“Plant As I Say…..NOT As I Do”

Tuesday was a beautiful, sunny day and the kids were home on spring break.  It was a perfect time to go outside and plant three new plants that I purchased from the amazing nursery at “The Living Desert“.  Did you really think I could leave that wonderful place and NOT buy any plants?

I had just the place to put them.  It was a rather bare area between my Desert Museum Palo Verde tree and my Bougainvillea, which has just been pruned back.

Desert Museum Palo Verde

My daughter is proudly displaying our new plants, below.

spring break

We are planting a Chaparral Sage (Salvia clevelandii) and 2 Pink Gaura (Gaura lindheimeri ‘Siskiyou Pink’).  

Warm days make my son eager to take his shirt off whenever possible, although it was only in the low 70’s.

spring break

The first step was to rake back the gravel (rock) with enough room to place the dirt pile on top of the bare dirt and not mix it up with the gravel.  Then we started digging.

*We bought a set of kid-sized gardening tools over 16 years ago when my oldest daughter was 10 years old.  They have lasted a long time and now our youngest children are using them.  I recommend kid-sized tools for your kids to use which will make gardening much easier for them and increase their enjoyment.

clay soil

Look what we dug up….

Many people are surprised that not all deserts are made up of sand.  I know I was when I first moved here.  We actually have clay soil in our area while the deserts in California are mostly sand.

planting

Okay, back to planting – I taught my son how to check that the hole is at the proper depth by putting the plant, (while still in the pot), into the prepared hole.  The top of the pot should reach the the top of the hole.  Take the pot back out and adjust the hole if needed.

planting

He placed his hand around the plant and carefully turned it upside down over the hole and worked off the container with his free hand – I helped him with this part.

planting

He placed the plant in the hole and filled it in with the remaining soil.

*I typically do not amend the soil for desert-adapted shrubs because they are well adapted to soils with little organic matter.  But you can always add compost if you like.

planting

Press the soil around the new plant and then recover with the gravel if needed.

Plants grow very quickly in our climate, so tiny, straggly looking plants will not look that way for long.

Note about the small clumps of dirt in the photo above – I’m not the neatest gardener and seldom create a large enough gravel-free area in which to dig a hole, so there is always some mixing of the soil and gravel.

spring break

We had two more plants to install and my older daughter decided to help us out.

Okay, the following is what NOT to do, but I confess that I often do.

shovel

To save your back, do not use a child’s shovel.  It was convenient and so I used it, but a larger shovel is much more comfortable to use.

I didn’t realize how color coordinated I was with the shovel, which was totally unintentional – I am not a slave to fashion to that degree 😉

carefully press

When you dig holes and carefully press the soil around newly installed plants….it is best not to wear flip-flops.  I don’t have much of a defense for this one but here it is – I am from California and grew up going barefoot or wearing sandals for much of the year.  I don’t wear them in the winter because my feet get really cold.   I was so excited to be able to wear them this week and did not want to take them off to put on my gardening boots.  

If you look closely, I have a ladybug painted on my toes to celebrate the coming of spring, which really has nothing to do with this post 😉

**By the way, a kind reader pointed out that I did not state if we watered the plants in afterward.  Probably one of the most important part about planting and I left it out of my post.  We did water the plants well after planting.  Thank you Edith for bringing it to my attention.

Two Celebrations, Three Visits and Endless Beauty

Like many of you, I am focused on Valentine’s Day….making special desserts for my family and distributing Valentines and hoping I get something nice from my special Valentine :^)

But there is also another special day to be celebrated, and that is the Chinese New Year.  Now, I am not Chinese….but our family does celebrate the Chinese New Year.  Why do you ask?  Well, that is because 3 of our 5 children are Chinese – we adopted each of them from China.  As a result, we were fortunate to have visited China three times.

