Garden

“Though I do not believe a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.” Henry David Thoreau.

My current home is new, large, lovely, and not landscaped at all. Extremely rocky soil pounded down by home building equipment dictates that I build raised beds to plant anything. A task not yet tackled. This map from Sunset’s Western Landscaping gives you an idea of the challenges of the “arid west”. I’d be somewhere between the SF and LA amount – generally less than an inch from mid-spring to late fall which, with weeks of high 90 to 100′s Farenheit in summer, is virtually nada. The eastern half of the U.S. mostly sees 20′s in inches, some 30′s and we’ll leave Florida out . Even Phoenix and Reno see substantially more rain than us. You can water and drip – but other than the coast – the air itself is bone dry and sucks the water from leaves. This is why we must plant permanent plants in fall – so they can develop enough of a root system to stay alive through our summers. Nothing wrong with our nurseries, but 4 inch and 6 pack style pots will just keel over and die in the heat of summer.Average Inches of Rainfall May 1st – Oct 31st.

Average Inches of Rainfall May 1st - Oct 31st

“Below is a gallery from my previous garden. You can also search for posts in the category “garden” on the blog homepage. The vast majority of the garden was seed and cutting grown. I love the mountains and my new home, but look at my Fall Equinox post to see my current back property: the deer and turkey; brown ground with trees. My rampantly packed backyard was a secret garden, only visible if nosey neighbors stood on a ladder to see over the 6 foot fence.

Abutilon

Small purple aster

Bog sage, verbena bonariensis

Border, handmade signs to warn to not pick plums until deep purple

Border going to seed

Campanula, seeds stuck to petals

Clematis Nelly Moser

Plectranthus

Cosmos

Cosmos

Dahlia

Dahlia

Daylily from seed

DOuble feverfew with Verbena ground cover

Eunonymous

Forget me not

Fringe tree

Gaura lindhiermi

Gaura, Bog Sage

Gaura, Knautia

Geranium, Martha Washington

gottalookupname grey shrub I love

Hall’s Honeysuckle

Hardy Geranium

Hardy Geranium 2

SIngle Hollyhock with Bog Sage

SIngle Hollyhock

Hopi Red Dye Amaranth

Japanese Maple Bloodgood

Knautia, Verbena Bonariensis

Knautia, lavender

Liriope, variegated

Liriope variegated

Love in a puff

Magnolia Soulangeana

Zebrina malva

Nicotiana

Nicotiana Alata, sticky seeds stick to plant

Nicotiana sylvestris

Passion Vine Cutting coming along

Potato Vine Shrub

Potato Vine shrub

Powis Castle Artemesia

Gaura, Powis Castle, Bog Sage

Verbena bonariensis, bog sage, rosa

Rosa, Windchimes (a-ok in shade)

Rosa, Fourth of July, climber

Rosa, gottalookupname

Sage

Salvia

Shasta Daisy

Shirley Poppy Angels Choir

Simply Love, annual Hibiscus

Spider Dahlia

Sunflower

Average Inches of Rainfall May 1st – Oct 31st

Swamp Sage

Ground cover …

unknown

White Dahlia

White Knautia

The Wild back garden, it started out with rows and paths