Fading Images

Several years ago, my daughter-in-law made this prayer flag for my birthday after I mentioned learning about Tibetan prayer flags on an art and photography blog. My daughter-in-law chose the symbols to use and hand stenciled the designs and lettered them in Sanskrit. She then hand colored each panel. She did not follow the traditional prayer flag format for my flag. Her work was so exquisite I did not want to expose the flag to the elements, so I hung it in my breakfast area. After a few years, I decided to place the flag in my garden, as it was meant to be. According to the Tibetan belief, as the images fade from exposure to the elements, the prayers of the flag are said to become a permanent part of the universe, just as life moves on and is replaced by new life. Tibetans renew their hopes for the world by continually mounting new flags alongside the old. This act symbolizes a welcoming of life's changes and an acknowledgment that all beings are part of a greater ongoing cycle. I'm glad I placed the flag outside where I can see it from my windows or when I'm walking in the garden. I think of the sentiment connected to prayer flag every time I see it moving in the breeze.

My Lilac Vine (Hardenbergia violacea) has grown so much that it now covers a good portion of the block wall on one side of my house. It has also grown over the wall, and can be seen from the roadway. That is how I knew it had bloomed. As I was rounding the corner to my house, I saw that the vine had bloomed overnight, so I went to my backyard and took a close look. Because the wall has a southern exposure, the sun shines in such a way that the blooms are not obvious unless you step into the shade of the house to shield your eyes from the sun. Had I not noticed the blooms from the roadway, I might have missed it at its peak blooming as it is at least three weeks earlier than previous years.   

January is rose pruning month in the Phoenix area, but as usual, I was late and didn't get around to it until the first week of  February. Actually, any time between early January and early February will work, but I've had more April blooms when I do it early. By the time I got around to it, all the rose bushes had gone dormant, except my Red Intrepid. This rose bush lives up to its name--it produces blooms almost all year long--although in the extreme heat of summer, the blooms are deformed and sparse. It is also the one rose that I have that produces no scent. The pruning produced this nice bouquet!

Tricky Transformation

The sound of trickling water here in the desert makes it seem cooler somehow, so a fountain in my front courtyard was a top priority when I designed my landscape back in 2005. I didn't want one of the typical Mediterranean styles that are the most common around here because my house is more Southwest Contemporary in style. So, I chose a wok and ball style fountain that basically just delivered water up the center of the ball and bubbled up just enough to wet the ball. The photo, taken soon after installation, is not the best, but you can get the general idea.


All was well for several years, but eventually the pump seemed to lose its steam, so we sought to replace it. What a farce that turned out to be. In order to replace the pump, the large concrete ball had to come off its pedestal, the pump replaced and the electrical cord rethreaded through a special opening. The first repair company was unable to move the 800 pound ball, even with four helpers. The second repair company brought a small army and removed the ball, but they were then unable to figure out how to remove the pump's electrical cord. The third company brought a new pump, put it in place, but then couldn't figure out how to rethread the electrical connection. They said they would be back as soon as they figured it out, but they never returned. I guess they never did figure out how to do it. So, the whole thing sat in four pieces for several months while we tried to find a company that could handle the job properly. By then, we had put so much money into the various attempts at repair plus the cost of the new pump, that hiring yet another company seemed kind of stupid, so we just decided we didn't need a fountain. I had our landscape maintenance crew roll the 800 pound concrete ball to our back yard, and we converted the fountain into a planter with a kinetic wind sculpture in the center.

The ball now sits in my backyard, as yard art. It also makes a seat of sorts, except in summer! If I ever get enough ambition, I may Mosaic the whole thing.

The whole ordeal of changing over the fountain was so frustrating that I procrastinated in purchaing potting soil and plants. Today I finally got around to getting some seasonal bedding plants and soon I'll have some flowers, fragrance and movement in my courtyard. However, I've just added to my garden chores because I have one more thing to hand water! Come summer, I'll probably fill the thing with rocks and just let the wind do the work.

Extreme Weather Gardening

Newly Pruned Mesquite--thinned and the canopy raised

Luckily, there are not many gardening chores necessary during the intense heat of Arizona desert summers, at least not in my landscape, which consists mostly of desert adapted trees and shrubs. I said mostly because I do have some roses and a few other plants that do take some extra care, and a lot of potted cacti and succulents that require extra watering.


This year has been especially rough for even the desert adapted plants. Little rain, the hottest July on record, and sun intensity has been stronger than ever due to little cloud cover. So far, the monsoon season is a bust. That's good in one sense--no violent wind or dust storms or downed trees to contend with, but supplemental watering and shade cloth on some things is a must.


I don't get up early, so any gardening I do is accomplished just around sunset, and I'll work outside for awhile each day until it's late dusk. Unlike my husband, I can't take the heat for any period of time, even in the evening. Pretty wimpy for an Arizona native--but I'm just not acclimated to summer sun exposure anymore because of home and car air conditioning.


