In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 461 of 1154
Looking into it, ironwood not wildlife friendly. It might do OK if planted on a little hill of amended soil.
I think I'm going to try elderberry. According to various websites it can get "as tall as" 30 ft but the height is more typically 6-12 feet. But even at 30 ft (which is about twice the height of a normal one-storey home) I don't think it would be overwhelming in scale even if it was right next to the house. IMHO it only gets disproportionate when a tree is right next to a house and more than twice the height of the roof ridge.
If you're looking at an area that doesn't get much water, it's unlikely to grow to its tallest form.
My problem is the width: It wants to grow a wide as tall, or wider. If grew even larger-than average (say, 20 ft) the planting would have to be at least 10 ft from the house and 10 ft away from the front sidewalk. (in reality, I would plan on it being farther from the sidewalk. I'm looking for morning shade on the entryway. Also, I'm thinking ahead to the day when we have to take down the star pine, and want a "replacement tree" for the front yard.) But since it takes pruning, I would want to "limb it up" into a narrow-form multi-trunked tree, more vase-shaped instead of rounded, and see how that goes. Since it's a fast-grower, I'll know soon enough if I've made a terrible plant choice. It wouldn't be the first one!
That takes care of one side of the front door. But the house is asymmetric, planting the same tree on the other side of the doorway 10 ft from the house would put it significantly forward of the first tree. Need to sketch it out and see how that would look.
I'd also like to try it in back. I have two candidate areas- the first is a dedicated "xeric area" where I grow verbena lilacina, sonoma sage, dusty miller, succulents, and a (recently planted) musk sage. (TBH I've had it in a pot for so long I forget which species it is.) It would look great there. And then there is an area currently occupied by two 70' Mexican fan palms, which I absolutely hate, hate, hate. The only animals that seem to like them are rats. That's an area that could use some shade in the evening. But I don't want to overplant too much of the same thing, even tho it sounds pretty ideal.
I also want to take out that awful "heavenly bamboo" and put something a little more useful. I read an article about the things you should and shouldn't grow in a garden, and it was all about growing things that are expensive or that really taste MUCH better fresh-picked. They were high on herbs (no need to buy a big bundle when you just want a few snips), tomatoes, asparagus, and raspberries. Their argument for raspberries is that they are so soft/fragile that growing and transporting them commercially make them very, very expensive. Why have "heavenly bamboo" when you can have raspberries???
I'm also tending coffee trees altho that is a whole different ball of yarn. Anyway, I have a lot of ideas and not much gardening time!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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I went to Calscape https://www.calscape.org/ and clicked on two of their generic searches; one on california native trees and the other on california native shrubs. I don't know why I didn't think of that before.
And I got multipage lists for each!
trees
https://www.calscape.org/loc-California/cat-Trees/ord-popular?srchcr=s
c5ee4d76cbcafa
shrubs
https://www.calscape.org/loc-California/cat-Shrubs/ord-popular?srchcr=
sc5ee4d6ae312f2
There's an option to 'order by scientific name' which I found helpful, since - if you already know you don't want a conifer or an oak, you can always skip past the abies, the chamaecyparis, the juniperus, the picea, the pinus, the quercus ...
I intend to peruse these lists at my leisure. Perhaps they'll have something for you that's just what you're looking for. 
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Okay, that picture looks like the shape of the piece the case is missing.
Which picture do you mean? I'm confused about the statement that a picture I posted is the shape of the piece that the case is "missing".
Quote:
I have 2 things. Blair's desk top with the missing piece and I use a laptop for talking to you all as I can't use the desktop. I really do hate laptops because as I've said in the last little while I feel like I have to jam my face into the screen to see properly and I up the zoom on it.
I hear you. I've never liked laptops for that very reason. Well... that and I could historically build a computer 10 times as powerful for roughly the same amount of money, since I have a $300 case that has a longer lifespan than I do, I've already got hard drives, and I already have monitors much larger than a laptop screen, so the cost goes way down when building a new one.
That being said, I wouldn't mind getting a new laptop when funds allow for it. They almost all have HDMI output these days and are powerful enough to do everything that I'd ever care to do while doing it on a big monitor instead of the tiny laptop screen.
Quote:
I want the desktop working as it has my finished book on it and I want to get back to finding a publisher. Can't really do any of that with this laptop as no Word doc on this. So if I want to do that that means doing 2 different things.
