Some of you wanted to see the wall a very talented stone mason was building for me when I exclaimed about it on Twitter the other day. Yes, you look like jackals on Twitter too!
Here is the wall. I have planted a number of (relatively) local perennials behind it, hence the white tags, which will work their ways out or become cracked by the sun. I will remember the names of most of the plants, some of which I know already.
Further behind the adobe-looking wall to the left is a plant (actually several of them) that I am very pleased with. It is the one on the left, which is blooming today. You can just about see the purple toward the back of it. I am pleased with it because it grew, all by itself, from the plant on the right, which I planted. They are desert four o’clocks and several other small ones are starting in various places.
One of my ambitions has been for the natural plants to reproduce themselves. Neither of those plants is blooming profusely, but here’s another that is.
dmsilev
I think we all want to know whether Mexico is paying for it.
A Ghost To Most
Very nice. Lots of work to get it right, I bet. I built (mortared) beds in front of our townhouse 35 yrs ago. Much work.
Major Major Major Major
Nice wall.
Yarrow
Can’t quite tell, but it looks like your bed might need some mulch. Since it’s summer, that’ll definitely help it hold moisture and help your new seedlings.
Nicole
Pretty! I live in an apartment, so I enjoy seeing photos of other folks’ plants. I do miss gardening.
debbie
I love the colors in the wall. It doesn’t get more Southwestern than that!
Mai Naem mobile
I don’t know if you can plant lantana where you’re at but it’s pretty indestructible here. Perennial flowering shrub which can be maintained to short or pretty big. Also catnip for your cats.
Mnemosyne
@dmsilev:
Well, a New Mexican is, which should be almost as good.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: boooo
JanieM
@Major Major Major Major: How did your interview go? (You may have said earlier, but I can never keep up with the pace around here.)
Major Major Major Major
@JanieM: fine I guess, we will just have to see.
jacy
Congrats on the fine-looking wall — and the plants. I can’t do plants. They hate me.
A Ghost To Most
@Major Major Major Major: Tech job interviews can be weird sometimes.
Major Major Major Major
@A Ghost To Most: “sometimes” lol. Add onto that, I’m pathologically self-critical, so I really have no way of accurately assessing it.
chris
Pretty pictures and it looks so nice and dry. 97% humidity here in Nova Scotia right now, no wonder stuff grows like crazy here.
Also, beware mulch!
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Hey, somebody had to do it.
dmsilev
@Mnemosyne: Indeed, close enough.
Mnemosyne
I need to go work on clearing out my craft room so I can recover in there after my surgery next month. Ugh. I should probably pomodoro it in 20 minutes a day rather than getting myself all wound up about HOW FUCKING LONG it’s going to take to do it.
Omnes Omnibus
I have had a shitty week already and it is only Monday. Plants ain’t doing it.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s what liquor is for.
chris
@Mnemosyne: Huh, never head of pomodoro but I do it. I learned it here. Twenty minutes a few times a week and the hovel ain’t too bad.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: I am aware of that. Believe me.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne:
Tomato?
waratah
I love the colors in the retaining wall. I fell in love with the Adobe homes the first time I saw Sante Fe. I think they are a work of art. I like how you are going with native plants. Do the four o’clocks open in the evening?
chris
@chris: Can’t edit. Meant to add a Tumblr link as well. It has lots of pics and success stories.
A Ghost To Most
denverpost
StringOnAStick
I love desert four o’clock, a perfecr xeric plant if you have sandy soil. You have to be patient, as in several years because it makes a huge tuber so sometimes it is slow to come out of dormancy or seems undersized all summer. It’s worth the wait though!
As for mulch, your best bet for xeric gardens is pea gravel, not wood based mulch. Wood keeps things too wet in the spring, can tie up soil nutrients as it rots and blows away in our intense western winds. I converted our whole yard to xeric with drip irrigation and pea gravel 12 years ago and spend very little time weeding and fussing. The hummingbirds love it, the elk and deer leave it alone and no lawn mowing is lovely.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Pomodoro Technique, by its creator. Basically breaking a project down into 20-minute chunks of time so you don’t get overwhelmed.
And in case FYWP is still adding an extra close quote to my links:
https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique
Cheryl Rofer
@Yarrow: No mulch in the bed. The soil there is actually pretty good, in contrast to other parts of the yard, which include pure caliche and pure sand. The plants are native or capable of enduring dry spells. A relative of the four o’clocks, a prickly poppy, some penstemons, a red gilia, and a couple of other things.
@Mai Naem mobile: Lantana is an annual here. I’ve used it in pots on the deck. The butterflies love it.
@waratah: Yes, they open in the evening and stay open until about ten in the morning. The cats and I see the hummingbird moths working them in the morning.
jacy
@A Ghost To Most:
One of the few things I don’t miss about Colorado Springs are the sometimes freakish hailstorms. High school friend posted a picture of a baseball sized hail stone that hit her car from this last one. We don’t seem to get hail in Louisiana.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne:That would never work for me. I can see how it could be useful in other circs.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s mostly to break up large projects into manageable chunks. You probably do something like it when you have a large project without realizing that there’s a shorthand name for “doing a project for X amount of time and then taking a break.”
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: the idea in fact predates the name!
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
I think the specific 30-minute duration (25 minutes of work, 5 minute break) of 4 cycles was the actual innovation that the Pomodoro guy came up with. But, yes, the general idea of breaking a large task into chunks is not a new one.
Also, having a cool/fun timer, which is where the name comes from.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: I do like the timer.
Amir Khalid
Desert plants are all but totally unknown to this creature of the tropics. I’ve only ever seen wee little potted cacti, usually in pots the size of a single-scoop ice cream cup.
I (and not I alone) will be very glad indeed when FYWP can remember our names/nyms and email addresses again.
Onnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: For me, things work or they don’t. If they don’t, I worry at them. There can be periods of confusion, but one tends to get there. Time isn’t a factor. Our brains are very different.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
I’m tempted by the Kikkerland cat timer, because it’s freakin’ adorable:
https://www.amazon.com/Kikkerland-Kitchen-Timer-Cat-Multicolor/dp/B00UAAZZZ0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533611582&sr=8-1&keywords=Kikkerland+cat+timer
A Ghost To Most
@jacy: Something I learned from TV WX this week: because of the thinner air, a hailstone of comparable size to one on the lower Plains will do 8% more damage here.
A Ghost To Most
@Major Major Major Major: The quality of your work will carry you. Real talent shows. Even if you’re a crazy bastard like me, which you aren’t. There are many BSers, fewer who can actually do the work.
Best of luck; the prepared often make their own luck.
Neldob
What a lovely wall! It was about 104 here today. Gives new meaning to scorched earth. Phew.
Mnemosyne
@Onnes Omnibus:
This is a factual statement. I was just surprised you’d never heard of it since it’s huge in time management circles, but if you don’t have issues with time management, it stands to reason that you wouldn’t have heard of it.