A Fun Landscape
I love my job…
I get to meet nice people who let me help them with their landscape.
Usually, they want help with plant suggestions, recommended maintenance and sometimes even which plants should be removed.
Sometimes, I visit a landscape that has some features that I just love. I would love to share some pictures of a recent visit…
Her back garden was simply beautiful with date palms and gold lantana.
Along the back fence, she had created a plant shelf using masonry bricks and wooden planks.
She added a some colorful pots filled with golden barrel cacti and other plants.
I just loved this idea for masking a bare wall.
In the front courtyard, I found a great example of how to grow a plant next to a palm tree (or any kind of tree). Often trees have too many roots that make digging next to them almost impossible. So, this homeowner, simply planted a creeping fig in a container and placed it next to the tree.
Lastly, there was a container with Lady’s Slipper (Pedilanthus macrocarpus) growing inside, which softened the side of the garage. This plant does well in full sun and likes deep, infrequent water.
In fact, I liked it so much that I went out and bought a Lady’s Slipper plant for myself 🙂
Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."
I agree – beautifully done. I hope you keep pointing out good and bad landscaping so that maybe one day people will stop butchering plants. Thanks for your hard work, Noelle!
A really beautiful garden! I really do love the idea of the creeping fig growing over the gnarled root portion at the base of the date palm.
A neat and well maintained garden. I've seen how some ID people use the Lady's slippers effectively as design accents in interiors.
I LOVE the way creeping fig looks on just about anything, but I've heard it's incredibly invasive and can be destructive to homes (particularly wood homes). Is it less invasive/destructive in the phoenix valley because of the harsh environment? Will planting it in a pot, as shown here, keep it under control more?
Now that's a job to love, as is your customer's landscape!
Hello Mary. Thank you for your comment. I believe our hot, dry climate does keep creeping fig from becoming invasive. It can't grow without supplemental water here. I do not personally recommend growing it on a house, although I know lots of people who do.
The homeowner had the creeping fig growing on a palm tree, which I do like.
In general, when you grow a plant in a container, it doesn't grow as large as when planted in the ground. The reason is that a plant has less room to grow roots in a pot then in the ground.
🙂
Noelle / azplantlady
Lovely garden, some nice ideas there!
I love this back yard. A beautifully landscaped back yard makes being at home just so much nicer, doesn't it?
Hi Noelle, Do you think creeping fig would do well in a container in shade? I have a spot under my patio that I would love to plant it and watch it grow up a trellis I made along the top of the patio, but I'm not sure if I can get it to grow in the shade of my North facing patio. Thanks!Love and joy, Sarah
Hi Sarah,
You certainly can grow Creeping Fig in light shade. One of the funny things about Creeping Fig is that it can take a while to start creeping upward. I find that it usually take a little time before it decides it's time to grow, but once it does, it just keeps going 🙂
Noelle