Desert yard (in progress)

I’ve been pestering you folks for ways to improve our desert yard for wildlife. Equilibrium asked if I had photos, so here’s a little tour. We haven’t lived here very long so we’re still figuring out what we’d like to do. My photos aren’t great, but hopefully they’ll give you a general idea of what we’re working with.


This is pretty typical of our front yard, a large north-facing slope, sun-baked and hot. The scraggly bushes are creosote, not looking very happy in our current drought. Scattered prickly pear, mainly Purple Prickly Pear (Opuntia macrocentra). I don’t know how to ID our big yuccas yet. Lots of bare sand for lizards, quail, and the occasional roadrunner to scoot around on.

A happier Creosote Bush, (Larrea tridentata.) Without this wonderful plant, our yard would look like a parking lot. These bushes give the desert that wonderful smell after it rains (which is about every four years, apparently.) This is the main cover for our quail.. Many of our creosote bushes have mounds of small animal tunnels under them, which I think are homes for the tiny light-colored ground squirrels I see dashing around (too fast for my camera, sorry.)

More unidentified large yuccas, and purple prickly pear. Birds like to nest in the tops of these tall yuccas. Hard to see in my photo, but there is also a Red Yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) in the center of the picture. More sand, more creosote.

I think this is Tree Cholla (Cylindropuntia imbricata) and we have lots of it. We had two wonderful ball-shaped nests in a big cholla last year, which I think might have been cactus wren nests, but I’m not really sure. I'd like to add other cholla varieties to the yard. I have lots of room for prickly plants.

A nice Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) down by the street curb. I’d like to add more of these. I think they’re good cover for birds, and they are large enough to add some real shade. Their soft texture is a welcome visual relief from the harsher textures of the yuccas and cacti.

More prickly pear, different varieties, on the same north-facing front slope. Cholla too. And guess what? More creosote. That’s our house roof in the upper right corner.

Our backyard, on the south side of our house. The house sits on a hill top. Patio is to the right in the photo. To the left of this little patch of Bermuda is the land slopes down steeply, forming a south-facing hillside covered with (yup) more creosote.

The rabbits love the green grass, and so does our dog, so we’ll keep a grassy area. We eventually need to regrade this area for drainage reasons (the patio floods when it rains, which, as I said, is every four years.) When we do that, we might replace the Bermuda with a native grass that needs less water. As you can tell, we’re not keeping it very lush right now.

The quail hang out on the small south-facing slope to the south of this grassy area, and they stroll up over the edge of the grass to access the water bowl. There’s a chain link fence bordering this side of the yard, and quail sit on the top and yell for each other. (Apparently quail get lost a lot.)

The watering hole. Tall birdbath is used by white-wing dove, house finches, and thrashers; the shallow water dish gets visited by cottontail rabbits, ground squirrels, quail (and other birds too tired to fly up two feet.) Of course, darned house sparrows are everywhere. The tall bushes to the right are Desert Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia gilliesii) which provides a nice screen at the edge of the grass. Behind them is a tangle of very dense old creosote, covering up a lot of criss-crossing “quail trails” all along that slope. The dove will go into the brush a short distance, but not as far as the quail. I think the dove prefer to fly straight up when startled, so this dense tangled brush is a plus for the quail.

I put some mule deer antlers on the ground, and the male quail stand on them as a lookout while their spouses scratch around for seed.

I left the ugly power lines in the photo since they are usually lined with white-wing dove, waiting for us to leave so they can try to beat the quail to the milo seed we throw in the brush.


This message was edited Jun 17, 2006 6:16 PM

Same backyard area, further west. Big unnamed yuccas on the left, a pecan tree on the right, and more prickly pear. There is a dark silhouette under a bush on the right side; that’s a fire hydrant. It’s real, but not hooked up to anything; kind of a tongue-in-cheek garden ornament for our desert yard.

