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!

November Cactus Jack

Bougainvillea 'Barbara Karst'

I finally planted a small tree aloe that has been languishing in a pot for the past two years. I hope it lasts. In this region, it must be protected from frost, so it is a leap of faith to put it in the ground. I'll have to keep an eye on the weather forecast and cover it when necessary. I keep telling myself I won't add more garden chores with my choices, but here we go again!

Right across the road from my house, cabbage harvesting is in full force. they strip and pack the cabbage in boxes right there in the fields. I'm surrounded with fields of organic vegetables grown specifically for the gourmet restaurants in the Phoenix area. Currently there's cabbage, loose leaf lettuce and kale in nearby fields. So close, yet so far away! These fields are guarded 24 hours a day. Occasionally, I see some brazen people stop, run to the fields, steal a few cabbages and beat it back to their vehicles before the guard can reach them in his truck. The guard won't chase them once they are back on the public road. Vegetables aren't as popular with the thieves--they prefer melons--and in season the growers have more than one guard watching over the fields.

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.

Half-Way to Fall

Even in the depths of summer, I do have some greenery, but nothing much flowering. It's just too hot! This weekend I got rid of the last of my container vegetable garden, as well as all the struggling potted geraniums, creeping charlie, dwarf marigolds and half dead cacti. This year I've upped my irrigation schedule to every three days for the shrubs and groundcover. Last year, I followed the guidelines for this area, which called for every 7-21 days. I tried the shortest--7 days--and my plants just about fried. I have a desert adapted landscape for the most part, so I'm a bit surprised that I have to water so often to keep the plants from suffering from water stress. However, I don't feel too bad about the more frequent watering as we are behind on annual rainfall. I've had only 1.96 inches since January 1st--quite short of the expected amount by this time.

The suggested tree watering schedule works fine at once a month or every 5 weeks. The only exception is my Tipu Tree, which is still getting established. I water it every two weeks.

With temperatures in the 115 degree range, the leaves of the Mexican Bird of Paradise shrub fold inward to conserve moisture and reduce sun exposure. From a distance, the shrub appears to be wilted, but this is normal for these extreme summer days.

Tiger Whiptail (Aspidoscelis tigris)

This lizard has the longest tail I've ever seen! There is not enough contrast to really get the full effect, but its tail is about twice the length of its body. This one must have been an artful dodger all season to have avoided the roaming neighbor cat.

When walking around my garden, I noticed a couple of empty bird egg shells on the ground under a mesquite tree. When I looked up, I spotted this dove for the first time. I'm not sure if the eggs are from hatched babies, or just casualties of the wind. After seeing so many poorly constructed dove nests, this one appears to be a better built model.

Time To Get Off The Pot...

Rosa 'Peace'

I've spent the last 10 days going through my 491 previous posts, double checking to see if I had documented every plant in my landscape, which was my original intention when I started this blog. As I checked off the photos and posts against all the plants, I found that I had, indeed, finished my original goal. Actually, I finished this task many months ago, and have since taken and posted photos of the various flowers associated with each plant.

Try as I might, I haven't been able to come up with much of anything new happening in my landscape, especially this time of year, except my cleaning up all the mesquite beans that drop from the trees starting in June. No new insects, butterflies, birds, odd growths or diseases; no new yard art to write about, no new and interesting pots--absolutely nothing new--not even weeds!

I've resisted going off subject, and other than maybe five posts, I never have. So, now I'm stuck. It's decision time. Do I start going in a different direction on this blog, or keep this blog "pure" and just start another blog with a different theme if I become inclined. Or, just leave things as they are and post when there's something new going on in my landscape. I guess it's a decision that I'm going to have to make soon.

I've had several faithful followers who began visiting quite some time ago. Julie at A Succulent Life is probably the longest lasting regular reader and commenter, then next is Claude at Random Rants and Prickly Plants, who never fails to leave a comment when I have a new post. Pudge at Pudgeduck's World doesn't comment every time, but I know she reads every single post. Participation in Green Thumb Sunday brought many more visitors, and when that meme became inactive for the most part, I got involved in Ms. Green Thumb Jean's Bloomin' Tuesday meme, which brought new and different visitors. However, the vast majority of visitors to my blog come from folks who have used a search engine to find information on various desert plants. The two most frequent searches have been for Desert Museum Palo Verde tree, and Desert Marigold. Another popular search is for Boxwood Beauty Natal Plum of all things!

Although I may not post as regularly as I have these past few years, I certainly intend to continue to follow the 40 or so garden blogs I've enjoyed reading. If I decide to start another blog on another subject, I'll post the link. Thanks to all my blogging friends for their comments and visits in the past two plus years. This is not a goodbye, but an explanation as to why my posts have dwindled of late. I may be down (as far as posts) but I'm not out yet!

Not Quite Fall In Denver

Barnet, Vermont ~ 1990

One of the activities scheduled in Barnet was a pancake and maple syrup breakfast at a local church. the photo above was taken looking down on a valley near the small church cemetery. Although I've had numerous vacations since to far more exotic places, this 1990 vacation remains my favorite.

I was hoping to see some fall foliage here in Denver where I'm visiting this week, but most everything is still lush and green. Now and then I see a tree with a trace of changing leaves, but that's it. Later this week we may drive up to higher country where the process is further along. In Phoenix, fall foliage is all but unheard of, so I was hoping to enjoy some of the bright reds and yellows of fall.

One of the best vacations I ever had was to the Northeast Kingdom Fall Foliage Festival in Vermont. Over the course of a week, we visited five villages; Walden, Groton, Barnet, Peacham, and Cabot, Vermont. Each day, we participated in various activities scheduled by the hosting village. The foliage was spectacular everywhere we went, and the activities, though a bit unsophisticated, were really fun. We had a New England Boiled Dinner in a church basement in one town, then sang old-time hymns upstairs. The next day, we visited a bird woodcarver, a Christmas tree farm, and then on to other activities in other towns. There were Clogging demonstrations, Llama farm tours, maple sap tapping, sugar house visits, and a Victorian Home Tour. Each day brought a variety of new activities.

In Peacham, I spent four hours visiting the most beautiful cemetery I've ever seen. It had huge, bright red maple trees, rolling green hills and elaborate granite headstones. I found it peaceful and fascinating. In this cemetery, some of the markers went back to the 1600s. The stones were mostly granite, as the Barre, Vermont granite quarries provided limitless granite over the centuries. In Arizona, there are not a lot of cemetery headstones before 1900, and very little carved statuary, so this was totally new to me.