GardenBook

  I always feel as though June is the last month that things look nice in my garden. This year June also has the distinction of being the last month of my life as an employee. After 30 plus years, on July1st at or about 4pm I am a free woman. As I have been training my replacements over the last several weeks and migrating my workload over to them I  have felt the job stress slowly melting away. I did a routine monthly task today and I realized it was the last time ever. And this Bloomday post is the last time I will have to jockey around my workdays-my workdays now will be right here at home in my garden.   So here is a selection of flowers for this month.  Clematis Juuli , one of my favorites. Juuli scrambles rather than twines so she like to recline on her neighbors. I have a small support for her but she pretty much goes where she likes. The stamens !   The annual Erygium blaukappe with Anigozanthos and Phlomis mash-up. The Erygiums are vast this year, most are volunteers. Verbena

  My habit is to go down to Santa Barbara annually but these strange past two years put the skids on most travel, business or leisure . I do have to say that in the absence of my  fairly robust travel schedule my garden is unusually well taken care of. Not that it was neglected pre-Covid , but the combination of working from home and not going anywhere allowed for a significant improvement in  maintenance protocols. And inevitably while immersed in the weeding and trimming the renovation schemes started percolating. Many plants were moved or removed. And when plants are removed, you know what that means..I have to buy more ! Lifting of pandemic restrictions and 3 vaccines under my belt I decided it was time to revive the annual south coast road trip. A nursery crawl was an important part of the itinerary.   I made my usual rounds -Lotusland, Seaside Gardens ,Terra Sol and an overnight at Back Bay Inn  in Baywood/Los Osos on the way home. This was my first trip with my new camera -of co