This was where my husband stepped in the middle of a four-foot gopher snake a few weeks ago. Fortunately the snake didn’t take it personally, and he left without any bad behavior. Sure did perk Rick up.

Almost done, I promise. This is a pretty ugly shot taken from the furthest SW corner of my yard. I wanted to show you the density of the brush (dense for the desert, anyway.) It’s a creosote jungle out there!

…however, if I stand in the same spot and turn around, you can see that we really live in a very dense neighborhood in a city setting. We’re very fortunate because our house is in a small pocket of about four older houses that still have fairly large natural desert yards. (For now, anyway!) I hope it stays this way, since the wildlife in our yard really depends on the character of the space around us.

Back to work now. Thanks for taking the tour!!!
Sheri

WOW!! I can see why all the wild animals love your yard now. It looks great.... if you prefer natural landscapes. LOL. I happen to enjoy them. Keep up the good work. You will have lifelong friends in those animals if you keep it up.

Sheri,

GEEZE!!! Now I feel like a wimp for staying indoors when it went all the way up to 92 here in Michigan! Is it true that the “dry heat” isn’t so bad? Do you have a backup air conditioner and generator?

I REALLY love what you have and I’m sure that you do too, but I’m not sure that I could handle the heat. I was sweating while checking bird nests today for just an hour, or so. I heard a rumor that it rains at least every two years down there. They were pulling my leg, I guess.

I’m impressed with the number of birds, reptiles and mammals! How do they survive in that environment??? I’d love to help you get some sort of pole up to attract your species of Martins. No need to do nest checks and fall into cacti! When does it get cool enough to work outside?

Mark

Well, this is one of the more spellbinding threads to me. I enlarged every single photo and used a zoom tool to poke around even more. I must admit your descriptions made looking at your photos even more pleasurable. I love your photographs and I love everything about your yard. You're doing a remarkable job!

Pepper,
I DO like the natural look myself, like you! But I often wonder if our neighbors think of us as the raggedly yard on the street...? My parents owned this house for 18 years before we bought it from my mother last year, and I am so pleased that they had the wisdom to leave the natural plants in place. They took good care of the quail and wildlife too, so this is a continued family project.

Mark, LOL, yes it really is a dry heat!!! I think you would be surprised at how comfortable it is here, even in high temps. Our average annual rainfall is somewhere around 11.5” per year, and we should get about a third of that in July and August, when we have our “monsoon” season. We have not lived here during those months yet, but I think that’s when the humidity and the heat will make us grumpy. Right now it’s really very comfortable outside. When are you coming to help me put up the martin houses? :-)

Regarding the survival of all the wildlife, I think it’s just like plants; the animals have adapted to the environment so they do fine. I think the encroachment of civilization is a much bigger problem for them than the heat or lack of water. (If we would all just move somewhere else, they’d be doing great!)

I am still interested in the martin idea. (Don’t you think those 12’ tall yuccas would make fine martin poles?) I haven’t contacted local birders yet, but I will let you know what they have to say about it. There is actually a much greener part of Las Cruces that is close to the river, with lots of farmland in the valley area. That part of town does not have the desert look our yard does. They use irrigation ditches, which equals mosquitoes and insects, which should equal food for birds like martins…shouldn’t it? Hmmm.

Equilibrium,
thank you for your very kind words. I am glad you enjoyed the pics… I was hoping they might be interesting for folks who haven't lived in the desert. We have a lot we can do here and I know we will truly enjoy doing it.

I kind of thought my photos looked grainy, and I may be shooting at too low a resolution. What resolution do you guys shoot your photos at for DG…and do you then reduce the file size before submitting?

I am sorry I have such long posts. Give me a few more years here at DG and I'll be more concise.

I like your posts just the way they are.

I shoot at 5.0 pixels. I have no idea what that means. I have another camera that has higher pixels but I've never been able to figure out how to use it. Pixel this pixel that... it's basically all Greek to me.

