Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The Northern Planter Restoration

It's true what they say about getting blog attention.  Cats are popular on the google machine.  Well, I'll have to snap some more pics down the road....especially now that they all have their summer haircuts:)  I have some really fun stuff coming up starting tomorrow that goes on until the end of July.  So while you're catching up on our adventures, I'll be working out in the garden and giving you updates as projects are completed.  Here is the first one. Last year we emptied out the planters along the 922 building.  It was a lot of work and honestly, I think it killed any gardening feelings I may have had for the place.  I am slowly making movement forward but it will take time.  However, I did work on the Northern Planters.  Here is the view before.....
We chose Nandina or Heavenly Bamboo as the plant selection here because....
1.  It makes a nice hedge. 
2. There will be very little watering once the plants are established.
3.  We want to keep the front lush and attractive but not inviting for Meth addicts to enter onto our property.  I hate Meth and those who abuse it.  It's personal with me as they have stolen a lot of garden gear over the years from El Presidio.  Today it is all locked up. I have traps set up around the property to deter them. One evening, I was out in the garden at 11 PM during the summer working on plants.  A Meth addict stole a Mercedes Benz and parked the car in my spot.  I had the gate open and watched him try to find a way to flee the courtyard. Once he came into the gated area, I took my shovel with me and closed the gate behind him. I asked him how he was doing and used my phony teacher talk to keep him in place until the police arrived.  He didn't know I had called them while the car was getting parked in our lot.  I held him "captive" with conversation about our beautiful property and units for sale until the police came. The Mercedes was indeed stolen and then returned to the owner and the addict was arrested. Dangerous?  Yes.  But I really hate drugs, and I especially hate them when they cross into our beautiful sanctuary and endanger our residents.  It also sent a message to the nearby drug community.  We're watching. Nandina was chosen as an attractive xeric friendly plant, but not so attractive as to call others to our place.
This Nandina will grow slowly and eventually create a mass green screen.  Compare size to the larger and mature Nandina further down.  I want all of these to clump together.  I've done this with oleander.  You take 3 smaller plants and plant them together.  The oleander fused itself together giving me one plant with pink and white flowers.  The Nandina grows in clumps and I am suspecting that the same will happen here. These plants actually look closer than they really are.   I went for an angle to give the picture a little impact.
Planters are not ideal next to a house so we had to make sure that they were placed below the foundation so that water would not enter any of the units.  They're doing great and actually growing out a bit.  I'll be taking you on more tours coming up.  But I am happy to say that the property is healthy and growing.  As it does, we'll be adding more and more.  We are still working on the fountain issue as funding is tight right now.  However, I'll have more updates at El Presidio as it all happens. More tomorrow.....

22 comments:

  1. Hello,
    Nice shots.
    Nice to see how you're everything to decorate. Now the sun must do the rest to grow up.

    Greetings, Marco

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  2. Już sobie wyobrażam jak to będzie pięknie wyglądać, jak wyrośnie i zakwitnie. Bardzo dobrze i dzielnie się zachowałaś, wzywając policję z powodu skradzionego auta i narkomana. Pozdrawiam.
    Already imagining how it will look beautiful, and will grow and blossom. Very well and bravely kept the calling police because of a stolen car and drug addict. Yours

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  3. You do have a green thumb there, the new planting look wonderful. You are the brave one, glad the druggie was arrested. Maybe it will be one less on the street getting into trouble. Great post, wish you a great day!

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  4. I'm assuming from the sun's location and the shadows here that this is the north side ?

    When I worked for the property management company in San Diego, we had two giant Mobile Home Parks to maintain and develope specific tight landscape for. Seriously there is hardly any room to work with and not many plants to select from will still look good after a constant hacking.

    One plant that did excellent for me on tight narrow locations even on the north side of a home where rarely any sun shone down on things was the Australian Bottlebrush variety called "Little John". Easy plant to maintain and beautiful foliage with almost constant flowering.

    "Little John" >> Bottlebrush

    Just an idea. It fits in with some of the same native requirements with a little mycorrhizal inoculum.

