Wednesday Vignette, keep Las Cruces weird?

Both my city of Portland, and Austin, TX, take pride in being a little unusual. You'll see "Keep Portland/Austin Weird" signs, t-shirts and bumper stickers. But this backyard I spotted in Las Cruces, NM, proves every place has it's own little bit of odd...

The planted up sink was the fist thing to catch my eye.

But then I noticed the collection of signs and plagues inside the gate.

Somebody is having a lot of fun...

Weather Diary, June 26: Hi 76, Low 53/ Precip 0

Wednesday Vignettes are hosted by Anna at Flutter & Hum. All material © 2009-2018 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Museum plantings, desert style

Our SW travels took us to two museums with plantings I really appreciated. The first was in Scottsdale, at the Museum of the West: "Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West boldly immerses its guests in the unique story of the Greater Western region, illuminating the past to shape our future" (i.e. lots of cowboy and Indian paintings and artifacts)...

As you may have guessed this was an Andrew desired destination, but how could I complain when he willingly visits gardens and nurseries with me? Besides, there were trunking Yucca...

And a mini-forest of Saguaro...

And my favorite desert tree, the Palo Verde.

From the landscape architect's website: "Reminiscent of desert pavement and arranged by hand, slabs of Arizona Brown Schist are layered within garden spaces to provide a rich backdrop of texture, but also preserve moisture in the soil."

The patterns in the pavement are "sandblasted tooled patterns, evocative of western embroidery and leather designs"...

They also appear in the metal walkways over bioswales...

Andrew overheard a docent explaining rust from the metal siding of the building (visible in a few of the photos above) will be allowed run into these patterns (via rainfall I assume? However Scottsdale only averages 9" a year) and with time add another dimension of color, the way a leather saddle changes with time and wear. I like that idea, but couldn't find anything online to support it.

The same docent also explained the rough cement texture on these walls represent the ribs of a Saguaro.

Again I couldn't find anything online to support that, but I can definitely see it, can't you?

This image did make me smile. If the wall is meant to evoke a Saguaro, what's ivy doing growing on it?

It is pretty though.

I'm unable to identify the blue leaved Yucca (or Dasylirion?), but isn't wonderful?

Ditto for this curly fellow.

Andrew enjoyed the inside of the museum, so all in all this was a successful stop!

The closing event for the family reunion, in Las Cruces, was dinner at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. Again I wasn't expecting interesting plantings but there they were, and the moon too...

The photos are poor, because I was too lazy to pull out my camera. But hey, there are Agave blooms!

And Dasylirion blooms.

No Opuntia blooms, but lots of unripend fruit.

Looking at these images I'm taken back to one of the first museums I visited in Phoenix, their art museum (a few photos here). I was as impressed with the plants as I was the artwork. You can take the girl out of the garden but not the garden out of the girl. Or something like that...

Weather Diary, June 25: Hi 72, Low 58/ Precip .02"

All material © 2009-2018 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Back from a week in the desert...and it's still only June!

Maybe it's because the Garden Bloggers Fling was so early this year — taking place the first week of May, rather than the more typical late June.

Maybe it's because spring in Portland felt more like summer — with record setting dry and heat. We've had only 1.27″ of rain since the middle of April, proving it doesn't really "rain all the time" in Portland.

Or maybe it's because I've been traveling a lot this year.

Whatever the reason I can't believe we still have a whole week left in June! Summer feels like it's been underway for weeks and weeks, rather than just days. Color me very happy about that...

the back garden. photo taken before we left town for a week

 
We spent the last week traveling through the Southwest, flying into Phoenix and spending a few days there with my brother and his family. Then driving on to Tucson, and eventually to Las Cruces, NM — for a reunion of Andrew's mother's people — before flying out of El Paso, TX, yesterday afternoon. The fact I was in Texas for the second time this year got me to thinking about just how many Western states I've visited in the first six months of 2018. I made this artistic rendering for your viewing pleasure...

