Potting Them Up Finally

I've been worrying about the Radio Red autumn salvias that I picked up last fall at Newman's. They've been in their black nursery pots since then, drying out so quickly in the potting medium and I have been fussing over keeping them going all winter and through a too hot March and now into spring.

I do love their deep red flowers. 

I wanted to repot them into good potting soil and put 3 of them in the prairie pot garden at the deck and plant one in the ground. But then my injury happened and that never got done.

I've now lost one -- it's dry and crisp. Good thing I overbought. The other three finally got put into larger pots with good potting soil today. It was a small job but awkward for me in the moon boot and hobbling about. 

I can't get to my potting bench below the railroad ties, so I used a card table in the garage and limped the few steps back and forth to the faucet for water and made a mess of things.

It only took ten minutes and they are now adequately potted up finally.

Drought Tolerant

I'm so tired of constantly reading about "drought tolerant" plants. Every garden design, every plant being profiled is drought tolerant, to the point where the term is meaningless now, it's just what all plants are if they are not bog plants.

What does it even mean to slap that term on every plant, every garden? Does that mean the garden will survive on an inch of rain once a month? Once a week? Winter water? 

Nothing grows with NO water, so how much?

There are obvious desert plants like succulents, cactus and desert scrub shrubs, but almost all others are universally labeled "drought tolerant". Do those plants look great or just not completely die until they get more frequent water? 

What do they look like while they are "tolerating" dry conditions? And how dry? For how long?

From Le Jardinet's blog post of a New Zealand dry garden

Beth Chatto's dry gravel garden is everyone's inspiration and it does have great ideas and examples. She admirably provides no supplemental water. But the average annual rainfall in her dry garden is 20 inches! Air humidity is high. It's England -- the dry side, yes -- but surrounded by ocean and temperate currents.

That is not a dry garden. Also that is not my garden. It's double, almost triple what my garden gets annually in a good year. It is not my cold steppe arid environment. 

Drought tolerant once implied something meaningful. Now it’s broadly applied to:

• Mediterranean plants
• prairie plants
• xeric plants
• dry shade plants
• plants that survive a rainless couple weeks periodically
• and plants that need regular irrigation to look decent

Those are not equivalent categories.

This comment from a post at Le Jardinet in Seattle was interesting. She talks about what a truly drought loving plant could be:

Not drought-resistant, nor drought tolerant but drought-LOVING. An important distinction. If plants are to thrive rather than merely survive or tolerate the conditions we impose on them, this is a strategic mind-shift.

I like that distinction. "Drought tolerant" is as helpful as "plant right side up in soil". It doesn't describe what the plant might look like when you plant it in your garden.

Kneeler

I have been wedded to my knee scooter for months of recovery but eventually I'll be off it, and when that happens this summer I can get back out into the garden. And to garden safely as I continue to heal and gain strength in the leg, I decided I will need . . . another kneeler.

This time a garden kneeler.

They've been around forever and each time I see one I think it's just another piece of equipment to tote around and get in the way. But now? Now I can see the benefit.

The main advantage for me is that it has rails to hang onto as I leverage myself up from the ground. I will really need that to keep from having to push up with my foot to get up.

Protecting the foot from any load or bending is going to be my focus for a long time, even after I am in shoes. 

Andrea came over this week to do a little weeding for me, and she brought hers. She's used it for ages, and as I watched her it made so much sense. 

She was most comfortable seated, reaching down to do things at ground level.

But it flips over and you can kneel on it too, then use the side rails to support yourself getting up.

So I'm going to get one to get ready for summer.

One White Iris

There are fat buds on the pink irises Andrea gave me, but they aren't open yet. The white Immortality irises have sent up one single beautiful bloom so far. It's still only early May. 

← Here it is.

After hot March weather brought everything out too soon, the weather now is more typical, so nights are cold, in the low 40s, sometimes high 30s. 

That's holding things back from fully leafing out or bulking up. Hot weather will do wonders.