    Kevin


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    1. Excellent recommendation!!! The Bottlebrush is a great plant but needs a little more sun than that spot gets. One of my favorite plants for all the wildlife fun. that's actually going to go into the courtyard area when I'm finished with the fountain area!!! We had a landscape designer come in and it's one of our plants on the the "must have" list.

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    2. Actually this particular one doesn't. In fact the ones I planted NEVER received sun, just the sun's daylight. But you might have a go with how you want to use it.

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  5. wow...looks nice! i like how you did that...a long enclosed hedge.

    (i know all too well about those on drugs... unfortunately...too close to home. my youngest son, court ordered 2X to residential rehab. it's sad really, when the drugs are the most important thing in their life.)

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    1. I'm so sad to hear this. I understand it all too well. Family is family and you wish for the best outcome. We have similiar issues in my own family as well. It's frustrating, sad and you try to help but they either continue or end up in jail. But I always hope for the best. I won't go into that story as it is not mine to share but it's amazing as an educator to see this in many families. I've lost students to this stuff and it crushes me. It's one of my fights as an educator(whenever possible) to talk about staying away from the stuff. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't matter:( I hope the best for your son.

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  6. Very smooth way of busting the druggie.

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  7. wow I love it...to catch a thief! must be your midwest sense of right and wrong...and toughness
    love what you did with the garden section here...truly you have an eye for plants

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    1. I try my best with the plant choices. I have a 75 percent rate here with success. In the desert, it's not so much about the blooms(although they are nice) as it's about having GREEN in the landscape. I just want to make sure it's the green that will do well here and benefit people and critters. So far so good, but I'm slowly running out of space:( As for the meth addicts, vagabonds.....I've got a cactus for them:) I have planted anything thorny and sticky around our fortress here. Knock on internet wood, we haven't had any incidents this year beyond a couple things stolen...but I think some renters of a unit did this. I'm done with understanding and being sensitive to drug addiction. It's bad and I don't want anything to do with it on our property or have it affect our residents from the outside. We have several retired people here and I'm very protective of their wellbeing.

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  8. And nandinas can take the shade and a cooler microclimate...I wonder if any natives can handle that same exposure and such a limited space? Probably very few. Your rationale and the incident you had definitely make the point of what you did quite well.

    Not sure on water needs, though if they can develop deep rooting and have thick mulch on top, I may be wrong?

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    1. For our property, this plant is kind of like a weed. Very little water is need if at all. I have the top a bit loose so that the top soil doesn't harden and form a "crust" on the top. Under the bottom portion I have mixed garden soil with desert soil to help out with the roots. So we shall see. I've placed these plants around the property to tie in the different gardens and unify the look. We had so much of it when I first moved to the property. And it's still there per the homeowners request. So I've had to work around it....and it's not a bad plant for green but there are better choices:)

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  9. be careful, chris. you were brave, but somewhat lucky, too.

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  10. Nandina is tough enough to take abuse and the winter color is gorgeous.

    Is there something that attracts the meth addicts to your neighborhood? We have a similar problem with a residential treatment center here. We're working to get more security there.

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    1. You are soooo correct. This plant has a color tone for each season....one of the few that offers all year round interest.

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  11. What a lot of labor and love you've all invested. Great job - although dangerous - on the car thief situation.

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  12. What a clever (and very brave) way to detain the meth addict. I'm sad you have to contend with that at your place. That being said, your hard work is sure paying off. Everything is looking great!

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  13. Lovely to see how your hard work is paying off in the gardens. You were very brave with the drug addict. Loved your cute cats in the last post :)

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  14. I am also the one that maintains the public gardens around our units. You did a great job there - I had Nandina in my previous garden and it does fill out nicely, and looks pretty year round. You are so BRAVE - but then again I think most teachers are :)

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  15. Hi Chris, Here in rural Cumberland County, there are TONS of meth labs in some of these little run down homes/trailers. It's just so sad to see so many people addicted to that drug (and others).. I've never seen any evidence of it near our community --but it is definitely in the county.

    Glad you set a trap for the guy --and hope more of those 'druggies' are caught...

    You are doing a great job with your garden so far. Good Luck.
    Betsy

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  16. What an experience with the drug addict.
    The planters look good. Progress!

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