I know, try not to be too impressed with my skills

 
Starting with Washington state — I've spent time in both Seattle and Spokane. I went over to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho for dinner with my parents (while in Spokane), so what the heck I'm counting Idaho too. Of course I've been all over the Portland metro area in my daily travels, but we also went down to Corvallis, OR, for a night, when I spoke to the Evening Garden Club. A Pacific Horticulture board meeting had me flying into Sacramento, CA, and then spending time in Davis, CA. The Garden Bloggers Fling took me to Austin, TX, for a fun week. Then, as I mentioned, we were just in Phoenix and Tucson, AZ, Las Cruces, NM, and then El Paso, TX. Of course the first trip of the year was to Paris, France, in January, but that didn't fit neatly into one image so you'll just have to picture France — off to the far right.

our casita in Tucson, at The Lodge on the Desert

 
I posted several of photos from our week-long SW travels on Instagram, but took many more with my camera, so there will be numerous posts to come. Not that I've yet finished talking about Davis, CA, or Austin, TX. Guess what...I'm staying home for the entire month of July...

Weather Diary, June 23: Hi 91, Low 57/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2018 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Bromeliad planters, Version 2.0

About this same time last year I shared photos of changes I'd made in the shady corner, specifically the planting up of two tall metal tubes...

As with everything in this corner I loved them. There was one small problem though. As summer went on the plastic nursery pots I'd stacked inside the tube (in order to not fill the tube with soil) compressed. I looked at the plantings one day and noticed they'd both sunk a little, one a good seven inches or so. Getting them out and back up to level with the top of the tube was not easy.

That fact, plus the sad state of the plantings come spring (ya, I'm embarrassed to show how badly I neglected them, especially the ferns) had me looking for other ideas...

(that's not dead moss, it was once a fern)

Remember the dish — aka trash can lid — I planted the Sarracenia in (shown in this post)?

Well I found two others for the Bromeliads.

I also vowed to plant them up with only things that lived through last winter's growing conditions (no more dead ferns!), so that included Rhipsalis...

The finished project, 2018-style...

I'm all sorts of in love with them.

In addition to an assortment of Bromeliads I also worked in bits from my Fascicularia pitcairnifolia (the tall thin leaves).

The poor plant had been rather root-bound for years, but kept on keeping on like a trooper, until I managed to do something about its sad state this spring. After pulling it out of the pot I hacked it into smaller pieces, which I shared with a couple of friends, then planted bits in the Bromeliad dishes and then put the largest chunk back in the pot with new soil...

I think those bits, along with a few Tillandsia, make for an interesting planting.

I picked up this toothy Bromeliad at May's Rare Plant Research open house.

Not knowing it was fixing to bloom so soon. This started pushing out a few days after I planted up the dishes and took most of these photos. Oh well. I've been assured that Aechmea keep on living for quite awhile after blooming. Hopefully it will have produced a pup, or two, by the time it dries up.

As you know I am a lover of sunny desert gardens, but I swear this shady corner really is stealing my heart.

Other plants in the mix include a variegated Aspidistra elatior 'Variegata' and a Brunnera macrophylla 'Hadspen Cream' (behind the fern-filled stock-tank). The metal disc leaning up against the garage wall was gifted to me by Alison, while I figure out what it's ultimate use will be it's hiding the plug-in I use to heat the Shade Pavilion Greenhouse on super cold nights.

That's the latest in the shady corner...

Weather Diary, June 21: Hi 71, Low 62/ Precip trace

All material © 2009-2018 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Planted perfectly

This is the view from our front door. That Verbascum appeared as a little seedling in July of 2015. How do I remember that? Because I was getting the garden ready for a large tour coming through in August and almost pulled it, thinking it was a weed. I paused just long enough to decide it looked familiar and left it be.

I'm so glad I did! It's taken its sweet time (3 years) but is finally about to burst into bloom.

Didn't Mother Nature do a great job of selecting the location? I would have never planted it right there, so close to the sidewalk, but I think it's perfect.

Weather Diary, June 20: Hi 95, Low 45/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2018 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.