Please tell me that you have that book backed up in at least one other place and that it is on your laptop too? If you do, please invest in a USB thumb drive or two and also back any of your writing on them as well. They are relatively cheap these days, especially for the small capacity you'd need to store written work. Don't buy these used, and buy them from a reputable dealer and produced by a reputable company like SanDisk or Kingston. Look for 8GB drives, since they will be larger than you would ever need and are pretty much dirt cheap these days.
Here's what they look like (more or less... they all have a different "look" to them):
Not sure if you have Best Buy up there, but 8GB SanDisk USB thumb drives $4.00 off now and only $5.99 each.
$10.00 USD is too pricey. You can usually buy them in bundles of 2 or 3 and get them cheaper in a pack too.
Quote:
From your description I am looking for a monitor with VGA(angled, one side longer than the other and pins) because that is what the ends look like to me.
Sure sounds like VGA to me.
That computer IS pretty old, huh? Unless you have any real sentimental attachment to it, or you DO have things on there that you didn't back up before it became a problem, I suggest you consider just upgrading to a new PC, and/or buying a new laptop with an HDMI output and a large monitor you can plug it into. If you do that, you can also buy a Keyboard and a mouse with USB ends to plug into the Laptop so it will basically function exactly like a Desktop for you.
In that case, I would still keep your old laptop as a backup since it takes up so little space, or even have that in a different room ready to boot up if you wanted a change of scenery when you're working. If you have your written works on those USB thumb drives I mentioned, you can just take it out of one machine and pop it into the other and resume where you left off on the fly.
Quote:
This desk top has other problems as well as I think the keyboard is gone too which would mean I think the mouse too. The keyboard doesn't light up anymore that I can tell.
Now if you really want to try saving this computer and you need a new keyboard and mouse, we're going to have to take a look at the ends of those as well. If the computer is old enough to only have VGA output, there is a very good chance that the keyboard and mouse have "round" bits on the ends and plug int
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Oh... and something else that I thought about considering USB ports and ease of use for you down the road.
If your computer doesn't have any easily accessible USB ports on the front that you could stick your thumb drive into and take it out, that's going to be a huge hassle for you mobility wise. You can still install it in the back of the case for your backup purposes, but you probably won't want to be moving the case around to take it out all the time and you should probably just leave it and consider it a backup drive for all of your essential stuff that will be easy to transport to a new computer whenever you do upgrade. You might even consider plugging in 2 of them just to have 2 places to back up all of your work, if you have enough USB ports back there after plugging in a USB keyboard and mouse too.
The idea here is that we don't want to leave ANYTHING on your computer's hard drive that isn't backed up on your USB thumb drives in the case that you would want if the computer dies.
Unless the computer's hard drive was busted, I would have a very easy time getting that important data off for you and putting it on a new PC, but that does require a kit that you can hook up a the bare drive to your new PC with and some knowledge of taking the system apart. There are people who will do this for you for a fee, but we want to make sure that you can avoid that ever happening by just making sure you always backup your written work and anything else important on these thumb drives so you never have to do that.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Well... I won't say yesterday was a waste of time, because it wasn't... but it's just another reminder of the fact that I just have too much house and property.
I spent another 3 or 4 hours just cleaning up debris from the last storm, and that was after about 90 minutes of doing so on the day of the storm. Then I mowed the lawn and blew what is hopefully the last of the helicopters and all the grass clippings, and cleaned up all the residual crap in the street and on the curb toward the sewer so it doesn't get blocked again. By the time I was done with all of that it was already 6:00PM and I didn't feel like doing anything else.
The good news is, the 2nd application of bug spray seems to really be working. I haven't seen any insects at all around the foundation of the house or the garage, let alone any ants. They're still a problem further out, and closer than I'd like, but at least we're making progress. Weed spray has worked a charm too. My property hasn't looked this good in years.
But the mole poison is a joke. Internet said it would be. My neighbor says he catches his with mousetraps and peanut butter put right out by the holes. I'm a bit skeptical about that, but I'm going to be trying that today. My lucky neighbor got the considerate family of moles that only tear up the sod he put down a few years ago instead of actively trying to destroy the foundation of his house like the jerks I've got living under my dirt.
I watched some videos on testing all of the ground wires in your car, and I've got a multimeter. I might spend a little time on that today. I also watched a video on how to clean the nozzle of a power sprayer. Different make than mine, but hopefully I can figure out whatever differences this one has and not bust it in the process. I'm pretty sure some crap just built up in the nozzle from years of not being used because the beast of a motor still runs like a champ.
