Recovering roses

Our climbing roses seem none the worse for the wear after being blown down a few days ago. All our roses are getting a second wind after the heat of the summer. The blooms aren't quite as big or as prolific as they were in the spring, but we should see blooms well into December. In January, we'll prune them back severely to force them into dormancy so they can rest up before the cycle begins again.

"Don Juan" climbing rose

"Iceberg" climbing rose

A blustery day

We got a bit of wind yesterday afternoon and it took down the rose arbor (as well as the hollyhock in yesterday's post)

Is it spring yet?

Panorama taken on the first day of spring

We've been working to get the backyard ready for my retiree lunch this weekend, and a possible Phoenix Home and Garden photo shoot, date TBD. It's an enjoyable time of the year to work outside as we find new surprises every day..

Grape arbor and "Orange Bells" Tecoma

"Queen Elizabeth" roses and nasturtiums

Mexican primrose, rosemary, and mint

Baby squash!

Water lily and iris

Roses and larkspur buds

Roses and orange blossoms (I forgot to prune this bush!)

Tomatoes!

Every rose has its thorns.

The air is full of the fragrance of citrus blossoms, the roses are beginning to open, and I'm enjoying fresh roasted asparagus on a regular basis. It must be springtime in Phoenix!

Unfortunately this spring we are having a particularly bad allergy season in the Phoenix area, probably because of our mild winter, and it has been interfering with my gardening enjoyment. There is a widespread misconception that citrus is allergenic, because spring allergy season is usually at its worst when citrus is blooming. However, this misconception is a prime example of  the scientific principle that correlation does not prove cause-and-effect. The culprit as far as allergies are concerned isn't usually fragrant plants, which tend to have large, heavy pollen grains that require insect pollinators. The problem is the things you can't smell. Wind-pollinated trees such as ash, juniper, and mulberry produce huge quantities of small, light pollen grains that float around in the air, just waiting to be inhaled and set off a histamine reaction. Here's a handy link where you can enter your zip code and find out what's causing your sniffles and sneezes.

The way I see it, allergies are to be expected in spring, just as I expect to find thorns on a rosebush, and I don't plan to give up either spring gardening or roses.

Orange blossoms

Queen Elizabeth rose buds

Plant a radish, get a radish?

I corresponded this week with Cathy Cromwell, who interviewed us last spring for a possible article in Phoenix Home and Garden magazine, about the timing for a photo shoot of our Arizona Backyard Eden. I'm guessing the garden will be at its best in late March or early April, which is when we've scheduled our annual IHS Retiree Luncheon in the Garden. At least I hope it will...gardens, like children, are seldom predictable, despite what this song from The Fantasticks might claim.

The nasturtiums and sweet allyssum I planted as a border around the raised beds didn't come up as thickly as I would have liked, so yesterday I transplanted a flat of marigolds to fill in the gaps. The roses may wind up blooming ahead of the larkspur and hollyhocks this year. The bushes are loaded with buds and a few of them have begun to open.

Is gardening dependable? Predictable? I think not, and to me that's part of the fun. But I would agree with the song  that "a man who plants a garden is a very happy man"!

Squash blossom

Yellow Iris

"Don Juan" climbing rose

Tea rose

Tea Rose

Spring blooms

Things are starting to wake up around here. Each day when I walk through the garden, I see something new. Most of the fruit trees- peach, apricot, pear, apple, plum, lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit- have begun to bud and bloom. The rose bushes have leafed out and are full of buds; the fig tree and grape vines are showing their first leaves, and zinnia, hollyhock, larkspur, nasturtium, coreopsis, and galliardia seedlings are popping up all over the place. I like to let the flowers come up where they will, and fill in the blanks with transplants. 

