El Presidio Gardens (The Monsoon Report 2012)

Last night was not a good night.  My blog was removed(as were many others) and I think I felt a huge hole in my heart.  2 and half years of research and exploration gone.....just like that. It was a bit unnerving but thankfully I was able to get the blog up again.  Blogger/Google is a difficult beast for help.  It took me hours to get Las Aventuras running. It made me sad to think that I might lose you all.  It made me upset that all of my information and photography would disappear.  And all I can say was that there was a great big empty feeling inside.  My other half felt my pain and thankfully Pat was there to help me out. Several of you may have gone through this yourself.  It's a bit terrifying.  Think about how many thousands of hours you put in your work a year.  It's like a bad habit but used for good:) Okay that's that. So I thought I'd put a spin on our gardens and updates from around El Presidio.  How about an update during a monsoon storm?  We had some beautiful light during this night and the skies were incredible.  The above shot is taken from the parking lot.

The skies were dark and therefore our courtyard lights went on.  Here are our wonderful Oak trees providing a little ambience from around the property.

As we face the front entrance, I notice a light out, lots of clouds, and some much needed rain....but there was more....

As I looked up, I noticed a HUGE rainbow over our homes!  That was a first.

I got up on the second level and took a shot over the courtyard area.  The former pool is adjusting to the rains.  I will continue filling in more dirt for the spots that need it.  It has taken some time for the soil to settle in.  Hopefully soon a fountain will be going into that area.

Here is the front area of the Northern Planters.

And finally the side gardens.  Not all is done here yet but I am liking how it's all coming together.  This area above is called the Fruit Garden and the pic below is from the Fern Garden.   This area is the oldest of my works at 4 years of age.  I am loving the curving nature of bamboo as it's creating a natural green tunnel for folks returning home.  It's not perfect yet and requires me to tie up a lot of random bamboo sticking out, but as it gets older, this arch will get higher.

More updates coming from El Presidio Gardens.....weather permitting:)

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.....