Coastal Getaway and a Visit to Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden-Part Two

  When you haven't gone anywhere in months a scenic 3 hour drive and a few days in a cottage with a view of the ocean can seem like a trip of a lifetime. I've done this journey many times but it is more precious when you can't . All of my spring road trips and any other trips, business or otherwise, have been cancelled. The business trips I can do without after 30 years of them, but the lack of garden tourism does leave a void. On the positive side, said void has been filled with time spent in my own garden and with extra attention it has improved .

 The highlight of this brief sojourn to the coast was my morning at Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden; you can peruse Part One of these two posts here. Public gardens are open in California and so far have not been victims of the new rollbacks .Outdoor spaces in general dodge the bullet. 

 The Heather collection garden is one of the few areas where I usually spend some time sitting. I find the undulating mounded forms of the heaths to be compelling and soothing at the same time. This garden is what inspired me to attempt to bring the same aesthetic into my own. Success has been marginal but I have enjoyed the process.

 

 Early fall is a better season to visit for the most bloominess, and I hope to go back then, depending on how things progress pandemic-wise. 

 I like viewing the succulent garden in the distance framed by the Heaths. Clashing cultures-and yet they manage to co-exist. A lesson that could apply to our troubled nation .

The succulent garden is relatively small but does quite well considering the cool damp climate out here on the Mendocino Coast.The beds are well bermed with a gravelly sandy soil mix.

 This Agave is doing fine.

 

An Aeonium has decided to use this Agave as support for it's blooms.

Grevillea Peaches and Cream thrives . 

 Frost free here, so Aeoniums are common  and it looks nice paired with the Aloe-which I cannot ID. My Aloe ID skill improvement project went on hold during lockdown.

 I missed Rhodie bloom time  but I didn't miss the post bloom foliage flush. There was quite a bit of this going on. 

I wandered into this area where I was not supposed to be judging by the caution tape and the large open pits of irrigation equipment. It was an accidental thing-there was a small path  with no barriers and I was trying to find the Magnolia laevifolia which I felt certain was in this area of the garden. But it was exciting to see the infancy of the new conifer collection-this is only a small portion of it.

 

 Also new in the last year or so is a grouping of carnivores.

 

  

I'll leave you with the seedpods of Lunaria, sure wish I had some this year. My last plant reseeded but in such deep shade it won't bloom. Open shade is better.

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