It's my fourth Blogiversary!

I just looked at the calendar and realized April 3rd is the anniversary of the day, four years ago, that I started this blog. Crazy! I had goals for my blog in that first short post: "I hope it'll be a locus for evaluating my progress in three areas: First, my attempts to teach myself to write. Second, my desire to take better pictures. And finally, my ongoing efforts to create a beautiful and verdant garden here at Longview Ranch."

In that four year stretch of time, two very different, but interrelated, results have come to pass.

First, as I had hoped, I have watched my garden slowly develop, discovered and incorporated wonderful new plants, spent countless hours enjoying those plants, and in fulfilling one of my goals, I've chronicled the progress of my five-year-old garden. As to the better photography and writing -  not so much progress. But, I am having fun, which leads me to the second thing that's happened.

I've met an amazing and wonderful group of new friends in the garden blogging community. Some of these acquaintances are virtual, but many of the locals have become actual friends and delightful resources in my quest for garden know-how and plant lore - people I love connecting with at garden events, running into at the occasional nursery, and engaging with in plant exchanges and our own open gardens for each other.  What an unexpected and sweet bonus from my garden blog!

Now let me show you a little of what these years have brought to the gardens at Longview Ranch as I celebrate four years of blogging.

Bright spring sunlight through Libertia peregrinans 'Bronze Sword'.

The stunning pink perfection of Camellia 'April Kiss' in bloom.

One of my favorite plants in the garden, Eucalyptus pauciflora reigns over the south back garden.

A new Callistemon 'Woodlander's Hardy Red', backed by Yucca rostrata and a Cistus.

Vaccinium ovatum, Sagina subulata, and Cammasia quamash in the Northwest Territory. Will this be the year the camas blooms?

Langerstroemia 'Natchez' (center), a young Trachycarpus fortuneii (upper right), Fargesia robusta 'Campbell Form' (along fence), Kniphofia 'Timothy' (lower right), with Ilex crenata still striving to make a low hedge at the bottom of the image.

This year's candles on the shore pines.

Just when I think that this winter it really did die, Phygelius 'Passionate' reassures me with a few tiny red leaf buds.

 

A new grouping of Iris x pacifica 'Meadow Pastels' with Mahonia nervosa in bloom behind them.

These newly-planted Festuca glauca are seedlings from the parents that already lived out their short lives at Longview Ranch.

A sweep of plants, including Camellia 'April Kiss' in a shady area.

I have come to love gold and chartreuse foliage, especially contrasted with gray, silver or red.

Callistemon viridiflorus (center), Trachelospermum jasminoides 'Confederate Cream' (on fence) and Carex buchananii 'Bronze' (lower right).

Rhododendron impeditum, a Syneilesis hybrid, Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' and Acanthus mollis.

This garden blogging business has been a wonderful four year ride, one which a few of you have been along on almost from the start. I have appreciated every reader, and every comment left for me, from the very beginning up to my most recent post.

I'll keep recording my progress in the garden here, and I'll look forward to meeting even more of you - virtually, locally, or even at my first Garden Blogger's Fling in San Francisco this summer. Here's to four more years in the gardens at Longview Ranch!