Welcome to my Garden!

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I’ve always loved plants. From flowers and greenery to cactus and succulents, one of my favorite things to do is to spend time around growing things. While I did keep some plants in pots and containers in the various rentals I’ve lived in, I’ve really dug in (no pun intended) since my husband and I bought our first home last year. Now those of you who live in more temperate climes or places with a bit more rain may think I’m being rather generous calling our yard a “garden”. But I figure if it’s got things growing in it, garden it is! So I want to bring you along on my garden tour – just as it is. If you are looking for something for the great indoors, check out my list of tried and true indoor plants.

Gardening is a series of lessons in my mind: figuring out what works and what doesn’t, where a certain plant thrives and another suffers. Not to mention determining what plants we like best! Because of that, I want to introduce you to my garden as it currently exists. It may be different tomorrow and likely will change again a few weeks after that. Isn’t that one of the best things about growing something? It’s never quite finished. So sit back, relax, and join me on my garden tour.

Here’s the overall view from our cul-de-sac. A mulched planter here at the front next to the driveway, and in the rear, another mulched planter along the front of the house. I snapped these photos after a long, drenching monsoon storm so everything is very wet and happy. This is not the status quo in southern Arizona in late summer!

There’s some future projects visible here too. On the left side along the house you can see our bramble of desert broom – it’s such a woody shrub that we can’t pull it out like you would any other weed. We’ll be tearing them out to replace with something more attractive later on. Now to the close-ups:

Lantana are a common landscaping plant here, and for good reason. They are so easy to maintain and they add a splash of vibrant color. Mine have been in the ground nearly a year now, so they’re well established. The striped agave here is a volunteer that I rescued from a yard a couple of years ago. They reproduce via runners or tubers, so new plants will pop up within a foot or two of mature plants. I had one like this outside my window growing up that was huge, so I’m partial to it.

Speaking of new plants – my Hohokam agave has a pup of it’s own! It’s not much to look at now, but hey, it’s my garden tour after all! This appeared only about a week or two ago, and before long I’ll have to transplant it to a new home where it can have plenty of room to grow. I love this agave especially because of the “teeth” marks left behind as it unfurls. Such a neat specimen.

Though they aren’t native, I added some french lavender to this area to attract more pollinators. They looked a little crispy in the true heat of the summer, but the monsoon rains have brought them back and they are getting ready to bloom again. Just beyond the lavender in the photo on the right you can glimpse my creeping rosemary. It’s small but mighty, and just brushing against it releases that lovely rosemary scent.

The spread of the lantana is exactly what I hoped for. They are great for filling in a large area with only a few plants. I’ve seen them take over a whole yard in a summer. On the right is my pomegranate. It’s a little tough to capture because it grew about two feet in what seemed like a couple of days. I’ll be pruning it up a little when the time is right to help shape it into a shrub-like tree. Even at this small size, it still tries to produce fruit which won’t really work, but the flowers are beautiful!

That’s all I’ll squeeze in for today – there’s more to see and plenty of more plants to chat about. I love spending time outside tending to these, pulling weeds and otherwise getting my hands dirty. How are your plants doing? Anything new and exciting in your garden?

Part Two of my garden tour is live!