Termites and bees

Gulf Fritallary. Food: Passion Vine
Giant Swallowtail Food:Citrus Trees

Southern AZ Hummingbirds
Smoke Bush Red Baron Peach Tree Brown Turkey Fig/Afghan Pine that started from a tiny Christmas Tree Buddha's Belly Bamboo Chitalpa and Jacaranda Tropical Oasis Tropical Oasis
Bees in the wall.
This week started off hot and warm. We hit our first 100 degrees which means we need to be watering our plants every several days compared to the once a week schedule. I planted several things....Mexican bird of paradise and a creeping fig. I have more plants to add but I am taking my time. It's brutally hot out there and mornings or early evenings are the only time to be working on digging holes.....everything seems to be growing and doing well. The shocker this week was the discovery of termites and bees. I have a video showing the bees making one of the units home between the walls....that is very scary. Hopefully we'll have a bee company out that will be able to take care of the situation. The termites were found in the adjacent building to mine. I actually found them in the wood and collected several in a zip lock bag. The company will have to come out and spray the window ledge. We have a lot of rotten wood around our property but no movement to replace that old wood so I fear that more and more, the wood is going to continue to be eaten and be a danger for residents. Other than that, there wasn't much going on. I have noticed the mosquitos....they are back.
Hummingbirds are all over the place nesting....several pics have been included as to what kinds of birds we see around here. Tucson really is a neat place....and I know that I'm creating a haven for our wildlife. Here are some pics from some of the critters that live around here....I don't have the lizards, but here are the hummers and butterflies. Happy Gardening!!!

Final Spring Clean Up

Greetings, Today I finished up the leaves and pollen clean up with several of the other home owners. It is a great feeling to be done with that major stuff and work on the other things. I did some shopping today and am looking forward to putting some more plants into the ground and working on putting in new bamboo groves, fruit trees and of course the vines.....I like to obsess about where I will put them....so I have two snail vines sitting there waiting for me to plant them.....and I am not sure where to begin as there is a lot of fence and trellis to be covered all over.....so I'll look at it tomorrow and make a decision. I also have to jubilee bushes with yellow flowers to replace the juniper bushes. They weren't getting enough sun and look terrible....one was dead.....so I am putting something in their spots that I know will grow. I always like when a plan comes together. So right now...things are looking well around the property. We did more trimming today and we are ready for summer:) Bring on the heat!!! The pool is looking better and better every day.

Beautiful Sunny and Hot Day

Greetings, It has been a couple weeks since my last blog. Things have been busy with school coming to an end. I have one more week before summer starts!!! The summer is fast approaching and things are starting to explode all around the garden.....I will be taking A LOT of pics as everything gets taller. The garden is just that....at the beginning of its' journey. Therefore, things are still being moved around until I see a happy plant. Today I moved the lilacs to pots as they seem happier there. So what's been going on? Since the last post, caladiums and elephant ears have all surfaced from the ground and it will be quite a show. The jacaranda tree has purple flowers!!! It took two years for it to happen, but it happened:) The chitalpa tree has nice pink flowers and the castor plants are meeting various success in different areas of the garden. Overall, I am currently VERY happy with the progress around the property. A lot of good things are happening and it's exciting to watch. On the negative side, I am still battling palm seedlings by the hundreds...they seem to keep popping up daily. The last of the oak leaves and pollen will be cleaned up next week. And I pulled up the dead persimmons tree from the ground. The roots were all twisted and matted. It was replaced with another persimmons tree but this one was NOT bare root. Weeds seem to be drying out. Plums have been struggling a bit, but they are green and growing so I will not touch them unless I see a major die back. Overall, it is encouraging to see that things are beginning to pay off.....stay tuned for more garden posts. Chris

Palm Seedlings

Palm Seedlings=Nightmare

Today was a full day of outdoor work. The pollen has about finished from the trees. My poor cats, 2 of them, suffered allergies really bad. I bought some wipes and have been cleaning eyes for a week. Things are getting better for them and we are not sneezing as much anymore.....however....

