Plants, Plants, and More Plants

We've been on a buying binge for Pierre's backyard, front yard and sideyards. (Why is backyard and sideyard just one word and front yard two??)

We are in a very water-conscious part of the country. Water-conscious as in if you use more water then they charge you a higher rate and if you use too much water then they fine you, but if you use a minimum of water then they give it to you at a bargain rate. I think it's a very civilized way to operate. No need for draconian laws or the water police, just a nice monetary carrot-and-stick system.

Anyway, that was a long-winded way of saying that we are buying native plants mostly, along with some that are water thrifty.

I've been learning a lot. My gardening style is pretty much inprove the soil as much as possible, plant anything that will survive the winters and water the heck out of it. Not very responsible, but then, gardening is more than a hobby, it's a passion of mine and I'm quite willing to do whatever it takes to maintain my English-cottage-garden-meets-the-High-Desert.

But buffalo grass and blue grama have entered my vocabulary. I can tell you the difference between chitalpa and chilopsis. I've learned to transplant the native yuccas. I've even become convinced that it's not always necessary to amend his soil with compost, but I still am into mulching with the zillions of extra stones that are lying around.

Besides getting a small part of his front yard ready for a future buffalo-grama lawn/meadow (which needs mowing only three times per year and uses less than a quarter of the water of my tall fescue at home), we've also put in a nifty dry streambed using his ubiquitous native rock and planted an aspen grove around it. There's my favorite sagebrush, although it's fancified into "artemesia powis castle" and the first conifer (fresh off the highlands of Afghanistan and reputed to grow fast on little water).

The most fun has been watching Pierre operate the little Bobcat, delicately, precisely, and with a little sense of humor when his parents jump out of the way when he creeps up on us. Yeah, I know, your're thinking how could be possibly creep up in a large diesel machine. We are intent on a quick grab for a large rock or to move something , and I love the mischievous smile when he sees us jump. I really hope I can get him on video using his little toy on loan from Deni's dad. It's been even more fun because the Bobcat has allowed us to finish grading the backyard so that it looks like a yard instead of a wilderness and finish grading the front yard streambed and terrace the "meadow".

Still, we were happy to stop and buy plants today instead of working non-stop till we dropped.