Recently, a reader named Bonnie left a comment asking what kind of garden chores I do this time of year. She felt she should be doing something despite the heat. My answer is--do as little as possible, but I have listed a few things that I do accomplish.


I usually mix up cactus potting soil so that it will be ready for any October potting that I do. The mix I use is 1/3 river wash sand, 1/3 pumice, and 1/3 native soil. I also use an alternative--mixing native soil and potting soil in equal proportions to make one part, then one part pumice and one part river wash sand. Proportions should be adjusted depending on whether the native soil is clay heavy.


Contrary to information provided by many sources that say not to prune desert trees in their growth period because it causes undue stress and weak wood from the rapid growth, the hottest months are actually an ideal time prune. According to a recent study by the University of Arizona, desert trees recover from pruning better in the summer because of the fact they grow quickly and they heal better in the heat. I usually water the trees right after a heavy pruning to lessen stress. It's always worked for me, so I was happy to read that studies support my practices.


It seems there's always a few dead perennials, cacti and succulents to dispose of this time of year. Once I clean up the debris, I plug the irrigation emitters and put a small landscape flag in the gravel to mark the spot for replacement planting in the fall.

Add required shade cloth protection. I have only four plants in my garden that require this protection, which I put down in early June. I use 35 percent and 50 percent shade cloth, depending on the plant. Once the shade cloth is in place, I don't need to do much more except make sure it's adjusted as the sun changes angles the rest of the summer. I remove it, gradually, in mid September. Many other cacti and succulents receive some sun scorch each year, but it's not permanent and they'll recover in fall. The plants I cover are ones that will be permanently injured if they didn't have shade cloth protection.

 Summer is the time to decide on wildflower mix purchases because September and October are the ideal months for wildflower seed distribution in desert landscapes. Wild Seed, a company in Tempe, Arizona, has great wildflower mixes. They do not have a web site or take credit cards, so you have to order the old fashioned way--with a form and pay with a check or money order.

Roses need extra watering this time of year, and regular foliage spraying helps them with heat stress in early morning (not me) or late afternoon. Other than that, the only other chore is dead heading and making sure the mulch in their planting beds remains evenly distributed and thick enough.

One other thing I do in summer is paint one rock to add to my collection. This is a long standing, enjoyable ritual that I save for summer and wrote about last year.

Garden Gifts

My new glazed clay do-dads are an early birthday gift from my friend Pudge. They have the impressions of stems and leaves on the glazed surfaces. Naturally, I hung them on the proper trees! The dangles hanging on the bottom of these pieces are real polished stones, including malachite, agate and turquoise. Even the backs are beautiful--unglazed clay that the artist embellished with impressions of dry cob corn. I love them!

Blooms, Butterflies and Bottles

Echinopsis candicans

I was able to catch the opening blooms of this Argentine Giant for a change. If the temperature is below about 80 degrees, the buds will open during the day instead of at night. The flowers do wilt within a few hours, though. If the flowers open at night, they will last about 12 hours this time of year.

Arizona Bottle Tree (Not a Plant!)

I've been admiring Pam's (Digging) Texas bottle tree for months and since my birthday was coming up, I told my husband I wanted a bottle tree for my gift, but one with an Arizona flair that would fit in with my desert landscape. He designed this rebar and steel tree for me, and I love it! I got the dozen blue wine bottles from Ebay. It stands about nine feet tall, and really glows in early morning and late afternoon.

Rosa 'Peace'

When I've shown this rose variety before, many folks have commented that it looks different that the 'Peace' rose they have. Most comment theirs has more pink. There are several different varieties of 'Peace', and the one with more pink is probably 'Chicago Peace'.

One view of my late spring, April desert garden, looking east. The Palo Verde trees are blooming lightly, and the Mesquites are just now putting out their new leaves, so they are kind of bare. They are not really deciduous, but do shed old leaves each spring.

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)

A Painted Lady butterfly rests on my just-sprouting radishes. (I really put these in too late, so I'm not sure I'll get radishes.) This butterfly is found worldwide, and it is an irruptive migrant, that is, it migrates without regard to geography or season. It lives about two weeks. My garden is full of them this week, but I see them all year.

Thelocactus bicolor

I need to get this cactus in the ground! Each time I get the time, it puts out another round of gorgeous flowers, so I put it off. Not that I wish it wouldn't bloom, I would just like to transplant it while the weather is tolerable. I think the flowers on this genus are especially beautiful.

A Garden Surprise

The Bush Morning Glories (Convolvulus cneorum) are now in full bloom. I've lost quite a few of these perennials in the last couple of years, but the ones left are now quite large and present a spectacular display of flowers for a three week period in March.

My Garden Monk looks like he has picked one of the Bush Morning Glory flowers, but actually the stem has grown in the space between his hands and robe.



