Wordless Wednesday

Saguaro!

Those giant cacti start out as a tiny little seed - seriously, the seed is the size of a basil seed.  I figure they'll work well as container plants until they get too big.  I got the seeds from my friend Ross (who keeps claiming that he'll get his garden blog up and running - I mean he's got tons of photos for it, he just hasn't sat down to do it), who brought them back from his trip to Arizona last winter.

Garden Starts

 

My garden starts for the fall.  Grow little garden starts, GROW!

Experiment: Crocus Sativus "Saffron"

My new experiment for the year.  The only problem?  That I don't have a place to put them (yet), and they need to go in a location where the cats are less prone to get to them.  Not because I'm worried about them ruining the experiment, but because I'm worried about them ruining their kidneys.  Yep, fall blooming crocus cause kidney damage in cats...Yes I realize that the ASPCA's website on toxic plants specifically calls out the yellow fall crocus which has a different scientific name, BUT from other research I've done it looks like crocus sp. also generally cause kidney damage so I'm not taking any chances.

Plans

And of course I've already gone about making more changes.  Mostly because 1) when I was at the Sun City Plant Sale, I said to myself, "Self, you need some irises because they're in your plans." and so I bought myself 3 irises - a William A Setchell, a Jesse's Song, and a White Cemetery (I also found out that the husband does not like yellow irises).  Unfortunately, I only had space for one plant - and I know I intentionally planned it that way because I have a mystery iris that I've been moving around my yard looking for a good spot for it to call home.  and 2) Shawn started questioning the design of the patio area (bulbous thing on the upper left) - not so much that I wanted to turn it into a patio with bird bath, but more because 'what are we going to do with the rock that's already there?'  ummm...get rid of it.  duh.  Leave it to my husband to not care about the cost of re-landscaping, but to instead care about the fact that we would be getting rid of stuff.  So I've added more space for iris and have reduced the size of the patio, though now I need to come up with more plants to plant in the area that is going to be neither rock nor patio.

Crab Spider on Henry Duelberg Sage

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 1/125
Aperture Value: 4.64 EV (f/5.0)
ISO Speed: 100
Flash: No
Metering Mode: Pattern
Exposure Program: Normal Program
Focal Length: 214.00 mm
Post Processing: GIMP - Saturation +5, Levels

Project Update: Rose Bed

An updated photo of the 'rose bed' is in order.  The rose bush is a Dr. Huey rose, and I planted two zexmenia, a thyme plant and lion's tail in the bed as well.  This is likely the last of my "plopper" projects (admittedly, I had, to some extent, at least planned on putting the zexmenia here when I was at the Wildflower Center's plant sale going "I really, really want these...where am I going to put them?" But the lion's tail and the thyme were surprise purchases while at the spring Sun City plant sale and East Side Succulents, respectively).

And, of course, after looking at this photo (even though there is no mulch in the rose bed, it does have the color of mulch), I'm not digging the decomposed granite vs. mulch look...which means I'm either going to be raking up all the DG or adding it to the rose bed...maybe I can make it look 'artsy' in what parts are DG and what parts are mulch in the bed...

The beginning of the rose bed project can be seen here:
Project:  Rose Bed