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My favorite summer bloomers include the leafy green, bushy Yellow Bells. They produce numerous bell like flowers in yellow and orange. The foliage is green and full all summer long.

Another favorite of mine is the Rose Pin Cushion Mammillaria. This cacti has rings of tiny, pink flowers on the top of its multiheaded mound.

Bougainvillea is another good choice for the summer months. It is heat and drought tolerant. These bushy plants are loaded with colorful, paper-thin flowers. However, they are a bit messy. The flowers drop often and collect under the thorny branches. Clean up usually results in numerous arm scratches.

The grayish, green Slipper Plant is a really cool succulent. It grows anywhere from three to four feet tall. It produces red, slipper shaped flowers on the ends of its long, floppy arms. These plants look great alone or in mass plantings.

If all else fails, iron flowers are a very nice alternative. They come in a variety of colors, they bloom all year long, and they are very easy on your water bill!
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Annuals that love our cooler months have been uprooted from their pots and pulled from the ground by July. Anything that is in a pot and not connected to a dripper will need watering at least twice a week. Checking plants for stress, clearing out the dead leaves, cutting back vines, providing extra shade, and monitoring the drip system are some of the chores that need attention. Drip system tubing can become brittle and crack causing precious water to spurt out in every direction. High winds are common during monsoon season, which runs from mid-June to mid-September. The plants tend to dry out much more quickly when the winds kick up. Haboobs, a funny name for dust storms, which are frequent in Arizona during the summer, deposit a layer of sand and dust over the garden and everything else that is out in the open, including furniture. Hosing everything down usually does the trick. Haboobs can be especially dangerous for motorists. They move through quickly but can reduce visibility to near zero.

When temperatures do not cool down much at night, usually during July and August, cacti and some succulents may suffer. It would not be unusual to loose a favorite specimen due to hot temps at night.

Cacti and many succulents that grow in hot, arid conditions have adapted because of a different photosynthetic mechanism called CAM photosynthesis. It is the reverse of regular photosynthesis found in plants that grow in cooler climates. Check out CAM on Google!

Below are some beautiful, lush, summer gardens. The reverse of the desert in summer.

The personalities of the people that lived in the homes were reflected in the gardens. This is what made each property exceptional and very fun to tour, besides the fact that all the houses were older, around the 1930’s, 1940’s vintage and very cool. At one home we visited, a small, open area had a few plastic horses strewn around. Not far away was a pretty, purple plant with half of its purple blooms missing much to the chagrin of my friend the gardener! Definite proof that children lived in this house. Along the front side yard, propped up next to a wire fence behind a flowerbed was an old white door, probably found in the attic or garage. It was an effective and creative way to camouflage the neighbor’s debris on the other side.

Next on our garden tour, we visited the home of an artist. This property had a totally different feel and look then the previous one. The homeowner’s artistic flare was on display here. There was a small patio behind the house that was tucked away in a back corner of the yard that you approached by a series of steps. Mixed in with all the flowering plants, bushes, and trees was an iron bench that had tile pieces inset into it in a mosaic pattern. It was a lovely piece that invited you to sit and take in the beauty of the garden. The garden ambiance had a more chaotic, free form and natural feeling to it. It was okay to experiment to see which plants worked and which didn’t. Colorful pieces of art graced the walls on either side of the front door. It seems natural to me to add pieces of art and sculpture to enhance yard landscapes, it makes them fun and interesting. After all, aren’t gardens living works of art?

The last house we visited had a gorgeous view of the water and Seattle Center, including the Space Needle, which is to Seattle what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. The plants were trimmed carefully, making sure that nothing obstructed the fabulous view. This was a stately, Victorian home with a lush, manicured garden and a pretty spectacular setting.

Thanks, Patti, for a great Seattle garden tour!

Even though the water that flowed so freely was crystal clear, I didn’t want to risk tasting it for fear of getting a really bad case of diarrhea. The water from the tap was delicious to drink. It was better than any bottled water you can buy here.

The native Norway pines definitely contrast with desert trees. Pine trees aren’t found in the Valley, in fact; really tall trees aren’t in abundance here. But, drive 60 miles out of the city to Payson, you’ll find them. Norway pines are most impressive when viewed in massive groupings traveling up the mountainsides. I think the deep, green color is the inspiration for the name “forest green” on the Crayola coloring crayon.

There were some very strange looking trees that we saw in city landscapes of the places we visited. Norwegian gardeners have taken tree pruning to a whole new level. All the main branches of the trees were cut off. What was left were stumps with multiple sprouts growing out of the mutilated branches. It resulted in dwarf trees that not only looked ridiculous but were painful to look at. Here in the Valley, we would be appalled at such practices and would feel compelled to report them to Plant Amnesty. I’m not sure why they do this but I have a couple of theories. One theory is that the smaller trees are easier to maintain. The branches won’t interfere with street traffic, walking and running trails. The other theory is that they will not block anyone’s beautiful views. This unfortunate pruning practice happens here in the Valley, but not nearly on the scale that we saw there.