And some rain will help, it's been so dry. Most plants look a little shriveled, dry and cold.

The pink Knockout rose in the container in the corner of the patio is blooming -- again, it's only early May. So early.

I'm a little worried that this Knockout rose will be too big for this container. it's a big shrub and vigorous. I grew it by the front door in Connecticut and it got really big.

I hope it will stay the right size and look good in this container in a tight corner. My prior one had fragrance, but so far in this cool spring I haven't noticed any.

Without me in the garden to tidy up and arrange the floppers, weed the unwanted, and trim the leftover winter duff, the garden is looking a little sad. But hopeful enough. 

Hot weather will come. Rain might or might not come. My foot will heal. 

I'll be out to tend things in early July, which seems so far off and well past the spring season, but that's my realistic goal to be able to kneel, get up, carry things and . . . garden.

Same Basic idea

A photo I found on Pinterest has similar elements compared to my space: sandstone flagstones, gray river gravel, a free floating deck, red chairs. Same basic idea, including the use of wildflower looking upright plants tucked in among the stones and gravel and fronting the deck.

It might be A.I. modified, it likely is. But take a look at the photo compared to my deck.

The overall effect of the Pinterest photo is looser, more natural looking. My space seems more structured, even with the same elements.

I'm more constrained, with a smaller space and a stone sitting patio adjacent to the deck, leaving little room for scattering plants together naturally. I have to place my plants in specific bounded spots. 

So I have difficulty getting that loose, meadowy kind of look. But it's interesting to see the same basic design and plant and hardscape ideas executed a little differently.

It's All Too Early

A warm winter and hot March brought too many things into leaf and into bloom way too soon this season. 

🚰 I had to have the irrigation turned on already, on April 24 -- three weeks earlier than normal.

It's still April! Orange geums have been flowering for weeks, the Biokovo geraniums have started to open, the Jupiter's Beard too, and even the tiny armeria -- sea thrift -- is blooming.

The Atlas daisy is too. And the linum flax plants have tiny blue flowers.

But everything looks so sparse and stunted. While March was hot and woke my garden up too soon, April has been cool and windy. Nights are still in the high 30s and low 40s. The plants woke up, but they aren't happy now.

The Virginia creeper vine normally leafs out on May 1, like clockwork. This year it came out too soon and the one night we had a freeze earlier it really zapped the vine. It will recover of course, but right now it is also sparse looking.

I was happy to see my transplanted serviceberry made it. It is opening its leaves slowly. It did not flower, but in future years when it has settled into its new spot, it will.

The transplanted Jackmanii clematis, which I moved next to the rain barrel, did not make it, but I will buy another later in the year when I can get out to plant. 

And the Chocolate Chip ajugas absolutely have to go. I will take them all out when I can get out there. 

They are once again a flat brown mass -- they recovered a bit last year after looking so bad, but not much. 

They had looked great for the first years, flowering well and greening up nicely from 2019 to 2023, but then not so much. The past two years they've looked awful.

Something low-care has to go in this empty spot and there is irrigation. Maybe a sedum ground cover, like 'Angelina'. That should spread out and cover the ground with bright color.

The dark red blob is a small gaura and dark leaved penstemons to the right will contrast nicely with Angelina sedum.

I can't really get out into the back yard or in front to check on things or take photos, but here's one more look at the newly opened up walkway with the rosemary removed. 

I like how cohesive it looks leading to the door, and it's now easy to round the corner on the flagstone path.

Such a strange season, with things out too early in March, but now cool and windy and dry in April, and me unable to do anything outside for weeks yet.

Rosemary Removal

It's gone. The lovely 'Arp' rosemary was taken out.

It was a deep green shrub with a dense presence that was nice. I was sorry to see it go. But it was simply too big for the space and it was hard to get by it. Pruning it was increasingly creating an awkward shape.

I like the scent of rosemary, but brushing by it, which you couldn't avoid when walking around the corner, left an intense smell on clothes and skin. Too strong. 

