I love plants, and gardening, always have. One of my biggest regrets when I moved from Denver was losing my awesome garden and tulip garden. Okay the garden wasn't quite up to awesome when I left, but it was on its way, and the tulip garden was beyond awesome. I also had the nicest lawn on the block, and took great pride in my lawn care. The kind of yard/garden you can have in Denver does not translate well to the so called valley of the sun, or hell hole, or whatever term you want for this hot and dry place I currently live. While there are a lot of nice things about the weather, the ability to grow lush GREEN gardens is not really one of them. All green gardens have a lot of brown, or my favorite (HA) cacti.
The people who built the house we live in were obviously gardeners. They were also very desert landscape friendly gardeners, though why they felt the need to plant so many palm trees is beyond me. I have never really been a fan of the palm tree (which is not native to this desert). They don't provide much in the way of shade, and I just don't think they are that pretty. That is my opinion only of course as beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Last week I decided I was ready. My brown thumb has been leaving me. My house plants are thriving, and I am ready once again, to take care of the backyard (the front is a whole other story for another time). My loving husband has been digging up palm trees by the root for a couple years now. He has cleared out all of the dead trees, and yucky bushes we inherited upon purchasing our home. It was now my turn to do something with all the space.
Welcome to my backyard. Our very HEAVY gate leans a bit, but it is pretty. The previous owners put pots all over the fence and house. These now have pretty flowers in them to welcome all the people who do not come in our back gate. He he.
I swear this daisy has doubled in size in a week. When I bought it there were no little buds, now there are quite a few.
Most of the pots on top of our fence were filled with dead stuff, or nothing. This cactus though was from the original owners. It seems to like its spot, and I NEVER water it. The daisy plant is all me though. They have to be my favorite flower, no matter what type of daisy I love it. They always make me smile a bit.
All of the big ceramic pots were left by the previous owners. I put lavender in the one behind the spa. More petunias on the wall, and that pretty green stick thing is called firestick. It is supposed to be drought resistant, and the tips only turn orange and yellow in the "colder" months. I think it is pretty.
This whole section behind the pool had the silly fan palms and a huge bush in it when we moved in. The bush kept dropping junk in the pool and the palms, well I already told you how I feel about those! I am not quite done with this flower bed. I need to put a layer or mulch or bark over the top to help keep in the warmth and moisture. It has been getting pretty cool at night here. I also need to figure out why the solar cells are not charging the batteries on my pretty globe lights. Note toy in pool. Thrown there by my little helper of course.
There are snapdragons, petunias, and some other flowers I don't remember the names of. Names are not my strongpoint! The rose bush we planted a while back is still alive in the pot at the end, but I think it will do better in the summer if we have the gazebo shade back up so it is not in full sun all day long.
I originally tried growing strawberries where the flower garden now is. I think our yield was five berries, and then they died. I also tried growing other vegetables, but all I did was feed the birds. This area gets a lot of sun, but is in the shade part of the day as well. I also discovered that this soil had been worked and was just luscious compared to everything else. There are a few fan palms coming up (AGAIN) that will have to be yanked out (AGAIN), but this area is awesome. I planted four little strawberry plants. We will see how they do.
Yet another pot I inherited. It looks much nicer with something growing in it.
These pots that were placed on top of the fence are nice. However, I don't want to have to remember to water them all the time. I put in succulents. You can see the red tips of the leaves on this one. We will have to do something about the previous owners ugly attempt to fix the fence.
You can just barely see the little toes of this succulent peaking up. I assume they will grow large and quickly like the ones in my kitchen, but I started with little ones.
This gazebo is my favorite spot in the yard, and not because it provides a good perch for spying on the neighbors. Unfortunately, the top ripped not long after we moved in. My next big expense will be replacing my gazebo cover and the hammock stand, because doesn't that look like the perfect place to relax and read a book?
This is little l's way of helping mommy. We still have lots of pots filled with dirt for her to play in. She loves being outdoors, I have to bribe her to get her in. I am sure when she becomes a good swimmer we will be living outside in the summer.
This dreary little patch had a big bush in it, hiding the cute cacti. In the spring I will be planting roses.
The little one thinks that the pool is there for things to be thrown into. This includes dirt. She is mighty quick when she wants to be. It kind of made a neat little pattern since the pumps were running at the time.
That so far is the backyard. It still has a lot of clean up to be done, but you can only fit so much in the trash bin every week. That and some days I am just to exhausted to keep going. We worked really hard in the yard and house this weekend. I also worked on the front entrance, but when I went out to water this morning realized that something had been munching on the plant I chose and had eaten all the flowers. This is very sad, the flowers were a beautiful shade of blue. I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of it in that sad state, so we will come back to that area another time. Until then I just keeping looking out the back doors and enjoying the beginning of making my backyard a place to enjoy.
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