And so in honor of the Chinese New Year, I would love to share with you some of the beautiful landscapes of China we visited….

beautiful landscapes of China

 The hills surrounding Hangzhou, Summer 2003

beautiful landscapes of China

Martyrs Park, Changsha, Fall 2007

beautiful landscapes of China

Purple Orchid Tree (Bauhinia), Guanzhou, Winter 2005

beautiful landscapes of China

Martyrs Park, Changsha, Fall 2007

beautiful landscapes of China

Provincial Museum, Hangzhou, Summer 2003

beautiful landscapes of China

 My husband and daughter, exploring the gardens around West Lake, Hangzhou, Winter 2005

Lotus growing on West Lake, Hangzhou, Summer 2003

Lotus growing on West Lake, Hangzhou, Summer 2003

Martyrs Park, Changsha, Fall 2007

Martyrs Park, Changsha, Fall 2007

The gardens of West Lake, Hangzhou, Winter 2005

The gardens of West Lake, Hangzhou, Winter 2005

Evidently, we are not walking fast enough for my daughter, who forged on ahead.

Provincial Museum, Hangzhou, Summer 2003

Provincial Museum, Hangzhou, Summer 2003

Shamian Island, Guanghzou, Winter 2005

Shamian Island, Guanghzou, Winter 2005

I was completely unprepared for how beautiful the landscapes and gardens of China were.  I hope to return when my children a bit older so that we can visit their homeland and see it’s beauty.

And so in closing, I wish for you all a very Happy Valentine’s Day and also Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy 11th Gotcha Day!

3 Little Roses…Ready For a New Home

New Home

They are here!!!  I was oh so patiently waiting for my English roses to arrive from Heirloom Roses.

I had ordered three different English roses a few weeks ago as it has been too long since I have had roses in my garden.  You can read more about that here if you like – “I Have a Confession To Make”  and “I’ve Made My Decision”.

English roses

I thought it would be a nice idea if each of my three youngest children could adopt one of the new rose bushes and be in charge of taking care of it.

They each picked one based on their favorite colors.  My youngest daughter picked ‘Graham Thomas’ which is yellow (note her yellow SpongeBob shoes).  My son picked ‘William Shakespeare’ because it is red.  My third-oldest daughter picked ‘Abraham Darby’ because she absolutely loves pink.

So since they are adopting their new roses, that means, they have to help dig the holes and plant them.  The kids are anxious to help.

English roses

Thankfully, their dad was willing to help them dig the holes.

*I was taking pictures of the whole planting process and my son decided that he would take pictures with his red camera.

English roses

I love kid-sized shovels and other gardening tools.

*I think I need to buy another kid-sized shovel because my daughter is throwing dirt into the wheelbarrow with her hands.

English roses

Trying to be brave and touch the earthworm they dug up.

New Home

It won’t bite….

New Home

There is just something about dirt that attracts kids…

New Home

I think this photo clearly illustrates the difference between boys and girls. My daughter is drawing a happy face in the dirt while my son is touching a worm.

Tomorrow, we will finish preparing the holes and planting our new roses.  The kids are so excited!  So is their mom.

Will post more tomorrow….

What Planet Have I Landed On?

Arizona

That was my first thought when I came out to Arizona as a young bride over 23 years ago.  Brown mountains, strangely shaped cactus and words like ‘javelina’, ‘dust devil’, ‘haboob’ and ‘gila monster’ that meant nothing to me were soon to become part of my new world.

Southern California

I grew up in Southern California.  I loved the beaches, the beautiful tall mountains, the rolling hills and the trees.  I had spent two years attending college in California and my dorm room had a view of the ocean and I could see the Channel Islands on a clear day.  My entire family lived in California and I was sure that I would never leave.  But, then fate intervened….I fell in love with an Arizonan.

Before I knew it, I was married and driving across the desert to Arizona.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I thought Arizona was pretty in kind of a stark, prickly way.  I mean, who doesn’t like how cool Saguaro cacti look?  But, I was homesick for the bright and dark green colors that had been a part of the landscape I had grown up in.  

What Planet Have I Landed On?

There were trees, but not as many as I was used to.  Areas of grass were more limited and were bordered by concrete curbing.  The rest of the ground was covered by small rocks, called gravel which came in different kinds of colors.  And people placed large boulders in the landscape on purpose.

