The DeVINE Design!

Hello blogger friends and anonymous desert gardeners,

Pictures taken from last summer at El Presidio.  Note that my older cameras were used. 

For my blogger friends, this post is an informational one and you may just glance or skim, but I promised myself that I would do some writing about the garden.  For you(anonymous desert gardener) who googled my website and found this place, welcome!  You'll absorb it all in and then leave in the night:) That's okay.  I've done the same thing.  I hope your garden endevours for this spring are exciting.  March has arrived and there is so much to get ready for!!! While it may be a little early yet to put things into the ground, garden centers all over town are gearing up for the big days ahead.   This month you'll find several interesting writes about xeriscape gardening and how to do it.  I'll be featuring several "top" places that had some fun with their landscaping and demonstrate to you that Tucson can be a wonderful place to landscape and garden. 

Solar lights hang from the top of the trellis and are mixed in with the Cats Claw

Today it's all about using vines in our designs.  Sometimes we want to drape a wall or building.  Sometimes we want to frame an entry. Or other times we'd like vines to just ramble around the ground and go wherever they please.  I used the Creeping Fig in such a manner and it's doing a good job on "creeping" up my palm tree and around the ground.  Vines add vertical dimension to the garden and pull the eye upwards and around your green space.   They also have the affect of softening the rough edges and make things like fences or brick walls fade into the background.

Here is our ramada at El Presidio.  We still need to add color to this structure, but there are solar lights above and A LOT of cats claw around the this area.  We placed Confederate Jasmine to climb up the sides and it is slowly doing so. 

Brighten an entry. Train woody vines like Bougainvillea, Wisteria, Trumpet Vine, or Lady Rosebanks to frame entryways or balconies.  The beautiful flowers will dress up an ordinary house.  I personally love the color of the bougainvillea bracts next to our stucco.  Gorgeous. You will need to fasten them and keep them in place with wires, eye screws, plastic ties etc to hold up the main branches.  

I use a free standing trellis to frame our small patio space.  In hot burning temps, this bougainvillea thrives and flowers.

Screens and boundaries.  For fast and quick ways to hide a fence or divide a space, use Cats Claw(considered a weed here).  The leaves stay on this vine all year round making it a popular vine to grow here in Tucson. BUT be careful as this vine can pull off paint or stucco from the building.  Other vines with fast growth are the popular Morning Glory and Passion Vine. They'll create an attractive windbreak or privacy screen in NO TIME!  It's just that in winter these guys go dormant.  I personally like something all year round.

                          Morning Glory at El Presidio.  A great vine that spreads FAST!!  Careful where you place it.

There are generally 3 ways homeowners like to use vines.  The first is by using a lightweight wooden or metal trellis(clematis, bougainvillea, etc) for plants to crawl up.  The second is by using a freestanding trellis, ramada, gazebo or arbor.  No matter what your use, vines inspire and let the eyes wander upwards. During this spring, think about ways you could use a vine or two around your place.  Last year during my garden journal series, I reported on several vines that many Tucsonans, including myself, use around our gardens. Click here to begin your fun from that series.  More tomorrow....

Bougainvillea

Hot. Sexy. This next "vine" is a woody menace.  It's not a climber or a twiner....but it sure makes a nice barrier of thorns.  Of course, what would a Tucson garden be without bougainvillea?  By now, you should have trimmed this plant back, but if you didn't, don't stress.  This plant is utilized quite a bit in Tucson and around the desert southwest.  In Phoenix, it stays mostly green(though not this year with our extreme freezes) and lush(not jealous) while in Tucson, this plant does die back to the ground during winter.....but it always comes back with a vengeance:)  I love this plant and don't mind getting stuck with all the thorns and nasty branches because it adds so much flare to the garden that it deserves the right to be so nasty in nature.  It's a VERY drought tolerant plant.  Once this plant is established, I never water it.  It's very good for the water bill.  Plus there are two other reasons you should consider this "vine"(although for me it's more like a huge bush!).  1.  Security.  Put it in a place where you don't want people going like a window or side yard.  This plant WILL keep out transient beings.  2.  Place this plant on a trellis or patio overhang.  Remember a while back I wrote about wisteria and how it isn't a good plant for Tucson?  Instead of wisteria, think about using bougainvillea in this manner.  It needs pruning and training so always wear gloves. There is a post I wrote this past summer on "Shaping".  I use plastic clips and metal wiring to shape our bougainvillea on the property.  It's always a battle on my body, but the homeowners absolutely love this plant so I'll make them happy.  The hot pink/red/purple/salmon leaves all summer long makes people smile.  This plant is also the kind of "na na na boo boo" plant to all other gardeners in cold areas.  Gardeners like to show off here and say to their friends and family back home, "Look what we can grow here!":) Simply put, this plant has the power to transport you to a Mexican Riviera or tropical paradise with a drink in your hand. Okay....but here's the secret for your own beautiful bougainvillea.....

While this bougainvillea does fine in this spot, it needs constant attention and help staying in place.  It also doesn't get all the sun it needs; so it makes a nice evergreen bush with some color here and there.

Many gardeners HATE our western exposure here.  It's hellishly hot and only established cacti and other hot worthy plants can grow in these places.  The bougainvillea is one of these plants.  The more sun; the more color you'll get.  This plant wants the direct sun; needs the direct sun.  Plant this in the shade and it will be only a shadow of what it can do for your property.  Direct sun with 8+ hours of sun will make this plant EXTREMELY happy.  I have several areas where I utilize our bougainvillea.  This monster plant has risen to extreme heights to the 2nd levels of our buildings and frames the entrance ways. See above pic.  I have attached wall grips to keep the bougainvillea upright and in place. On our hot western parking lot, I have placed the less thorny and more upright bushy Bangkok Red Bougainvillea(or the Torch Bougainvillea).  This plant has a hot hot pink color to it and literally looks like an upright torch with the pink flowers adding the flames on top of the plant.  The only setback with this variety is that it is more frost sensitive, but it will grow back:)  Both plants can get VERY large so make sure you have enough room for them.



Bougainvillea Torch Glow can grow to be a 8-10 foot looking bush.  This plant is not "viny" in any way.(I've even seen it grow larger near a Tucson business off of Broadway!!)



One last thing before you go crazy with this fast growing vine/bush.  When put into the ground for the first time, it can be slow growing, but once established, it grows quickly back after winter is over.  Let me describe the "flowers" of this plant.  The hot pink/red/purple/salmon "flowers" are actually not flowers but bracts.  The actual flower is a tiny little group of white blossoms surrounded by the bracts. There you have it.....a great plant for Tucson!  Just wear gloves!!