Spring Sprung When I Wasn't Looking

Feathery Cassia                         Desert Bluebells

While I was otherwise occupied, spring sprung at my house. We've had record rain this year--as of today, 7.68 inches! We had no frost at all this past winter, which allowed many plants to begin an extra early spring growth spurt. One would think with all the rain, I would have a yard full of wildflowers, but that's not the case. Since we had hardly any rain in the last quarter of 2009, the wildflowers didn't sprout until late January, so it will become too hot for most of them to make it.

However, the unusual weather really helped the weeds! I've been picking weeds for weeks but I can't keep up. Now that we received another inch of rain, I'll be back where I started. The Mediterranean Grass (Schismus barbatus) will burn off by May, so I don't worry about that except where it's really thick. My main concentration is on the Cheese Weeds (Malva parviflora) because their super long tap root makes them impossible to pull out as they get larger, London Rocket (Sisymbrium irio),  Sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus) and Tumbleweed (Salsola kali var. tenuifolia).  My last resort will be Roundup Herbicide. I hate using it, but sometimes there is no choice. I could opt for pre-emergent in early winter to keep the weeds at bay, but that guarantees I'll have no wildflowers in spring, so I usually avoid it.

Chuparosa--a hummingbird favorite. It looks like a big tangle of stems with red flowers.

Eremophila hygrophana is an unusual Emu that I got a couple of years ago. It is a straggly looking thing, but I like the look.

Desert Marigold is springing up all over my yard. I let them do what they want--unless they are too close to sidewalks or drives. They bloom year-round and add color to an otherwise barren looking summer garden.

Penstemon parryi

Thousands of sprouting Penstemon plants are taking over one side of my yard. The heavy rain caused a bumper crop, but I have only five mature enough to bloom. Of all those Penstemon plants coming up, perhaps a few dozen will grow to maturity. It's too late for them to bloom this year,  but they make it through next spring, I'll have a nice field of Penstemon swaying in the breeze. Last year I had dozens of various Penstemon varieties in my garden. This year, only the Parry's Penstemon came up.

Valentine Emu

This Emu has been in bloom since February but right now it's in its full glory. I should have sheared this bush several years ago when it was small, but didn't, so it has grown lopsided and droopy. This is one bush that does a lot better when kept sheared and shaped.

My yard looks so barren now with the loss of so many trees to storms this past year. I will not replace them. There comes a point that it makes no sense to keep spending money on things I won't see to maturity. It's getting harder and harder for us to take care of our large property, but like so many others in this state, we are stuck because the real estate market is so bad that sales are practically non-existent. Never mind the money lost as values went down 50 percent over the past few years. We've resigned ourselves that we will never see that money again. So, no more money will be going into my house and garden! I'll live with the bare spots.

I Give Up!

In the past week, we've received more rain than the whole of last year. Rain is always welcome, but this time, there's been too much of a good thing in too short of a time. The ground is saturated, and can't hold any more water, so it just stands. We will probably get more rain in the next few days, but the brunt of the five major storms to pass through is over. 

One bright spot in an otherwise gloomy week was a lone ripe tomato on my container plant. It was good--sweeter than the late spring tomatoes. This is the first time I tried to keep a winter tomato, and because we've had no frost, it worked out.

Standing water--no where else left to go. Today, we've had no rain, so it's starting to soak in a bit. The ground is boggy. I leave deep footprints wherever I step, (more work filling in when it dries) so I've stayed out of the yard. But, others have been out there....

The worst thing of all--two more huge Mesquite trees lost. The landscapers came today and made short shrift of the trees with their chipper. The cost? More than the cost of the trees when I purchased them five years ago. I've given up. I am not going to replace any of my lost trees or root-rotted cactus (if that happens.) Over these past five years, we've lost eleven of the original seventeen trees planted in the back and have two back there that are severely damaged. I should have gotten rid of the damaged ones, but they are doing ok--albeit grotesquely deformed. 

The reason these latest trees were uprooted is that when the soil is saturated, any wind gust at all will uproot shallow-rooted trees. We had a few gusts the other night in the 25 MPH range--not nearly enough to cause damage in non-rainy times.

I did add a Tipu tree in October, 2008 to replace one of the four Ficus lost to the 2007 deep freeze, and also added a Palo Brea in October of 2007 to replace a lost Willow Acacia. There ain't gonna be no more replacements!

In the front, we've lost five of the nine trees we started with. None down during this storm, though. The last storm split a large Palo Verde, but the other half is doing fine. The only problem is that the trunk is weaker because of the split, and the tree is lopsided, so it's not as stable as it should be. I'm not even going to think about next year's Monsoon winds and what they will probably do to this tree.

