Drought Tolerant and Beautiful: Aloe Vera

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Do you use any lotion that contains aloe vera?

While most of us think of the medicinal qualities of aloe vera – particularly how they provide relief from burns, its beauty, and drought tolerance make it well worth adding to our “Drought Tolerant And Beautiful” category.

Aloe vera(Aloe barbadensis)

Aloe vera(Aloe barbadensis) thrives in drought-tolerant gardens and produces lovely, yellow flowers in spring, much to the delight of hummingbirds everywhere.  

Want to learn more about this succulent beauty?  Check out my latest plant profile for Houzz.  

Great Design Plant: Aloe Vera

How about you?  

Have you ever grown aloe vera?

Strawberry Fields and Hometown Visits

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Do you love strawberries?


I do.  In fact, it’s my favorite type of fruit.

Strawberry Fields and Hometown Visits

One of my earliest memories is of the strawberry patch growing in my grandfather’s garden in Frankfurt, Germany.

We would visit them once a year for a month when we were young while they lived there. I remember pesky rabbits trying to steal some of the sweet strawberries and my grandfather’s ongoing battle to keep them out.

My hometown, in Southern California, was surrounded by strawberry fields. When you drive down the 101 Highway through Ventura County, you could smell their delicious fragrance.

strawberries straight from the field

What’s even better than smelling the strawberries, is being able to stop by the small produce markets right next to the fields where you can buy large flats of strawberries straight from the field.

Strawberry Fields

The strawberries are beautiful, unblemished and you can’t resist sampling one or two or even three before you make it back into your car.

While I love living in Arizona, I do miss the strawberry fields from my hometown. However, now my second-oldest daughter, Rachele, lives close to the town where I grew up and so I get to visit the fields again and bring home huge flats of delicious, sweet strawberries.

In fact, earlier this week, I stopped by this small produce store and bought some strawberries and took them home and made 20 jars of strawberry jam. I stayed up late last night, finishing up canning the strawberries and had some homemade strawberry jam on my toast this morning – yum!

So, why was I in California?

my grandson

Well, I had a very important reason – my grandson, made his debut!

Of course, my husband and I were prepared to leave at any minute to drive out to California so that we could be there for our daughter when she went into labor, but the entire process didn’t go exactly as we had planned.

In fact, I ended up spending 8 days in California.

I’ll share more of our journey next time – it may be a two-parter 🙂

Summer Adventures: Pick Your Own Strawberries and Cherries

A Tale of Three Landscapes and a Drought

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Are you experiencing drought where you live?

You may be surprised to find that it is not only the West that is dealing with below average rainfall and its effects.

If you take a look at the U.S. Drought Monitor’s most recent drought map, you’ll see a lot of dark reds scattered about, particularly in California.

U.S. Drought Monitor

But, if you take a closer look, you can also see ares in the Northwest, Southeast and Northeast showing signs of drought as well.

Last month, I did a series of radio interviews on drought tolerant gardening.  Of course, you’d expect that one of the radio stations would be in California and it was.  But, other interviews were for radio stations in other areas that may not immediately come to mind when it comes to drought or abnormally dry conditions – Alabama, Oregon and Texas.

As a child growing up in California, I remember other times when drought was affecting this beautiful state.

On my most recent trip to California, I was struck by the brown hills with scattered trees that were showing the effects of drought.

In a neighborhood setting, you could see some houses where the residents let their lawn die due either to strict water restrictions or voluntarily letting their lush green lawn turn brown. Some landscape companies are now offering lawn painting services where they will come out and paint your brown lawn, green.

I decided to drive through my old neighborhood to see the house where I spent my teenage years.  I do this every few years whenever I am in town.  As I drove down the street, I saw three different examples of how the residents were dealing with the drought conditions.

I’d like to show you each of these examples and let you in on a secret – I grew up in one of these houses.

See if you can guess which one was my house…

Example 1:

experiencing drought

When I was growing up in this neighborhood, everyone had a lawn.

However, the owners of this home ripped out their lawn in favor of a contemporary, drought tolerant landscape filled with succulents, ornamental grasses and a few arid adapted shrubs.

