I enjoy traveling – especially when I get to explore new places. Last month, I journeyed to Buffalo New York where I toured gardens, attended a writer’s workshop, and best of all, spent time with one of my favorite people.
Why Buffalo you may ask? Well, it turns out that this industrial city has beautiful green spaces, whimsical private gardens, as well as test gardens. Each August, the city hosts Garden Walk Buffalo where people from all over the U.S., Canada, and other countries descend to tour over 400 private gardens. I was in Buffalo for the Garden Communicator’s Annual Conference, which is held in a different city each year. Each year, I look forward to the conference where garden tours, educational sessions, and the tradeshow fills our days. It is also a very good time to reconnect with fellow writers.
I arrived in Buffalo a few days early to meet up with my BGF (Best Garden Friend), Andrea who flew all the way from Australia to attend. We met two years ago when we attended our first conference and bonded instantly. Throughout the year, we keep in touch via Facebook Messenger and look forward to spending a week together at the conference.
Our agenda for the first day was to explore the downtown area down the street from our hotel. There were many older buildings, including our hotel, which had been beautifully refurbished, including the city hall and its art deco architecture.
The day was sunny, humid, and hot. Desert dwellers like me don’t deal very well with humidity, but that didn’t stop us from exploring.
We walked down to Canalside, which is along the banks of Lake Erie. As we explored the area, we walked through beautifully landscaped garden beds. The hosta and coleus were stunning with their contrasting colors.
While I may not be able to grow many of the plants we passed by, it doesn’t keep me from enjoying their beauty and getting inspired to create similar plantings using different plants that thrive where I live. However, there was ONE plant in this bed that currently grows in my garden – pink flowering gaura.
As we continued walking along the water front, splashes of color caught my eye.
We had stumbled upon a ‘pot of gold at the end of a rainbow’ or in other words, a test garden where the latest flowering annuals are being tested.
Large containers filled with ‘Supertunia’ petunias look as if they are on steroids. But, this type of flower is smaller than regular petunias and flower more abundantly as you can see. The tall spikes of white and purple angelonia add a lovely vertical accent.
White alyssum, black sweet potato vine, and gomphrena make a unique grouping that works.
I was thrilled to note that many of the plants in the test garden would grow nicely in my desert garden – during the cool season.
More pink gaura was to be seen, blooming in front of masses of Supertunia.
Lantana is a very familiar sight in arid gardens where it can survive outdoors throughout the year. However, in cold winter regions, it is treated as an annual.
Black-eyed Susan vines grew against a wooden fence surrounded by vibrant verbena and double petunias.
I love trellises made from natural materials on hand like this wood, likely fished out from the lake.
Here is another plant that currently grows in my desert garden – Salvia amistad.
Million Bells (Calibrachoa)
After the long trek from our hotel and exploring the test garden, Andrea and I were content after seeing such beautiful plants, but we were also hot, tired, and hungry.
Thankfully, we found this wonderful restaurant a couple of blocks away. The food and service were fabulous, so we came back again for dinner.
I invite you to visit Andrea’s blog where she writes about her adventures gardening in Perth, Australia. Please come back to join me for day two of our adventure where we discover another garden – this one filled with edible plants along with whimsical garden signs.
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Disclosure: This post is paid for by the folks at Lava Soap. The opinions expressed, are my own.
Are you afraid to get your hands dirty when you garden? I’m not. In fact, I seldom wear gardening gloves when I’m working in the soil. Oh, gloves are useful when using pruners, raking, or dealing with thorny plants. However, I find elemental pleasure with working in the soil with my bare hands.
I especially like to ditch the gloves when I am working in my vegetable garden where whether I am planting seeds, smoothing out a new layer of compost, or harvesting plants – touching the plants and soil with my hands makes me happy.
Last week, I spent the morning out in the vegetable garden, cleaning out old plants and getting it ready for sowing seeds in mid-September. The experience was not unlike the feeling you get after spring cleaning. I have an almost blank canvas on which to add new vegetables this fall.
After the plants are ripped out, I add several inches of new compost to prepare the beds. I buy my compost in bags, which makes it easier to add just where I want it to go.
This year, I am changing things up a bit by adding mushroom compost, which has composted horse manure and straw among other things. I like to try new things to see how they perform and then communicate that information to you.
All told, we added a total of 6 inches of regular and mushroom composts to the garden.
Our desert tortoise, Aesop, came out to see what we were doing. Unfortunately, we discovered that he is able to climb up into the vegetable garden, which we don’t want as he will eat our leafy greens. So, we will have to replace the short wood sides with taller ones.
As if my hands weren’t dirty enough after pulling out plants, they became more so as I smoothed out the newly added mulch around the few plants that remained. Of course, any chance of getting his hands dirty, brings out my grandson, Eric, to help me out in the garden.
Back in the house, we had two pairs of messy hands. So, out came my favorite hand cleaner that I reserve for the dirtiest of messes. Lava Soap is the most effective way that I have found to get rid of the ground in garden dirt from my hands, and Eric was anxious to get started first. Within a couple of minutes, his little hands were nice and squeaky clean.
My hands were worse than Eric’s, coated with soil and plant debris and I knew from experience that regular soap wouldn’t do the job. So I grabbed my bar of Lava and got started.
That is a lot of dirt!
Almost done!
Finished!
In the past, whenever I would use regular soap, it never got them completely clean, and I would have dirt remaining in the small cracks in my hands. I also didn’t like how dried out my hands would feel after working in the garden.