Now that it has all stopped, clean up must begin. While watering the rose garden under the palm, I noticed hundreds of little grass shoots coming up. Knowing it wasn't grass, I groaned. Palm seedlings had begun sprouting and those little buggers were like weeds!!! I pulled and dug and pulled and dug all morning. It was not fun. I tried to see the positive in it, but it didn't work. Note to self for next year....DO NOT let the seeds sit on the ground!!! I'm sure there are still more but I think I got the majority.

Meanwhile two evil things wait for me.....1. The weeds. This spring has had a lot of rain and therefore the weeds have become large plants. I have been weeding for about 3 weeks. Today I used spray and hopefully it takes care of it all. My plan for this upcoming week is to work a section a night cleaning up the damn things. 2. Leaves and pollen. It's not silver or gold like in that Rudolph special. It sucks. People say..."What a lovely mulch!" I say what a pain in the ass to clean up. There are about 10-11 bags worth on the ground. Remember when I wrote that the oak trees looked like they were dying? Well, now they are super green and lush....what a difference 3 weeks make!! However, things are still dusted with pollen and more pollen...it's nasty. So that awaits me next weekend.

I also purchased several catsclaw vines to cover a wooden trellis at the front gate....so I dug and dug more today. Those will look nice once they reach the top of the trellis. I also purchased plumago and sweet potato vines. I planted the potato vines but not the plumago. Too tired. I sprayed, planted, fertilized the bamboo and rose garden, trimmed, watered, and cleaned the courtyard.

Several people asked for requests and I'll do my best to help. One I definitely can do, but the other holds a challenge. I have the North and Eastern sides to contemplate. It is difficult because old growth is there and it isn't attractive but because it's old, it offers shade and green.....which for the desert is wonderful. The owners on that side all want something different or no changes at all....which puts me in a spot....what do I do? For now, I'm focusing on the sides and the courtyard until it is all done......then.....I will tackle the monster that lies ahead. I'll need to sit down with the homeowners next year and get their input. I know 5 homeowners have their take on things.....plus, the planters. I don't want to put anything in those things....but they look absolutely stupid without anything in them....so again, I'll need to sit with the homeowners and talk. Well...that's all for this week. I have more rose pics....this week it was the week of the reds....I'll post soon. Promise. Until next week....

Allergies

Hello all.....
Today I am sneezing and feeling the affects of the pollen drop around the property. It started several days ago and what a mess! I clean it up and more drops. Our pool is nasty and full of green stuff. The day temps have been in the 80's with lows in the 50's. This has caused other things to start shooting up in the ground. I see hope for elephant ears....finally. The tops are starting to pop out of the ground. Everything looks good. Even the castor beans are popping up with the cannas....I hope I spaced them all correctly.....it will be some compact gardening. Other things are growing like the ivy up the trellis around seating area. Roses are blooming....I keep cutting the blooms and hoping more will come:) There are some pics above showing some of the colors present in the C.C. rose garden. I look forward to the solar lights and pot times....I am closer but have rock, planter, pot purchases, bark mulch, etc yet to deal with.....but today I couldn't help dreaming of the reds and pinks and purples and blues that will hang off of the trees at night.....it will really be something beautiful.

Plant Update

Pic courtesy of diglloyd

The Fuyu Persimmons Tree

This weekend I was out of town and very anxious because I wasn't working in the garden. It's weird how I feel this way but I am afraid that if I leave the place, everything will go to hell. However all is well and everything is alive...or is it?? This winter I planted A LOT of plants. Some are doing well while others seem to be struggling. I have major issues with the juniper trees. They don't seem to work for me...partly because I don't think they get enough sun. I've been re-evaluating it and considering something more productive for the property corners. Perhaps several orange trees?

Roses are starting to put out blooms and they look wonderful. I did spot several aphids and clean them off. However someone is picking the flower petals off and just leaving the stem. I was a bit pissed....I don't know why as the rose buses are for everyone....but that's just it...they are for EVERYONE!! They need to be clipped, etc, but still.....people shouldn't be picking them yet. I'll take some pictures tomorrow and post soon. They are quite beautiful.