It was blooming in April just before it was removed. The bees loved it. But.

The look down the walk is open now, drawing the eye all the way to the bright blue door, or all the way to the deck from the other direction.

I do want to move the narrow plant stand table from the kitchen door to the open spot and store the hoses on it. Maybe plant something low and small under the table.

The square table by the garage door with the collection of pots now provides the visual weight the rosemary had provided before. 

Update for the Season

My extensive planting plans and redesigns for this season got canceled as soon as I realized I'd be non weight bearing for 8 weeks, likely 12. That takes me through May, and I had hoped to be back in the garden sometime later in that month, graduating from partial weight to full weight and I thought that meant walking normally by Memorial Day.

In time to salvage planting some things, shopping for a few additions and potting up things for a normal summer.

But that is not realistic. 

Even with my good prognosis (x-ray evidence of bone healing, no surgery, fractures are aligned and stable) the entire month of May and into early June will be non weight bearing. The more delicate part of my recovery as I slowly . . .  slowly and gently over 4 weeks . . . start to put weight on that foot will be the full month of June.

May is not a return to normalcy. June is not either -- that will be the month I practice being upright and mobile. At times. Still with a boot, indoors, only a little upright and barely mobile only for short times.

Nothing outside will be doable in June, not kneeling to plant, not getting up. Not carrying buckets or shopping for pots of plants. Or walking around on uneven ground. Although I may be able to toddle out with a boot and crutch and trim the Virginia creeper or pull a weed or two.

It will be July before a return to any activities in the garden. Mid summer. I can still plant then I think.

That's the update for the lost season of my garden.

More A.I.

While I have been laid up on the couch, I have been doing a lot of experimenting with A.I., both for long iterative conversations about various topics, research on my injury, a lot of Spanish practice and I've also been fiddling around with images and creating artificial landscapes.

Here, for example is my yard, more or less, with the crabapple grown mature and plantings under it filled out. It's clearly fake, and "off", but it gives me a feel for how it will look in a few years.

The big Chinese privet is missing on the right side, but still. . .

And here is a faux vignette of red chairs on a deck with a flagstone walkway leading to it, compared to my own arrangement. Similar, but a different layout of stonework compared, side by side, to mine. It's really instructive on how my space could look.

Similar look, same elements on the left as my real garden on the right

Here's another side by side comparison I did looking the opposite way from the view above. Again, I made the flagstone path wander through the center of the yard leading from garage door to the deck, compared to my own walkway and garden and stone patio.

An example of how my narrow yard could have been configured

I really like this and wish our hardscape could accommodate gardens on either side of a central path. 

Here's another I created to show the central flagstone path and gardens on either side, leading to a deck, with the house on one side. It has a waterfall and pond, though, which is nice, but I wouldn't want that.

Another example of how the back yard could have looked

I got creative one night and had A.I fill out the tiny yard at Greg's house -- it's the other side of his duplex, and is currently rented out. The "before" photos of the empty yard are from the real estate listing for the rental. I just asked Gemini to make a garden out of the bare space in the photo, and I tweaked it a bit from there.

Greg's neighbor's yard, currently bare but with potential

A little "before" and "after" fun. I did a view looking the other way toward the garage too.

Looking the other way

All these A.I generated shots look fake, and they have plants flowering way too profusely at the same time that wouldn't in real life. Some details are either too perfect or slightly distorted. Gemini has a hard time deciding if a tree trunk is behind or in front of a fence.

But for getting a feel for what a landscape might look like it's a real help in visualizing design changes. And I am having fun creating and recreating whole scenes.

Another Trim

I managed to trim off a couple low branches of the Sugar Tyme crabapple this winter. Now there is one more branch needing removal.

It's easier to see with the background removed.

I'll leave it for this season, and take it off next winter. This small tree needs all the greenery it has to keep growing. Although the odd weather this spring kept it from blooming (the leaves all came out too soon), it is really shooting up.