Lava Soap not only gets my hands (and Eric’s) cleaner than regular soap, it doesn’t dry them out either. Most of us have heard of this famous cleaning bar and how it is useful for getting rid of grease, paint, and glue due to the pumice that within it. However, I’m here to state that it also did a fabulous job removing the garden soil from my hands while leaving them moisturized afterward.
So, ditch the garden gloves, reach your hands into the soil and experience the joy of gardening. Just be sure to have some Lava Soap ready to help you clean up afterward.
Lava Soap is available at retailers across the country, including Ace, Walmart, Dollar General, and Family Dollar. To find a store near you, visit LavaSoap.com and click on the Where to Buy button.
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Do you have a container, or two, filled with flowers or maybe a succulent? Chances are you do. Many of us settle for the bland shades of brown or beige when choosing pots and miss out on an excellent opportunity to add interest and color to our outdoor spaces.
I am a strong proponent ditching boring neutrals in favor of colorful pots with unique shapes and textures in my ongoing attempt to encourage people to think of plant containers as outdoor decor. As a result, I was thrilled with I was contacted by Annette Gutierrez, one of the authors of Potted: Make Your Own Stylish Garden Containers and asked to review her book.
Innertube from an old tire converted into a planter at the Tucson Botanical Garden.
Within the pages of Potted, Annette and her co-author, Mary Gray, inspire as they show the reader how to create unique and unusual containers that create instant interest.
During my garden travels, I seek everyday items that are reimagined and converted into unorthodox planters such as a recycled tire innertube.
Annette and Mary refer to themselves as decorators rather than gardeners and own a store in Los Angeles, aptly named Potted where they create innovative receptacles for plants using everyday items such as cinderblock, PVC pipe, and even old wood doors to name but a few.
If you have ever shopped for colorful or unique containers, you’ve undoubtedly experienced sticker shock at the high prices and settled for a boring, but sturdy terra-cotta pot. Over twenty container ideas await the reader, each of which, meet the following criteria:
It must be affordable
Materials must be easy to find
A good DIY project for the average person
I must admit that after finishing the book, I was looking at ordinary items like paint cans and plastic garbage pails in a different light – decorated and filled with plants.
I can hardly wait to get started! How about you?
Disclosure: I received a copy of ‘Potted’ free of charge for my honest review.
One of the best things about having a garden in the desert southwest is our ability to grow citrus of all kinds. Lemon trees are a popular fruit tree and I am often asked what type of lemon do I recommend.
There are different types of lemons but the one that is my favorite isn’t a ‘true’ lemon tree at all. It’s a Meyer lemon, which is a cross between an orange tree and a lemon tree.
The result is a fruit that tastes sweeter than your typical lemon and has lovely thin, smooth skin. Meyer lemons are suitable for use in the same ways that other lemons are, but you can use them in additional ways as well due to their sweeter nature.
I recently shared the reasons why you should plant a Meyer lemons tree in one of my latest articles for Houzz.
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Do you have a gardening tool that is extra special to you? I do. Whenever I’m in the garden, you’ll usually see me with a pair of hand pruners that I use for lightly shaping shrubs, removing tree suckers, or cutting fresh flowers.
As a garden writer and influencer, I am often provided with the newest model of hand pruners. In fact, I have quite a collection! While these hand pruners bear the labels of several makers, my favorite pair is in fact, my oldest.
At first glance, these orange-handled pruners aren’t fancy, and I don’t know who the maker is. The handles aren’t the most ergonomic, but function almost as well as the newer ones do.
I refer to this old-fashioned pair of pruners as my ‘garden heirloom’ because they once belonged to my father-in-law who was an avid gardener. Like me, he didn’t have just one set of pruners, but three pair, which hung on the wall over his tool bench. All of his gardening tools were meticulously maintained and still work well today.
When my father-in-law couldn’t prune his plants any longer due to complications of ALS, he bequeathed his gardening tools to me. I started using his pruners to care for his garden once the disease had robbed him of the ability to do so himself. One of my favorite memories is having him would sit nearby and watch me cutting back his prized plants.
Several years later, those orange-handled pruners have a new home in my garden shed and I try to take of them as well as he did. So I use 3-IN-ONE Multi-Purpose Oil to lubricate them, which keeps them opening and closing smoothly. This makes pruning much easier while putting less stress on my hands.
While I miss spending time in the garden with my father-in-law, I always feel a little closer to him whenever I pull out my favorite family heirloom.
Do you have any garden tools that are special to you?
You would expect that after living in our backyard for two years, Aesop, our desert tortoise, would have discovered all there was to see. However, that wasn’t the case. His curious nature led him over to where I was working to pull out plants in the vegetable garden and to his joy and my dismay, he was able to climb up into it.
Getting out was a little trickier, as you can see in the video below.
Looks like we will need to raise the sides of the garden to keep him from eating the leafy greens.
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Do you love hummingbirds? Maybe a better question would be, who doesn’t?
Hummingbird feeding from an ocotillo flower.
Attracting hummingbirds to your garden isn’t hard to do by simply adding flowering plants, rich in nectar that they are attracted to.
Female Anna’s hummingbird at my feeder.
But, what if your garden space is small or non-existent? Is a hanging a hummingbird feeder your only option?
Well, I’m here to tell you that space needn’t keep you from having your own hummingbird garden – all you have to do is to downsize it creating one in a container.
If you have a small patio, stoop or even a balcony, you can create your own mini-hummingbird garden in a container.
For those of you who have think you have no space at all, look up!
Hanging containers or window boxes are a great option for those short on garden space.
