May's Blossoms

Lots of plants bloomed in May.  But I just got home from a trip and found this one in bloom.

I can't tell you how many of my plants have perished recently but too many.  The birds all ate the peaches from my new peach tree.  The birds are attaching the wire cage around the tomato plant and it isn't looking so good. The rabbits have demolished the new chocolate-mint plant along with everything else that they can.

The heat and lack of rain have been terrible this year.  The fire warnings are in the "extreme" fire danger level which makes the bunnies & other critters go after every eatable plant where they can find water.

 Oh well... just part of the desert life!

April Flowers

This morning it was pouring rain and this afternoon, a clear blue sky, a gentle wind and fluffy clouds.  I love Arizona.  I took a stroll around the yard and snapped a few photos.  I only got through half of the yard when my camera battery life ended.  So, the rest of the yard pictures will be posted another day.

Flying Pig

The flying pig was given to us by Susan, noted for her wild & fun Christmas presents.  I wanted to be able to see it often and felt that it deserved a better place in the yard than the roof of the house where the woodpeckers like to drum their callings to other woodpeckers via our metal chimney flue.


The prayer flags which are now dust blown and sun faded came back with Dan from one of his many trips to Nepal.  He brought so many back that we shared them with our cousins in upstate NY.


The view from the back patio is glorious.  The mountain peaks are beautiful any time of day.  The single blooming iris came from Ray.  They didn't bloom last year.  There are other yellow ones also that came from Ray that I planted in another part of the yard but they are just now fading.

Cllistemon

Outside our dining room window is this beauty.  It is a bottle bush (tree/bush) or Callistemon.  Callistemon species are commonly referred to as bottlebrushes because of their cylindrical, brush like flowers resembling a traditional bottle brush. They are found in the more temperate regions of Australia, and typically favor moist conditions so when planted in gardens thrive on regular watering. However, at least some of the species are drought-resistant. This one started out looking like a bush but it is developing into a tree.  They say that as trees, they can reach 49 feet.  Right now, it is full of bees doing their thing.  And, strangely enough, only the half of the tree that faces East is blooming at this time and the other half that faces West has not yet bloomed.  (What is up with that?)  

This is at the front gate.  The pretty blooming cactus is a hedgehog cactus of which there are over 200 species.  The are mostly ugly without their blooms but really shine when they blossom.

Okay, the new plants arrived today and I'm very pleased.  Now, I just have to get them into the ground.  For the largest of the plants, a Pistachia chinensis, which I thought was a pistachio tree, and it is, but it doesn't produce any edible fruit, we needed to take down the wire fence to get it into the spot where we want to plant it.  It is in a 24 inch box and will take some muscle to plant.  The rest are easy by comparison.  The Texas Mountain Laurel & the Russian Sage.  


As for the Texas Mountain Laurel.  I discovered these "care" instructions...

Instructions

1. • 1
     Water:  Texas Mountain Laurel trees require infrequent watering to prevent the soil around them from drying out completely. Give the tree a 1 inch supplemental irrigation if there has been no rain for 3+ weeks. Watering once a month is optimum. 
   • 2
     Fertilize:  Twice each growing season, apply fertilizer to ensure a growth rate of up to 2 feet per year. Give it the first application in early spring, before new growth is observed; apply the second fertilizer application in early summer. For best results, fertilize the tree with a balanced, water-soluble fertilizer such as Miracle Grow according to label directions.
   • 3
     Protection:  Check the Texas Mountain Laurel trees for problems with common insect pests such as borers and Uresiphita reversalis caterpillars. Treat affected trees with an insecticidal spray such as Sevon if necessary to restore their health. Contact the local agricultural extension office for additional prevention and treatment information.
   • 4
     Prune:  Texas Mountain Laurel trees only need to be pruned when it is necessary to remove diseased, damaged or dead branches and foliage. Using a pair of sharpened and sterilized pruning shears or loppers, make a clean pruning cut just outside of the branch's collar.

They are coming, they are coming today - my new plants.  Now, my tendency is to just have them plopped into the ground and water.  I don't really have a plan for where to put them. I do have a whole acre in which to place them but the back half of the acre has the view of the mountains and I don't want to do anything to change that.  So ...

1. where to place them?
2. how to get water to them?
3. how to maintain them?

Spring time cleanup

Pistache

Spring, spring (sigh) spring.  Each year it seems that I go through the same thing.  Lots of cost, lots of effort and I realize all over again that the barren look that you get in the Desert comes with a cost each spring as the weeds and, yes, wildflowers pop up where they shouldn't.  So, this year, I have 2 kind gardeners helping me out.  They have been here, already, several times - clipping back trees, weeding the acre of ground, removing the dead plants from last year's freeze, and searching out drip system problems.  They have already discovered that I actually have 7 drip system zones.  Not just the 6 zones that I was aware of.  But NOW, I must find someone to haul the loads of clippings to the dump.  I think that there must be several dump loads by now.

Meanwhile, I want to plant new stuff - although I am pretty sure that like all most the other plants I have put in the ground over the last few years, these will possibly die as well.  Here is what I am hoping to plant this year...

Manzanita

• (3) Texas Mountain Laurel trees
• (3)  Vitex agnus-castus (Monk's pepper) trees
• (3) Russian Sage plants
• perhaps a  Pistacia chinensis (Chinese pistache) tree 
• (1) Jacaranda Tree



Jacaranda

• and perhaps a Manzanita tree or 2 

All, except the Manzanita and the Pistacia, have beautiful purple / blue flowers.  I didn't exactly plan it that was but, hopefully, it will brighten the place.  The Manzanita trees were a request from George who spied them on one of his hikes.  It turns out that they have a lovely red bark which decorators love.  The Pistacia tree, which will hopefully produce these wonderful pistachio nuts, will have a bright red glow in the fall as the leaves turn color.

Vitex

Russian Sage

The Sorry Gardener - That's Me!

Yup, that is me... or, I could have titled this The Killer Gardener because that's what I do.  I have used The Black Thumb for my website but it looks like that's been taken as a blog title.  So, that's what I am.  I am so, SO sorry that I am such a poor gardener that I manage to kill just about everything in my yard.  Do you see the dead plant to the right of the bobcat?  That was a century plant that bloomed over a year ago and the frost of the winter of 2011 killed it off and I still haven't gotten it fully removed from my yard.

So... here I am.  A wanna be gardener that is constantly killing her plants.  Constantly buying new plants and constantly killing them as well - sometimes within a very short time.