Mega Yard Update

Everything is changing rapidly in the yard these days, below are some of the recent highlights.

Below is the first rose bloom of the season, I've kept all nine of my bushes alive thus far, we'll see how things far come June.

Next picture is an evening primrose that I planted a few years ago. These guys die back with the heat and resurface in a different part of the yard each year. This plant has spread rapidly in the last few weeks, and although it's growing on top of my cucumber and squash vines, I don't mind for the blooms.

I read somewhere that it's possible to grow bananas here in the desert. Lucky for me my local nursery was selling them. I remember the last time Emily and I drove over to Scottsdale there was a house with rows of banana plants about six feet tall last fall, so I suppose it's worth a shot.



Next picture are various bulbs and my squash vine.

One of the jubilees on the south side of the house that looks horrible after our January freeze, has not only come back, but is already blooming.

Another plant left for dead, this red cap gum tree looked horrible just a few months ago, but has leafed back out.

The chinese pistache tree has leafed out and is growing very well this spring, unfortunately our bougainvillea hasn't fare so well, only coming back from the ground, with the exception of a few stalks against the house. I'm in the process of cutting back as much of the dead growth as I can, without losing the height of the plant. I'm also being careful not to disturb two birds nests that have been built between it and the house.

Finally the white plumbago that looked terrible in January has leafed out nicely and should be blooming soon.

March Rain

We're finally seeing some good rain, after the warm March we've had so far, this is a welcome sight as March has been one of the few consistent months for rain and I was starting to get worried that we were going into the dry April-June period behind the 8-ball.

Follow the link below to watch the rain in it's glory! There is even a rumble of thunder here and there, first action video of the yard!

http://s68.photobucket.com/albums/i8/xbel76/?action=view&current=07032201.flv

I hope to post some updated pictures of the yard when we return from our little trip this weekend, the bulbs are shooting up, and various odds and ends are starting to bloom. April
will be a very good month with this rain, and I've been feeding the birds lots of seeds lately, so hopefully we'll have some nice sunflowers as well going into May!

Birmingham Roses


Below are some pictures from a recent trip to Birmingham with Emily. We're going to redecorate our living room with some of these blown up, to flow into our back yard. I can only dream to grow roses like that out here.


I don't miss much about living in Birmingham, but DO miss this beautiful place. This is where I've taken a lot of my inspiration for our yard from over the years.

Check out their website at http://www.bbgardens.org/

Keep reading, another Hoes post from today awaits you!

Spring Thaw

If you live anywhere else in the country, the thought of marvelling at plants re leafing from their winter dormancy is enough to bore you into a stupor. For us, after living here for five years and having never seen this happen in winter's past, this has been nerve-wracking waiting to see what plants survived our 20 degree January mornings.

I'm happy to report that with the exception of a few vines that were recently planted, everything else seems to be recovering.

Below is one of my orange jubilees on the south side of the house. They all appear to be leafing out all the way to their frozen tips, and while it's been nice being able to see out our dining room window, I'm looking forward to having our privacy back again.

This is growth coming out of the base of our 10 foot tall bougainvillea that's on the south side of the house. This too is leafing out all the way to the top, and with all the leaves off this monster, I discovered a bird's nest up under the eaves of the house. Ah, the wonders of nature.

I thought this plumbago was a goner, since they are more suited for Hawaii weather. Most of the winter the branches of this thing seemed real crunchy (for the lack of a more scientific explanation), but behind all of that the main trunks of the plant were still green and are leafing out nicely, and quickly!

On a different note, since our Lilac vines blooms were scant this year (thank you freeze), it was nice to see the second plant in line for early spring blooming take off this past week or so. These are feather leaf cassias, adoringly called sneeze bushes by Emily. In two years these have grown from tiny one gallon plants to about four feet tall and across, dwarfing two of my citrus trees.