Whether you have small garden space or simply want to increase the amount of hummingbirds visiting your existing garden – creating a mini-hummingbird garden in a container is a great way to do it.
Let’s get started.
Here are the elements of a hummingbird container garden:
LOCATION:
– Select a location that receives at least 6 hours of sun a day.
– Group containers together for greater color impact, which increases the chances of hummingbird visits.
– Place containers in areas where you can view the visiting hummingbirds such as an entry, near a window or a back patio.
– Make sure that the containers are visible and allow easy access for hummingbirds to fly in and out.
CONTAINERS:
– The type of container isn’t important – but drainage is. Make sure pots have holes for drainage.
– Select colorful pots for a welcome splash of color (optional).
– Larger pots will stay moister longer, therefore needing to be water less frequently.
SOIL:
– Use a planting mix (not potting soil), which is specially formulated for container plants since it holds onto just the right amount of moisture without becoming soggy like potting soil can.
– For large containers, save money on expensive planting mix (soil) by filling the bottom third of the container with recycled plastic water bottles and/or milk jugs.
WHAT PLANT WHERE?
While hummingbirds don’t care how you arrange plants in your mini-hummingbird garden
– you can certainly arrange plants.
– Place the tallest plant in the center, surrounded with medium-sized filler plants interspersed with trailing ground covers.
This planter has the tallest plant (Salvia) located in the center with mid-sized purple coneflower next to it with ‘Wave’ petunias spilling over the outside.
Grab my FREE guide for Fuss-Free Plants that thrive in a hot, dry climate!
COLOR:
A hummingbird’s favorite color is red, although they will visit flowers of all colors as long as they are rich in nectar.
However, let’s explore color in regards to creating a beautiful container and figuring out what color combos look best.
To this, we will need to visit our friend, the color wheel.
– To achieve a soft blending of colors, select plants with flower colors that are next to each other on the color wheel.
– For a striking contrast, pair flowers with colors that occur on opposite ends of the color wheel.
HUMMINGBIRD ATTRACTING PLANTS:
Salvia coccinea
– Hummingbirds are drawn to flowers that have a tubular shape.
Hummingbird feeding from the yellow flower of aloe vera.
– The color red is their favorite, but as stated earlier, they will visit flowers of all colors.
Young hummingbird feeding from a lantana flower.
– They tend to prefer flowers with little to no fragrance since their sense of smell is poor.
– Plants belonging to the Salvia genus are all very popular with hummingbirds and are a safe choice when creating a hummingbird container garden.
Soap aloe flowers.
– Flowering succulents are also often visited by hummingbirds as well.
Rufous hummingbird feeding from the flower of a red hot poker plant.
– There are helpful online resources with lists of plants that attract hummingbirds. Here are two helpful ones:
– Other helpful resources are your local botanical garden, master gardener or nursery professional.
Another bonus to planting hummingbird attracting plants is that many of the same flowers attract butterflies too.
CARE:
The key to maintaining healthy container plants lies in proper watering and fertilizing.
Let’s look at watering first:
– Water containers when the top 2 inches of soil are barely moist. You can stick your finger into the soil to determine how dry the soil is.
– Water until the water flows out the bottom of the container.
– The frequency of watering will vary seasonally.
Fertilizing is important for container plants – even plants that don’t normally require fertilizer when planted in the ground will need it if in a container.
– Fertilize with a slow-release fertilizer, which lasts 3 months.
The key to maintaining healthy container plants lies in proper watering and fertilizing.
Let’s look at watering first:
– Water containers when the top 2 inches of soil are barely moist. You can stick your finger into the soil to determine how dry the soil is.
– Water until the water flows out the bottom of the container.
– The frequency of watering will vary seasonally.
Fertilizing is important for container plants – even plants that don’t normally require fertilizer when planted in the ground will need it if in a container.
– Fertilize with a slow-release fertilizer, which lasts 3 months.
Don’t be afraid to look outside the box when it comes to what can be used as a container.
An old wheelbarrow makes a great container after a making a few holes in the bottom for drainage. *While marigolds don’t attract hummingbirds, there are a few dianthus in this planter that do.
Hummingbirds love water!
Add a water feature in a container that will surely attract nearby hummingbirds.
Add places for hummingbirds to perch nearby or within the container itself.
This little black-chinned hummingbird was perfectly at home perching on a lady’s slipper (Pedilanthus macrocarpus) stem that was growing in a container.
You can always add a small, dead tree branch within the container itself for a convenient perching spot.
As you can see, the amount (or lack of) garden space doesn’t need to limit your ability to attract hummingbirds using beautiful, flowering plants.
****************************
I spoke about small space gardening at the Hummingbird Festival 2015, and it was an unforgettable experience, filled with educational talks, beautiful gardens and observing hummingbirds up close – I even got to hold one! To read more about my adventures with hummingbirds, click here.
I hope that you are inspired to create your own mini-hummingbird habitat in a container.
**Do you have a favorite plant that attracts lots of hummingbirds? Please share them in the comments section.
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Have you ever encountered this landscaping challenge? This blank wall is rather boring, and the home behind it dominates the view. So what would you do to fix these problems?
I faced this dilemma last month at a client’s home. The pool was the main focal point of the landscape, and the dull wall wasn’t doing it any favors. In coming up with a solution, we had to select a plant that was relatively low-litter, due to the proximity to the pool and that looked attractive throughout the entire year because of the high-profile location.
Hop Bush (Dodonaea viscosa)
I recommended adding three hop bush (Dodonaea viscosa). These are tall, evergreen shrubs that thrive in arid climates such as ours.