Lemon blossoms

First rose of the season

Peach blossoms

Pear blossoms

Nasturtiums

Petunias and Swiss chard


The words of an old hymn we used to sing in the sixties kept playing through my head as I wandered through and worked in the garden this week:

What a wondrous time is spring, when all the trees are budding. 
The birds begin to sing; the flowers start their blooming. 
That's how it is with God's love, once you've experienced it. You want to sing; it's fresh like spring; you want to pass it on.

May 1 Overview

As the peak gardening season begins in other parts of the country, it's winding down here. I removed the last of the broccoli and cilantro yesterday, and planted another melon in their place. I've stopped harvesting asparagus and let the ferns grow to provide food to sustain the plant for next year's crop. Very few lemons remain on the tree, the first flush of rose blooms have come and gone, and nasturtiums and petunias are pretty scraggly looking. In their place, zinnias, marigolds, alyssum, coreopsis, and galliardia are appearing. Hollyhocks are still going strong, and sweet potato vines are spreading into the streambed and the floor of the gazebo,

I harvested the first of the green beans, tomatoes, and eggplant this week, and should be picking yellow squash in another week. I've picked the half-dozen apricots our young tree produced, along with about two dozen smallish peaches. The remaining ones are even smaller, so I think I'll let the birds enjoy them. There are about a half-dozen green plums on our Santa Rosa plum, which is somewhat of an improvement over most years, and dozens of developing Asian pears. The apple tree is, surprisingly, still alive, but unlikely to produce any fruit.

The black metal structure in the upper left is the framework for one of our two portable gazebos that we use to shade the side patio in summer. We have to take down the canopy when the wind kicks up, as it has been doing for the past week. One of our future projects will be to replace these with a permanent pergola, which should be more functional, attractive, and stable.

Flower mash-up

I noticed that one of our older rosebushes has two kinds of roses blooming on the same bush. The cream colored rose is what I planted....I think it is the "Peace" cultivar, and this year there are also red roses growing from one of the spurs. I assume the red roses are from a rootstock onto which the cream roses were grafted.

To add to the flower mash-up, larkspur and coreopsis have come up on their own in the middle of the rosebush. So far the rose doesn't appear to be suffering, so I have left them alone. The larkspur probably won't last much longer, but coreopsis will keep growing through the summer and into late fall, and can get quite large. I might have to extract it from the rosebush at some point, which could be a painful undertaking.

Grapes, continued

Here's the grape arbor that has produced our only edible grapes so far. It is in full sun in front of a fence that hides our pool equipment. The grapevine on the left is a Thompson seedless grape that's about seven or eight years old. The one on the right is a Flame seedless that we just put in today to replace one that died.

Originally, the two grapevines were in large wooden planter boxes with the bottoms cut out, placed on either side of a purchased bench/harbor. We had plastic planter boxes on top of the half-wall planted with asparagus fern and annuals. After a couple of years of the bench getting almost no use because the location was too hot and sunny to be an enjoyable sitting area, and the annuals routinely dying of heatstroke, we decided to replace the bench and planter boxes with this raised bed. We built the raised bed up to the same height of the wooden boxes holding the grapes, removed the boxes, and filled in the area between the grapes with soil. Both grapes did fine up until last year, when the driplines malfunctioned and we didn't notice until it was too late.

Today, in addition to planting the new grapevine, this time on the inside of the arbor rather than the outside, we dug out the Bermuda grass, Mexican primrose, spent nasturtiums, and a dead miniature rosebush that also succumbed because of insufficient water. We left a volunteer asparagus fern in the middle, sprinkled the area with marigold seeds, and mulched everything heavily. Oh, and we also revamped the drip lines to provide more water.

That which survives

We lost one of the grapevines on this arbor hiding the pool equipment, as well as the miniature rosebush that was in the center. But the Mexican primrose, which I did not plant here, is going strong. I decided to leave it until its blossoming period ends and/or it gets attacked by weevils. It's an attractive plant, if only it weren't so invasive and susceptible.

