
In the morning when I walk out the front door to see if my boys can still make it in time to catch the van to school, just up the hill, this is what I see— a beautiful view with a beautiful tropical garden in the foreground. The very garden that I helped my friend and neighbor plan roughly five years ago. And look at it now! The employees at the nursery where we bought the plants were worried that we were packing things in just a bit too tightly in her built-in planter that touches the actual earth, and they were right, but it looks fabulous from my vantage point!

Ahhh, gorgeous! What you’re looking at here are actually very tall plants— the patio floor is far below, evidenced by the wooden pergola beams which cover that same patio.

And now just a bit closer up so I can identify the plants for those of you who are interested:
- Very far left: a walnut tree, now bearing walnuts!
- Left, and the tallest tree in the photo: Scheflera tree, as opposed to a Scheflera house plant or bush
- The next tree with the large leaves: Strelitzia, in the bird of paradise family, and resembles a banana tree, but it is not…..
- The sharp pointed leaved tree is a Yucca, a great drought resistant and sculptural plant
- The blooms, both purplish and reddish are Bougainvillea, which we imagined climbing along the fence they now totally obscure! One of the simple joys of Mediterranean living!
The interesting thing is that while these plants are all really tropical species, they also do well here in our mountain zone 6 town, and even survive freezes and snow here and there! That’s all for now, do consider your neighbors when planting your garden as making them happy is a wonderful thing. I can say that as in this case I’m one of those neighbors!

















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