One of the many things that I love about them is their versatility. They thrive in full sun and light shade, and can be allowed to grow up to 12 feet tall, or maintained at a lower height.
Hop bush can be allowed to grow to their natural shape…
…or pruned more formally.
For the area behind the pool, I recommend having it grow to its full height, which will help provide privacy while the attractive foliage will add a welcome screen of green throughout the year.
evergreen shrubs Hop bush flowers
Hop bush does produce light green, papery flowers in spring, but they aren’t particularly showy. So, we need to add a color element to the area behind the pool.
One of my favorite ways to add color to any landscape is to incorporate brightly colored containers in shade of blue, purple, or orange. That way, whether plants are in bloom or not, there is always a bright splash of color.
For this area, I recommended adding 3 blue pots, equally spaced.
Now it was time to decide what to plant in each pot. The client wanted a low-maintenance choice that wouldn’t require a lot of water.
Immediately, I remembered touring a landscape that had blue containers filled with ‘Blue Elf’ aloe. Even though the aloe had finished blooming for the year, their spiky blue-gray foliage added nice color contrast.
This small aloe is one of my favorite succulents for several reasons. First, it begins to bloom in late winter, lasting into spring adding welcome color to cool-season landscapes. Hummingbirds can’t resist the flowers either.
This aloe is best showcased when grouped together and thrives in full sun, unlike most aloe which prefer filtered shade. Finally, it is hardy to 15 degrees F. so cold winters seldom bother it.
And so, here is the planting that I suggested to my client that will provide year round beauty and privacy.
*Do you have a favorite plant or group of plants that you like to use against bare walls?
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Vacations are a time that I love to spend with my family doing things that we don’t normally have time for with the busyness of school and work that predominates throughout much of the year. This summer, we spent a couple of weeks in Michigan visiting my oldest daughter and her family. In planning our trip, we list what we want to do and number one on the list for our summer adventures was going to a farm and picking our own strawberries and cherries.
So, on a sunny Tuesday morning, we headed out along a back country road and visited Kiteley Farm ready to pick strawberries.
I must admit that I have never picked strawberries, other than in my own garden, and couldn’t wait to experience to harvest them myself. Initially, my 15-year-old son couldn’t figure out why we were going to pick them when it was easier to buy them in the supermarket. But, I told him to just wait and see – I promised him that he would change his mind afterward.
We were given instructions on where the strawberry fields were located and grabbed our boxes, ready to fill them up with sweet, delicious strawberries.
The entry to the farm is flanked by blue bachelor’s button and the orange flowers of honeysuckle.
The strawberry field was very large and we all got started, hunting underneath the leaves for glimpses of bright red fruit.
It’s no surprise that the strawberries that you buy at the store are often large and not particularly sweet, which aids in transporting them to the store without getting bruised. However, berries at pick-your-own farms are smaller and incredibly sweet.
My granddaughter Lily got right into picking strawberries.
The edge of the field was shaded by tall trees and we discovered that the berries were larger in this part of the field.
The key to finding the best berries is to look at the lowest berry which is usually the ripest.
After about an hour, we had 11 pounds of strawberries. Not bad for amateur strawberry pickers.
Next, it was time to pick cherries. Michigan has a large percentage of the cherry growing market and because cherries don’t grow in my neck of the woods, I always take advantage of being able to pick them whenever I visit in July.
There are several farms where you can go and pick your own cherries and all you have to pay for is the fruit you pick.
The trees were heavily laden with bright red cherries, which were easier to pick than strawberries as we didn’t have to bend over.
Lily was just as good at picking cherries as she was with strawberries.
At the end of a busy morning, we had plenty of fruit and I was excited to take them back and make sweet things with them.
For me, the best part of that morning was when my son said, “That was so fun. We need to do it again next year.”
Don’t they look delicious? And perfect for…
…strawberry shortcake!
*You don’t have to grow fruit (or vegetables) in your own garden to be able to enjoy the experience of picking your own produce. No matter where you live, there is likely a farm nearby where you can experience the fun of picking your own!
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In the past, succulent plants were valued primarily for their drought tolerance and found their way into gardens in arid regions. Today, while they are still a great choice for water-wise plants are wise, they offer many other benefits to outdoor spaces including adding colorful flowers and solving common garden problems.
Elk Horn (Cotyledon orbiculata)
I’ve written a series of articles for Houzz focusing on succulents and how you can add beauty to your garden with these versatile plants that will thrive in arid climates.
I hope you find inspiration through them and look at succulent plants in a new way.
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Garden Travels: Unexpected Garden Adventures With a Dear Friend
AZ Plant Lady, Containers, Garden Travels, PerennialI enjoy traveling – especially when I get to explore new places. Last month, I journeyed to Buffalo New York where I toured gardens, attended a writer’s workshop, and best of all, spent time with one of my favorite people.
Why Buffalo you may ask? Well, it turns out that this industrial city has beautiful green spaces, whimsical private gardens, as well as test gardens. Each August, the city hosts Garden Walk Buffalo where people from all over the U.S., Canada, and other countries descend to tour over 400 private gardens. I was in Buffalo for the Garden Communicator’s Annual Conference, which is held in a different city each year. Each year, I look forward to the conference where garden tours, educational sessions, and the tradeshow fills our days. It is also a very good time to reconnect with fellow writers.
I arrived in Buffalo a few days early to meet up with my BGF (Best Garden Friend), Andrea who flew all the way from Australia to attend. We met two years ago when we attended our first conference and bonded instantly. Throughout the year, we keep in touch via Facebook Messenger and look forward to spending a week together at the conference.
