The Canopy Connection

Happy New Year!!! As promised, I would get this writing finished before I begin teaching again.  It has been a wonderful time for me as I have been writing, volunteering, reading, and just thinking.  I've set my gardening projects up for the spring, and I can't wait to add more plants.  What will it all look like when finished?  The past week I made the purchase of 10 whiskey barrels that will contain the cactus garden for the property.  I have the cacti ready to plant which include agaves, prickly pear(the purple variety:), totem poles, and the list goes on and on. There is so much more to work on in the gardens in 2011.  However, I won't be posting as much in the following weeks with school starting up again. 

A typical Amazon morning in the forest....the mist reveals the various heights of trees.

Here is my own work below from the Amazon in 2008

Today's write is about the canopy we create above our heads in the garden/s. For many people, myself included, when we moved into our home, there were trees established on our property. Or for some, there was nothing.  I have a lot of space to work with here on the grounds and each space is considered its' own garden.  One of the spaces is named the fern garden because all the plants have fernlike leaves and when the sun hits the leaves, it filters to the ground nicely. Very few ferns can grow in our desert  and unfortuneatly, it's one of the plants that I don't try and grow anymore. I have luck with the asparagus fern and that does really well in Tucson(so some varieties are out there for the fern fan club just not the ones many people like:)  You need moisture in the air and that is something we don't have an abundance of.....so you have to think about things you like about the fern and find plants that have similiar qualities.  You can then  recreate that look about ferns in your own garden space. 

Let's get back to the canopy. A garden is not what we only create below us on the ground but one that we can also create in the sky above.  It's probably the trickiest art form of them all.  The inspiration that I have used in my own work is from the forests both here and abroad.  A homeowner must always use caution when planting trees closer together and near homes for a variety of reasons such as the roots damaging pipes, the foundation and/or the structure itself.  Again, precautions must be taken to prevent trees limbs from falling off and smashing onto the roof or side of the house.  I speak from experience on this latter issue.  Mesquites are fantastic trees but they can also be dangerous during a wind storm.  Branches, sometimes large ones, like to fall off and smash everything in its' path.  The key to this is pruning....not liontailing as I have written about before, but the sometimes necessary removal of a tree limb to prevent harm or damage to structures and/or people.  These are the technical aspects of creating the canopy....now let's look into the art of the canopy.

Once the homeowner has established what's acceptable to place in the space, s/he can begin to design the air space above.  My particular fern garden will allow for light and wind to filter through like a southern garden that has willows.  Standing in the rain forest, looking above, you see birds and monkeys and a million other things living amongst the tree tops.  While this is the desert, it doesn't mean that life doesn't exist....quite the opposite!  We have so many birds here(see my previous post on Christmas in the Canyon).  I had to look at tree shapes and at their maximum mature heights to see how they would all interlock together.  Some trees are tall and narrow while others are rounder and shorter. Then you sketch on a sheet of paper the projected image of how the sky garden will look.  Don't be discouraged if the growth doesn't happen overnight. And you may have setbacks!  Remember my Chinese elm that croaked due to Texas Root Rot?  I researched and found a resistant Texas Ebony to replace the tree.  While slower growing, it will eventually connect with the other trees.  Some trees will shoot high into the sky and be narrow while others will create the "lower-to-the-ground" look and the mid level trees will fill out the center layer of sky space.  When put together, it will be the equivalent of a desert-like amazon rain forest....except all xeric:)  For this particular garden, I used a mesquite, the desert fern tree(lysiloma), the chitalpa, the jacaranda, the eucalyptus tree, the Texas ebony, and finally the Arizona Ash.  That's a lot of tree so figure out who your shorter trees are, then your middle layer trees and finish with your emergents or taller trees.  And like a puzzle, they will all connect in time:)

In the desert, naturally, things are spread out because that's how it works here......however, there are also oasis islands where a person will find these drawings a reality.  Again, observe other places and plan plan plan.  Another garden that I am working on is the tropical fruit garden which is opposite the fern garden.  It will have a different feel but one that will utilize the same ideas with fruit trees that do well here in Tucson like the fig, guava, loquat, etc. This blog is a record of all the things that inspire and create El Presidio Gardens.  A person can't say that just one thing creates a garden because there is so much history, art, observation, technical information......and just knowledge that goes into planning something special like this space.  These pics were pulled from the internet to demonstrate what I am writing about......but you can see in the video from yesterday,  the idea that I am working on from the post called "A Cold End".  Most of the trees have lost their leaves for the winter but you'll definitely see the eucalyptus. I look forward to the new year with the new projects...stay tuned for more in January. There's always something going wherever you may be.  If you're in the North, you're planning and looking through gardening books and if you're in the warmer areas, your protecting plants from frost and beginning your projects before the intense heat.  Wherever you may be....Happy Gardening in 2011!!