Local nurseries sell a product called, Water Nannies. It’s a great name for the product whose purpose is to add supplemental water to the soil between regular waterings. Water Nannies are cone shaped ceramic holders that are placed directly into the soil. The top part of the cone accommodates the neck of a wine bottle. Just push the Nanny into the soil so the top of it is just below the top of the container. Fill the wine bottle with water and turn it upside down into the Nanny. Voila! You are free to leave and let the Water (wine) Nannies look after your container plants. Depending on the temperature, the water in the bottles can last a few days to up to a week.

Water Nannies are sold with screw tops to accommodate pop bottles as well. Personally, I think the wine bottles are more attractive than plastic pop bottles. There are new Water Nannies on the market that do not require wine or pop bottles. They resemble vases because they have skinny necks and fat round bodies that come in varying sizes. With these, I put the soil in the pots half way up, add the Water Nanny vases, and fill the pots with the rest of the soil. The necks of the ceramic vases should be just below the top of the planters. All you need to do is fill them with water.

I discovered a new use for the Water Nanny vases. I bought one of the larger ones and placed it on a patio table to plant in a pot at a later date. It looked so nice there that I decided to leave it where it was. It looks great with a few dried flowers in it!
(Pictures below)

I need to check with friends on how to make prickly pear jam. Stay tuned, I will share the information on my blog.

I am a volunteer at the Desert Botanical Gardens. I work at the “Ask a Gardener” booth. It is a very fun job and I have learned a great deal from the many visitors that come to the booth with their desert garden questions. We are provided with lots of great resource materials that we refer to if we don’t have the answers to all the questions. Buried in these resource materials was a little book entitled, “A Field Guide to Desert Holes,” by Pinau Merlin.

Wow, so exciting! I couldn’t wait to get my hands on my own copy. I copied down the information and located the book at the Garden bookstore. It was a fascinating read. I have a whole new respect for my garden holes. There is a world that exists just below the ground surface inhabited by a range of animals from the rattle snake, to the kangaroo rat, to the antelope squirrels. It is really quite amazing.

I went directly to the section that dealt with ground holes. I read the entire section and I think I have found the culprit. It is called a Rock Pocket Mouse. Evidently, there are several species of pocket mice, four of them common in the Sonoran Desert. They are the Rock Pocket Mouse, Desert Pocket Mouse, Arizona Pocket Mouse, and Bailey’s Pocket Mouse. In the book, there is a compelling description of pocket mouse holes: “Pocket mice make mounds of dirt under bushes or vegetation which are pocked with many small holes, producing a “Swiss cheese” effect.” The majority of the holes I have in my yard are exactly like the description. Rock Pocket Mice are found underneath rocks and in rocky habitat. They are inactive during the winter months. The other three pocket mice did not fit my situation as well as this one.

Now, what to do about it? Any suggestions out there? Stay tuned.
(Picture of Rock Pocket Mouse below.)

Rock Pocket Mouse

There were plenty of cacti and a large selection of unusual aloe, many of them in hanging pots. Hanging aloe plants are a fun alternative to traditional hanging pots that are usually planted with annuals. An added advantage is that you can bring them inside for the summer months since they are not heat lovers.

Blackfoot Daisies, one of the plants that always make my lists, were there in abundance. They are one of my absolute favorite small, flowering shrubs. I love them because they are evergreen and produce little white daisies all year long.

The other daisy shrub I love is called the Angelita Daisy. They are evergreen and produce year round bright, colorful, yellow daisies. They tend to grow fast and make great groundcover.

I picked up a Myoporum, another ground cover that is fast growing. I have planted these in the past because they are terrific at covering fairly large areas of ground space. Myoporum is bright green in color and produces small white flowers in the spring.

I do not like to look at empty pots and I had a few sitting around the backyard. They have now been filled with an odd looking aloe, a trailing Gazania, and a very colorful ice plant.

(Pictures Below)

March maintenance is basically weeding, weeding, and more weeding. Some bushes and shrubs need their dead branches and brown, yellow leaves trimmed away. It is getting late in the planting season, however, there is a little time left in the next week or two to plant a few more things. Next weekend is the Desert Botanical Garden plant sale. I can never resist picking up a few, many times more than a few, specimens to squeeze into any empty garden space or container. I will cross my fingers and hope they will survive through the summer.

I have a spreading aloe in my backyard that is producing spectacular purple flowers. The entire aloe bush is covered with them. In the night and early morning hours, the flowers close up and are barely visible. During the daytime, the aloe plant is in full bloom. The purple color stands out in the desert garden because it is an unusual color. We have lots of yellow, pink, red, orange, but not a lot of purple. It is in a perfect location in my backyard, visible from every window in the back of the house.

Below are pictures of my purple aloe, showing the plant in the early morning hours and again during the day. I also included some of my other blooming plants.