Our agenda for the first day was to explore the downtown area down the street from our hotel. There were many older buildings, including our hotel, which had been beautifully refurbished, including the city hall and its art deco architecture.
The day was sunny, humid, and hot. Desert dwellers like me don’t deal very well with humidity, but that didn’t stop us from exploring.
We walked down to Canalside, which is along the banks of Lake Erie. As we explored the area, we walked through beautifully landscaped garden beds. The hosta and coleus were stunning with their contrasting colors.
While I may not be able to grow many of the plants we passed by, it doesn’t keep me from enjoying their beauty and getting inspired to create similar plantings using different plants that thrive where I live. However, there was ONE plant in this bed that currently grows in my garden – pink flowering gaura.
As we continued walking along the water front, splashes of color caught my eye.
We had stumbled upon a ‘pot of gold at the end of a rainbow’ or in other words, a test garden where the latest flowering annuals are being tested.
Large containers filled with ‘Supertunia’ petunias look as if they are on steroids. But, this type of flower is smaller than regular petunias and flower more abundantly as you can see. The tall spikes of white and purple angelonia add a lovely vertical accent.
White alyssum, black sweet potato vine, and gomphrena make a unique grouping that works.
I was thrilled to note that many of the plants in the test garden would grow nicely in my desert garden – during the cool season.
More pink gaura was to be seen, blooming in front of masses of Supertunia.
Lantana is a very familiar sight in arid gardens where it can survive outdoors throughout the year. However, in cold winter regions, it is treated as an annual.
Black-eyed Susan vines grew against a wooden fence surrounded by vibrant verbena and double petunias.
I love trellises made from natural materials on hand like this wood, likely fished out from the lake.
Here is another plant that currently grows in my desert garden – Salvia amistad.
Million Bells (Calibrachoa)
After the long trek from our hotel and exploring the test garden, Andrea and I were content after seeing such beautiful plants, but we were also hot, tired, and hungry.
Thankfully, we found this wonderful restaurant a couple of blocks away. The food and service were fabulous, so we came back again for dinner.
I invite you to visit Andrea’s blog where she writes about her adventures gardening in Perth, Australia. Please come back to join me for day two of our adventure where we discover another garden – this one filled with edible plants along with whimsical garden signs.
Shed the Gloves and Get Your Hands Dirty
az plant lady family, desert gardening, Gardening With Kids, Product Review, Southwest garden, Vegetable GardeningDisclosure: This post is paid for by the folks at Lava Soap. The opinions expressed, are my own.
Are you afraid to get your hands dirty when you garden? I’m not. In fact, I seldom wear gardening gloves when I’m working in the soil. Oh, gloves are useful when using pruners, raking, or dealing with thorny plants. However, I find elemental pleasure with working in the soil with my bare hands.
I especially like to ditch the gloves when I am working in my vegetable garden where whether I am planting seeds, smoothing out a new layer of compost, or harvesting plants – touching the plants and soil with my hands makes me happy.
Last week, I spent the morning out in the vegetable garden, cleaning out old plants and getting it ready for sowing seeds in mid-September. The experience was not unlike the feeling you get after spring cleaning. I have an almost blank canvas on which to add new vegetables this fall.
After the plants are ripped out, I add several inches of new compost to prepare the beds. I buy my compost in bags, which makes it easier to add just where I want it to go.
This year, I am changing things up a bit by adding mushroom compost, which has composted horse manure and straw among other things. I like to try new things to see how they perform and then communicate that information to you.
All told, we added a total of 6 inches of regular and mushroom composts to the garden.
Our desert tortoise, Aesop, came out to see what we were doing. Unfortunately, we discovered that he is able to climb up into the vegetable garden, which we don’t want as he will eat our leafy greens. So, we will have to replace the short wood sides with taller ones.
As if my hands weren’t dirty enough after pulling out plants, they became more so as I smoothed out the newly added mulch around the few plants that remained. Of course, any chance of getting his hands dirty, brings out my grandson, Eric, to help me out in the garden.
Back in the house, we had two pairs of messy hands. So, out came my favorite hand cleaner that I reserve for the dirtiest of messes. Lava Soap is the most effective way that I have found to get rid of the ground in garden dirt from my hands, and Eric was anxious to get started first. Within a couple of minutes, his little hands were nice and squeaky clean.
My hands were worse than Eric’s, coated with soil and plant debris and I knew from experience that regular soap wouldn’t do the job. So I grabbed my bar of Lava and got started.
That is a lot of dirt!
Almost done!
Finished!
In the past, whenever I would use regular soap, it never got them completely clean, and I would have dirt remaining in the small cracks in my hands. I also didn’t like how dried out my hands would feel after working in the garden.
Lava Soap not only gets my hands (and Eric’s) cleaner than regular soap, it doesn’t dry them out either. Most of us have heard of this famous cleaning bar and how it is useful for getting rid of grease, paint, and glue due to the pumice that within it. However, I’m here to state that it also did a fabulous job removing the garden soil from my hands while leaving them moisturized afterward.
So, ditch the garden gloves, reach your hands into the soil and experience the joy of gardening. Just be sure to have some Lava Soap ready to help you clean up afterward.
Lava Soap is available at retailers across the country, including Ace, Walmart, Dollar General, and Family Dollar. To find a store near you, visit LavaSoap.com and click on the Where to Buy button.
Book Review: Potted, DIY Stylish Garden Containers
Book Review, Cactus/Succulents, California, Containers, DIY, Gift Ideas, Houseplants, Product ReviewDisclosure: This blog post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). Thanks for your support in this way.
