Exactly a year to the day, another rainstorm, another morning, the trees glowing gold and shedding their leaves. Christmas season here in the Pasadena area is cool and sunny, with the occasional downpour, famously on Jan. 2, 2006 when our Rose Parade got rained out but kept on going anyway. But our rain is going away as the decades pass and the temperature rises...This is the kind of garden to keep building on, replacing the water-intensive plants with those that are hardier, opening up paved areas and using stone and gravel beds, each year is an experiment with its rewards and casualties, as any gardener knows.
But the shade is a huge relief in the summer, the strategic tree planting has paid off. I'm ten degrees cooler than unshaded yards, the tradeoff being that I now need to water the trees themselves about once a month in the spring and early summer except for the oak tree.
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