Abandoned garden plants can be interesting. The hydrangea is beginning to eat the house.

Its immense. I see green grass near it..so its getting water. Irrigated or leaky pipe.

Leaking hose bib, maybe. Long may it leak. Poor sad house, someone once upon a time loved it. And the hydrangea, too.

It is overflowing with beautiful old sad houses here...we wish we could buy them all...not to mention that I want to PLANT them all....we LOVE old houses.

Just a bit OT...saw this one being worked on this week, stopped and talked to the guys, told them how much I appreciate that it's being brought back...

This one, however, is just a tad too far gone, built in 1906, listing says it's in "poor condition". Still. I like seeing it there. There are two apple trees and a fig...I'm tempted by wanting fig cuttings....

Somebody could redo that with lots of sweat equity if the price is right. In California the only homes getting knocked down are because they became home to..squatter and criminal types.

Just plain old and rotting are fixer uppers.

Oh, it's a wonderland for people like us...we've spent our life remodeling and building. Lot of pros and cons here ...excellent value for the money and we're now getting Chinese investors also....houses on Pebble Beach Dr, 3 blocks from us go from $350K to $One mil seven...we have the Redwoods and interesting visitors from all over the world, a beautiful shoreline...enough rain, plus our house has a well...which, after $400 a month water bills in SoCal is a HUGE plus. A large part of 'downtown' was wiped out in the tsunami in the 60's, there no work left in the logging and fishing industries as there was before, so there's a lot of low-income and alot of that is from retired folks. It's not all good, there is meth here also and crime. There are those who come here from elsewhere and see it as waiting to happen...how to make money on it.I don't think that will happen, I HOPE that won't happen...though we are 85 miles from the nearest Trader Joe's..sigh..

Love that hydrangea ;) that's huge for california. They need to post that for wedding photos. I know so many people that would go crazy over that big of a hydrangea :)

Unfortunately, it usually looks kind of ratty..pale color and then there's no one there to be trimming off the faded blooms. I finally realized that I should take a pic of it because one day I may go by and it will be gone...

We are in the farthest Northwestern part of California, so our weather is typically PNW

:) I have a love affair with hydrangea. Clients down here in socal often ask for them and I just frown because unless they are on the northside in almost full shade with lots of water they fail. I think the flowers are beautiful..thanks for the pic. I kinda want to hug it :)..u don't see it down here ever.

My hydrangeas in SoCal (Fallbrook) werre tubbed and in the shade of a Pepper Tree. In moving up here, the first thing I thought was HYDRANGEAS! My neighbor across the street has one hydrangea and she says the deer eat it...she fertilizes....my friend 6 or so miles from here says the deer eat hers...she fertilizes. My friend in Pistol River, 45 miles north has lots of hydrangeas and the deer do not bother hers, she does NOT fertilize. So far, I have 6 hydrangeas in front where the deer can get at them, but I don't fertilize either and they have not been bothered. I also have a lot of grasses and wind and I'm wondering if the movement of the grasses actually may spook the deer somewhat. About once a month I also give anything at risk a light spritz of dilute lavender oil...in any case, now I can finaly have my hydrangeas!

Love the Home Sweet Home sign on the last house. :) Investors aren't always a bad thing, especially when they are not shooting to change the nature of the area. Not enough people can, or want to, take on true fixers. Investors are what can bring the houses and the life of the towns back. Sure they hope to make some money for their risk when they sell, but then someone moves in and makes the place a home again.

My MIL had some nice, large hydrangeas that we grew at the nursery. Unfortunately, over the years, her gardener's neglect, and the gophers, have taken some of them out.

I love to see houses brought back one by one and we've always done that ourselves, it encourages the entire neighborhood to change.....the word 'developers', however, leaves a bad taste n my mouth, What I love most of all here is its sense of place and time and character....but then, I love OLD...and quirky....and, oh my, I see so many yards just begging to be planted.

I was referring to the first term you used--investors. There are differences between investors and developers, both legal and in focus. Investors tend to look at a longer time commitment, are more likely to fix up the existing houses vs. developers and may choose to gain return through renting or resale. Generally speaking, developers take a parcel of land, often removing any existing buildings, for building multiple units that will give them quick and maximum return.

Absolutely, we are getting investors who buy a house or houses on Pebble Beach Dr on the bluff overlooking the ocean...Oceanfront houses on the California Coast at that price are a good investment...developers see mass production, biggest buck for the cheapest investment,,,such as the tract housing that started going up in some areas of the San Joaquin agricultrural areas in thew 50's-60's and such as someone did here on the ugliest stretch of town...a tract development that only deteriorates with time...pure ugly.....for those who remember what California, or any other places for that matter, once was, it can never be recaptured....gone...

I saw this today..another drought hardened plant...but still makes a nice look. I think.

Love the hydrangeas...and speaking of drought hardened, our house here is about 60 years old and has two very mature camellias, so who knows how old, but I've not watered them at all this summer and they're fine...true, our climate is much more forgiving, but still, once mature...very unthirsty.

Where you are,baby tears spreads on its own. Same for many of those choice small shade ground covers that need a lattice house and much watering to do well here.

Yes, I'm really, really appreciating the gardening climate here and it's such a shame that there is so very little in the way of actual gardening done here. Baby Tears is too delicate for my tastes, I'm more in the line of wild grasses...somewhere, deep inside, my heart prefers wild prairies....LOL..

I would go dig it up when it goes dormant - it's blah because of lack of minerals.

LOL...yeah, I'd have a great time digging that one. We have a small city lot now and I already have more hydrangeas than I really have room for and I'm not crazy about that one. It's a wonderful survivor.