I just need to prune it well while still young to keep it more upright shaped and to clear space under the branches to walk below it.

Easter Sunday

Jim put the hummingbird feeders up today.

There is finally a leader growing on the little redbud. It struggled the first years and the top kept dying back in winter, but this spring it looks pretty great.

The viburnum has grown so tall. It gets irrigation and I was hose watering it last year too. A lot of top growth that is a little unruly. Not sure how to prune it for better shape, though.

The view toward the deck -- the aspens are barely leafing out this early, but the shaggy little crabapple is full and green already. The rosemary will be removed the middle of the month, Jeronimo is scheduled to come on the 24th (and start up the irrigation too, which is really early).

Happy Easter.

It's All Sparkly Now

After a snowless winter and rainless March, we got a quarter inch of rain on April first. Not much, but it was a gentle rain that lasted most of the day and soaked things. Today, nippy and clear, everything sparkles.

How I want to get out there and trim things and arrange stuff and pot up the Radio Red salvias . . . and

    . . . I can't.

The bush clematis started growing up through the mesh of the table. Maybe that would work to keep the stems up off the ground? 

Jim managed to get out on the step to pull the big stems back with a bungee cord. It wasn't easy for him, his stability while twisting or moving without support is poor. But he did it.

The stems are stiffly tied, but the plant is so rampant it may flop over anyway, or at least fill out and arch over, and some stems may still grow up through the table. Or it may all collapse.

Irises are well on their way now, both the white ones and the peach colored ones I got from Andrea.

The rosemary is blooming, although not much yet, and it is slated for removal when I can get Jeronimo here. It really has gotten to be an awkward shape and hard to pass by on the walkway.

As always, rain makes the garden look clean and fresh, and sunshine enhances it. The patio cushions are soaked, so I can't sit out there to enjoy any of it. And it's too chilly anyway.

Which is just as well -- I can't do a thing out there on my scooter and it drives me crazy.

It's Still Only March

Well, it's the last day, anyway. April starts tomorrow. 

It's still March today and with the sustained record breaking warmth there has been way too early growth. I haven't been outside at all -- it's hard to navigate on the knee scooter and I've only been out to the patio and to the driveway to maneuver into the car for appointments.

But I can see the redbud is in full bloom, and the viburnum too, although the viburnum and the crabapple both leafed out well before any flowers, so the effects are odd. 

When I did finally roll out the kitchen door today to look at the pots by the table I was amazed. 

The bush clematis has exploded.

I want to tie the floppy canes to the shepherd's crook pole to keep it from dragging its pretty flowers on the ground, but I can't get to my bench where the orchid clips or ties are.

I can't even get the scooter up on the raised stone by the door to tie anything.

All of April I will still be on the scooter, and . . . 

     . . . I need to let things go. All of it.

I need to look away. The plants will do what they do. I'll fix things later, in late May or June.

I want to divide the Black Adder agastche -- it's coming in now in its pot. But that will have to wait. 

The Radio Red salvias, still in their black plastic nursery pots, need trimming and re-potting. That will have to wait too. 

The sedum in the terra cotta pot is filling out. That was supposed to be divided and planted out along the moss rock border. That won't be done.

This is the hardest part -- the small jobs that need doing, the minor adjustments, not the canceling of my big planting plans and new installations. 

All I can tend to now is watering, and after dry and warm conditions all of March, there is a bit of rain (maybe a quarter inch) forecast for tomorrow. Jim has hooked up the hoses and has been watering, but it's not much, it's not everything, and the oaks in the field aren't getting anything.

I need to look away and just let things be. Let them be. I have over a month to go before I can tend to what needs doing. I can start weight bearing in May, and by late May and June I can get out there to fix things.

It's still only March.

Salvia Hardiness Confusion

This winter and spring was incredibly warm for very long stretches. We never got down to 0° or even close. It's unclear what my hardiness zone is now. Some sources say my zip code is in zone 7 (lowest temp 0°), some say zone 6 (lowest temp -10°).