Do you have a container, or two, filled with flowers or maybe a succulent? Chances are you do. Many of us settle for the bland shades of brown or beige when choosing pots and miss out on an excellent opportunity to add interest and color to our outdoor spaces.
I am a strong proponent ditching boring neutrals in favor of colorful pots with unique shapes and textures in my ongoing attempt to encourage people to think of plant containers as outdoor decor. As a result, I was thrilled with I was contacted by Annette Gutierrez, one of the authors of Potted: Make Your Own Stylish Garden Containers and asked to review her book.
Innertube from an old tire converted into a planter at the Tucson Botanical Garden.
Within the pages of Potted, Annette and her co-author, Mary Gray, inspire as they show the reader how to create unique and unusual containers that create instant interest.
During my garden travels, I seek everyday items that are reimagined and converted into unorthodox planters such as a recycled tire innertube.
Annette and Mary refer to themselves as decorators rather than gardeners and own a store in Los Angeles, aptly named Potted where they create innovative receptacles for plants using everyday items such as cinderblock, PVC pipe, and even old wood doors to name but a few.
If you have ever shopped for colorful or unique containers, you’ve undoubtedly experienced sticker shock at the high prices and settled for a boring, but sturdy terra-cotta pot. Over twenty container ideas await the reader, each of which, meet the following criteria:
I must admit that after finishing the book, I was looking at ordinary items like paint cans and plastic garbage pails in a different light – decorated and filled with plants.
I can hardly wait to get started! How about you?
Disclosure: I received a copy of ‘Potted’ free of charge for my honest review.
A Rusted Pick-Up, Trash Can Containers and a Kitchen Garden
Meyer Lemons: Why You Should Plant One
Arizona garden, California desert garden, Citrus, desert gardening, Fruit Trees, Houzz Article, Las Vegas gardening, Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting, Southwest garden, Southwest Texas gardenOne of the best things about having a garden in the desert southwest is our ability to grow citrus of all kinds. Lemon trees are a popular fruit tree and I am often asked what type of lemon do I recommend.
There are different types of lemons but the one that is my favorite isn’t a ‘true’ lemon tree at all. It’s a Meyer lemon, which is a cross between an orange tree and a lemon tree.
The result is a fruit that tastes sweeter than your typical lemon and has lovely thin, smooth skin. Meyer lemons are suitable for use in the same ways that other lemons are, but you can use them in additional ways as well due to their sweeter nature.
I recently shared the reasons why you should plant a Meyer lemons tree in one of my latest articles for Houzz.
Have you ever grown a Meyer lemons tree?
March is the Perfect Time for Planting a Meyer Lemon Tree
A Garden Heirloom
AZ Plant Lady, PruningDo you have a gardening tool that is extra special to you? I do. Whenever I’m in the garden, you’ll usually see me with a pair of hand pruners that I use for lightly shaping shrubs, removing tree suckers, or cutting fresh flowers.
As a garden writer and influencer, I am often provided with the newest model of hand pruners. In fact, I have quite a collection! While these hand pruners bear the labels of several makers, my favorite pair is in fact, my oldest.
At first glance, these orange-handled pruners aren’t fancy, and I don’t know who the maker is. The handles aren’t the most ergonomic, but function almost as well as the newer ones do.
I refer to this old-fashioned pair of pruners as my ‘garden heirloom’ because they once belonged to my father-in-law who was an avid gardener. Like me, he didn’t have just one set of pruners, but three pair, which hung on the wall over his tool bench. All of his gardening tools were meticulously maintained and still work well today.
When my father-in-law couldn’t prune his plants any longer due to complications of ALS, he bequeathed his gardening tools to me. I started using his pruners to care for his garden once the disease had robbed him of the ability to do so himself. One of my favorite memories is having him would sit nearby and watch me cutting back his prized plants.
Several years later, those orange-handled pruners have a new home in my garden shed and I try to take of them as well as he did. So I use 3-IN-ONE Multi-Purpose Oil to lubricate them, which keeps them opening and closing smoothly. This makes pruning much easier while putting less stress on my hands.
While I miss spending time in the garden with my father-in-law, I always feel a little closer to him whenever I pull out my favorite family heirloom.
Do you have any garden tools that are special to you?
Four Days of Garden Gifts: Day 2 – Tools and Gear
Aesop, The Desert Tortoise Discovers The Vegetable Garden
Arizona, AZ Plant Lady, Desert Animals, Vegetable GardeningYou would expect that after living in our backyard for two years, Aesop, our desert tortoise, would have discovered all there was to see. However, that wasn’t the case. His curious nature led him over to where I was working to pull out plants in the vegetable garden and to his joy and my dismay, he was able to climb up into it.
Getting out was a little trickier, as you can see in the video below.
Looks like we will need to raise the sides of the garden to keep him from eating the leafy greens.
Aesop, the Desert Tortoise Gets a Bath
Create a Hummingbird Garden in a Container
AZ Plant Lady, Containers, desert gardening, Noelle Johnson Horticulturist Arizona, Perennial, Southwest gardenDo you love hummingbirds? Maybe a better question would be, who doesn’t?
Hummingbird feeding from an ocotillo flower.
Attracting hummingbirds to your garden isn’t hard to do by simply adding flowering plants, rich in nectar that they are attracted to.
Female Anna’s hummingbird at my feeder.
But, what if your garden space is small or non-existent? Is a hanging a hummingbird feeder your only option?