I like the step stones leading up to the entry, don’t you?

The entire landscape had a layer of mulch to help conserve water and in this climate could survive on very little supplemental water.

Example 2:

experiencing drought

This house with the ‘thirsty landscape’ is located just a few houses down from the drought tolerant landscape.  As you can see, the owners have kept their high water use landscape without any regard for the severe drought conditions present.

Large areas of lawn (including the parking strip), along with high-water use shrubs seemingly mock those who are trying their best to save water.

I sometimes wish that I had a parking strip.  I’d plant some beautiful, drought tolerant plants.  Maybe I should send the homeowners the book, “Hellstrip Gardening”?

Example 3:

drought tolerant

This landscape is certainly not drought tolerant, but there are reduced lawn areas and even though the planting beds are not filled with drought tolerant plants – they do take less water than if they were taken up by a lawn.

I must admit solely on looks alone, that I prefer this landscape over the other two as long as rainfall amounts are normal.  But, in times of drought, I’d remove all of the lawn, add mulch and some drought tolerant ground covers like bush morning glory (Convolvulus cneorum) or trailing lantana.

So, have you been able to guess which of these homes that I grew up in?  

'thirsty landscape'

The home with the ‘thirsty landscape’!

The landscape has not changed from what it looked like throughout the 80’s.

This was a great house to grow up in with its 6 bedrooms and large backyard filled with blackberry bushes, citrus trees, a large pine tree and two palm trees.

If you look carefully, you can see three maple trees in the middle of the backyard, just peeking above the roofline of the house.  My brother, sisters and I planted those trees in 1978.

How about you?

Are you experiencing drought where you live?  What do you do to save water in the landscape?

Shopping for Plants California Style

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Shopping for Plants California Style

Do you like to visit plant nurseries?

I do – especially when I am traveling.  It is always nice to see what plants are popular in other areas.

Last weekend, my husband and I made at trip to California to visit our daughter who is serving in the Navy.

I always enjoy visiting California – not just for its nice weather, beautiful beaches, laid back people and the scenery – although those are all things that are reason enough to visit.  The real reason that I enjoy spending time in California is that I grew up here.

I am a 4th generation, native Californian.  Those who came before me were farmers, lumbermen, a city sheriff, a truck driver who worked his way to oil company executive and a social worker (who was my dad).

Now that my daughter is stationed in California, I now have more reasons to make the trip over.

Carpinteria

During the course of our trip, we stopped by one of our favorite small towns, Carpinteria, which is located a few miles south of Santa Barbara.  This is a wonderful beach town that is backed up by tall mountains.

As we got out of our car with the intent of heading to our favorite cupcake place, I noticed not one, but two plant nurseries just a few yards away.  So, my husband and daughter patiently waited for me while I headed into to see what discoveries I could find.

lowering perennials

I had not brought my nice camera on our trip, so I had to rely on my iPhone camera, which did a pretty good job, except that I tend to take a lot of pictures and my battery soon died.  Luckily, my husband had his phone and I used it to take the rest of my pictures.

Believe it or not, I don’t buy a lot of plants when I visit nurseries – my landscape has more than enough plants in it.  But I am always on the lookout for plants that I don’t know about or are new to the market.

Often, nurseries can serve as inspiration for your own garden with creative plant pairings as shown in the photo, above.

This particular nursery was filled with mostly flowering perennials, annuals and vegetable transplants.

purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)

I love a colorful garden and was excited to check out the flowering perennials.  I did find a new perennial introduction called ‘Echibeckia’, which is a cross between purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia).

flowering perennials

I saw this shrub that had been pruned into a tree.  Its brilliant purple flowers were almost blinding.  I’m not sure what it is – but it’s gorgeous!

*Update – a very kind reader (Rusthawk) was kind enough to identify this plant as Tibouchina – thank you!

lavender and lantana.