Uh oh Equilibrium, we'd better not open a photography studio together. I try to learn enough to get my camera to do what I want, and any more than that just gives me a headache. Life is too short to become engrossed in pixel theory. If there is such a thing.

The front of my antique Sony Mavica MVD FD-90 digital camera says "1.6 Megapixel Images" so I think it's time for me to get a new camera. It has not been right for a while anyway. I was running to get a good shot before the sun went behind a cloud, fell down, threw the camera into the air, and it landed on a rock. Apparently they don't like that; it's been moody ever since.

I think I should have been asking about image size. I have it set at 640x480, which works well for sending photos in emails, and for eBay purposes. I am wondering if most DG members usually shoot at a higher resolution (like 1024x768?) If so, do you reduce file size in a photo editing program before submitting to DG? I want my photos to look good here, but don't want them to be too slow to load for folks on dial-up. Thanks...I may also wander over to the photography forum and embarrass myself there.

I shoot on automatic settings 100% of the time and I use a photo editing software that came with it so my photos end up all different sizes.Wish I was a bigger help but I think anything goes.

Thanks very much!!

Now that it is two months later, have you any new photographs of any plants you have added to your landscape? I know you were out there gathering plant material. In other words... part with some new photos!

Oh, no good pics yet. I hope to add some native shrubs when the weather cools a tad (have my eye on 'em at the native plant nursery.) I've been learning which agaves and cacti are cold hardy here, but most of those are babies that will winter in the house before I set them out to fare for themselves.

Added a border to an existing rose garden, reworked the soil, mulched, fertilized, and discovered I'm terrible with roses. Still, they were Dad's roses, so they are staying and I'm determined to learn.

I'm learning that our local Thrashers are a challenge. I think we have Crissal Thrashers and Curved-Bill Thrashers here. Boisterous birds with an attitude and wicked beaks. They stomp around and flip the gravel out of my cactus pots, fly off with unrooted offsets of hens and chicks, and poke big holes in my succulents. I build hardware cloth cages for the small plants they love to harrass. We're learning to co-exist with each other. The quail are much easier to live with. The ground squirrels are happy guys too, especially when I put out orange halves and watermelon rinds.

I have started "grooming" some of the native prickly pears and yuccas; I have a handy long-handled grabber tool that's great for removing diseased opuntia pads. Also good for pulling off the old yucca bloom stalks without leaning a ladder against the yucca. I'm still learning which tools work for best for the prickery housekeeping I need to do. Lots of big old Agave americana century plants that need pruning or removing, too. As I clear out some of the dead or stressed plants I'll have more room for the new native shrubs I want to add. I don't want to remove too much brushy cover for the quail as I go...so most of the old brush will stay in place as we slowly make changes. Remove a little, add a little. Don't want to ruffle any feathers.

I put together a small area area under a Honey Locust tree to house my growing cactus collection. I need more dappled shade but this is a start. Of course the Thrashers think I've built them a feeding station. This shows one of the cages to protect my Echeverias from those ice-pick beaks.

What's new at your house?

I haven't laughed that hard in a long time- a thrasher feeding station! Around here, squirrels rip everything apart burying nuts and then trying to relocate their nuts again. Squirrels uproot plants with wild abandon. Most of which aren't found until I get home from work and then they're baked pretty good by the sun... as in dead. Your thrasher feeding station looks quite innovative. Soon you will have an entire garden of wire mesh cages just like we have gardens of chicken wire and fruit tree netting and exclusion fencing! And here I was thinking to myself that you all didn't have to deal with squirrels and along comes the mention of thrashers and their nasty little habits.

We have one native prickly pear (Opuntia humifusa) here in Illinois and we use hot dog tongs to work with them but some leather rose gloves will work in a pinch. I don't envy you working with so many plants that are out to get you back for messing with them and many of the little stickers are blond colored and you can't hardly even see them to pull them out of your own flesh when you do get stuck. I so hate pain.

What's going on around here? I'm a stick gardener. I stick plants here and I stick plants there. I stick plants everywhere. For the first time my husband asked me to please start pulling this landscape design together. Landscape design? Why... I didn't have one- oh bother! I knew I needed a windbreak of evergreens for shelter and protection for my birds as well as to shield a portion of my home so I did start sort of haphazardly on a windbreak this year but there was no actual design to what I was planting because I simply stuck evergreens here and stuck evergreens there. I always knew I would be eliminating my lawn and that it was only a matter of time before it was bye bye so I've been plugging along at plantings that do just that so that when the day comes, I can go and waste all the turf grass here and go with a combination of no-mow and native buffalo grass. Ok, landscape design time??? Oops, I don't have any artistic abilities to pull things together yet wanted to try to appease hubby so I got to thinking about what I could do to make it look as if I was cooperating. Hmmm, I started trenching around plantings, then I started adding 6" borders, then I added contractor grade landscape fabric to block out weeds, then I started piling on mulch and volia! Happy husband!

Here's a photo to start desribing to you what I've been doing-

You basically cut the lawn down to a butch and cover it with what ever is handy to kill it off. Grass dies quick around here.

Here's a photo of another area that I am "designing" where I had killed the grass but ultimately went back and removed it all-

Forgto to mention that the little water feature you see there is temporary "home" to 3 or 4 Northern Leopard Frogs. I placed that water feature there not because it looked good but more so because the frogs hopping through needed a resting place. Turns out I was able to integrate the resting stop into my "Landscape design".

Here's where I dug it out but haven't yet trenched-

Here's what one of the smaller "landscape designs" looks like when finished-

Husband is thrilled so I have started a total of 10 of these areas on the property and some of them are huge and not just to accent an area. One area is at least a hundred feet long. I'd photograph that but I'm still in the trenching process. Trenching is very labor intensive and since I'm the one-man labor force, I get to it when I can but it will be finished by fall. I am going ot go back and create another area around the evergreen plantings but that will have to wait till next year.

Other than that, I ordered chunks of limestone and had a simple bench made and delivered here for one of my "landscaped areas". The goal is to remove the kids' sandbox (they aren't really using it for much of anything these days so I am going to have bricklayers come and create the beginnings of a 4'-5' deep pond with an eight inch shelf around the edge for plants. The new "decorative" pond will rise out of the ground with a "matching" limestone sill using the same brick around the patio which is the same brick to the house. Must begin to pull in all design elements! I read that somewhere. We'll need to pour footings and such for the brick but hubby approved the "landscape design". I'm going with native fish in that pond. As you can see, the grass is dead in the photo but I have since removed the grass and am ready to trench to add that "decorative" trim.

Every plant I am using is "native" for the critters. Every plant will be "tubed" to keep the Bambis and Thumpers from defoliating them and/or stripping the bark. The squirrels are bad but the Bambis and Thumpers are worse. They need to be tubed until they establish around here so it's going to look like a graveyard for tan crayons here for a while. It was either that or put up chicken wire around every one of these little landscape designs. I truly don't know which looks worse.

Other than that, they are finishing up the outdoor tile to my screened in porch and there are going to be areas in the tile that are above ground planters for native shade plants. Lemme see, the foundation for the new Martin House gets poured not this weekend but the next. The concrete needs to cure so the Martin House (complete with added owl guards) will go up the week after... hopefully. And then, as if I didn't have enough irons in the fire... that should bring us into October/November when the excavators are supposed to come and clear an area for a greenhouse my husband bought for me that is stacked up in boxes on our driveway and stacked up in boxes in our garage and stacked up in boxes in our storage shed. The greenhouse is parted out all over this property waiting for the concrete guy to be able to pour a foundation for it. The greenhouse is about 15' x 25' and it is white so it matches the white wrapped windows on our house- all the better to tie in those design elements!

I also worked on planting some of the raised beds that were added last year. I also completely dismantled one of the raised beds because I didn't like how it looked with my "Master Plan". Not that I knew I had a "Master Plan" but shhh... don't tell the hubby. He's clueless and thinks I knew what I was doing from the get go and the truth is that I started tossing in those "landscaped areas" to shut him up.

Wow, you are busy! Ponds, martin houses, the works! Those bed areas look great. I love the frog "pit stop" water feature too. We hope to add more watering areas for animals and birds as we go. We need to extend water lines in every direction; only good thing is that digging here in our sand is a breeze compared to digging in the caliche and limestone gravel of our previous home. Shovels actually work here, instead of bouncing off rocks and skinning your shin.

The pond sounds great. You'll need to show pics as it develops. If I can't have a cool fishy oasis in my own yard, at least I can look at photos of yours.

Thanks for explaining the tubes. (I thought maybe that was a modern art statement...little minimalist sculptures.) We have a few rabbits but so far they're not a problem. Whatever works is the way to go...cages or tubes are a lot prettier than the dead brown stubs of deer-munched landscaping.

I love limestone edging, and your bench is great. See you DO have a master plan after all. It will be lovely when it's done. Putting in the hardscape is a lot of work, but it sure makes a difference later on. I'm starting to realize how important the "bones" of a garden space are. It all takes time and money but I think it's a good investment of both. I have a referral for a landscape designer here who is also a serious birder, and I'm wondering how expensive a professional plan would be. I think he'd be one of those rare landscapers who really knows how to maximize for wildlife, so I may call to see how pricey he is. I'd be the manual labor, so it might work out.

Oooooh, a greenhouse, and a nice-sized one! Good for you! Will you be posting pictures in the Greenhouse forum? I keep kicking that idea around, but I don't think I'm ready to tackle that yet. I'd love a combination shade house/small greenhouse, and the shade is what I really crave. Studying greenhouses with all the questions involving orientation, ventilation, heating and cooling is quite a research project, and I frankly worry that I'm not really smart enough to own one. I'm still reading and scratching my head. I hope you'll post pictures!

Thanks for the tour, it looks very exciting! Keep the photos coming!

The limestone is a funny story. I had no idea it was that expensive when I ordered it and asked that it be formed into a bench and delivered to the site. I was clueless and was thinking no more than a couple hundred dollars. I was in shock and my husband laughed and said it was a good thing I assumed a 700lb plus limestone bench was only going to be a couple hundred dollars delivered or we wouldn't have it because I am cheap to the extent of being ludicrous at times. He likes it and is ordering another one next year to match that one for the other side. It stays given it isn't returnable or I would have sent it packing.

I truly don't know anything about design. I really only did all of the above to create the illusion that I had some sort of a plan. I wanted everything around here to have the appearance of just sprouting up but HE has a different idea of what looks attractive to him so I figured I'd better stand up and pay attention to his need for curb appeal.

Yes, the tubes are a necessary evil around here. Pretty disgusting looking now aren't they? But they must stay for a few years.

The fishy oasis is going to allegedly start some time this fall with completion next year. Footings need to be poured and we need to get rebar in there before the brick goes up and we figured might as well convert the sand box at the same time we are going to take care of the footings and rebar and floor drains for the greenhouse. Hoepfully, that all takes place late this fall but it could get backed up to next spring if winter sets in too early around here. We are on the schedule for excavation but if they get bad weather or a few jobs that set them back, that will set back the concrete guys, which will set back the brick layers, which will mean we'll be set back to next year.

