Things pop up so quickly around here!
I love traipsing around my garden, getting sandy mud caked on my clogs, and smelling the earthy desert air after it’s rained. Being from the Northwest, I love everything about rain, and just the feeling of having something different on the menu for the weather feels absolutely delicious. Everything looks so green and nourished after it’s rained.
Back Patio
Pictured above is the site of the old moon garden, now just a textured delight of fall colors. Being close to the house, the air conditioning unit, and side brick patio, it is a tricky place to plant anything. North facing and sheltered on the east side, it doesn’t receive a whole lot of morning sun and gets absolutely cooked in the afternoons. Some shade is provided by patio furniture to low level plants.
I’ve kept everything in pots in this garden because a) cacti are pokey, and b) I’m still not sure what to permanently have here in this garden as most things perish after a few months. Annuals in pots are a great choice, and I think that little lemon tree is doing fine. I have coleus, sweet potato vine, and caladium in a big pot, and I stuck some sprigs of wandering dude in there because I have large quantities of that for free and I wanted to see what happens.
The strawberries and sweet allysum I had in the strawberry pot died over the summer so I planted a nice mum in there, and I wanted to experiment with some elephant bush in the smaller openings. Again, elephant bush is abundant for me and does well in my little microclimate so planting anything for free ninety-five is a win.
In fact as I’m writing this I’m noticing all the sweet allysum is currently gone from my garden. Where did it vanish off to? It seemed to spread everywhere not but a week after I planted it. I’m sure some will pop up again soon, and in surprising places!
I’ve planted a star jasmine to wind around the obelisk this year. I’ve not had any luck with star jasmine whatsoever but stubborn me loves to plant it anyway. It all started with admiring a great wall of it at a nearby shopping center, fragrant and teeming with bees. I planted two this year on my patio and I hope they’ll do something.
The other pots are cacti I’ve inherited from a friend who relocated. I love my cacti so much and they bring me a lot of joy. I recently put together a mental list of all the good stuff in life that makes my heart smile and the sight of warm golden late afternoon sun on cactus spines was one of the first things on that list.
The kids’ little gnome garden is doing so well that I’m going to have to trim that malabar spinach down. It tries to wind around the mother in law tongue spears, climb up the house and reach for the glider. The drippage from the hose keeps this little fairy garden pot hydrated.
The hanging baskets are ready to go up. I’m loving the sweet potato vine this year! I paired it with wandering dude cuttings and what I think is astilbe but I suffer from acute gardener’s amnesia the minute things go into the ground so I could be absolutely incorrect.
Note that the blueberry is still alive and survived a desert summer, and my little pots are thriving. Yes, there is still a small bit of chocolate soldier still soldiering on despite being dumped out and knocked over numerous times by the kids!
Side Yard
So my side yard to the west is prime vegetable planting space. It’s a narrow spot between the house and a wall, so sometimes the heat can literally bounce off that wall and wreak havoc on my plants.
The other challenge with this space is pests, including the occasional little fruit mouse and birds, looper caterpillars, hornworms, and the like. Can I just be honest here, though? It’s frustrating when something I planted gets eaten. But I absolutely adore wildlife and bugs. So after the initial “drat” feeling has subsided, I’m happy my garden was the source of someone’s meal, be it man or beast.
Of course I’ve forgotten everything I’ve planted here but can identify the beans.
Well, this wraps up my garden stroll after a rainstorm. The plants are happy, and that makes me happy!
Let's Stay Holmes 