Strangely shaped cactus

Strangely shaped cactus

Once my eyes had adjusted, I realized that the desert was quite green.  But the green colors were much more subtle with hues of gray and blue mixed in.  Coming from an area with dark green plants had made me temporarily blind to the green beauty of the desert.

My oldest daughter in our backyard

My oldest daughter in our backyard – 1992

I had dabbled a bit in gardening in California while growing up, but nothing serious.  What made me a gardener was the purchase of our first house in Phoenix.  We bought a home with a large yard which included 3 mature citrus trees, 3 roses and 10 California Fan Palms and I had no idea what I was doing.

My second oldest daughter

My second oldest daughter and friend playing in the irrigation water as DH watches. Berms along the edges keep the water from running out into the street. 

Even more interesting and this is an Arizona thing – our front and backyard was irrigated by flood irrigation.  We would open a valve in the backyard and water would fill the backyard to a depth of about 4″ high and then flow into the front yard.  My children loved playing in the water, especially in the summer.  I loved the price – only $56 for an entire year back in the 90’s.

My neighbor's garden

My neighbor’s garden.

With my newly inherited garden, I wanted to learn all I could and bought gardening books only to learn that they really did not apply to gardens in the desert.  For example, just because a book, (written and published on the east coast), says that a particular plant can be grown in zone 9, does not mean it can survive the heat of our summers.  I learned the hard way.  So, I decided to go to our local library and read all I could on desert gardening.  After that, I was hooked.  I took out some grass and planted a perennial garden in the front and also planted 40 roses as well.

My thirst for knowledge did not end and I was at a crossroads in terms of deciding what I wanted to do in terms of a career.  I had two years of college under my belt, but needed to figure out what to major in.  It was then that I decided to get my degree in Horticulture.  I have never looked back and absolutely love what I get to do.  And the rest they say is history…. 

Strangely shaped cactus

Hiking through the desert with my four youngest children.

They love the desert as much as I do.

A Children’s Flower Garden in a Kiddie Swimming Pool

, , ,

I’m sure most of you know how much fun it can be to garden with your kids.  I remember my dad building each of us a raised planter where we could grow vegetables and flowers.  Today, my kids and I went to the store to buy flowers for their new garden.  You will NEVER guess what they are planting their flowers in…

Easy Garden

Our first stop was our local nursery.  Each was allowed to pick out two six-packs of flowers.  The kids decided to each pick a different type of flower and then shared them.  My youngest daughter, Gracie, selected geraniums and blue petunias.

Easy Garden

Ruthie went the fragrant route and selected stock, (beautiful and fragrant despite its ordinary name) and white alyssum.

Easy Garden

Dianthus and snapdragons were Kai’s choice.

Easy Garden

We finished making our selections and then got ready to go home and start planting.  The only question the kids had was – where were they going to plant their flowers?

Easy Garden

How about their old kiddie pool?  You know – the ones that cost about $10 that your kids play in during the summer.  However, once summer is over, most people either throw out their pool or store it somewhere out of the way.  

Well, now you can use it as a planter for either flowers or shallow-rooted vegetables or herbs.

The process is easy, and your kids will have fun assisting you.

First, move the pool where you want the garden to be as it will be too heavy once you fill it with soil.  Then make multiple holes on the bottom for drainage.  Then fill with a mixture of potting mix.  Sprinkle some slow-release fertilizer and now begin planting!

Easy Garden

Gracie planted her first plant, a peach-colored geranium.

Easy Garden
Easy Garden

My teenage daughter, Rachele, was overseeing our progress while texting on her phone.

flowers

We finished!  The kids are so excited to see their flowers grow.  The garden will be a riot of different colors and has no sense of design, which is as it should be for a children’s flower garden.

flowers

This will be our ‘before’ picture.  We planted alyssum, dianthus, geraniums, petunias, snapdragons, and stock.

If you would like to try this at home and want the garden to become a more permanent part of the landscape, you can add a brick border or plant shrubs and perennials around the outside of the pool.