After the fact.

Did the cold spell do any damage?  Not really.  For the most part the late November cold spell did very little damage with the exception of a couple of surprises.     

Some whiting of the spear leaves on this Y. rostrata/thompsoniana.  Not unusual for this plant. Could died back or the leaves maybe fine and regain their green color.   

My big Y. brevifolia, no real damage.  A couple of  small spots.

A sucker I plan on transplanting next year.  No damage, but was covered.  When they are small the don't fair well here in the winter.  

This cactus did well but was covered by the snow.

This was the surprise.  Yucca elata with frost damage on the leaves.  Also the most protected Y. elata I have.  All the others so far look fine. 

Frost damaged areas on the leaves.  When the wind blew the leaves snapped.  

I will be surprised if this lives.  Looks like it did before the cold spell, but was covered under the snow.

Opuntia basilaris (not hardy?)

Agave utahensis x neomexicana, not damage so far. 

This Y. brevifolia has never been very cold hardy, and yes from a colder part of their range.  I also had this covered with a sheet, but this little sucker I think will make it.  I bet money this spear will pull. 

 From the same plant as above, damage from last year, I think.

No damage on this Yucca elata even though it has froze to the roots several times when it was smaller.  

No damage on these Y. brevifolia.  

No damage on most of my Y. rostrata/thompsoniana

Y. gloriosa, little leaf damage.

Y. brevifolia, looks good.

Our new little girl, she's the one with the long ears on the left.  We lost Rocko and our Lilly.

It's been a hard year for our loved ones.  

Fall snow storm.

This was the 3rd snow fall of the season so far.  The first 2 snows melted a few hours after they barely covered the ground.  But the third was a true snow storm.  At 7-10 inches it was not an unusual storm, but a feeling of winter (Christmas?) is now upon us.  Not to mention the winter temps that have followed the storm.  As I type this the temps have fallen to a cold -2 Fahrenheit!

At the beginning of the storm I hastily through some sheets/covers on few plants I wanted to protect from heavy snows and the cold that was going to follow.    

                    

         A cover over one of my Yucca torreyi.  These are not quite big enough for me to feel comfortable leaving them on their own during the winter, although I did not cover them last year except during extremes like I will do this year.    

Yucca faxoniana

The start of the storm.

After the storm

Yucca rostrata

Yucca elata

Yucca rostrata

Cercocarpus ledifolius

Yucca glauca

New "recycled pipe" railing project I will be working on for the next several years, unless I find more pipe, more money, and more time.  Looking for any unwanted 1" and 3/4" pipe, holes in pipe are fine. (in the local area)  Takes hundreds of feet of pipe, lots of ready mix cement, lots of welding wire, and lots of time.  

A non cold hardy cactus that I left out.  Maybe worth a try next summer?

cholla

Yucca brevifolia

Younger Yucca brevifolia.

The only truly hardy agave I have, and only time will tell. lol

The 3 wise men.

Cylindropuntia tunicata, this froze back a few years a go and is slowly making a come back. 

With the blue skies and the fluffy snow...even I liked it.  Of course it wont break my heart to see it all melt.  I never back in my blog during the summer months to look at snow pics, but I always find myself in the winter looking back at my summer pics. lol  

     

The end is here!

The end of the warm weather is upon us and the cold weather seasons begin.  I always laugh when with the coming of Fall because, I always get a new boost of garden inspiration.  Now is the time of year I finally decide to buy all those plants I was going to buy in the spring.  I can't help my self, I buy a few and shove them onto a window seal barely keep them alive until spring.  And when I do plant them it's way too early and they either die or struggle to push up new growth by summer. lol  Trees (most) on the other hand seem to do better for me when planted in the fall.

I will try and fill in the blanks later.           

Pic. was taken from a top a mound I made.  

End of the season flowers.  The American Gold Finches have moved on time to clean-up.

This is a reminder for myself "not to let gaillardia grow in and around the hardscape", they take over.  

Before and after trim, I was already into the trim before I thought of before and after pics.

(Cercocarpus ledifolius) Amazing trees that can grow high in the alpines or even in the hot deserts.  They have an appearance of a Mediterranean olive, very exotic looking with time.  I suggest people look up imagines on their computers.  I first saw them as a kid back-packing and wanted one ever sense.       

The smartest spider I have ever seen.  This is the second one or second time I have seen him in the garden.  He was almost impossible to take a pic of.  Even far away he would hide behind something, I was lucky to get this shot.

A young Side-blotched lizard. The only one I have seen this year.

A Pacific Tree-frog, a rare sight this season.

The dry creek banks have slowly been sloughing in and narrowing the creek bottom.  When I first dug out the dry creek I was not thinking about the long term movement of the rocks and banks.  I now understand what is needed for long term construction.  The top picture below is an example of a before pic and the bottom pic is of an after pic. The right side of the bottom pic is were the bank was dug out and "footing" boulders were placed to keep the bank stable.  When first constructed the rocks were placed just for aesthetics. 

This is going to be a long term project, like every other project I start.