Roses in bloom

As predicted, the roses are blooming early this year. I think these are "Queen Elizabeth" tea roses. Of the vines I planted on the block wall last year, only the snail vine and Lady Bank's rose survived, but the snail vine now covers several of the trellises. And the nasturtiums, which reseeded themselves from last year, are carpeting the ground beneath the roses and spilling over the side of the raised bed.

A friend very helpfully brought me a few bags of pine straw she raked up on her property in Flagstaff, and I used it to mulch the roses after I cut them back in January. Not only will this help to cut down on weed germination, conserve water, and cool the root zone, it should help acidify the soil a little as it breaks down.

Mid-March pool garden overview

The nasturtiums in this photo reseeded themselves, and the roses are beginning to bloom. Last year the roses didn't bloom until Easter. The queen palms are looking better than they ever have, I assume because I started fertilizing instead of ignoring them. A kumquat tree we had planted behind the original waterfall died, and I replaced it with a second pygmy date palm.

The never-ending story

Our adventures in gardening are a never-ending story of doing and redoing, of trying things and fixing mistakes. Case in point: this sitting area. It's in a low area of the yard, and there are drip irrigation lines going to the trees on either side of and behind it. When the lines come on, water tends to collect on the paver bricks beneath the swing. It's more an aesthetic nuisance than gardening problem, as the water will eventually seep beneath the stones where the tree roots can take advantage of it, but Mike is redoing the brick area to raise the pavers a few inches.

This is also the site of my impatient overplanting of honeysuckle vine because the climbing roses weren't growing fast enough. Earlier this spring I dug the honeysuckle out and moved it to another location, which the roses seem to appreciate.

The first rose of spring

I think the roses are going to bloom earlier than usual this year. I noticed this one already open, another bud about to unfurl on the same bush, and many buds on the other bushes.

Broccoli, roses, and petunias

This bed off our back patio is bordered by petunias and nasturtiums. The nasturtiums were planted from seed and are up but not blooming yet; the petunias were transplanted in October at the same time as the broccoli transplants behind them. There is also garlic in this bed, but the shoots are only about three or four inches high at this point.

Behind the broccoli are rosebushes which are beginning to bloom again, and asparagus ferns that are beginning to yellow. We'll cut the asparagus back in a couple of weeks, and we usually cut the roses back in January.

To the left is a basil plant which is still going strong. Basil usually lasts here until the first frost, which is always unpredictable. It's could be as early as December or as late as February, or maybe not at all. If and when it comes, and depending on how hard a freeze it is, it may wipe out the nasturtiums as well.

It's also interesting to notice the difference in sun patterns at different times of year. Since this patio is on the north side of our house, it's not possible to take a photo this time of year without at least part of the bed being in shadow.

Early November overview

Most of the deciduous fruit trees have lost their leaves, but the citrus is beginning to show signs of ripening.

Round 2 of the zinnias are still growing strong and attract dozens of butterflies; the petunia transplants are doing well, and most of the nasturtiums have come up. Roses are beginning to recover from their summer slump and are flowering again.

The broccoli plants and sugar snap peas are strongly established, but of the salad greens I planted, only arugula came up. Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are still setting fruit. I dug up the sweet potato bed and we've been working on preparing it for new plantings. We'll probably try strawberries in that location, this time with a fall rather than spring planting.

Most of the garlic cloves have sent up shoots, and the basil plant is still healthy; cilantro is also coming up in several places and this time I know what it is.

We're in the process of taking out the grass pathways among the raised beds and will replace them with crushed granite. Hopefully that will cut down on the continuing battle we've had with Bermuda grass invading the raised beds, as well as decrease our overall water usage. We had mixed feelings about doing that, because the grass is attractive and soft to walk on barefoot, but it really has been a problem to keep out of places we don't want it.

Companion Plantings

End of September/beginning of October overview

We're continuing weeding and fall planting this week. The sugar snap peas and a few lettuces are beginning to come up in the center bed, and I planted garlic in front of the roses in the bed in the foreground. The roses look pretty sad right now but should produce another flush of blooms and leaves in the next couple of months.

