Dogs in the Garden

Posted on by capentalc

One of my favorite things to do is hanging out in the garden with my dogs and my flowers. Looking at old photos this year, I found many adorable pictures of my dogs hanging out in the yard helping to dig holes, eating rotten figs, or just enjoying the sunshine. Here are some of my favorites.

Hunter is the tan and white Harrier dog we adopted from a pet rescue in Mexico. We drove about two hours down to San Diego and picked him up. He was about 8 months old when we got him. Below was his first day home with us.

Below is the picture of him now. Not much different but you can tell he has aged a bit after four years. He is rounder and communicates with deep meaningful looks more often than he used to.

This look says, please let me go behind the fence where the fig trees are
Lord Waggles

This Café au lait colored dog is named Lord Waggles. He is mixed with some type of small dog breeds but I think he is most like a Maltese mix. He is so good-natured and a true gentleman. He is the quietest of all little dogs that I’ve ever seen. We adopted him from a friend who adopted him from another family who no longer wanted him. He was about a year old when we got him. He is five now. I cannot understand how anyone could give up such an adorable little guy like this one.

His chin is a little dirty because he was eating slugs and dirt in the backyard.
This was a picture of my yard about three years ago. Below is the same area now, more frontal view.
I had to put a little white fence in the bottom right of this picture because my dogs were digging a large hole there near my clematis.
Hunter is up to no good as usual.

The picture above is my favorite of all Hunter pictures. I fenced off this fig tree area so that he can’t go in and snatch figs off the trees. Somehow, he found a way to get in but he doesn’t know how to get out. I left him there for about 10 minutes. I meant to leave him in longer to punish him but I gave in.

The other day he wanted me to let him in behind these 2 foot tall chicken wires so he can look for figs to eat back there again. Look at his pitiful face begging me! First he would look towards the gate, then turns around and looks at me, and back at the gate.

Today I found a few more beautiful flowers in my yard to share. I will leave you with this collage.

Starting from top left: Jasminum polyanthum ‘Pepita’, purple daisy, pink parfait of flowers but I can’t remember the name, nasturtium, alstroemeria Ariane

Winter Blooms

Posted on by capentalc

The last few weeks I have been blessed with quite a few winter flowers. My daffodils and narcissus bloomed a lot more than last year. What is even more surprising is that I thought they only bloom during spring yet these are blooming now in my winter garden. Perhaps our Southern California weather is confusing these poor plants.

I think there are about 15 flowers in my narcissus bed now, whereas last time I had two. The yellow colors of these narcissi really stood out in my mostly green garden right now. The daffodils are beautifully colored but it has a little bit of a stinky floral fragrance as well. Below, my pink hyacinth is wedged in with the narcissus and are blooming also.

Stinky daffodils

My Queen Anne’s Lace bush is also flowering like mad in the garden. They are taller than me (5’2) and falling all over other plants in the garden. I have no idea how to stake them at this point but I had to cut some down to tidy the pathway a bit. The cut flowers turned into a beautiful, unusual bouquet something-or-other here. The flower is about 5-6 inches wide.

Another adorable plant that bloomed is my calendula “Pink Surprise” that bloomed out of season right now. This plant usually blooms in the late spring or summer but here it is now. This flower is really magnificently colored just like in the picture. It is a perfect blend of red, yellow, and orange. This makes me smile when I see it out there. It has survived ALL YEAR long in the heat and cold while all the other calendula died. What is most surprising is that it had the weakest flowering period of all the other calendulas out there. I guess it spent all its energy on sustaining itself instead of flowering last year.

Last and one of my most favorite, the chrysanthemums. These are the largest mums I have ever seen! Last week, I went to an Asian flower market fair and they had these for sale. I bought a container and I knew these mums could be split into several plants. Well, after I bought them, I split them into seven plants. I cut off the flowers to have this beautiful bouquet and planted the roots. The flower is about 4-5 inches wide. Oh, they are so beautiful. They brighten up my whole house!