Hi all, my name is Matt Crowther (aka freakypalmguy). I'm starting this page to document the progress of my zone 9b garden. Temecula is located approximately 30 miles inland, halfway between the Ocean and the desert with a climate exactly what you would expect, being located midway between the two. We get pretty hot and dry in the summer (90's to low 100's F) while wintertime brings in occasional temps in the high 20's F with numerous light frost events.
Temecula's Location
My family moved to this location in September of 2005. We're situated in a semi rural area of Temecula, on almost five acres of sloping terrain. When we purchased our property, it was nothing but a house, a ton of dirt, and weeds, weeds, and more weeds. We started planting that year, putting in some lawn and the usual suspects, Syagrus romanzoffiana, Phoenix roebelinii, Cycas revoluta, and an assortment of other filler plants.
Google Earth satellite picture in Febuary of 2006, the red line shows the perimeter of my property.
During the spring of 2006, is when we started getting serious about palms, locating Jungle Music via the internet. My wife and I made our first trip there and we were instantly hooked. Phil from Jungle Music was great, going over many of the palms that have a chance of living in our area. He was also pretty crafty, shamelessly flashing row after row of unbelievable cycads in front of us, we were hooked and walked out with a really nice Dioon edule and two Encephalartos trispinosus seedlings, but dreaming of many more. Palms we purchased that day were, Nannorrhops ritchiana, Dypsis decaryi, Dypsis decipiens, Caryota gigas, Bismarckia nobilis, and a Chamaerops humilis var. cerifera (argentea) it was a good start.
Pic taken from the main road to our home
From there, the disease spread like wild fire and now, I just can't seem to get enough and spend much of my time at home either buying, planting, caring for, or just staring at my plants. I'm a lost cause ;-) My garden is only three years old so nothing has grown to spectacular proportions yet with most being small juvenile plants trying to acclimate to the harsh Temecula environment, but give it a few more years and she'll come around.
