Be careful what you wish for

I have always wanted a brand new house with a big back yard. When I was in the market for a new house about three years ago, most of the subdivision track houses had very small yards. Then I found this house with lot dimensions of 73X103. The backyard is approx 50X73 feet. I was overjoyed and planned the back yard for months while the house was being built.

The plans included a "Japanese Garden" on the east side with a path and dry creek bed and even a wooden bridge. I planned on graph paper and slowly started planting the plants. Then I found out that the small bridge would cost more than $500. Later on I realized the work involved in watering all those plants in dry Arizona. I water them with buckets since I don't trust drip irrigation, having lost many plants to the system in the front yard. Now I have a total of 120 plants in the backyard alone, not including the Oasis, a planted strip on the north side of the house that gets shade year round and where shade loving delicate plants thrive. My backyard is a veritable botanical garden now with lots of species. I suppose I could kill most of them and reduce my watering chores, but that would be like murder. Sigh!

So, now I dream of having a small house with a tiny backyard with only the plants I truly love from the above experience. One of them would certainly be the Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina Domestica) which is always green, gets reddish leaves, and twice or so a year puts out beautiful red berries. Another favorite would be the yellow flowered Feathery Cassia (Senna Artemisiodes) which is a trooper and takes abuse from the Arizona heat. There's lots of other plants I love, but those two would get honorary spots in even the smallest yard.

Here are photos taken of the bare back yard and two years ago after the planters were built and before the big time planting began. I need to get an updated photo.