I love Mediterranean climates and the plants that grow well in them.  Many of these plants also grow well in the desert garden like lavender and lantana.

flowering perennials

Like I mentioned before, I do love flowering perennials and I have both black eyed Susan and purple coneflower growing in my garden.  However, I don’t have them in my regular landscape areas where it is not fertile enough and doesn’t get enough water.  I plant a them among my vegetable gardens where they help to attract pollinators.

beautiful containers

In addition to pretty perennials, I am a sucker for beautiful containers like these.  Too bad that I don’t have a big enough budget to even consider buying these.  I’m still figuring out what to do with my free Tuscan planters.

colorful flowers

Butterflies and hummingbirds were flying about, enjoying the nectar from the colorful flowers.

Butterfly Weed

Butterfly Weed 

If you add butterfly weed to your garden, you’ll be bound to attract any butterflies nearby.

There were so many butterflies fluttering about that people were able to get up close to them.

A monarch butterfly was feeding on the purple blossom of a butterfly bush, seemingly ignorant of the people who stopped to admire it.  A very nice woman, standing next to me, took a video and was kind enough to share it with me – Thank you, KD!

flowering perennials

After I tore myself away from staring at butterflies, I decided to see what else this nursery offered in addition to to flowering perennials.  My attention was immediately drawn by the variety of potted succulents.  If you like succulents – there is no better place to grow them than in California where they enjoy the Mediterranean climate with its warm, relatively frost-free temperatures.

As I was looking at the succulents, I saw a bright flash of purple and bright green off to the side.

Shopping for Plants California Style

New leaf lettuce transplants had just arrived along with potted artichokes.

While my garden is not quite ready for fall planting, I am already envisioning rows upon rows of leaf lettuce, which is my favorite vegetable to grow.

vegetable gardens

Who says that vegetable gardens can’t be beautiful?  

I plant both red and green leaf lettuce varieties in my garden each year.  I like the gorgeous color contrast that also looks great in your salad bowl.

kale transplants

I also like these assorted kale transplants.  I didn’t add any to my garden last year, but may consider doing so this year.

Have any of you grown kale?  How did it do for you?

As I slowly walked back through the nursery, I stuck my phone in my pocket and was ready to join my husband and daughter who were patiently waiting for me.

BUT, as I walked out the entrance I found myself facing another nursery.

most unique nursery

I’ll give you this glimpse of the entrance of the most unique nursery that I have ever had the opportunity to visit.

Behind its fairly unremarkable entrance, lay secret gardens filled with unusual plants that I will show you next time.

Blue Bells: A Beautiful, Yet Tough Shrub for the Desert Garden

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A few years ago, while visiting my sister in the Palm Springs area in California, we visited the Living Desert Museum.  This is a combination botanical garden and zoo.

Blue Bells

We had a great time exploring along with our kids and I enjoyed taking pictures of the different plants that I saw.

Leucophyllum (Texas Sage).

While walking through the gardens, I noticed a small shrub, which at first glance, I assumed was a small species of Leucophyllum (Texas Sage).

blue bells

I took a quick photo and then walked on.

Fast forward 2 years later, where I found myself learning about a newer plant on the market that thrives in desert heat, is drought-tolerant, flowers all year and needs little to no pruning.

Now any plant that looks great but isn’t fussy in desert gardens is one that I definitely need to get to know better.

I found out that this particular shrub was supposed to look a lot like a gray Texas sage.  That was when I remembered taking the photo, above.

I was thrilled to find out that I had been introduced to this plant earlier, but hadn’t known it.

There is so much that I can say about Blue Bells (Eremophila hygrophana ‘ Blue Bells ‘) and I have written an article about this beautiful, yet tough shrub, which you can read in my latest Houzz plant profile…  

 
 

Kitchen designs, bathroom designs, and more ∨

Hire residential landscape architects to help with all aspects of landscape design, from selecting or designing outdoor patio furniture, to siting a detached garage or deck.
A home remodeler or residential architect will see the potential in the architecture and building design of your home.

I strongly encourage you to be a trendsetter in your neighborhood by planting this lovely shrub in your garden!

Purple, Prickly and Gorgeous!

