Bamboo.

I like to think of bamboo as the 'cockroach of the plant world'. It will undoubtedly survive the apocalypse (or at least come back). We had thick bamboo growing across the back fence and up into the area in the picture. It wasn't a clumping variety and was coming up all over the place, so we decided to take most of it out, except for this little stand. Our super strong gardener, Gustavo, pulled all the roots out as well as the greens. Almost as soon as we took it out it was finding a way to put up shoots.

Then the fire burned everything, including the bit above where Spike is sitting. There was literally nothing left except for some charred rocks,  the fallen arbor and a lot of nails. When the bamboo started coming back we decided to let it. It provides a nice screen between us and the disaster house, and I do like the way it looks. I think Spike likes it too because it is one of his favorite places. He definitely likes to sit underneath, or on top of, something green.

Unlike the bamboo, the thyme project didn't thrive. John says there isn't enough soil to support it. Dana doesn't agree. We'll leave it for now. Maybe one day it will get a little shade from the bamboo and we can try again....

The second most likely plant to survive the apocalypse is oleander. It was a popular highway plant all over California, so I never really liked it. They can be seen coming back next to the fence above the bamboo. We'll keep them for now because something green is better than nothing. I don't know what happened to all those oleanders planted along the freeways. Most of them probably disappeared when the freeways were widened. that seems to be a non-ending state of affairs with freeways around here.

But that is a rant for another day.