Casa Spanky Garden

Here is a photo of the Spanky garden in January, my first day working at the Casa.

This was taken today, May 20. The plants need to grow and I will add more as the poppies fade.

Fun plants for children like, Lion's Tail, Black and Blue Salvia, Sunflowers...

Butterfly Garden

This is what the butterfly garden looked like when I started working at the Casa. It was a weed patch and the docents would not take visitors there.

This is the other side of the doorway that leads out to the butterfly garden.

And now, a full view that combines the two previous photos. The only new planting I did was roses. You can't see them in this photo. Just lots of weeding, fertilizer and transplanting yucca and the like out and butterfly plants in.

Casa Romantica Garden work day

Today I tackled a new project. Planting a garden from a plan, note first photo. All the books and articles tell us to have a plan. Well, a volunteer put our verbal thoughts for the Spanky garden into a really cool, professional plan! I bought some of the plants and substituted some plants that were on the list. My challenge is to try to place the plants, following the plan...not enough of these...the native poppies are still blooming where those plants are supposed to go - according to the plan. Took a lot of adjusting but it was a fun and exhausting day planting the Spanky Chang Garden. Not a bad view tho.

The Spanky Chang garden is named after the Chang families beloved dog, Spanky. I chose to develop the garden as a Children's Garden. I have plants that are non poisonous, fragrant, and with fun names. Lion's Tail, Cool-aid plant, Peppermint geranium, Sunflowers, Snapdragons, Spanish Lavender... The slate stones shaped like a T-bone invite children to come explore the garden.

Mother's Day

We hosted a family Mother's Day event with over 20 family members here for a BBQ lunch.

This photo is of my mother, Ellanor, me and Granddaughter Siena.

I always love to let the Grandchildren experience the garden.

Aubrey is smelling the onion blossom and Garrett is watering the herbs.

We just added a bench to the Children's garden.

The three grandchildren are enjoying Grandma's photo op :)

My Garden on May 10, 2008

Spring is beautiful and the gardens are at their peak. Photos just do not seem to do justice to them. The rose (Cecile Bruner taking over the bank), herbs, yellow columbine (Texas Gold) , geranium (the vibrant coral ball in the photo).

I brought the columbine seed from Texas and they do well here, coming back every year. I have shared them with many friends. We all love them for their beautiful clear yellow color.

Home Garden

The flowers in the front are in full bloom.

The herb garden and fountain areas are looking good. Geranium and Cecile Bruner rose compliment the fountain this week.

Grandchildren in the gardens

Aubrey and Garrett came for a quick overnighter.

We packed as much adventure we could in their stay.

I had some small tomato plants ready to put in my herb garden. They really were not sure what Grandma was asking them to do but they seemed to be fascinated with the digger and worms in the soil.

I worked a couple of hours at the Casa while Grandpa took them to the beach. I waved to them down by the pier where they played in the sand and on the swings.

Then they came up to the Casa for a fun tour through the gardens.

I loved showing them the ladybugs and they let them crawl on their arms. When a ladybug flew away they looked up like watching a balloon fly away. It was so cute.

Looking up toward the Casa from the ocean, the children are enjoying exploring the gardens.