Hugo's Garden

It wasn't much talked about on the blog on account of it is not a happy subject, but our beloved Hugo died in June.  She was apparently about 21 years old and had a very happy life.  (If you missed her story you can read about it here.)  But we still miss her every day.  The Hub and I planted a memorial garden for her in the backyard.  We used to have a little strip of lawn in this area that was there when we bought Wellington.  Hugo used to love to eat the grass along this strip in the mornings.  But with the drought, lawns aren't doing well in California.  So we took the lawn out and planted this garden in Hugo's honor..

It has mostly ornamental grasses that Hugo would have loved.  There are a couple of carpet roses and in the center is an olive tree with Hugo's ashes underneath.  The olive tree has gotten a lot of new growth.  I think it likes Hugo under there.  We are searching for a perfect cat statue to put in this garden.  The grasses and plants will soon broaden and you will hardly see the stepping stones.  It has already grown so much in the three months it's been planted.  It's a nice quiet place to sit and relax and think about a little kitty cat who brought us joy.

Drat This Drought!

In the few months since my last post a lot has happened.  Little Hootie died.  Then the piglet died.  We are now completely void of pets and it's very sad for us.  Also our bottom lawn died on account of the drought that has been hanging over California for years.  Everyone has to ration their water and the gardens are really hurting.  Our upper lawns in the front are still sort of green because they have more shade.  But the lawn between the sidewalk and the street completely died.  The Big Guy took it out a few weeks ago and tried to kill the crab grass.  He planted some jasmine instead.  It tends to grow really well in Benicia.  Today he put in a drip line, which conserves water.  Next step is landscape fabric and some recycled wood chips from the local mulch yard.

Wellington still looks awfully nice, if you ask me.  He looked better with a cat on his porch though.

Here is the jasmine and the drip line which will soon be covered up.

This is a better view of the poor lawn.  It's September, coming into fall.  We are really hoping for some rain before we lose the whole lawn.  I am sitting in my front office and although it's a pretty hot day, I can see the first signs of autumn which many loyal blog readers will remember from this post.  I call it "Andy's Nut."  That industrious squirrel is already gathering his nuts for the winter.

My little Christmas tree from years ago is growing nicely with his little fuchsia that I propagated from the neighbor's plant and a beautiful bright pink impatiens.  But this porch misses its kitty cat..