All this late winter rain is also going to bring rampant weed growth. I can't wait!

The Nature of Glass

Desert Botanical Garden Wildflower Trail. It's a great time of year in the Sonoran Desert!

I don't often post photos beyond my own garden, but I wanted to show some wonderful sights from my most recent Desert Botanical Garden tour. There is a lot going on in the Garden this time of year, and the main draw is Chihuly: The Nature of Glass exhibition. There are many glass sculptures placed among the surrounding cacti and succulents to complement the nearby plants.

Chihuly's work is found in museums worldwide. This is his first garden exhibition in an outdoor desert environment. I've included only a small portion of the sculptures featured in the exhibition. It's one of the most popular events the Garden has ever featured. To see this exhibition at night is even more spectacular.

I must like all the tall, simple vertical sculptures the best, because I have more photos of them than any of the others. I also like their colors the best. Pudgeduck also went along on this tour, and she has photos of other sculptures on her blog.

The DBG is located near the sandstone buttes of Papago Park, which provides a beautiful backdrop for the plants in the Garden.

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.

Out My Back Door

"Bother me tomorrow, today I'll buy no sorrow
Doo, doo, doo, lookin' out my back door" *

And, out my front door



*Creedence Clearwater Revival
Lookin’ Out My Back Door (Lyric excerpt)

Saturday Stuff

The tailless lizard resting on my garden monk's head is a tragic victim of my neighbor's roaming cat. The cat has become braver now, showing himself in my garden during the day. He's chased off most of the hummingbirds, and now he's going for the lizards. We now have a mesh screen for the fire pit he was using as a litter box. It seems that thwarting him from using the litter box has caused him to act out. I've sent a letter to the neighbors asking them to keep the cat out of my garden. (I don't know them--they don't seem to be home most of the time. These are huge properties, and their yard is beyond my back eight-foot wall. Besides the errant cat, they have about six dogs, or at least that's how many I suspect, from the dogfights coming from their back yard every morning about 5 a.m.!)

On to more pleasant things. I've found a few garden related websites that may be worth a visit. The first is TerraCycle, a company that turns trash and waste into usable garden products. They have organic potting mix, worm poop and many other interesting products, and use recycled bottles and things to package them.

Learn2Grow is a site sponsored by Lowe's that has a ton of garden info and even garden courses to take--but not free. There are forums for gardeners and just a myriad of things to learn.

Then, if you need info on the various insects in your garden, there's Bug Bios and Bug Guide. I've found these two sites invaluable when trying to identify a new bug in my garden.

Another site is Backyardgardener.com, which has a wonderful list of plants by botanical and common name. The site also has hundreds of other interesting categories to peruse.

Around My November Garden

A common honeybee (Apis mellifera) takes advantage of the pollen on the numerous stamen tips of a Baja Fairy Duster shrub (Calliandra californica), which is currently in full bloom. When spent, the flowers won't reappear again until early summer. This shrub also attracts hummingbirds, which have been a rare sight this year.

I am not well versed on dragonflies, but I believe this to be a Black Setwing (Dythemis nigrescens). Its flight period is April to early November, so this is probably the last of them to visit my garden this year. For some reason, most dragonflies like to rest on the tips of Agave leaves.

As the temperature cools, the Desert Spiny Lizards (Sceloporus magisteris) will soon go into hibernation. In the meantime, on warm days, lizards will rest on rocks to absorb the heat. Last winter when we experienced record-setting cold weather, many lizards died from the prolonged cold, so it was nice to see a few new babies in early summer. The population is still sparse compared to previous years but barring any record cold, their numbers should increase rapidly next spring. Although these lizards don't change color to match their environment, their natural color blends in with the desert rocks and soil.

Drive By

Several months ago, Matthew at ¡Ay Chihuahua! took a desert walk near his neighborhood. He brought along his camera so that his readers could see some of the flora he sees every day. Since then, other garden bloggers have provided a visual tour through their neighborhoods, pointing out the different landscape and housing styles of their areas. I really enjoyed reading those posts, so I thought I would do the same in my neighborhood.

My tour was done by car for two reasons. First, it's still too hot to walk. The properties are quite large and spread out so I would have a heat stroke before the end of the block. Second, there are no sidewalks in my neighborhood. In addition, I was nervous about blatantly taking photos of others' property--so I took the stealth approach and used the drive-by method.

I took photos that represent the prevailing architectural and landscape styles in the area. My neighborhood is new--only a few years old, so there are no towering trees, mature landscaping, or anything of historical significance.

