Paso Robles in Photos: lupine photos

Abandoned!

The City Daily Photo Bloggers theme for October is "Abandoned." We can abandon almost anything. I wrote on this theme in May 2015 and featured many of our abandoned buildings. See "N" is for Neglected and Abandoned Buildings. I had to come up with something new for this post, so I've decided to show you my abandoned gardens in Templeton.

Photos of My Abandoned Gardens

In the photo below, you see what's left of an herb garden I planted about twenty years ago on a slope behind the house.

Abandoned Herb Garden on Slope

Nature has a way of taking over when a caring gardener is no longer active. I had to abandon my gardens here after some major surgeries. Someone clears the weeds from around the edges during fire season, but there are still plenty hidden among the herbs. Most of what you see here are three varieties of sage left to do what they will. There are a few irises and they still bloom. Hidden from view are the santolina and lavender, which still hold their own. The oregano has almost been smothered by the sages, but manages to get its head into the sun enough to live. The rosemary has also survived.

Perennial herbs are hardy. These plants have survived over a year with no irrigation. Of course when a flower bed with no perennial plants is abandoned, it will look like the one below. There may still be some rhubarb here if the drought didn't finally kill it, and some lemon balm may remain alive under the weeds. Now its mostly wild grasses, sow thistle, and mallows in season.

Sometimes nature presents us with unexpected gifts, like this lupine flower that sprang up in the midst of the weeds on the slope. I actually planted lupine years ago, but it seemed to disappear. Some years it comes up and some years it doesn't.

Here's yet another view of the abandoned herb garden on the slope. This shows you the lavender that was hidden in the other photo. It's only March in these photos, so lavender isn't blooming yet. That bit of yellow near the left is a calendula -- the flower that keeps reproducing no matter what. See How Colorful Calendula Brightens My Garden All Year Long.

Abandoned Gardens Are Sad: Although I may have abandoned this garden for now, Mother Nature hasn't.

See what other City Daily Photo Bloggers have done with this theme.

I love lupine. I used to have a lot of it on my Templeton property. The drought killed most of it up on the hill when there was no rain. The seeds I planted in my herb garden rarely grew. It's been years since lupine was there, even though the seeds for it have been in the ground. Today I went home, and although the property, including the herb garden was overrun with weeds, I saw lupine finally blooming again. I love surprises like that.

Here's a closer look at the photo above.

Lupine supposedly is a perennial plant, though I always considered this form of it annual. I've seen a shrub form in Cambria at Moonstone beach that I'm sure was perennial because it's always there. There are at least 82 species of lupine in California. All species are related to the pea, but the seeds are toxic. The plant's name Lupinus spp. means "wolf" because it was thought that lupine depleted nutrients from the soil. Instead, though, like other legumes, their root nodules add nitrogen to the soil that it needs.

The photo to the right shows a bit more of the overgrown garden on a slope. Behind the lupine, to the left of the title, is an overgrown clump of thyme I need to harvest and dry. It's already blooming, but it's flowers are too tiny to see in this photo. The lupine chose to emerge among the irises that have not bloomed yet. The large lavender, oregano, and sage plants are out of sight in this photo.

The lupine plants you see here came from seeds I collected one day from a vacant lot in San Luis Obispo while I was on a walk. The pods were ready to explode, and the timing was perfect. They have bloomed a couple of times before in wet years, and it's a joy to have them back this year.

Lupine and other wildflowers don't have a long blooming season. Wouldn't it be nice to enjoy seeing them in your home all year round? Why not pick and press some while they are in bloom? Here are some how-to and craft idea books, and even a microwave flower press you can browse through at Amazon if you like to do things yourself. If you don't have time to make something lovely with wildflowers yourself, why not buy some of this lupine wall art for one of your walls? Here are some beauties from Zazzle.

Lupine and California poppies Canvas Print