There are only a few California Poppies (Eschscholzia californica) blooming in my landscape this year. One of the reasons is that we are near the common area along a roadway, and the landscape crews came through on a breezy day and sprayed their pre-emergent and weed killer combo along the roadway, and the stuff drifted into my yard. Wildflowers are very sensitive to both chemicals, so I've found many dead ones in my front yard.

We won't have a profuse display of wildflowers in the desert this year because of the rain pattern for the months between September and January. A certain amount of rain is necessary to assure a massive display. We had one last year, and it's rare to have several in a row, so I'm not surprised. Even my Desert Bluebells, which are normally prolific, have left a lot to be desired.


This was a surprise! I swear that it wasn't there on Saturday, and when I strolled through my garden on Monday, there it was! This Agave lophantha stalk will grow rapidly and then put out some type of inflorescence.



Agave plants have three types of flower stalks depending on species. One type is the raceme, or an inflorescence having stalked flowers arranged singly along an elongated unbranched axis. Another is a spikate inflorescence where the flowers cling to the stalk in pairs or clusters. The third, is a paniculate inflorescence where the flowers appear in clusters on lateral branches, like a candelabra. This is definitely not a paniculate type, so it will be interesting to see what emerges as it grows.


The Agave will die after the flower stalk is mature. Usually Agave pups emerge to replace the dead plant. I don't see any pups, so this might end up being a bare spot in my garden.

This is a close up of the Agave flower stalk. In the close up, it looks like the inflorescence type may be a raceme. It's really hard to know as Agave species easily cross pollinate.




I thought this Blackfoot Daisy (Melampodium leucanthum) was gone for good when it dried up this past summer, but it has come back larger than ever. I wish it would drop some seeds and spread!

Desert Garden Shadows

I love taking photos in the late afternoon. Today I was strolling through the garden, looking for something blooming to post, but other than a few Desert Marigolds, there was nothing going on. However, I did notice a few nice shadows here and there.

Mesquite Tree shadow. A heart-shaped sun catcher hangs in the branches.

Soleri Bell

Prickly Pear

Agave

Arizona Garden Trivia

While doing some hand watering around my garden today, I was surprised to see this Rain Lilly (Zephyranthes candida) peeking out from under an overgrown Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) shrub. I had totally forgotten about it since the Rain Lillies dry up and disappear in summer and late winter. Rather than trim the Rosemary, which has a pleasing shape just as it is, I think I'll just dig up the Rain Lilly bulbs after the plant dries up and relocate them to another area where they will be more visible. If I remember where they are located!





Something else peeking out from under a shrub is my concrete raccoon that had been covered by a Bush Morning Glory until I trimmed it back some for winter. He's about 12 years old now and a little weatherbeaten, but I think he's still realistic looking even though I've never seen a real raccoon. They are not uncommon in Arizona, but they usually hang out near perennial streams, lakes, and reservoirs and not in residential areas. I always thought they were cute in photos, hence the yard art.





My Chuparosa (Justicia californica) is growing like crazy in our mild fall weather. Both people and plants love this time of year in the desert. Chuparosa can get very leggy and should be trimmed to shape, but I haven't done that yet as it has a lot of room to spread out and I didn't think it needed it. Now, it is looking a bit unkempt, so next week I'll get out the pruning tools again.

Today I added another sun catcher to my plant stand/wind chime/sun catcher holder. I have no other place to hang all these things, so for years I've just used this plant stand. It stands near a glider on the patio and makes pleasant sounds with the slightest breeze. When it's really windy, it becomes a cacophony of clanging and banging.

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Now, some real Arizona desert trivia from outside my garden.

All cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti.

The Sonoran Desert where I live is the largest desert in North America and is possibly one of the most irrigated deserts. The entire Phoenix area was reclaimed from the desert by modern methods of water control.

Javelina, a Peccary, can become a pest in Arizona landscapes located near open desert areas. They have tough mouths and love succulent plants, and a herd can wreak havoc on a desert garden in no time. Prickly pear cactus is one of their favorite foods. Spines and glochids don't bother them a bit. Although somewhat pig-like in appearance, they are actually more closely related to antelope.

Scarecrows

"Though I appear a handsome man, I’m only stuffed with straw.
‘Tis difficult a man to plan without a single flaw.
Though you might think my lovely head - a store of lore contains,
The farmer lack of skill displayed and quite forgot my brains...."

~ Lyman Frank Baum

While shopping for craft supplies, I noticed this display of decorative scarecrows in front of the store. They were so colorful that I snapped a photo. In other parts of the country, scarecrows serve to scare away crows or blackbirds, but one never sees working scarecrows here in the desert, probably because we don't have many crows.
Nowadays, rather than scarecrows, farmers use shiny strips of aluminum or automatic noise generators to keep the birds away. The scarecrows have been relegated to an easier life, serving as a decorative symbol of fall.

