Pictures from my backyard

At this time of year (late November), I like to post pictures from my yard—mainly to show off our nice weather to relatives in snowy parts of the country (they get to boast about the low cost of housing—we have similar sizes of house, but my siblings’ houses are ⅓ to ⅒ the price of mine, according to Zillow).

This flower is from a common houseleek (Sempervivum tectorum, which translates to “live-forever of the roofs”).

You may know the common houseleek better as hens-and-chicks. Here is a rosette, removed from the plant with the flower spike and planted separately. Supposedly the rosette dies after the flower spike is formed, though the side rosettes continue to grow.

Our rosemary is still doing ok, though it is getting choked out a bit by the Sweet 100s tomatoes.

The tomatoes are mostly done for the year, though there are a few still ripening.

The tomatoes are in turn getting choked out by the nasturtiums, which germinated after our October rain.

I have about 60 small pots of succulents that I’m growing from cuttings—I plan to give them away next fall to students at UCSC. The 27 that I gave away last September all were taken in about 80 minutes, so I’ll probably pot up another 40 cuttings before next summer, so that I’ll have 100 to give away in the fall.

I’ve found that I can get free (used) plastic pots from San Lorenzo Lumber, by their back gate.  The potting soil is also free, as I’m just potting the plants in sifted compost from around my compost heap.  That is really a bit too rich for succulents, but buying sand or vermiculite to reduce the organic content is too much trouble.