LACMA Sculpture Garden

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art sculpture garden's most prominent piece is "Urban Light," by Chris Burden done in 2008.  It greets you at the west entrance.

Robert Irwin, the person who designed the Getty Center Garden, created the "Primal Palm Garden" in 2010.

The Rodin sculptures are set in a garden also designed by Robert Irwin.

On the east side of the museum is the older part of the garden with a reflecting pool.

In the pool are  Alexander Calder sculptures from 1964 called "Hello Girls."

Corms, Tubers and Bulbs

In October I plant freesia and sparaxis corms

and anemone tubers.

Most of them go in pots, others into the garden.  They will begin to bloom in the winter.

Some bulbs are already growing, this is a Paperwhite narcissus among the Maidenhair fern,

freesias among Stachys byzantina,

and Spring Starflower (Ipheion uniflorum).

October in my Garden

Japanese Anemones (Anemone hupehensis) blooming

in two colors.

Reed stem Epidendrums blooming

in two colors.

Hypoestes blooming

in two colors.

Norton Simon Museum Sculpture Garden

Blooming in my Neighborhood Now

Paradise Vine (Solanum wendlandii)

Osteospermum

Fringe Flower (Loropetalum chinense)

Eugenia myrtifolia

Hemerocallis

Silver Vase Bromeliad

A Silver Vase Bromeliad (Aechmea fasciata) is growing  

in a shady corner of my garden.

I forget it is even there until

it starts to bloom.

The flowers last for about two months.

Then they begin to dry out and die.  After the stalk and leaves will die too.

But there are young plants growing to take its place.

Figs

By early October I have picked the last of the figs from my tree.

I dried some of them in the oven.

With the rest, I cooked at low heat, with sugar, in a pot, uncovered.  After 3 or 4 hours the liquid evaporates and I have fig jam.

I made pastry shells, the indentations are from pastry weights.

Add the fig jam and whipping creme for fig tarts.

Birds in my Garden

Black Phoebes (Sayornis nigricans) are now hunting where the House Wrens and Towhees foraged three months ago. They are insect eaters and perch on twigs and survey the garden.

The Bushtits (Psaltiparus minimus) travel in small flocks and come chattering to each other in the foliage, picking at insects in the leaves. They are tiny, grey, pouffy birds, the males have black eyes, the females, white.

I usually hear the Western Scrub Jay (Apbelocoma californica) before I see it, a noisy bird. They are omnivores and are especially fond of my neighbors who leave out bird seeds.