This home is what I call faux Tuscan. It is typical of this popular style with its use of a rounded turret entry. Both the entry turret and pony-wall are faced with stone. The landscape is considered "desert landscaping" and it utilizes both artificial turf and granite. The house color is a common southwest color.

This home is considered a Southwest Traditional style with a pony-wall courtyard entry. The landscape ground cover is granite and rip-rap, another common feature in desert landscaping. The small blue-gray palm tree on the left is a Mexican Blue Palm.

This is another faux Tuscan with the rounded entry turret and clay tile roofing. It has a paver stone circular driveway. The landscape granite is a darker color to match the dark neutral color of the house. Notice the ubiquitous pony wall--something that is used extensively to create a modified front courtyard. The palm on the left is a Queen Palm, commonly used in the Phoenix area, but not really suited to this climate. These palms never really look good here. It's just too hot and dry for them.

This is a Southwest Contemporary with a high pony wall and courtyard entry. The circular driveway is decomposed granite that has been treated with a product that hardens it. The landscaping plantings are all native to the Sonoran desert.

The deciduous Chinese Elm shown here is another popular tree in the Phoenix area. It takes more water than the typical desert trees, but homeowners like it because it grows fast and can provide a tremendous amount of shade as it gets older. The house and landscape have all the elements that are common here; granite, riprap, courtyard pony-wall, stone facings, and iron entry gate.

This is my favorite. It is a combination Pueblo/Santa Fe/Southwest Ranch with a wood entry gate. It's a great example of well-balanced desert landscaping. This place also has artificial turf, which is being used more and more.

This home has two other elements that are very popular here, a rounded iron and glass entry door and a courtyard fountain.

Well, I got through the tour without anyone calling the police to report suspicious activity, and I think I've hidden any identifying elements that neighbors would find objectionable. Hope you saw something interesting.

A Break From The Garden

Arizona Summer Sunset From My Garden

I'm off to an art retreat. I'll be back on Friday.

Southwest Sundries

Cell Tower--Arizona Style

This cell tower, disguised as a Mexican Fan Palm (Washingtonia robusta) popped up recently in our neighborhood. The only giveaway from a distance was its height, compared to the many shorter palms in the area, but it was still within the range of possibility as the Mexican Fan Palm can reach 100 feet. It's really a good replica, and certainly better than a bare cell tower. I've also seen a couple of towers disguised as 60 foot Saguaros (Carnegiea gigantea) but those wouldn't fool anyone. Too tall, too green and the arms just weren't right.


Low-rider Lizards?

The Desert Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus magisteris) a common sight in my garden. There are dozens of them, and that's fine with me. They eat crickets and other insects and for the most part just mind their own business. I do like to watch them, because they have many little tricks. Their push up movements reminds me of low rider cars doing their thing with the hydraulic lifts. The lizards also do some head bobbing and puffing up. As kids, we thought the push ups were to keep their little bodies off the hot rocks, but it turns out that the movements are signals for courting, communicating among their own kind, and showing dominance over other lizard tribes or romantic rivals.

Thorny Issue--Cactus Sticker Removal

As a cactus lover, I've had my share of stickers over the years, and not just in my hands. I've fallen into a cactus patch with some serious damage to my legs and backside, and I've even had a barb in my cheek. I was lucky not to have put out an eye! I've found that the best way to remove Opuntia glochids, which have rearward angled microscopic barbs, is to use regular white household glue. Generously coat the affected area, wait until completely dry, and then peel it off. Most of the glochids will come out onto the glue. You will know it if spine fragments remain under the skin, but there's not much more to do at home. It sometimes takes two to eight months for the discomfort from the embedded barb fragments to go away. If it is really painful or looks infected, a trip to the doctor is usually necessary so that the little bumps can be "unroofed," as my doctor called the procedure.

I've found the best defense against thorns, glochids, and barbs is GardenArmor™ Garden Gloves. Unlike leather, which is easily penetrated, the special coating on these gloves prevents entry of even the toughest spine. The material is thin enough so that it's easy to remain dexterous.

Greasewood, The Perfume of the Desert

When I purchased five Greasewood bushes (Larrea tridentata) for my garden, my husband couldn’t understand why I would actually pay for the ubiquitous desert plants. He thought the scraggly shrubs were a waste of money because they weren’t much to look at, and they were so common where development hadn’t occurred that he thought of them as desert weeds.

I, on the other hand, love the Greasewood, alternately called Creosote or Chaparral. I’ve never met anyone who grew up in the desert southwest who didn’t appreciate the pungent, astringent odor of Greasewood and damp soil after a desert rain. Perhaps it is because rain is so rare that anything associated with it is memorable, or else it’s that clean, crisp perfume of creosote that permeates the air. As a Midwest native, my husband associates creosote with telephone poles, not rain. When he thinks of rain, he recalls the smell of fresh green grass. In the many years he’s lived here, he’s still unimpressed with the smell of the desert after a rain.