That makes a difference for some of the salvias I now have. I can keep zone 7 plants through winter if we don't get a really hard cold snap below 0° for long. But zone 8 is another matter.

The tender ones - rated for zone 7 . . . or 8?

The tender (or too tender?) ones

Salvia greggii - Autumn sage 'Radio Red'

> Consistently rated a zone 7 plant. 

My favorite and I have 2 in the ground and four still in their nursery pots. I'll plant one and re-pot the other three in larger containers to keep by the deck.

Salvia farinacea - Mealycup sage

> Rated zone 7 by High Country Gardens, which sells it, but it's rated zone 8 by other sources.

So far they have come back for me in these past two warm winters.

 

Salvia microphylla - Hot Lips

> Consistently rated solid zone 8, even by High Country Gardens, which sells it.

Last summer I bought three salvias at Lowe's labeled Salvia greggii but they were mislabeled. They are actually Hot Lips microphylla and it turns out not hardy here. 

I tossed all three.

The hardy ones

The hardy ones - rated for zone 3 - 6

Salvia darcyi 'Vermillion Bluffs'

> This is a cold hardy one consistently rated for zone 5

Salvia darcyi x microphylla 'Windwalker Red'

> Hardy in zone 5, although some sources say zone 6

Salvia nemorosa 'Midnight Purple' and 'Perfect Profusion'

> Rated to zone 3.

 Midnight Purple is tiny, compact.

 

Perfect Profusion hasn't done anything yet, I need to see it grow.

 

Salvia x sylvestris 'May Night'

> Hardy, down to zone 4. I'm planning it for the circle garden.

All of this concern about hardiness is a moot point if we continue to have such warm winters. 

But the zone 8 Hot Lips plants are gone now.

Rosemary 'Arp'

I am going to take out this rosemary this spring when Jeronimo comes. 

It's very healthy but getting misshapen from being pruned for too tight a space and being sited up against the wall. 

I thought about asking Jeronimo to transplant it to the new garden by the fence. I originally planned upright flowering perennials there -- a salvia, an agastache, a Rocky Mountain penstemon and a dwarf goldenrod.

All lovely, and I even ordered the plants before having to cancel everything with my foot injury. Would the visual weight of the rosemary be better?

But of course the new space in front of the fence is barely wider than where the rosemary is crammed now.

I had A.I. show me what it could look like there. I think it's too much and would create the same problem in this strip.

It's evergreen, and a nice looking evergreen in winter, giving me something to look at against the fence from inside the house. The perennials would be a complete nothing in winter, dormant at ground level. But I think not. I'll ask Jeronimo to remove the rosemary and discard it, not transplant it.

I'm totally confused about how big rosemary 'Arp' was supposed to get. I didn't think it would be this big in the gravel strip by the house wall. 

So I asked A.I. about that -- I'm learning I can have actual conversations with ChatGPT with back and forth brainstorming and a clear explanation of the logic behind its answers. 

In fact, here's the whole thing, starting with my conversational request for advice!

> Me (I attached a photo of my rosemary):

What is the mature size of rosemary 'Arp"? Nursery sites selling 'Arp' are all over the place, some say 5 feet wide, some say 2 feet wide but 6 feet tall. Some say 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide. What is your best advice on the eventual size growing in Santa Fe conditions in gravel against a sunny stucco house wall? Here is a picture of mine in a too small space. What do you think? I know I need to move it but how big will it get?

> The response:

Great question—and your photo helps a lot.

Short answer:
In Santa Fe conditions (high desert, full sun, reflected heat from stucco, gravel mulch), rosemary ‘Arp’ will most realistically mature to about:

• 3–4 feet tall
• 3–5 feet wide

…but the width is what usually surprises people.

---

Why nursery sizes are all over the place

You’re seeing conflicting info because ‘Arp’ is:

• Climate-responsive
  In milder, more humid climates it can stretch taller (even 5–6 ft).
• Cold-hardy but compact in stress
  In colder, drier climates like Santa Fe, winter dieback and low humidity keep it denser and broader rather than tall and lanky.
• Strongly influenced by pruning
  Light trimming = fuller, wider shrub.