The Red Baron Peach tree is doing alright and seems to look normal, but it hasn't leafed out too much. The lilac bushes haven't done much. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I'll hold out for them a bit more to see if they will grow.

The castor beans. Several have sprouted while others have not...I am waiting for more to come up....so I am crossing my fingers. The elephant ear bulbs or caladiums STILL have not popped their little heads.....and speaking of no budding, my persimmons tree has popped a single bud. The plums, nectarines, apricots, peaches, apple, and fig have all started leafing out, but not the persimmons. Temps have been in the 70's and mid 80's with lows in the upper 40's to lower 50's.

My ash tree looks amazing and the verbena are so vibrant and purple....it just sprawls and looks amazing. An oleander bush almost fell over so I put a stake up to keep it in place. The bamboo has yellow on the leaves but that is normal for this time of year....soon this stuff is going to start shooting up.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more......

"Spring"ing to Life

The Castor Plant.


Well, one week since posts and I am liking everything that is going on around the property. The live oaks have shed A LOT of leaves....I have mounds all over and I just keep blowing them into piles....and more piles. It truly does make a good mulch...it's just not an attractive mulch. Soon the pollen will drop from these two huge trees.....you can see on the branches and buds are swelling and about to burst.....it's going to be a HUGE mess! Usually it will work this way....one day nothing; the next a carpet of pollen all over the patio grounds. While it looks like a disaster struck, it can be quite pretty.

Also this week, I checked my elephant ear bulbs in the ground because several weeks ago, I found one rotten. It frightened me and I ran to their beds to check and see if the bulbs were still solid....and thankfully, several hundreds of dollars of Colocasia Esculenta were saved and more are still arriving. I ordered from Brent and Becky's bulbs. It was my first time ever ordering from a catalogue this year. I also purchased several seeds from Hint's Farms and I wasn't disappointed.

Today was an affirmation that what I am doing will be amazing for all. The smell alone of the plants carried this fragrance all around the grounds. Currently, the citrus trees are giving off the scents and it's a wonderful smell! The smells along with the blooms and the birds/hummers flying around the property are making me truly excited for what is going to be quite a show. The nectarines, plums, peach, apple, fig, and citrus trees are all beginning to bloom and leaf out. However, I see nothing on the persimmons tree, but I am assured that things will begin soon on this tree. The branches are bendy so that is a good sign. Another smell on the grounds is from the purple verbena plant. They look great and smell fantastic. During winter, they can look kind of weedy and ugly, but the minute the heat and sun come back, these things really clean up nice and make a beautiful addition to the garden.....and the smell!! Roses currently have buds on them and ready to open in about a week. I am sure many people are going to enjoy the color parade of these plants. Finally on growth....the Hosta plant and Hydrangea. People told me it was impossible to grow and yet.....they are growing wonderfully. They are both in total shade...new leaves every day and both are quite full. I look forward to monitoring their success because if they work, that will open up a whole new sector of plantings as we have extreme shade areas that can be easily watered. I'll keep you updated.

As for sprouting. The first castor bean that I planted has popped out of the ground as do I see the Pride of Maeira shooting up. It was planted in FULL sunlight and so I'll see if these can take our full sun load during our extremely hot months here of 110-115 degrees! If not, I have planted several where the morning sun will only touch them. Above, I put a picture of what the castor bean plant looks like when full grown. While it's a weed in most places, here it makes a catchy tropical view in the garden. There are several varieties and I have planted only 2. Rincus Comunis and the Zhanzibar variety which can grow up to 15 feet tall. It is my hope to harvest the seeds to plant for the next year. It is a poisonous plant(mostly in the seed)....of course, a lot of plants are, but what's unique about this plant is the way it can "shoot" it's seeds to spread out. I saw this plant for the first time down in the Lake Chapala area specifically in the retirement community of Ajijic. There was a forest of them and during the hot spell of the day, the plants made an exploding sound shooting their seeds all over the place. I thought they were rats running around because I had seen many of them. Being a little bit on the bad side, I brought several of them back with me to the US and planted them in the ground and it was quite fun to watch them pop up and work their magic. This may sound cheesy, but I wanted to create an active garden for people....of sort of Pandora(from Avatar) that comes alive and invigorates the senses. It's a garden for smell, birds and butterflies, people and their gardening needs, for inspiration and color, and most of all an escape from our busy lives.