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Late Summer Patio Ritual

Every summer, I paint a rock. Just one rock. I've been doing this for years, ever since my daughter came for a visit and she brought a bag of rocks to paint. She had taken a class, or learned the technique from someone. I don't remember. She was good at painting animals and such, but I stuck to adding random colors without any plan. It is very relaxing, for some odd reason.

I just added this summer's rock. I keep them in a shallow pot on the patio. This time of year, it is a little cooler in the evenings, so sitting on the patio is tolerable. Every once in a while, I go through the pot, pull out a rock, and remember the events of the year I painted it. It is an odd ritual, but I enjoy it. And, as an added bonus, the pot of colorful rocks serves as yard art!

Soleri Wind Bells

Soleri wind bells are designed by world famous architect Paolo Soleri. The bells are all original and are cast in bronze, with a lovely green to turquoise or from orange to red patina.

This is a Cause Bell; however, since I've had it for years, I no longer remember the cause. Perhaps it was something as obvious as saving the pelicans. These bronze bells have a beautifully clear tone. I have six of them in various sizes and configurations. If the neighbors can have barking dogs and roaming cats, then I can have my wind bells and chimes!

I'm gone for the rest of the week, attending Art Unraveled, an annual artist's retreat here in Phoenix, where I'm taking several art classes. See you next week when I get back to my garden.

Love It Or Hate It, Yard Art Rocks!

Over the years, I’ve attended many garden tours, and loved checking out the yard art almost as much as the plants. Yard art is a way to express your personality (or the personality of your landscape designer), or to make a statement. Or, it may be junk that ends up in the yard because there’s nowhere else to store it. Anyway, I have a lot of yard art, and although I try to edit it, I have quite an eclectic mixture that draws various reactions.

The other day, a visitor mentioned to me that she thought I had a lot of ugly stuff, but that it was placed well. I was not offended; actually, I found her remark quite humorous because when I’ve visited her garden I’ve often thought her stuff was not only ugly, but also not placed well.

Other than my wind chimes and wind sculpture, it seems I’m partial to little animals and reptiles as yard art--or else I've been given a lot of the stuff over the years.


This gray armadillo, an animal that is not found in the low Arizona desert, must have crawled in from Texas, where they are abundant.

Another non-native, the pelican, has been in my various gardens for over 15 years. I used to collect all manner of pelican tchotchkes, but most of it is long gone, except this iron and colored glass specimen.

A colorful ceramic Talavera iguana rests on a boulder, where he's been hanging out for a few years. He was a birthday present and I think he's gorgeous.

My husband detests cats, so this little ball cat hides out among the lantana plants, knowing what will happen if he ventures out.

A meditating monk sitting under a Palo Verde tree is not a common sight to see.

Gila Monsters are found in the low desert, but they are not made of wire and beads like this stylized version sitting on another boulder, sunning itself.

Last but not least is St. Francis of Assisi, who looks out over my garden from his place on the flagstone grill counter.

Round and Round She Goes

Every garden needs a little something besides vegetation to beautify, enhance and personalize the space, barring objections from HOAs and grumpy neighbors. I have this, along with far too many other little whimsies here and there, peeking out from various spots in my backyard garden.

This copper and steel kinetic wind sculpture is my favorite nonliving thing in the garden. Balanced in such a way that the cups catch even the slightest breeze, the two sides spin in opposite directions and the whole thing rotates 360 degrees. It is a delight to watch and it is silent, so there is no noise competition for my second most favorite inanimate object, wind chimes! The wind sculpture is useful too, because I can tell which way and how strong the breeze is in an instant. For some reason, I like to know which way the wind is blowing.

I first saw these at the El Prado Gallery in Tlaquepaque Village in Sedona about 10 years ago, and although I was taken with them immediately, back then I couldn't justify spending that kind of money on "yard art." On each trip to Sedona, I would stop at the gallery and marvel at the display of dozens of wind sculptures, all works of Lyman Whitaker, and imagine one of them spinning furiously in my garden.

In May 2006 I visited several open gardens during the Sedona Garden Tour. The gardens were lovely and their views breathtaking, and three of the gardens had one or more of Whitaker's wind sculptures strategically placed to highlight the views and gardens. Well, that did it for me. After completing the tour, I stopped at the gallery and purchased a sculpture after an hour of debate--not on whether to spend the money (that ship had sailed) but rather, which model to choose. I chose the Double Spinner model because of its size (90") and its simple movement. Once home, setting it up took minutes, and I have never regretted purchasing it. I've spent many hours watching it spin, and marvel when it does not, which is rare.

If you haven't seen Whitaker's works, check out the Wilford Gallery website and look under Sculptors. Their site shows Whitaker's various wind sculptures in motion. They are fascinating, hypnotic works of art.