---

What yours is telling us

Looking at your plant:

• It’s already vigorous and upright
• Growing in a heat-reflective microclimate (stucco wall + stone path)
• Has room to expand outward toward the path

👉 That combination typically produces a broad, mounding shrub that leans outward, not a narrow upright column.

---

What to expect in your exact spot

Given your setup:

• Warm wall = faster growth
• Gravel = excellent drainage (rosemary loves this)
• Sun exposure = maximum size potential

Realistic outcome:

• Height: ~3–4 ft (maybe a bit more in a mild winter cycle)
• Width: 4–5 ft, possibly wider than tall

And importantly:

It will likely encroach heavily onto that flagstone path within 1–2 growing seasons.

---

Do you need to move it?

Honestly—yes, and sooner is easier than later.

Right now it’s already:

• Too close to the wall for airflow
• Positioned where its natural shape will spill into the walkway

If you leave it:

• You’ll be forced into constant pruning (which it tolerates, but it ruins the natural form)
• The interior may get woody and sparse on the wall side

---

Better placement guidelines

If you relocate it, give it:

• At least 3 feet from walls
• 4–5 feet of lateral space
• Full sun (what you already have is perfect)
• Same gravelly drainage

---

If you don’t move it

You can manage it, but you’ll need to:

• Lightly shear 2–3 times a year (never cut into old woody stems)
• Keep it off the path early before it hardens outward
• Accept a somewhat flattened, one-sided shrub

---

Bottom line

Your plant is healthy and happy—and that’s exactly why it’s a problem in that spot.

👉 In Santa Fe, think “wide shrub first, tall second.”
👉 Plan for ~4 feet wide minimum, likely more than the space allows.

---

If you want, I can suggest a replacement plant for that exact narrow space (something with similar Southwest character but a tighter footprint).

Okay, wow - that was good information, clearly laid out, and presented in a reasonable way. (I did have it suggest replacements, but didn't like the suggestions.)

The Hose Corner

The system

My hose system at the corner of the kitchen has worked well. I have a straight hose connected to a coiled hose and together they are long enough to reach the field across the driveway, the dining room window garden, and all the way to just behind the deck.

But it's a lot to wrangle.

When I'm being tidy, I loop the straight hose and hang it on the little stand, and then stack the rest of the corkscrew hose on an upright rod next to that.

But mostly I hang the straight hose but leave the coiled one lying on the ground, although I try to tuck it under the rosemary. 

That's a crowded little corner that is the only passage through the yard. The rosemary crowds the walk further despite some pretty aggressive pruning last year.  I really need to do something with this corner to open it up.

Nice when smaller, lovely in bloom

The Arp rosemary was a nice accent when smaller, and I love the plant. I take cuttings for drinks and cooking, I love the brief show of lovely blue flowers, and it anchors that corner.

But. 

It is way too big, even with my pruning last summer. I need to prune it again, and can't while laid up. And constant pruning to keep it in bounds isn't feasible any more.

So . . . I will ask Jeronimo to take it out when he comes in early May to start the irrigation (and make repairs where it's broken by the fence.) 

It's not a job I could do myself and now, unable to do any gardening, I might as well hire out a task or two.

There is an emitter in that spot and I need something at the corner, but what to put there? Maybe just a small perennial or two or even a ground cover.

The chair + a pot  -- uncluttered look

Then stage a watering station right there to better manage my hose system and keep the area open for passage. 

I could move the black plant stand there -- instead of by the kitchen door. 

I'd leave the chair by the door, and put a container next to it with something, like I had at one point with the blueberry in the white pot. 

Something similar, a simple uncluttered look at the door. Or maybe several small pots to echo the collection right across at the garage door.

