The Backyard - Two Years later (2015)

I get ill starting in the fall and through the winter and into early spring. Looks like this may be a permanent pattern (got some fun disorders, yee ha). So I just have to get my gardening done in the hottest part of the year now! It's not the easiest on the plants, but those that make it tend to be tough, heat tolerant little buggers, so perhaps it simply raises more desert awesome garden plants, in the end. 

I'm realizing some things about my gardening style. It's not tidy. It's not instantly pretty, or the type of garden that I plant so my yard looks lovely in the 'now.' I have seen gardens and yards like that and they can be awesome. They're just not for me. Or at least, not for the way I garden.

My yard is, in some ways, the one in my head when I see what it'll look like years from now. One where I hope that things will quite frequently take care of themselves to a point that it doesn't need a lot of work from me. I want a place plants, animals and I can coexist a bit more than we did before I worked on it.

Seed variety

I mentioned a couple posts back about efforts to preserve seed variety. This image is a good example of what's been happening with it.

(source)

The Pond - part I

For months now, I've been working on turning my pool into a pond. A 15,000+ gallon pond - swimming pond, possibly. It's been a project, lemme tell you, phew!

My pond...uh, pool. I'm just letting it fulfill its dream to become a pond. 

Tree ID tool

Just a neat ID tool for identifying tree leaves!

This ID tool, rather than take you various lists of trees, instead sends you to a list of the blog posts on trees that have the type of leaves you specified.

It wouldn't be very useful for some purposes, but if you've got no idea what the tree is, it might be useful, especially as it has photos with every blog post.

http://www.earlyforest.com/2009/10/tree-leaf-identification-tool.html

Seed Banks

Maintaining seed diversity is a growing concern in this era of big corporations and patented seeds. It's a very involved topic that I'm not going to go into at the moment, considering I'm only on the edges of it in terms of research, myself. 

A few organizations are devoted to trying to keep seed diversity alive, however, if you want to help support them or learn more about the topic.

http://foodtank.com/news/2013/07/fifteen-seed-saving-initiatives-protecting-biodiversity-for-future-generati

These really are worth supporting, especially as some of these are in danger due to finances and other concerns. 

Fish and food

A look at some of the benefits of old farming methods.
http://permaculturefreepress.com/?p=515

The main one mentioned is using the water around rice paddies to also grow fish, which keeps pests down, and also helps add nutrients for the rice to grow with.

Considering that I'm trying to turn my pool into a pond, and that I hope to use the fish, at the moment, primarily for helping keep pests down and help fertilize fish,  this is of real interest to me

And I'm fascinated by this picture right here, even thought there is no description of what it is!
http://permaculturefreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/1-RF-diagram.jpg

Mysteries Solved #3 - Mystery Bush

My 'Mystery Bush': Burroweed

I have almost identified everything that is a plant of any kind in my yard. I have some grasses to properly identify, and a few little bushes. Here's one of them.
EDIT: and I have identified this, now. Answer at the bottom.

This plant surrounding the cholla