Xeriscape

When you live in the desert it’s hard to keep anything looking green, especially lawns.  Ours looks pretty bad.  We’d love to have a bit of lawn but have decided to take it out and xeriscape the whole area with rocks and desert friendly plants.  I’ll leave a small space for seasonal flowers to add some color. 

We haven’t started this project yet because we have to rent equipment to remove the dead lawn.  We haven’t had time to do this job.  Hopefully it won’t get to hot before we can tackle this, or it might be this fall before anything happens.

As it is we got two days off in a row so we could cut back bushes and take out dead plants.  We filled up three trash cans with stuff, got sunburned in the process, and scratched all over by twigs and wayward branches.  We were a sight at work the next few days.

The good news is once we can do this project we’ll save on the water bill.

Devastating heat

It’s sizzling here in the desert and this is only June.  I hate to think about July and August (our hottest months here).  We’ve had triple digits the last two weeks with no end in sight.  I talked to a girlfriend in CA last night and it was 100 there.  Everything is suffering.

Look at my lawn:

One year we had grubs in it and it got brown like this so we had to put some stuff on it from the nursery to kill the grubs and it perked right up after that.  This year --no grubs -- they say a fungus is affecting many lawns.  So we get another product from the nursery, put that on and then watered it in.  That was at least two weeks ago now.  We’ve given it extra water with this heat too and nothing seems to help.  We wonder if anyone here knows what they’re talking about and this isn’t the first time.  As I’ve said before, an odd bunch of people live in this state.  Now, we’re thinking of pulling the grass out and having rock put in (like most of the rest of the yard).

 Lots of these little guys around

 

However, if we do that, I have a feeling we’re in for a mess of a different kind from the chipmunks around here.  Look what they’ve done here.

They live in this rock wall and have burrowed all over to make escape routes from the predators.  I guess there’s always an issue with something.  Such is life and somehow we’ll deal with it.

On another note, many animals have ventured by in search of water.  I have to fill all the pans and bowls daily.

 Desert toad

 

I feel like I’m living in a cave, as I have to keep the blinds drawn to keep some of the heat out, at least until the sun has moved across the sky.  Once the patio has shade, I can open them and get some light in here.  Then the other side of the house is in the dark until sunset, which is about 9:30 here.  I’m not complaining about that though.  I love the long days and would rather have to deal with the heat when I think about that winter cold.

FWIT, today it’s 110 here.

Spring Fever

Raven

My little boy, Raven, is fascinated with all the activity outside.  Birds are busy hopping all over the patio, chirping happily, as spring is in full swing.  They’re gathering and building nests for the new arrivals coming soon.

The chipmunks are doing the same thing.  The females are waddling around as they scurry for food, packing their little cheeks with all they can hold.  They gather bits of dry grass and anything else they can haul to their burrows for the new nests.  I’ve uncovered my flowers so took away the old mattress covers they pick the cotton out of every year.

Baby lizards emerge from the rocks and dart across the path, or climb up the house.  The cats get excited when they reach the windows.

Raven

 

Gardener edging lawn

Raven stays glued to the window with big yellow eyes taking it all in.  Today we had the lawn edged by a gardener passing by as our edger is out of commission.  Raven was the only cat awake and didn’t miss a thing as he ran from window to window.

 Purple Robe Locusts

 

Our first blooms of the season are out and so beautiful.  They’re early as the locust trees don’t usually bloom until April.

Honeysuckle Vine

Honeysuckle Flower Bud

This honeysuckle vine goes from a bunch of sticks to lush, green leaves in a matter of two weeks time.  It’s loaded with buds already.  I’m wondering how that happened when it was a sight of brown tangled twigs not long ago.  The first year we lived here, we actually thought the plant was dead.

Lady Banks Rose

Lady Banks Rose

Here’s a lady banks rose we planted three years ago in the front of the house.  We have two of them out there.  We were wondering if they’d survive after the winter of 2013-2014, when it got down to zero, but they did.

What amazes me most about the desert is the plants that come back year after year from a state of death to full leaf and blossoms so fast.  Of course, all the critters that survive here also amaze me.

Happy Spring everyone!  I’m as happy as the birds.  I survived another winter!