Around the corner, in the open spot I can set the plant stand, keep the hose hanger, but then use the stand to lay the coiled hose over rather than laying it along the ground. Something like this rough idea:

This is A.I. but the general idea

I don't want a storage box hiding a hose, or a wind up reel contraption or a bowl to coil the hose inside -- I've tried those and they don't work for me. And nothing attached to the wall.

I like the simplicity of the plant stand. A ground cover or low perennial below the stand, or nothing, a watering can staged nearby, add the wire vegetable basket . . . it could look okay and be useful. And it opens up the corner to get by easily.

Or maybe no structure or plants at all, just keep the hoses there at the corner, out of the way and not impeding the walk, but visible. I'd need to move the in-ground holder for the straight hose over to fill the empty area.

Also A.I. and a little stiff looking, but this is simple

Home Depot sells a Melnor coil hose with a U shaped metal pipe to store it on, but it requires something to mount it on (I won't screw anything into the stucco). It's really the same idea as the vertical metal rod I have in the ground.

Or this could be fun -- just lay the coiled hose out in a cute little wagon. I won't do this, but I like the idea!

You can still buy Radio Flyer wagons

Yes, I've decided I am going to have Jeronimo take out the rosemary. I think I like best the idea of the plant stand, a watering can, a ground cover and the hoses.

Record Heat

The scorching March heat that has spread across the west for a week is record breaking, bringing 100 degree plus heat to Arizona - way too hot way too early in the year.

Here it has been pleasant, in the 70s and up into the 80s in the afternoons. Also record breaking for March. Nice, but also too hot far too early. 

The aspens are still leafless, the Virginia creeper vine is still an ugly brown, and sitting outside to enjoy the nice air is unsettling if you look at the garden.

Unlike some of the bare trees, the crabapple is leafing out, well before any flowers. It has bloomed some years and others not very much, but the flowers come out before the leaves, usually in late April. 

This is still March.

Other things in the ground are greening up and it's too early for them.

The extreme heat will break, but who knows if we'll fall back to more normal temperatures in April and May, when historically we've had nights below freezing and cold days at times. Sometimes even snow.

In fact, here are two posts from last year documenting snow and cold in April.

April 5 last year

Mid April last year.

I do wonder what the rest of spring will bring! I can't manage any garden maintenance this year, but I do get the scooter out on the upper patio to sit in the warm sun at times.

No Interference

Salvia greggii

I typed into A.I. my distress over the long weeks I'll spend non weight bearing and unable to even get into the garden much less do anything. 

All my garden plans have been canceled, and while I am coping one long day at a time and this will all be over by the end of summer, I just felt so sad and abandoned and I asked A.I. to say something calming to me about it.

This is what the stupid computer came up with -- as part of a longer and quite soothing conversation about coping.

While you can’t be out there digging or pruning, this is a unique window to observe your garden’s architecture from a distance. 

Gardens aren't just about the work we put into them; they are about the life that happens when we aren't interfering.

I read that again. I think I cried.

Gardens aren't just about the work we put into them; they are about the life that happens when we aren't interfering.

That is what I need to cultivate in my mind every day for the next three months. I am forced not to interfere in any way. The garden will get watered, and I'll get some help to tidy things up later in spring, but otherwise it will grow without me. All season. I can't get the scooter down off the elevated patio to trim the vine (which needs it badly every week) or to deadhead anything.

It will become untidy and some things will fail, the emitters don't reach every plant and this is a tough environment. I'll watch it happen. I won't have a clean look or be able to save the failures. But some things will survive. Some parts will grow. 

The garden will change without me.

Heat in the Morning, A/C in the Afternoon

After an incredibly warm winter, March is even weirder. For a week daytime highs will be in the low 80s!

 

The mornings are still cool, in the 40s, so the heat comes on but by afternoon, with no leaves on the trees for any shade, it gets hot. 

In Phoenix the temperatures are forecast to be well over 100° for several days. It's a heat dome over the southwest and even L.A. will be in the 90s.

Very unusual . .  and record breaking for this time of year.