if they don't fix it.

In the meantime, my front and side yards have been completely taken over by the clarkia.













In addition, the coyote mint has just begun to bloom.


As is the Canyon Silver Snowflake:


I planted some bulbs that can tolerate summer water. They are just preparing to bloom.


One of my woolly blue curls has really taken root:


I continue to get new wildflowers that I don't recognize. Here are three that are just coming in:






The western columbine (which goes deciduous in the winter) is sprouting and blooming:


Despite having work crews run them over and stomp on them, the Queen Fabiola Ithuriel's spears are surviving (though often wonder who named them):



The California fuschia also survived the digging:


And my tomatoes are doing fantastic. I just hope they're all still here when I get back from my trip.


Three of them are "Better Boy," and one is "Early Girl."




These are some of the Early Girl tomatoes that are growing:

Insult to Injury

I came home yesterday to find they continued to damage my plants and sprinklers. It's now clear that they are ripping out tree roots. The remains of the roots are strewn over my plants:






They've also ripped out more of my sprinkler system:






They've also undermined some plants, while crushing other under soil and branches:






I asked the crew this morning and they said there will be a repair crew coming by (probably Monday or Tuesday) to repair the sprinklers.

Massacre of the Parkway Strip

We got notices a week ago that the city was going to be doing repair work on the street and warning us about watering our yards during the repairs. No one said anything, however, about my parkway strip.

They started by making cuts in the sidewalk yesterday, but today they removed all the curb and most of the sidewalk. When the bobcat started rolling over the blue sage, I decided I couldn't watch and went to work. Here's what I found when I came home:


One blue sage was hit the worst:


I tried propping it up in the hope that it might survive:


They killed a sprinkler too:


Thankfully, most of the Ithuriel's Spears (bulbs) came through unscathed.

These were a near miss:


As were these:

But at least a third of these were run over:


At least the flowers on the house side of the sidewalk were unaffected, like these California Fuschia:


And these clarkia:


Meanwhile, I have devastated the north parkway strip, but for a good reason. Most of the wildflowers there, the bird's eye gilia and the phacelia have already gone to seed and turned brown, so I've started to remove them to give space for some of the small poppies to sprout and flower. I've done about two thirds of it so far, and it does look a little ragged.


At least now you can more clearly see the flowers on the blue-eyed grass (though they are closed by early evening):


Tomorrow, the horror starts anew.

Ithuriel's Spear

The bulbs I planted ("Ithuriel's Spear") have finally begun to flower. So far, it's just the ones that get the most sun.




Meanwhile, the Clarkia "Farewell-to-Spring" are coming in stronger.






And here's the mix of clarkia:


The sulfur buckwheat is now fully recovered from the winter:


The San Diego canyon sunflowers are also doing good. Strange that I planted both of these at the same time, yet one is doing much better than the other.


The Western Columbine is finally starting to grow:


And my tomatoes are fantastic: