In this week of Thanksgiving I realize again how grateful I am for gardens. In this world of war, wild weather, and wandering refugees it is hard to see solutions to such complex problems. Yet at this very moment I am lucky enough to be able to step outside my home and walk in my garden. I have a place to sit with the people I love, where I can see the sky and be warmed by the sun. Delighted by wild canaries flying through the view, a light breeze rustles the leaves on the olive trees, and a wind chime plays a trio of notes. I have clean water for my plants and for my family.
Category: Southwest, US
Garden of Art & Flowers- Feature
This article appears in the September 2015 issue of Phoenix Home & Garden. It features our home garden. The copyright access to the photos expired, so I’ve added a gallery of similar images at the end. Hope you enjoy the tour.
Donna’s Garden
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, a place to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.“ John Muir
Yellow Season
It is yellow season in the Desert Southwest. It is that brief time between our short spring and very long hot summer when yellow flowering plants seem to be everywhere. No plant announces this season more beautifully than the Palo Verde tree in full bloom. The small yellow flowers are like spring rain drops suspended in the air letting you see the spray of thousands of petals. In the city the yellow trees are scattered about, in neighborhoods one glorious tree after another is in bloom. In the shopping and resort areas the landscape design marches them around the perimeter in symmetrical groves surrounding the architecture.
Garden Conservatory – A Crystal Palace
It is citrus season. Outside my door the oranges are ripening on an overloaded tree providing a surplus of the sweet fruit. If you don’t have a tree right outside your door, you can still find an abundance of the succulent fruit right down the street at your supermarket.
The Artichoke Project
Late last November I planted two Artichoke plants in a sunny spot in one of my new flower beds. I wanted something to grow fast and add some variety of color and shape to my view. They grew beautifully! By March their silvery-green leaves spiked up vigorously at both ends of the bed providing a framework for the smaller plants between them. The end of each symmetrical leaf was punctuated with a fine thistle tip.
Garden Growth
When the garden was finished in early December we sat down for a minute to enjoy it. We had a party on New Year’s Eve Afternoon and shared our happiness with many friends. Then we waited for things to grow. The weather was mild, wonderful and perfect for growing.
Baby Hummingbird Rescue!
Outside my kitchen window, a little hummingbird sits in the shade — the perch, a plant stake, the view, a nearby hummingbird feeder. I like to imagine this little bird could be the one I rescued some time ago. Pure fantasy I know, but there is a sense of kinship with these tiny creatures.
Garden of Heart, Art & Flower
“The ongoing relationship of a human being with a certain plot of ground is at its heart a romance, for to garden honestly is to fall in love, in love with the rhythms and miracles of nature, in love with life itself.” Scott Ogden, The Moonlit Garden
Changing the View
September to December
If you ever indulge yourself in the Home and Garden TV fantasy experience of an entire remodel in less than an hour you realize, in more rational moments, life isn’t like that. Living through a major garden redesign is one of those events that remind you what reality really looks and feels like.