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If anyone asks me what is on my list of succulent favorites, Santa-rita prickly pear would be near the top.

Santa-rita prickly pear

Santa-rita prickly pear with new pads.

This beautiful prickly pear is also often referred to as ‘purple prickly pear’.

I love how the its gray/blue pads become gradually tinged with purple as the temperatures get cold.

To learn more about this particular prickly pear and why you’ll want to plant one in your garden, check out my latest article for Houzz.com…  

 
 

Architects, interior designers, and more ∨

Use the help of top home decorators to select matching bedside tables and a new lamp shade for your own bedroom design.
Find a wall shelf, customizable closet organization and stylish furnishings to whip your closet into shape.

I hope you enjoy my latest plant article for Houzz.  I’ve been working on profiling plants that thrive in the desert southwest.

Stay tuned later this month for another great plant!  

A Garden Stroll Through Memory Lane

Westmont College in Montecito, California

A week ago, my husband and I took a stroll through our past, visiting the campus of Westmont College in Montecito, California, where we met 28 years ago.

What is special about this place is not only the memories, but the beautiful gardens that surround it.

Last week, I introduced you to the converted mansion, the courtyard with its iconic fountain, the ocean view from my dormitory window and a glimpse of a beautiful flower garden.

Today, I would like to show you the small chapel, hidden among the trees, a beautiful pond, an area burned by wildfire and a garden filled with bird-of-paradise.  

oak trees

This small chapel sits underneath the canopy of large oak trees.

magnificent trees

I have always loved oak trees because I grew up in Southern California where the hills are dotted with with these magnificent trees.  

Westmont College

The chapel was built in the 1960’s to honor the memory of the then college president’s daughter who died tragically in an auto accident while attending college here.

Westmont College

Students can often be found spending a few moments in prayer here and I did my share, while attending.

Westmont College

Regular chapel services aren’t held here, but they do host weddings at the chapel.

I just love the view of oak trees from the windows, don’t you?

Westmont College

As you walk away from the chapel, you are greeted by the sound of water.

water fountain

 I like the simplicity of the water fountain in the form of am earthen jug, which does not compete with the surrounding, lush plantings.

Westmont College

The Weeping Mulberry, while leafless in winter, adds a graceful, drooping element to the water.

Weeping Mulberry

Believe it or not, Weeping Mulberry is also grown in Arizona.  There is a large one at my other alma mater, Arizona State University.

A Garden Stroll Through Memory Lane

As we left the chapel and its pond, the path led into a truly beautiful garden…

Tropical Bird-of-Paradise

This was the favorite part of the landscape surrounding the college.

Boxwood hedges enclosed rectangular areas of lawn that were surrounded by staggered plantings of Tropical Bird-of-Paradise (Strelitzia reginae). 

Tropical Bird-of-Paradise

The bright orange and blue color of this tropical plant are quite familiar to me.  They are the official city flower of Los Angeles, California where I was born.

Tropical Bird-of-Paradise is native to South Africa, but thrives in warm climates all over the world.  Sensitive to frost, it is hardy to zone 9 and does grow in the low desert, when protected from afternoon sun.  However, it does not grow as well in desert locations as it does in milder areas such as Southern California.

A Garden Stroll Through Memory Lane

Even unopened, I think that the flowers resemble birds.

Tropical Bird-of-Paradise bloom

It was somewhat surreal to be walking through a garden in full bloom at the end of December when most of the nation was blanketed in ice and snow.

Tropical Bird-of-Paradise bloom in winter and spring.

Tropical Bird-of-Paradise bloom

While I love this flower, I don’t grow them in my desert garden.  The reason for this is that they can struggle in our extreme heat and cold winters.  It is a rare occurrence when I see one that is thriving and blooming in our low-desert climate.

Westmont College

As we walked through the garden, we heard the sound of running water, but could not see where it was coming from.

So, we headed up the stairs toward the sound.

Westmont College

The sound led us to a narrow, stone-lined trench, filled with water.

As you can see, the fountain part is subtle and understated.  Its main purpose is to lend the sound of water to the garden setting.