Now about the greenhouse. Studying greenhouses with all the questions involving orientation, ventilation, heating and cooling was not for me either. I have a secret for you. I am not smart enough myself. I did not do much of anything except turn over my husband's credit card and even then I was sort of thinking it would probably just be best to give the credit card info to stressbaby to make sure I got everything they wanted me to order. Stressbaby and Tigerlily123 ordered everything for my new greenhouse for me. Those two members here picked everything for me and I do mean everything. I had originally planned on a greenhouse that was 8' x 12' but they said nooooooooooo and that I had to have a bigger one. It was fun watching the two of them go at it. I doubt they ever expected me to actually take all of their work and call it in as an order but that's exactly what I did. No sense me lifting a finger when both of them already have greenhouses and they know what they are doing and what one really needs to get one up and functional. You will find the thread where they did everything for me over in the greenhouse forum right on down to the types of fans as well as shade cloths, heating units, and thermostats. I kid you not, I did not do my own greenhouse. Those two other members did it from top to bottom and completely outfitted it too! I've never had a greenhouse before and the professional grade ones are expensive and I figured no sense me screwing up by dabbling in areas that are out of my league so I turned it over to them. My husband looked over everything they had and all he added was a waste oil heater to supplement the gas heater they picked. My husband is the one who will design the floor drains and such. He's qualified for that and can stamp our drawings for the permits since he is an engineer.

Limestone is quarried in the TX hill country where I lived previously so it's common there. We had several exterior walls of our old house rocked over with limestone, and I had walks and rock planters galore. You could go to landfill piles and pick up limestone scrap pieces for nothing. Here I have no rocks to play with unless I buy them from landscapers for real money, sniffle. Limestone withdrawal! Pat your nice bench for me.

I'm also wrestling with the "unplanned natural look" vs. "organized planting bed look" question. I guess we'll have both. Most of our yard is so raggedly wild that a little bit of organization is a visual relief, but I keep reminding myself that raggedy wild is better for the wildlife. I think some of the plants and wildflowers I want to add will just go where they want to anyway, so I doubt it will look very orderly.

Thanks for the greenhouse info. I have seen some impressive posts from those two in the Greenhouse forum. Technical wizards! I need to hang out there more, and I'll go look for the thread where they helped you design yours. It' s nice to know that such good help is available here at DG. Goodness knows I will need it, if I ever tackle a greenhouse of any kind. I may eventually post a drawing of my yard and house to get advice on location; I've moved it in my mind about five times now. I figure the real deal will not be as easily moved (if I want to stay married, that is.) ;-)

If it were up to me, I'd have the "unplanned natural look" that is unkempt and disorderly right up to the front door but (sigh) I am married and he tells me to please at least pretend to consider him when I garden in the yard. Not an unreasonable request (cough gag sputter). I guess the area immediately around the house is going to look orderly.

oldmudhouse - I agree about the desert willows. They would be a lovely addition to your yard for just the right amount of shade. Hummingbirds are supposed to like them, but never seen one at a tree. I super-de-duper like your yard. What a fun challenge it will be to work with that!
So you used to live here in Hill Country? Perhaps you can help identify some plants sometime?

Can't post 'em now. Gotta get up early, but first gotta finish laundry & shower.
Equi - same for froggie pics.
Maybe on Sunday...

I'd be very happy to help if I can, indirt! We lived in Ingram, on the Guadalupe River, close to Kerrville and about 65 miles NW of San Antonio. One plant I really miss from my yard is a Texas Persimmon (Diospyros texana) that I grew from a little scraggly twig I bought at a native plant sale. Have you seen those? Pretty little trees with peeling bark, and birds go bonkers for the fruits.

I'm trying to learn the wildflowers/weeds that are springing up due to a very heavy monsoon rain season here. (The rule is, if it's blooming, nobody touches it until I photo and ID it.) Our yard looks much greener than it did in the parched photos above...thank goodness.

Little bit of an update for me. All of the areas I showed photos of above are finished and we've started others. I now have tree tubes on all the plants in this area but here it is right after we finished-

And here is the area where the brick pond with the limestone sill will be-

I had to put tubes on those plants too. They don't look the greatest but they protect the plants from the deer and rabbits until they are established. Only a few years and then I can remove the tubes.

editing to add that we will be adding a grid system for a permeable walkway around these areas at some point in time. I haven't quite decided which system I am going to use yet but that's the goal. It will be seeded with the native Buffalo Grass and those plants in those landscape islands are also indigenous to my area.