The Greasewood’s small resinous leaves feel sticky and it is the resin that perfumes the air during periods of high humidity or after a rain. In the desert, the Greasewood will only get three or four feet tall and wide. When planted in a garden where water is available, it can reach up to 12 feet in height. My Greasewood shrubs, planted two years ago, are now reaching five feet high and wide.

Greasewood competes for water with other desert plants. Its extensive roots system puts out chemicals that repel the growth of surrounding vegetation, allowing the Greasewood to take advantage of the limited moisture without competition from other plants. Cacti can grow near the Greasewood, and the shrub will act as a nurse plant to the small cacti.

Soon, our rainy season will begin here in the Arizona desert. Even as temperatures reach 118˚ and the small increase in humidity can make this season almost unbearable, I do look forward to the coming rains, just for a whiff of that wonderful fragrance.

Solarized!

As I was cleaning out some files, I ran across an old joke that is fitting because in Phoenix on Thursday we had a high of 111˚, our hottest day of the year so far. For anyone interested in moving to Phoenix, consider that as a Phoenix resident, you:

Are willing to park three blocks away because you found shade.


Have experienced condensation on your butt from the hot water in the toilet bowl.


Can drive for four hours in one direction and never leave town.

Have over 100 recipes for Mexican food.

Know that "dry heat" is comparable to what hits you in the face when you open your oven door.


Know that the four seasons are: tolerable, hot, hot, and ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Not Mellow About Yellow

Yellow is a ubiquitous color in the Arizona desert. It seems as if 80 percent of the plants are either a yellowish shade or produce yellow flowers. Yellow is not a favorite color of many gardeners, especially newcomers to the state, who decry the abundance to the point that a local landscape designer holds a popular seminar at the Desert Botanical Garden, entitled, Anything But Yellow!

I've tried to design my garden to include a minimum of yellow, but regardless of the advice given in the seminar, yellow still dominates, even though I’ve added various plants and flower colors to complement all that yellow. Sometimes the shape of a particular plant can be as important as the color choice and I think that has counterbalanced the preponderance of yellow in my garden.

My yellow-flowered Parodia magnifica bloomed today--the second yellow cactus flower in my garden to bloom this week. Although I, too, am getting a bit tired of the yellow in my garden, this is such a pretty cactus flower that I'm glad to have it, even if it is yellow. In addition, the flower is long-lived, lasting about a week. Mid-May is its usual flowering period, but as with many of my specimens this year, it has had several flowerings starting in early April.

If you look closely at this cactus, you can see it needs a good soaking because of the wrinkled appearance of the ribs. After snapping the photo, I gave it just that.

Arizona. Mellow, golden, sustaining, beautiful...
I tell you, this is a wonderful country.
~ Zane Grey

Red Hot Summertime Blues

Summer in the desert is not fun. As a native of Arizona, I know. Some folks who move here to escape from the snowy winters of other climates claim they love the summer heat. I think they are nuts. Who could truly love 110 degree-plus days, where the ground's surface and car interiors reach temperatures of 150 degrees? Native plants and animals don’t even like it!

My plants are beginning to go into their summer dormancy. The last of the early summer wildflowers have dried up and the only flowers left standing are a few heat-hardy Desert Marigolds, which should last all summer. Most of the cacti have finished their flowering, and even the tough Lantana bushes have a dusty, exhausted look. Several plants will continue to thrive, bloom and provide color through the summer; Red Bird of Paradise, Nerium Oleander, Cape Honeysuckle, and that old summer standby—Bougainvillea, but even with their help my garden will have a parched, thirsty appearance.

Summer dormancy is a coping mechanism that native plants use in order to conserve the water they have stored. They may look like hell for a few months, but they perk up when the weather cools in mid-September, sort of like people here in the desert.

Every year from June until October, I ask myself why I continue to live in this brutal climate. From October until June, I know why!

It's Here--With a Vengeance!

No question about it, summer is here. It was 106 degrees today, fourteen degrees above average. Luckily I changed my irrigation controller yesterday so my garden was prepared for this record heat. Many folks never touch their controllers after their landscape is installed, especially if they don't have grass. Plants suffer from too much or too little water, depending on the season. Controllers should be adjusted in spring, summer, fall and winter for optimum plant care. I use a guide specifically for our Arizona desert.

"There is no spot of ground, however arid, bare or ugly, that cannot be tamed into such a state as may give an impression of beauty and delight."

- Gertrude Jekyll