Here's a link to an interesting article I found on companion planting. This is the first time I've tried growing garlic, and I knew it was a good companion plant for roses, but wasn't sure how it would affect the broccoli which is also in this bed this year. The article also talks about the beneficial effects of nasturtiums, which are one of my favorite plants to line the perimeter of the raised beds. They are colorful, low growing, easily reseed themselves, and you can eat them too! It's always a trick (and a bit of a gamble) to plant them at the right time. A hard frost will kill them, as well a lesser frost if they aren't big enough, and they also die off in the summer heat.

Poolside in the garden

I haven't posted a picture of this corner of our yard in a while, so here is one. There are rosebushes along the block wall, and this year we added two new bare-root peach trees that we got from a Valley Permaculture Guild plant sale. We also added trellises for vines on the wall, made from recycled metal pieces of an old gazebo that had begun to deteriorate.

We planted two banana trees in the planter areas behind the pool last year. One died, but the other has come back nicely and appears to be multiplying...there's a baby banana tree next to this one which isn't visible in this photo.

I don't think we will get any key limes this year because of the freeze. The same thing happened a few years ago when we had another hard freeze. Limes are more susceptible to frost damage than other citrus fruits, but surprisingly enough we have a few limes on the Bears lime tree, which is a lot younger than the key lime. Luckily for my grapefruit-loving mother, grapefruit is the least susceptible and our Ruby Red tree wasn't affected at all.

The rosebushes are still blooming, but the nasturtiums and larkspur are gone, to be replaced with marigolds and zinnias. The large marigold directly behind the waterfall is a holdover from last fall which survived the frost. I've collected seeds from it and scattered them along the perimeter of this raised bed, the planters behind the pool, and other places in the yard.

The bushes in the center left edge of the picture are yellow and orange Tecomas ("Yellow bells") Like the banana, they were taken to the ground in last winter's frost, but have rebounded vigorously. The plants in the center right edge of the photo, and in the planter in the foreground, are Little John bottlebrushes, which seem to be quite frost-tolerant.

Monitor and adjust

"Monitor and adjust" is one of those teaching mantras every educator must learn to use. Carefully made lesson plans may not work as anticipated, so a good teacher observes what is happening as he/she teaches, and makes changes based on those observations. It's a continual. ongoing process. What works well today may not work well tomorrow.

The technique works in many other areas of life, especially gardening. This photo shows the back side of an arbored seating area overlooking one of our ponds. I originally envisioned it as a rose arbor, and planted  Iceberg and Don Juan climbing roses on the sides of the wooden arch. After a couple of years of years with very little in the way of rose growth up the arbor, I got impatient and planted Hall's honeysuckle last year, which I knew would grow quickly.

It did, but this year to my surprise the roses have also taken off. The Iceberg canes are blooming about a third of the way up the arbor as you can see on the left side of the arbor, and the Don Juan canes are about half way up the other side. Assuming their progress continues, I will likely want to remove the Hall's honeysuckle vines.

The bare branches in the upper right belong to an orchid tree which has apparently been killed off to the ground by this winter's unusually cold weather. It's coming out from the roots, but I am losing hope that any higher portions of the tree have survived. For a moment this morning, I thought I saw new green growth on one of the branches, but on closer inspection found that it was an errant Hall's honeysuckle vine taking advantage of its scaffolding. At some point I will need to decide what to do about the tree...whether to take it out entirely and replace it, or cut it back and see what happens with the new growth at its base. Some articles I've read suggest that the result could be a beautiful, multitrunked tree in place of a rather spindly single-trunked specimen. So I think I'll give it some time and see what happens.

Monitor and adust, monitor and adjust....

More roses

We have three tea rosebushes in this raised bed adjoining our patio, along with various herbs, asparagus, tomatoes, hollyhocks, petunias, and marigolds. The tree in the background is a Santa Rosa plum