This message was edited Aug 27, 2006 7:24 PM

And, here's the next area we started working on. It doesn't look it but it is almost 100' long and we also began wrapping around the front of the house to continue the "look" and that's another 150' or so of trenching. Very labor intensive but it should look ok when finished. This side of the house that is photographed has some plants that are indigenous but mostly Hosta for now. I may or may not replace those in the next few years. I haven't decided yet quite what I want to do there-

Boy, I wish I had those lovely beds at my house. One of our local nurseries is going out of business, everything 1/2 off, and I don't have a good place to stick many perennials right now. I'd fill those lovely shapes up pronto and sort out the plan later!

I really do like the fluid shape of those beds. They look like natural water shapes. When they are happy homes to mature plants I think they will be lovely.

Those grid systems are interesting and I think they can be very attractive (as well as beneficial.) I used to visit a library that had a similar system in the parking area, using some kind of concrete patterned blocks with the grass growing through. There were a lot of huge old live oak trees in the area and I think someone had the foresight to consider the welfare of the trees before putting the usual layer of asphalt right over the root zone of the big trees. Good for them.

Of course, you know I did buy plants at that sale, and will be going back for more (I have already given my husband fair warning so he can brace himself.) I was delighted to find some of the native shrubs I wanted (good seed sources and cover for wildlife) including Whitethorn Acacia, Winterfat, Four-wing Saltbush, and Apache Plume. I also bought a shrub that they identified as "Valentine's Bush"...only thing I can turn up by Googling is Emu bush, some variety of Eremophila, which seems to be a desert shrub from Australia. Should be drought tolerant and is supposed to have good blooms for hummingbirds, but I was not familiar with that one. I’m really trying to stick to plants native to my area but this half-off thing sort of affects my thinking. (!!)Is anyone familiar with Emu Bush?

Anyway, if I had those lovely flower beds that you do, I'd take my husband's truck to that nursery and tell them, fill 'er up...! As it is I will spend some time tomorrow developing my own version of your “stick garden”…I’ll be sticking one shrub here, and sticking another there.

I am not familiar with the Emu Bush but would be hesitant to plant anything that I couldn't keep an eye on over here based on my history of not choosing wisely. Seems as if every single time I didn't do my homework before sticking a plant in the ground that it cost me time, lots of time. The Hostas and Tall Bearded Iris being the exception.

Wish I could go out plant shopping like you did. I am on plant circuitry overload right about now. I can't go and fill er up because I'd have to get all those plants in the ground and our weather is going to turn for the worse here in the not so distant future and snow will be swirling. I'd really like to finish off the beds and as of this weekend, all of the trenching is done. Next weekend I'd like to finish the insertion of the edging. After that starts the arduous task of cutting to size all the landscape fabric so we can pile on the mulch. I have 6 100' rolls that are 4' wide set aside to finish off. I think I am cutting it close so here's hoping I make it with the materials I have bought. I hope I finish this year but maybe not.

The shapes just sort of came into existance by following the lines of the existing plants. I did not plan it that way... I just sort of followed the flow of where I had been sticking things. I wish I could say that I had had a master plant but I didn't.

Found some info on the Emu bush (Eremophila) that indicates it rarely sets fertile seed, and the seed is notoriously hard to germinate, so hopefully I won't regret it. Nonetheless I am taking your advice, and it will go where I can keep an eye on it, in a tame part of the yard. I think I had shopped too long in the sun that day without a hat, resulting in abnormally spontaneous buying behavior. ;-)

Good luck, I don't envy you laying the landscape fabric, and I hope you get it all done in time. Keep us posted, I always enjoy seeing your photos. (Can't wait for the greenhouse progress to start.)