That's all for this week. My new and exciting bulbs will hopefully be coming this week....one of them is the Borneo Elephant Ear. It will grow to 15 feet tall with leaves 4-5 feet wide. These will be placed around our smaller pool and under our live oaks....it should be quite a sight! The datura is doing well and appears to be growing so I will update on that as well. Until next week.....

Semi-Dwarf Citrus Trees

Bearrs Lime

Lisbon Lemons

Today was a major disappointment. It was a work day for all HOA people, but it just seems that no one cares about anything around here. The President was out and did some stuff around the windows, but as for everyone else, they had plans. I really do have plans myself but I took today off to help where needed...plus I had little projects planned around the property. But....on the bright side, I am left alone to help restore the Presidio gardens back to her original design. I have to admit that there is progress now and the property is SLOWLY making its' way back to her former self. When I moved onto the property 3 years ago, there were dead trees, tree stumps, weedy out of control succulent plants filling poorly used spaces and trees/palms that needed trimming badly. With all of those things out the way, it has allowed me to move forward with the hardscape portion of this project.

Tucson. Spring. Projects. Do it now or die in the summer when it's hot. I HATE working outside in the blistering afternoon sun. I love the mornings and evenings but summer really isn't the time to work on projects...it's about enjoying the labors of your work during spring. I have the remaining part of March and all of April to get my stuff ready and that's it. May can be nice, but by June, we have extreme hot and dry weather and in July we have mosquitos and hot and humid weather...this will then last until mid September when things "start" to cool down a bit. It's amazing to me how plants can survive the brutal sun....but there are tricks to desert gardening.

Zero. Observe observe observe the light intensity for the first year in all parts of your home/property.

One. Create native or near native tree canopies.

Two. Plant appropriate species in the right spot for maximum absorbtion of the sun.

Three. Maintain water lines so that you won't die in the heat watering plants and you'll actually minimize water usage.

Once this is completed, you may then get your veggie garden going, plant your tropicals, and if possible....a shade garden!! Of course it is possible, but planning is everything.

So today, back again to the "workday", I put in two semi dwarf citrus trees. A Lisbon lemon and a Bearrs lime to be exact. These two trees were put in for the ladies that live in that part of the property because they enjoy lemons very much. The lime, I added, because I thought it made a good companion to the lemon tree. Lemons and limes. I feel bad because one of the ladies purchased a lemon tree for me to plant by the window, but unfortuneatly it does not get enough sun to produce lemons so hopefully this will make up for her purchase. Why did I suggest a lemon tree for that area then? In the stairway well by my place, I planted an orange tree(that I started from seed 10 years ago in WI!!) and it's doing very well so my thinking was that the lemon tree she purchased would also do well....wrong on my part. But they will get a great crop of citrus this year and into the future....I can't wait to see how the trees perform. They are really quite beautiful.

On juniper plantings. I am not having much success with both Junipers planted. I don't think they are getting enough sunlight.....but the areas do receive about 7-8 hours!!?? I think junipers like to be left alone and forgotten about and unfortuneatly, they are in areas that need a bit more water.

Budding. The Satsuma plum is doing well and growing, but my Santa Rosa plum is just showing a tiny little bud on the bottom....I'm not sure what this means, but I have been advised that the Santa Rosa plum buds at a later time than other plum trees. The branches are also very brittle....and I have to admit that I snapped a couple branches off. However, the trunk area is green and I am hoping that it will take off soon.