As we continued our journey, we came to an area that is still struggling to recover after a wildfire burned parts of the school grounds in 2008.  

Westmont College

A lone oak tree is the only survivor in this large, formerly treed area.  

Westmont College

As you can see, there used to be a lot of trees.

There were signs that construction was soon to take place, so it will be nice to see what they will do with this area.

Our walking tour was almost over and I admit that I was doing a bit of huffing and puffing while walking up and down the mountainside where our college is situated.  It was much easier to walk up and down when I was a 19-year old student 😉

Before we leave, I’d like to show you where my husband and I met, by our old dormitory 28 years ago…

A Garden Stroll Through Memory Lane

Our dormitory was divided into men and women’s sections.  It was connected by a bridge and you would often find us taking turns walking over to visit the other…

A Garden Stroll Through Memory Lane
A Garden Stroll Through Memory Lane

Our stroll through memory lane was almost over and I was sad to go.

A Garden Stroll Through Memory Lane

Years after I left Westmont College, I finished my degree in horticulture.  As a new horticulturist, I was given the task of re-designing the landscape around a golf-course country club building.

There is a popular saying with young women at the school, “I went to Westmont and came away with my ‘MRS’ degree.”

While I did not get my bachelor’s degree from Westmont, I did meet my husband there and become ‘Mrs.’ Johnson.

Thank you for allowing me to share memories and the beauty of the gardens of this special place.  

A Visit to the Past and Through Beautiful Gardens…

Last weekend, our family loaded our suitcases into the car and headed out to Southern California to visit my second-oldest daughter, Rachele, who is stationed there at a Navy base.

I was excited to see Rachele, but also to visit that part of California since it is near where I grew up and also where I met my husband while attending college.

On Saturday morning, we left our younger kids with Rachele and ventured up into the hills outside of Santa Barbara in order to visit our college.

Westmont College

Westmont College is located on side of the mountains in the small town of Montecito.

Most people haven’t heard of Westmont.  It is a small Christian, liberal arts college with an enrollment of 1,200.  

beautiful gardens

The college is set among beautiful gardens that echo the Spanish/Mediterranean style.

Believe it or not, I was not interested in the gardens or plants when I attended Westmont.  I was more focused on having fun, dating and passing my classes. At the time, I was decidedly “undecided” in what I wanted to major in.

Southern California

I spent 2 years at Westmont before I got married and moved to Arizona.

Now, whenever I am visiting Santa Barbara, I like to take time to visit the beautiful gardens of my former alma mater.

I’d love to take you on a little tour of my favorite spots and share some memories…

Southern California

This is the main administration building, which used to be the mansion that stood on this estate.

Southern California

This is where my husband and I met.  We both had part-time jobs in adjoining offices and I thought he was awfully cute and nice.

fountain

My favorite part of the building was the courtyard outside with its fountain.

water fountain

I love the detail of the water fountain.

photo with my friend

Years ago, I posed for this photo with my friend, Mary by the same fountain.

Southern California

I love the look of stone finials, don’t you?

pink azalea and the hibiscus

It may have been the end of December, but there were still blooms to be seen like this pink azalea and the hibiscus, below…

Southern California

I couldn’t help but think of those whose gardens are frozen and/or covered in snow right now.  The Mediterranean climate is truly wonderful – this area rarely experiences temps below freezing.

old bougainvillea

An old bougainvillea grew up among the stair railing.

old bougainvillea

I can only imagine how old this bougainvillea is.

Southern California

I love garden gates, don’t you?

Southern California

Especially when you notice the detail.

While the converted mansion and its surroundings were beautiful, the college has its share of plain, boring dormitories.

Southern California

This was my freshmen dorm where I lived on the third floor.  The dormitory looked much the same as when I attended except that there were video cameras and electronic door locks with card readers.

While the dorm wasn’t too impressive, the view from my room was…

Channel Islands from my window

I could see the ocean and the Channel Islands from my window.

Southern California

Up above the dorm, on the mountainside was an old tea garden that was part of a large estate.  Students would climb up and explore the ruins.

