My beautiful Mescal tree

I once went shopping at a Wallgreen and when I got back to my car I noticed this short bush growing with gorgeous fragrant purple flowers and golden tan seed pods. I just had to get me one of those. I've had mine for about 4-5 years now. They're very slow growers, this one is about 6 feet tall. I'm training mine to be a tree, but they don't get very tall, maybe 8-10 feet or so, especially in our hot desert. It is quite drought tolerant and fit for a xeriscape garden.

I went out to my garden this afternoon to check on it and found it had many blooms already. The whole area around it smelled of grape kool-aid. Love the plant, but don't love the one inch caterpillars that invade it later on in the year.
Mountain Laurel
Mescal
Shophora Secundiflora

The time flies

Wow, how time flies! I had no idea it's been 12 days since my last post.

I can truly say I've been working, though. Last year it rained so much in the spring that my backyard was overrun with weeds. I was overwhelmed and did what ostriches are supposed to do, I buried my head in the sand of denial and refused to do anything about it. This year I resolved that I wanted to reclaim my pretty and tidy back yard, tend to my neglected plants, and sit again in my back porch to eat a lunch or sip coffee and watch the wildlife (mostly birds) enjoy my little spot of earth.

It's all done and mentally I feel proud of myself. Physically, every muscle of my body aches. But, it's a good ache, like when you've just worked out at the gym. Sore, but proud of yourself for taking control of your body and your life.

Here are before and after photos of a portion of the backyard =

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.