Here Are the Pictures

What's a gardening post without pictures?  I wondered about that myself, as I posted last week.  But, life intervened and the sun had set before I could get home and take the photos I wanted.  Now, after a lovely, warm, breezy, sunny weekend, I have finished upgrading the irrigation, installing plants in the containers, and begun growing veggies for salad delights.

My timer was covered in lime.  Even with new batteries, it didn't make a sound.  So, Brother and I bought me a new one and I installed it today.

I was glad that I remembered to use the thin white tape to cover the threads as I screwed the pieces into one another.  It's still leaking and the hose bib connector may have to be replaced, but none of the connections are seeping, and that is a good thing.

It's hard to dig a trench to bury the lines.  I was struggling and feeling annoyed until I remembered a lesson learned in Master Gardening.  I soaked the ground I wanted to trench and was able to create a ditch large enough to conceal the tubing.

No one wants to see tubing.  We want to see flowers.  The rose bush I bought last year was pruned to four canes, and has small buds budding.

This is the rosebush I bought at Rillito Nursery yesterday.  Promised to do well in high temperatures, I thought of my new-best-friend, Jean Jennings, when I saw the name.  Chrysler Imperial.... how could I resist?

I planted Super Sweets and Cherry tomatoes along with sweet basil this year.  I've given up on peppers and curcubits and going with what I know works.  Maybe next year I'll be more adventurous.  For right now, having an imperfect body is enough disappointment for one person.

Not everything needs irrigation. 

These desert marigolds are volunteers, and seem to do just fine with the run-off from the containers nearby.

Going with my "plant what works" theme, I stuck carnations behind the hyacinth bulb which has appeared every year since I put it in when we arrived in 2006.  It's nice to see an old friend every springtime.

The dead stump in the front of this container will, I hope, be a strong and vibrant zinnia come summertime.  For now, purple on purple carnations are filling the emptiness.

Remember the weeds I showed you in January? 

They are now these lovely blue wildflowers, dotting the courtyard and pathway and spreading to cover the entire front yard.

The desert mountain laurel pods are still hanging on.

I'm sure I could do something creative with them.

I just don't know what it might be.

 Instead, I spend time sniffing the fragrance of the blossoms.  Would that I could package it and send it your way.

Those nubs on the top of the cactus will be big flowers in a week or six.

One never knows with these things.

The sun on the cholla made me smile.

It, too, is beginning to bud.

Red flowers will attract the ground squirrels, who have been curiously absent lately.

Something is living here, though.

These five holes are snakes... or lizards... or mammals of some sort.

No one can tell, for sure.

 I could fill them in, or run water into them, or leave them alone.  I'm opting for the last choice; those beasties were here before I was, and will be here afterwards.  I hope they enjoy the wildflowers I'm seeding for them.