Well, I’m here to tell you that space needn’t keep you from having your own hummingbird garden – all you have to do is to downsize it creating one in a container.
If you have a small patio, stoop or even a balcony, you can create your own mini-hummingbird garden in a container.
For those of you who have think you have no space at all, look up!
Hanging containers or window boxes are a great option for those short on garden space.
Whether you have small garden space or simply want to increase the amount of hummingbirds visiting your existing garden – creating a mini-hummingbird garden in a container is a great way to do it.
Let’s get started.
Here are the elements of a hummingbird container garden:
LOCATION:
– Select a location that receives at least 6 hours of sun a day.
– Group containers together for greater color impact, which increases the chances of hummingbird visits.
– Place containers in areas where you can view the visiting hummingbirds such as an entry, near a window or a back patio.
– Make sure that the containers are visible and allow easy access for hummingbirds to fly in and out.
CONTAINERS:
– The type of container isn’t important – but drainage is. Make sure pots have holes for drainage.
– Select colorful pots for a welcome splash of color (optional).
– Larger pots will stay moister longer, therefore needing to be water less frequently.
SOIL:
– Use a planting mix (not potting soil), which is specially formulated for container plants since it holds onto just the right amount of moisture without becoming soggy like potting soil can.
While hummingbirds don’t care how you arrange plants in your mini-hummingbird garden
– you can certainly arrange plants.
– Place the tallest plant in the center, surrounded with medium-sized filler plants interspersed with trailing ground covers.
This planter has the tallest plant (Salvia) located in the center with mid-sized purple coneflower next to it with ‘Wave’ petunias spilling over the outside.
COLOR:
A hummingbird’s favorite color is red, although they will visit flowers of all colors as long as they are rich in nectar.
However, let’s explore color in regards to creating a beautiful container and figuring out what color combos look best.
To this, we will need to visit our friend, the color wheel.
– To achieve a soft blending of colors, select plants with flower colors that are next to each other on the color wheel.
– For a striking contrast, pair flowers with colors that occur on opposite ends of the color wheel.
HUMMINGBIRD ATTRACTING PLANTS:
Salvia coccinea
– Hummingbirds are drawn to flowers that have a tubular shape.
Hummingbird feeding from the yellow flower of aloe vera.
– The color red is their favorite, but as stated earlier, they will visit flowers of all colors.
Young hummingbird feeding from a lantana flower.
– They tend to prefer flowers with little to no fragrance since their sense of smell is poor.
– Plants belonging to the Salvia genus are all very popular with hummingbirds and are a safe choice when creating a hummingbird container garden.
Soap aloe flowers.
– Flowering succulents are also often visited by hummingbirds as well.
Rufous hummingbird feeding from the flower of a red hot poker plant.
– There are helpful online resources with lists of plants that attract hummingbirds. Here are two helpful ones:
The Hummingbird Society’s Favorite Hummingbird Flowers
Top 10 Hummingbird Flowers and Plants from Birds & Blooms Magazine
– Other helpful resources are your local botanical garden, master gardener or nursery professional.
Another bonus to planting hummingbird attracting plants is that many of the same flowers attract butterflies too.
CARE:
The key to maintaining healthy container plants lies in proper watering and fertilizing.
Let’s look at watering first:
– Water containers when the top 2 inches of soil are barely moist. You can stick your finger into the soil to determine how dry the soil is.
– Water until the water flows out the bottom of the container.
– The frequency of watering will vary seasonally.
Fertilizing is important for container plants – even plants that don’t normally require fertilizer when planted in the ground will need it if in a container.
– Fertilize with a slow-release fertilizer, which lasts 3 months.
The key to maintaining healthy container plants lies in proper watering and fertilizing.
Let’s look at watering first:
– Water containers when the top 2 inches of soil are barely moist. You can stick your finger into the soil to determine how dry the soil is.
– Water until the water flows out the bottom of the container.
– The frequency of watering will vary seasonally.
Fertilizing is important for container plants – even plants that don’t normally require fertilizer when planted in the ground will need it if in a container.
– Fertilize with a slow-release fertilizer, which lasts 3 months.
Don’t be afraid to look outside the box when it comes to what can be used as a container.
An old wheelbarrow makes a great container after a making a few holes in the bottom for drainage. *While marigolds don’t attract hummingbirds, there are a few dianthus in this planter that do.
Hummingbirds love water!
Add a water feature in a container that will surely attract nearby hummingbirds.
Add places for hummingbirds to perch nearby or within the container itself.
This little black-chinned hummingbird was perfectly at home perching on a lady’s slipper (Pedilanthus macrocarpus) stem that was growing in a container.
You can always add a small, dead tree branch within the container itself for a convenient perching spot.
As you can see, the amount (or lack of) garden space doesn’t need to limit your ability to attract hummingbirds using beautiful, flowering plants.
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I spoke about small space gardening at the Hummingbird Festival 2015, and it was an unforgettable experience, filled with educational talks, beautiful gardens and observing hummingbirds up close – I even got to hold one! To read more about my adventures with hummingbirds, click here.
I hope that you are inspired to create your own mini-hummingbird habitat in a container.
**Do you have a favorite plant that attracts lots of hummingbirds? Please share them in the comments section.
Screening and Color For a Blank Wall
Arizona garden, AZ Plant Lady, Containers, desert gardening, Fuss Free Plant, Landscape Problems, Shrubs, Southwest garden, Succulent GardeningHave you ever encountered this landscaping challenge? This blank wall is rather boring, and the home behind it dominates the view. So what would you do to fix these problems?