The old live oaks are shedding like crazy still, but the buds are getting larger and that means pollen season is here....lots of allergies for everyone:) I called my Grandma today and we chatted about a lot of things relating to a mislabeled plum tree in her yard. As a kid growing up in Wisconsin(aka the Shire), I ate a lot of those plums off of her tree. They were so good and I remember the skin being very tart, but they were so sweet and juicy inside. She is my inspiration for those plum trees.

The chitalpa trees are also beginning to bud and this is very exciting.

Future projects will include the living walls sections covering up old fences and walls, the artsy pot collections for those who love color and artsy design, more citrus planting of kumquat, blood oranges, jacarandas, etc, and finally bushes to fill in dead space. The one overwhelming piece for me are the planters along side the buildings....I don't know what to do with them. Well I do, but I don't want to do it because of water damage. Planters alongside a house are a bad idea....so legally, I don't want to touch them. I don't think anything like a tree or water line should be put against a stucco wall. We had major water issues from those stupid planters and we had wood rot really bad along with drywall damage. We took them out and now life is good again.....it was quite a stress. But other residents still have those planters and I can only imagine the damage happening to those lower units.

Well that's all for now. I'll write again soon:)

Following Up

After climbing onto the roof today, I found that there are indeed new buds on the tree. So in several days, pollen drops are going to happen and boy will there be a lot of it!!! So I can relax a bit with the trees and just trust in Mother Nature.

A pic I took in southern France near Avignon

The plum trees have dried branches and snap off but yet there is growth on the bottom of the tree working towards the top. The fig is now budding as is the tree of heaven and nectarine.

Live Oak Leaf Drop

Yesterday and today mark a massive leaf drop on the oak trees. This is normal during this time of year and like clock work, the pool filters are clogged with leaf litter and the courtyard is full of leaves. I don't know why I obsess about it, but I always think the trees are going to die even though they've been doing this for years. This tree decides to drop all of its' leaves in Spring and then within 2 weeks, there will be a huge pollen drop of yellow/green all over the grounds. It just happened later this year and my thinking is that it is due to the mild winter we've had. Only recently has it been around the 80 degree mark and last year at this time, it was already at the 80 degree mark in February. I think once that temp is set for all the trees and bushes, the process of budding and in the case of the Live Oak trees, leaf drop occurs. They are unique and beautiful trees on the property adding a lot of shade and ambience to our courtyard. So I'll take the blower and move those leaves elsewhere until all leaves have dropped.....and then of course, the pollen and allergy season will begin:)

This is what some research has found....from San Angelo, Texas by Allison Watkins.

SAN ANGELO, Texas — The live oak is a popular tree for home landscapes. These beautiful shade trees are considered a treasure by many homeowners, and with good reason. They are a nice addition to almost any landscape and are generally reliable and valuable trees. They can tolerate many harsh conditions including drought, shallow soil and high pH; also, relatively few pests can damage them.

Live oaks are not a true evergreen, as they are commonly termed. The leaves drop, but with different timing than most other trees. Live oak trees lose their leaves during late winter to early spring, with the exact timing depending on genetics and environmental factors.

When the leaves fall, it can cause the tree to look bare for a few weeks — some years are worse than others. This can be unsettling for homeowners, but don’t panic; just wait a few weeks, and the new leaves should start coming out to fill the canopy.

Pruning, if needed, can be done to live oaks this time of year. While there is no evidence of oak wilt in the area, painting of wounds is recommended as a preventive measure to protect against the disease. Live oaks also can be planted now as container-grown, balled and burlapped, or as native transplants.

One common issue with live oaks is the pesky root sprouts that pop up in the lawn under the tree. Unfortunately, not much can be done to eradicate them. Since they are connected to the main tree, herbicides cannot be used. Growth regulator chemicals are available, but have not proven to be effective.

The best recommendation is to plant a circular bed of ground cover around the tree, which will hide or blend in with the suckers. Asian jasmine is especially appropriate for this task since the leaves look similar and it can grow in the shade.