Miramonte Neighborhood

Today's post is one for the books.  It is about observations over the past several years around my neighborhood. It's long and I do apologize.   In fact, I've been working on this particular post for around 4 months.  I was only able to now go around the neighborhood and take the photos.  The worst part was that I actually wrote this post yesterday and blogger had a hiccup.  Nothing was saved!  I had wasted an hour of my morning!  The first pic is the iconic symbol of the Miramonte Neighborhood.   It is here that the rare avocado tree grows.

This write links previous posts together and it is really interesting how it all fits together like a puzzle.  Leaving El Presidio gardens, people are exposed to this.  I'll let you form your own opinions about this road and homes.  Visitors have stated that it looks like the 3rd world driving up to our place.  And it's a bit true if not a little insulting.  However I understand their meaning.  Miramonte faces two big obstacles.....poverty and poverty housing.  With it comes the crime(drugs, graffiti, killing).  But not all of the neighborhood is bad and it actually has some really neat features.  It just so happens that El Presidio lies between the two extremes.  Last year I wrote a post on our neighborhood.  Note how many of the front yards lack landscaping.  One homeowner has converted their yard into a junk yard.

But as I leave down this road, I do find a home with a beautiful front yard.  It was actually cloudy allowing for these beautiful flowers to remain open.  Note how they've used the cacti as a fence.  Attractive.  Natural....and well done!

A closer view(and the money shot for this morning) is found below.  The blooms are active with insect life.   At night, they attract our bat populations.

Another important part of this post was to show people how our historic freeze last year has affected many of our plants.   In the pic below, and I'm just focusing on the euphorb, you'll note frost damage on the tips.  It didn't look good at first, but somehow the plant pulled through the freezing temps.

I leave my street and turn left.  I see shopping carts, trash, and colonies of prickly pear cactus.   Yes, it's frustrating.  Sometimes it seems that no one cares about their surroundings.  A special police force monitors our neighborhood.  It's a huge meth area.

Part of the problem is the Salvation Army being on the corner.  Now the Salvation Army is a great organization and during the holidays, there are looooong lines of people waiting outside. I pass them by on my way to work and have lots of deep thoughts to myself.  Sad. Happy that they have a place to go for assistance. Angry that some of them will take take take and then trash the area around the business.  Not all of it is good.  The neighborhood association deals with these things on a daily basis.  

I love the agaves in this pic.  The purple flowering plants you see today are known as the Texas Ranger. The tricky part about desert landscaping around this area is that many of our plants have spikes and points.  Sometimes people forget that trash will gather or get stuck around the bases.  With large groups of people, you have trash and with it some very tricky cleanup.

But as I leave this troubling area, I am rewarded with views.  From left to right.  There is a healthy patch of Buddha's Belly Bamboo, an ancient Euc, several palms and the orange flowered Mexican Bird of Paradise.  When homeowners or newbies come to the desert and ask me what they should plant in their yards, etc., I always tell them that they should wait and observe the lighting for the garden spaces and also take a walk around their neighborhood for plant ideas.  For me, it took a year to do all of this.  And also remember that each neighborhood or property have their own microclimates.

I turn on the road.  You may notice that our streets are not well paved.  This is Tucson and it's quite common to find roads in this condition.  However, it's important to note that this street becomes a river during our monsoon storms creating dangerous conditions.  I don't go anywhere during a heavy storm because I don't want my car to stall.

A wonderful thing happened several years ago.  An eco friendly group of condos would go into a space that had been causing issues for El Presidio.  It was an empty lot.  Drug deals and prostitution happened here until a company came in and built these beautiful buildings.  The landscape is wild and natural.  It also blocks people from hopping our walls.  And it creates a wildlife oasis for birds, etc.   These buildings also collect rain water and reuse it.  Note the solar panels on top of the building.  On the far left is another mammoth Euc which creates the highest point of our tree canopy at El Presidio. 

Look at this Canary palm  It takes forever to grow here and this one is midsize indicating it's an older plant.  Sometimes, cacti grow in the weirdest places.  Check out the Prickly Pear caught up in the "haircut" of the palm.

