Sound Gardener

I will head up to Vancouver BC next weekend for the Hardy Plant Study Weekend. We've been busy in the garden continuing to push the crazy plant person theme. Here's a quick shot of the front garden. My husband is a recent palm tree convert and drove down to Raintree Tropical to buy more expensive compost, specifically a second Butia eriospatha and a Brahea armata (he is not deterred by common sense). He did raise up the palm trees to improve drainage but good luck. The first Butia eriospatha did sail through last winter. Here's the new, much larger Butia. It barely fit in the car. Ignore the other plants in the photo, the mushroom-shaped maples are living on borrowed time. We are only just starting to tackle the back garden; there is a slope behind the Butia that I would like to rework into a hardy xeriscape. And lastly the Brahea. Rock crevices will all be planted with hardy cactus and succulents, and I'm thinking of an oversized Sempervivum or a spiral aloe in the big

 Last fall my husband Paul set about replacing the a small wood retaining wall and stairs down to our back patio that were falling apart. I did not think to take a good before photo, but here is one with the toddler torturing a houseplant on the stairs. And here is the wood removed and old step location in the background. Gabion baskets going in. To make more space above the stairs for a wheelbarrow to roll down the hill, the stairs were pulled forward to directly off of the patio. A couple of shots after the baskets were filled; Paul had the pleasure of moving a ton of river rocks to fill these only to come up short; cue a scramble to collect as many large rocks as possible from the garden. Stair treads were made by planing the wood from the old stairs as a temporary solution until we decide on something more final. Paul also pulled forward the stone retaining wall next to the gabions. Rock poles (and a brother) are key for this job! And here is the mostly finished product; we still n