Still got to organize the tools in my house too. Hopefully I can at least put a dent in that as well.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
As usual, I over-anticipated what I could accomplish.
Keep your head up, and know that you're not alone.
What on earth is an Elephant Ear? Out in my parts that term brings up memories of gluten packed cinnamon treats that my brothers and I loved when we ate them at carnivals as a kid, but the idea of trying to put that in my body today makes me throw up a little in my mouth.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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KIKI: This is what I might pick out for you:
I've seen stands of red shanks (adenostoma sparsifolium) that are VERY attractive. But they grow in areas that are SO dry ... like, on south and west facing slopes, at elevations where you would NOT expect much extra rain (or any snow) that if you had anything else nearby in your yard that you were watering, you MIGHT kill the red shanks. Places I've seen it: on the 57 fwy just south of the 10 fwy, on the west-facing slope of the eastern side of the 57; and on the west/south-facing lower slopes of the San Jacintos on the road back from Idyllwild.
Chokecherry (prunus virginiana) is upright, like Catalina Island cherry, but much darker green.
California bay laurel (umbellularia californica) has the benefit of killing off understory plants (natural weed control!)
Not a big fan of palo verde or mesquite. Besides, they might not like your area.
If you have space for a large 75' tree, try CA black walnut (juglans californica). It's native to the SG foothills, endangers, and very wildlife friendly.
Of all of them, I would suggest red shanks, if you don't mind keeping that area dry.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Walkies for me.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Okay, that picture looks like the shape of the piece the case is missing.
Which picture do you mean? I'm confused about the statement that a picture I posted is the shape of the piece that the case is "missing".Quote:
I have 2 things. Blair's desk top with the missing piece and I use a laptop for talking to you all as I can't use the desktop. I really do hate laptops because as I've said in the last little while I feel like I have to jam my face into the screen to see properly and I up the zoom on it.
I hear you. I've never liked laptops for that very reason. Well... that and I could historically build a computer 10 times as powerful for roughly the same amount of money, since I have a $300 case that has a longer lifespan than I do, I've already got hard drives, and I already have monitors much larger than a laptop screen, so the cost goes way down when building a new one.
That being said, I wouldn't mind getting a new laptop when funds allow for it. They almost all have HDMI output these days and are powerful enough to do everything that I'd ever care to do while doing it on a big monitor instead of the tiny laptop screen.Quote:
I want the desktop working as it has my finished book on it and I want to get back to finding a publisher. Can't really do any of that with this laptop as no Word doc on this. So if I want to do that that means doing 2 different things.
Please tell me that you have that book backed up in at least one other place and that it is on your laptop too? If you do, please invest in a USB thumb drive or two and also back any of your writing on them as well. They are relatively cheap these days, especially for the small capacity you'd need to store written work. Don't buy these used, and buy them from a reputable dealer and produced by a reputable company like SanDisk or Kingston. Look for 8GB drives, since they will be larger than you would ever need and are pretty much dirt cheap these days.
Here's what they look like (more or less... they all have a different "look" to them):
Not sure if you have Best Buy up there, but 8GB SanDisk USB thumb drives $4.00 off now and only $5.99 each.
$10.00 USD is too pricey. You can usually buy them in bundles of 2 or 3 and get them cheaper in a pack too.Quote:
From your description I am looking for a monitor with VGA(angled, one side longer than the other and pins) because that is what the ends look like to me.
Sure sounds like VGA to me.
Unless you have any real sentimental attachment to it, or you DO have things on there that you didn't back up before it became a problem, I suggest you consider just upgrading to a new PC, and/or buying a new laptop with an HDMI output and a large monitor you can plug it into. If you do that, you can also buy a Keyboard and a mouse with USB ends to plug into the Laptop so it will basically function exactly like a Desktop for you.
In that case, I would still keep your old laptop as a backup since it takes up so little space, or even have that in a different room ready to boot up if you wanted a change of scenery when you're working. If you have your written works on those USB thumb drives I mentioned, you can just take it out of one machine and pop it into the other and resume where you left off on the fly.Quote:
This desk top has other problems as well as I think the keyboard is gone too which would mean I think the mouse too. The keyboard doesn't light up anymore that I can tell.
Now if you really want to try saving this computer and you need a new keyboard and mouse, we're going to have to take a look at the ends of those as well. If the computer is old enough to only have VGA output, there is a very good chance that the keyboard and mouse haveNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME