I was worried, but now relieved!

Goes to show there's much, much more to know about gardening. I thought moving to the desert means growing cacti and nothing else. Found out that Phoenix is in USDA zone 9-10, not that different from Silicon Valley, just much drier.

When we were here 15 years ago, we had 4 kinds of citrus and two kinds of palms in the yard that were doing just great so I know they are good in this climate. And I had planted a Jamium Nitidum (Angel Wing Jasmine) by my front door that was doing great. It's really fragrant.

There's a great nursery here for RARE and EXOTIC tropical fruits and plants:
        Tropica Mango
They have guavas. I nursed a guava cutting for 2 years on my windowsill in California. It got to be about 2 feet tall. Had to give it to a friend because there was no room in the car to bring it,  but NOW, I can buy a TREE that lives outside!!!!!!

The little house we're renting now has a palm that's making dates. Great!

All I have to do now is to buy a house with room for a garden, and learn how to manage drip systems. Spraying water in 100 degree temperature is wasteful and not effective. Half of it evaporates and only increases the humidity by a bit. With the zillions of pools here, you'd think the overall humidity would increase.

Stay tuned. I hope to buy a house (with a garden) in the next months.

"Movie" of my yard

 

Click image for details about this plant

I gave away all my huge potted roses: Graham Thomas, Evelyn, Peace. Also went was my much beloved daphnes. They were blooming so were in great demand.

I could hardly pry my fingers off the pots of my miniature pomegranate, azaleas, gardenia... Now I am left with those plants that no one wants, but I still love them. Why don't people appreciate Rose of Attar (scented geranium, Pelargonium)?  Don't they know that those are more rare, and are truly collectible, than hybrid tea roses or English roses?

The 'citrus grove' of Nagami kumquat, Bearss lime, Ruby grapefruit and lemon are in the ground so they will stay. The camellias are blooming so they add a little color. The Stephanotis still has not adjusted to being planted in the ground so it hasn't filled in the pillar trellis.  The huge classic roses (Salet, B. de Prevost, Musk) and the lovely Eglantyne are still in their severely pruned state. The rosemary (blooming), tarragon, sage, garlic chives should make the next cook who lives here happy. The yard will look so much better in 3 months.

Even harder to give away is gardening materials and tools. Bags of compost, potting soil, hand tools, soaker hoses, trellises. I had accumulated so much gardening-related things over the years! I had not noticed that I had invested so much in the yard. Even though I had put in so many plants and made so many changes (dug up Nandina hedges and replaced them with roses), there is much, much more that can and should be done to make the garden wonderful.

Why am I destroying 15 years of gardening work? I'm getting it ready to be sold. Boo-hoo-hoo!!!!!! We are selling the house so the yard also must look impersonal, clean, commercial... No more Maria's Garden with pots and pots of flowers being propagated and tropical plants growing wild.

I made a 54-second 'movie' of what the yard looks like now, after $2,500 of removing roots, bushes that were 'in the way,' re-locating paths and decorative stones, and adding tons of mulch and turf. It looks good, but it's not my garden anymore.