Southern California

As we left the dorm, we walked along the path lined with Simplicity roses toward a building where I must admit that I did NOT spend much time…

Southern California

This is the large boulder located by the library.  Students could be found sitting on top studying or catching some rays.

Chaparral Sage (Salvia clevelandii)

There was a Chaparral Sage (Salvia clevelandii) flowering next to the boulder.  This shrub can be grown in the desert, if given some afternoon shade.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour so far.  

Next time, I will show you the small chapel nestled within the trees, a small pond, a stunning garden filled with flowers and the area that was burned in a large wildfire a couple of years ago.

What Is Wrong With This Citrus Tree?

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something wrong with citrus tree

something wrong with citrus tree

Last week, I came upon this citrus tree while I was doing a consultation.

At first, there was one problem that I noticed right away.  As I peered closer, I saw that there was another problem affecting this tree.

The tree was well-fertilized and I could see no sign of nutrient deficiencies.

Can you tell what is wrong with this citrus tree?

Leave your guesses below in the comment section and I will reveal the answer tomorrow 🙂

*You may be wondering why you should care about the problems of this particular citrus tree.  Well, if you have citrus growing in your garden, you may have the same problem(s) and not even know it.

My hope is to help others identify and correct problems with their plants that they may not be aware of until it is too late.

Journey Into My Backyard – The Sonoran Desert…

I apologize, but life is kind of crazy this week, so I promise that I will get to back to my ‘Tree Planting’ posts soon.  In the meantime, I would like to share with you one of my favorite posts that I wrote about 1 1/2 years ago.  I was rather new at blogging at the time so most of you probably have not read it.  I hope you enjoy it 🙂

When people think of a desert, most envision a place of intense heat, sparse plants, snakes and lots of sand.  Well, some of that is true, but there is much, much more which I have discovered.  I am not a native desert dweller.  In fact, I was born and raised near the beach in Southern California and I never thought that I would live in the desert.  However, here I am, having lived in Arizona for over 23 years and I wouldn’t have it any other way….

Sonoran Desert

All of the photos were taken in an area about 30 minutes northeast of Phoenix.

The desert that I live in is called the Sonoran Desert and it occupies over 120,000 sq. miles covering parts of Arizona, California and Mexico.  Although deserts around the world do not receive much rainfall, the Sonoran Desert receives more then any other desert in the world.  We have two seasons of rain.  In the winter our storms come from the west from the Pacific coast and the rains are usually gentle.  In the summer our rains come up from Mexico and are called “monsoons”, which means “wind shift”.  These summer storms are sporadic and result in torrential rainfall and high winds.  Often, when we receive these torrential downpours, my kids and I just stand inside our front door, just watching the rain.

By the way…..you know you are an ‘official’ desert dweller when you rejoice whenever it rains.

Sonoran Desert

Because of our dual rainy seasons, the Sonoran Desert has the most animal and plant species of any North American desert.  We have over 2,000 native plant species alone.  In the spring, the desert is awash in wildflowers and cactus blooms.  The rain brings out the distinct, yet pleasing, scent of the Creosote bush (if you rub the leaves in your fingers, it smells like the rain).  I live in zone 8b and we do experience occasional freezing conditions during the winter. 

Sonoran Desert

Interestingly, the western part of the Sonoran Desert, located in California (Palm Springs and surrounding area), is regarded as a sub-desert called the Colorado Desert.  It differs in appearance and in that the soils are sandy, there is less rainfall in the summer and as a result there is less plant density and native plant species.  The Saguaro cactus does not grow naturally in the Colorado Desert.  If you have a chance to drive across the California – Arizona border, you can see the difference as you cross over the Colorado River.  This sub-desert has a beauty of it’s own and I enjoy visiting this part of the Sonoran Desert.

Sonoran Desert

The Sonoran Desert is a fascinating place with cactus and snakes  (I rarely see them), but is also filled with trees, shrubs, flowers and wildlife.  Far from being a barren wasteland, this desert is full of life and beauty.

It is my home….

Two Iconic Sonoran Desert Plants: Saguaro and Ocotillo