The Battle Begins

Arriving in the desert for the winter means gardening. Before putting the new annuals in the ground there's plenty of work to be done. (We have a gardener, while we are in Alaska, to keep the weeds down and make sure the watering system is working but pruning is not on his list.) So after 6 months of being away there is always a lot of pruning to do. Cuts (battle scars) from the roses, lemon and orange trees run up and down my arms and legs.

I tied back the Mexican sage that was engulfing the fountain before turning it on. The mums have taken over...but it is so hard to cut them back while still in bud.

 

 It seems as though we missed the first great bloom on the rose bushes...we'll have to wait about another month for the next one. In the mean time I have been cutting out the dead stalks and dead heading the spent blooms. This rose is from a new plant I put in last year. The second photo shows the blossom after a few days in our sun. 

The Ligustrum  provides great shade in the hot summer and is a buffer between yards. I have started to trim it back to catch more rays now that its fall. We planted it so that the neighbor and I weren't eye-to-eye while working in the kitchen! (Living with close neighbors is common here!)

Our soil is very sandy (duh!) here in the desert so we have to amend it. Before planting we mix a few inches of Amend into the soil. Last spring I dumped all the potting soil out and so we had to buy new. We loaded up the Pilot with 6 large bags and carted them home. What fun!

I had a horrible mishap the other day. While trimming roses I spotted a green body among the leaves... I have battled grasshoppers before and assumed it was one. I grabbed the green head and body, separating the two quickly. Only after looking at it carefully did I discover I had beheaded a friend ~ a praying mantis. Yep, I'm still ticked at myself over that one!