It's near the Miramonte Park.  Our pride of the neighborhood.  Combined, El Presidio Gardens, the Eco friendly condos and this park have created a wildlife corridor in our neighborhood.  Just don't go here at night.  People joke about finding unsavory things on the grounds in the morning....mostly used if you get my drift.  I don't think it's funny and again it is a frustration for the homeowners bordering this park.  However, it's well kept and a lovely addition to our neighborhood.

Here's another look at "frostbite".  Almost a year and a half later from that historic freeze, plants are still recovering.  I wanted to do some followup on the posts I've written over the 2 year period of time. On the pic below, you'll see the very healthy desert fern tree/shrub growing in the landscape.  The landscaper who is incredible and worked on this property for decades is fantastic.  Everyday I drive past this property and he has made miracles happen on plants that I thought would die.  Several of our mesquite, cacti, and desert fern trees bit the dust.  Take a look at this tree from this past January!  I thought it was a goner!

Today with some artistic pruning and a lot of patience, the tree is back in full shade mode.  I spoke with the landscaper this day and we had a nice conversation.  I'd hire him to manage our gardens!

And then there was the Jacaranda.  Very few places can grow these trees in town.  But since we live in Midtown, they do well.  Last year I told the frantic story about how I almost lost my Jac.  I ran to this homeowner for advice.  He was calm and said, "Just wait and see."  Well we did and our Jacs came back.  It's important to note two things here.  His Jacaranda is located in a thicket of Mesquite and next to a wall.  My Jacaranda is also placed in a similiar area to keep it insolated from freezing temps.  On well established Jacs, there is not much to worry about but for little Jacs in their first or second years, people need to monitor these trees during our winter months.

For sale?  Check out this lovely clean landscaping.  Okay, I do have to admit something here.  I love all the plants, but it needs a small and light tree in the middle.  I'm thinking a Desert Willow just to give it some focal point....besides that "for sale" sign:)

Here's one of the few places that has lawn.  Again by the same landscaper.   These are townhomes and very well kept.

Sometimes I forget to grab my green notebook.  I didn't pay attention to the plant here.  Sometimes I snap a pic and forget to check out the plants.  It's one of my personal issues with blogging that I'm trying to be better at.   This plant(is it Vinca?) grows as a groundcover all year round in the shade.  I enhanced the pic to see the leaves, but I can't tell.  This area is home to many birds as well including several families of the Gamble's Quail.

I love this house, but I don't like how the mesquite trees are blocking the entrance.  It looks cluttered.

Then there are quircky places that pop up around the neighborhood.  The lack of landscaping is obvious and it is a forest of untrained plants.  A little too wild for my tastes.

What's perfection?  This landscaping right here is dead on.  Very little needs watering....if any at all!!!  Beautiful house with great plant choices for their yard.  You have several cacti(Tree Cholla, Prickly Pear, and Barrel), Texas Ranger, a Pine Tree as a focal point, and Bougainvillea(the red leaves although I'm not sure exactly because it's a bit blurry).  By the window, it looks like some variety of Tecoma Stans and a Mexican Bird of Paradise.

Some homes are in bad shape.  Love this place but there is a lot of water damage on the outside.  Plus there are boxes everywhere.  It looks like a hoarder lives here.

And the alley ways.  Tucson is very different from Phoenix.  If you ask me which city is cleaner, I'll tell you Phoenix(depending on the area).  If you ask me which city has the most personality, I'll tell you Tucson.  But the Old Pueblo can be grungy in parts.

Healthy indicators of wildlife are seen by the simple existance of Gamble's Quail.  Here is a family that is doing well in the neighborhood.  I can't explain why I know this.....I just do.  These birds indicate a healthy ecosystem.  El Presidio doesn't have them because of the feral cats roaming the property.   But we are home to many hummers.   Today's walk was exhausting.  Not because of the distance but because of the heat.  It was hot, humid and sticky.  At 9 AM, I had to return home.  The heat was too much.  The desert is no joke this time of year.

As I return home, I see my masterpiece at work.  It's nearly complete and I'm proud of what I've done.  It is a work of love, time and patience.  We still have several major pieces left....the fountain, the side planters, the old wooden beams on the front gate and the parking lot.  An irrigation system will need to be set up and then I will be done with my work.  Sorry about the massive post today but I think the landscapers and homeowners will find this write interesting.  Until next time....