Gardening Music

There's been a number of " list your favorite plants" posts recently on various gardening blogs, like Sunset magazines'.  How about a list of "great tunes to garden by"  - music to crank up on the outdoor speakers while you garden?  Some of my suggestions, in no particular order:

Sun Giant/Drops in The River - Fleet Foxes (in reality, any and all songs by Fleet Foxes)

Homegrown - Neil Young

Bluebird - Buffalo Springfield

Merriweather Post Pavillion - Animal Collective (play the entire album, absolutely genius)

Good Day Sunshine - The Beatles

Three Little Birds - Bob Marley

Succulent Flower

Here's a new arrival, yet to be planted.  It is calandrinia spectabilis, a succulent that is native to Chile.  This is going to be a good one, as I've read nothing but raves about this plant.  Evidently it blooms endlessly from early Spring through Fall, and the flowers, as you can see, are just an awesome, glowing purple hue.  I should expect this plant to grow up to 12 - 16 inches tall and maybe up to 3 feet wide.

Yippeee Ya Yaaayyyy Mini Saguaro Cactus!

.....actually, its euphorbia leucodendron, discovered and purchased at Target of all places.  But it does look like a grove of mini Saguaro Cacti.  All I need to do now is get myself some of those little cows the size of schnauzers.  UDATE 5/19/09 - Upon further research, I have found that this Euphorbia, also called Yellow Leaf Bush Euphorbia grows to 10 - 13 feet (not so mini after all) and is native to Madagascar.  Since this photo was taken, my specimen has sprouted small yellow flowers on top of each stalk. 

Environmentally Irresponsible

Even though the editors of Sunset Magazine would give it a resounding thumbs down, we've got a BIG back lawn, and right now, with our mid-spring heat wave, its real green and real plush.  This velvety back lawn covers more square footage than the footprint of our entire house.  Sure - these lawns guzzle California's precious water resources, but, have you ever tried playing bocce or croquet on one of those drought resistant fescue, cacti, succulent lawn-substitutes?

In The Flowers

Erigeron karvinskianus, Santa Barbara Daisy, is a classic staple for southern California gardens. Definitely common , but it's popular for good reason.  Its one of my absolute favorites - completely epitomizes southern California gardening.  The handsome little mounded plant seen here started a few years back as a tiny plug from a pony-pack.