I faced this dilemma last month at a client’s home. The pool was the main focal point of the landscape, and the dull wall wasn’t doing it any favors. In coming up with a solution, we had to select a plant that was relatively low-litter, due to the proximity to the pool and that looked attractive throughout the entire year because of the high-profile location.
Hop Bush (Dodonaea viscosa)
I recommended adding three hop bush (Dodonaea viscosa). These are tall, evergreen shrubs that thrive in arid climates such as ours.
One of the many things that I love about them is their versatility. They thrive in full sun and light shade, and can be allowed to grow up to 12 feet tall, or maintained at a lower height.
Hop bush can be allowed to grow to their natural shape…
…or pruned more formally.
For the area behind the pool, I recommend having it grow to its full height, which will help provide privacy while the attractive foliage will add a welcome screen of green throughout the year.
evergreen shrubs Hop bush flowers
Hop bush does produce light green, papery flowers in spring, but they aren’t particularly showy. So, we need to add a color element to the area behind the pool.
One of my favorite ways to add color to any landscape is to incorporate brightly colored containers in shade of blue, purple, or orange. That way, whether plants are in bloom or not, there is always a bright splash of color.
For this area, I recommended adding 3 blue pots, equally spaced.
Now it was time to decide what to plant in each pot. The client wanted a low-maintenance choice that wouldn’t require a lot of water.
Immediately, I remembered touring a landscape that had blue containers filled with ‘Blue Elf’ aloe. Even though the aloe had finished blooming for the year, their spiky blue-gray foliage added nice color contrast.
This small aloe is one of my favorite succulents for several reasons. First, it begins to bloom in late winter, lasting into spring adding welcome color to cool-season landscapes. Hummingbirds can’t resist the flowers either.
This aloe is best showcased when grouped together and thrives in full sun, unlike most aloe which prefer filtered shade. Finally, it is hardy to 15 degrees F. so cold winters seldom bother it.
And so, here is the planting that I suggested to my client that will provide year round beauty and privacy.
*Do you have a favorite plant or group of plants that you like to use against bare walls?
Visit to a Client’s Desert Garden
Summer Adventures: Pick Your Own Strawberries and Cherries
az plant lady family, Fruit Trees, Gardening With Kids, Growing Fruit, Michigan AdventuresVacations are a time that I love to spend with my family doing things that we don’t normally have time for with the busyness of school and work that predominates throughout much of the year. This summer, we spent a couple of weeks in Michigan visiting my oldest daughter and her family. In planning our trip, we list what we want to do and number one on the list for our summer adventures was going to a farm and picking our own strawberries and cherries.
So, on a sunny Tuesday morning, we headed out along a back country road and visited Kiteley Farm ready to pick strawberries.
I must admit that I have never picked strawberries, other than in my own garden, and couldn’t wait to experience to harvest them myself. Initially, my 15-year-old son couldn’t figure out why we were going to pick them when it was easier to buy them in the supermarket. But, I told him to just wait and see – I promised him that he would change his mind afterward.
We were given instructions on where the strawberry fields were located and grabbed our boxes, ready to fill them up with sweet, delicious strawberries.
The entry to the farm is flanked by blue bachelor’s button and the orange flowers of honeysuckle.
The strawberry field was very large and we all got started, hunting underneath the leaves for glimpses of bright red fruit.
It’s no surprise that the strawberries that you buy at the store are often large and not particularly sweet, which aids in transporting them to the store without getting bruised. However, berries at pick-your-own farms are smaller and incredibly sweet.
My granddaughter Lily got right into picking strawberries.
The edge of the field was shaded by tall trees and we discovered that the berries were larger in this part of the field.
The key to finding the best berries is to look at the lowest berry which is usually the ripest.
After about an hour, we had 11 pounds of strawberries. Not bad for amateur strawberry pickers.
Next, it was time to pick cherries. Michigan has a large percentage of the cherry growing market and because cherries don’t grow in my neck of the woods, I always take advantage of being able to pick them whenever I visit in July.
There are several farms where you can go and pick your own cherries and all you have to pay for is the fruit you pick.
The trees were heavily laden with bright red cherries, which were easier to pick than strawberries as we didn’t have to bend over.
Lily was just as good at picking cherries as she was with strawberries.
At the end of a busy morning, we had plenty of fruit and I was excited to take them back and make sweet things with them.
For me, the best part of that morning was when my son said, “That was so fun. We need to do it again next year.”
Don’t they look delicious? And perfect for…
…strawberry shortcake!
*You don’t have to grow fruit (or vegetables) in your own garden to be able to enjoy the experience of picking your own produce. No matter where you live, there is likely a farm nearby where you can experience the fun of picking your own!
Succulents, More Than Just Drought Tolerant
Arizona garden, Cactus/Succulents, California desert garden, desert gardening, Drought Tolerant, Houzz Article, Landscape Problems, Las Vegas gardening, New Mexico garden, Succulent GardeningIn the past, succulent plants were valued primarily for their drought tolerance and found their way into gardens in arid regions. Today, while they are still a great choice for water-wise plants are wise, they offer many other benefits to outdoor spaces including adding colorful flowers and solving common garden problems.
Elk Horn (Cotyledon orbiculata)
I’ve written a series of articles for Houzz focusing on succulents and how you can add beauty to your garden with these versatile plants that will thrive in arid climates.
I hope you find inspiration through them and look at succulent plants in a new way.
10 Spectacular Flowering Succulents
How Succulents Can Solve Your Garden Problems
How do you like to use succulents in your garden?
Drought Tolerant and Beautiful: Anacacho Orchid