A group of ladies in Cambria came over to take a look at my garden. They were members of the Cambria Newcomers Garden Club. The garden was pretty neglected at the time. We still had a litter of labradoodles. Most of the puppies were reserved, some were even spoken for before they were born. The only pressure we were feeling was, “keep them healthy, give them lots of love and a little basic training. Every day, all day”. And anyone who has ever had puppies knows that there is a lot of clean-up to be done with six-week-old pups. They are little “poop-factories”.
The garden was certainly not free of weeds but many trees and shrubs were beginning to bloom in my garden and gardens around Cambria. You can’t miss the blossoms on trees like crabapple, dogwood, magnolia, redbud, flowering cherry and plum, and on shrubs such as azalea, viburnum, and cassia. Drought-tolerant ceanothus, jasmine, lavender, rockrose, rosemary, and salvia are doing well in drought conditions. Climbers that are showing off in our early spring are clematis, blue hibiscus, Hardenbergia (purple vine violet), climbing roses and wisteria.
The Newcomers Garden Club members talked about the gopher problem and what I found to be the best fertilizer. We discussed solutions to the drought problem. None of us had the answers. All of us have cut back on planting.
I love having visitors to the garden. They give me lots of ideas and I see things through their eyes. I no longer struggle with perfection. I work on one area at a time. “Good is good enough!”
