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.

Chemical Fertilizers - why they may suck

You've got your synthetic nitrogen based fertilizers to add to the soil. People use these. Farms use these. They're in common use. And it looks like they may be completely screwing us over, and costing us a fortune besides.

This is why.

These fertilizers promote growth. You get huge plants from these. Which is why so many people use them, I'm assuming. And the theory has been that it also helps build up carbon in the soil. We want that. It's all good, right?

This Is big growth for the desert. :-)

The Backyard - one year later

I've been pretty much sick this entire last year, so very little forward progress has been made in my yard in terms of, well, prettying it up, as it were.

However, I have been able to get out there during the rains and see where my rain flow is going for my future rain harvesting projects. I've been able to harvest seeds from plants I like in my yard or wild areas belonging to friends, and sprinkling them around my yard, either by themselves or in small clay seed balls. I've managed to learn the names or more plants in my yard, watch what they grow with and where they grow, and so I'm not altogether unhappy with the lack of progress in other areas.

The Herb Garden

East of the original herb garden

Heat

You might have noticed that I was feeling pretty down about the possibility of gardening this year, what with the new medical issues involving sun.

Thankfully, I've figured it out. Long sleeves and pants plus added water saturating the cloth has managed to combat the rising heat's effects on my skin.  It works best as things have been growing hotter, because if I get too cool, it's an issue. With the temperatures in the 80's, though, I'm doing pretty well using this method, along with an enormous wide-brimmed hat.

I am so thankful that I can still go outside now. It's a huge positive in my life right now, to be able to go outside and enjoy my yard and the plants and animals in it. Such a blessing.

Mysteries solved #1 - the pinesol plant

My mystery 'pinesol plant': Guarijiro Conivari

My style of gardening and land care is sort of brutal. I tend to like more plants in the ground than in pots so they can 'forage for themselves,' as it were. I grow free range plants. ^_^

I also rarely weed, on purpose. When wild grasses grow, I let them grow and then use them for mulch. When an unknown plant pops up, I let it stay to see what it is - the birds often brings some interesting ones. A tree, a native flower, a grass, whatever. I have had native ground cherries (tomatillos) grow this way, chiltepines, Texas tobacco, a whitethorn acacia, globe mallows, hordes of wild flowers…and the mystery plants. The ones that I haven't a clue about, that no one can identify.

One of these has been what I refer to as my Pinesol Plant. It looks like this:

My pinesol plant

It begins

I cannot tell you how tempted I am not to put pictures up of my yard, because it's a complete mess. The previous owners covered the entire yard with rock, but they didn't put plastic underneath it for the entire back yard. This has left us with a yard that, over the years, has become a rocky, weedy mess. It's not pretty, although the quail, the birds, and the rabbits are fairly happy with it. The rattlesnakes were a bit happy with it, too, until I put up some wire to block the two main entrances to the backyard.