Ugh I think this is my favorite post yet. I can feel the summer doldrums in your words! I loved your little desert praise song. I will
be embracing the common sunflowers and cleome with all my heart next summer. I naively plucked out most of the common sunflowers at the beginning of the summer to make room for the hybrids and mammoths and of course they haven’t done well with this heat and no rain! Garden hubris at it’s finest. And yeah Governor Cox is literally the dumbest.
I’m sorry to hear about the sunflowers :( I was looking forward to seeing photos of the mammoths. I’m always so surprised by the resilience of plants—and also what you think should thrive but ends up languishing. (It’s microclimates within microclimates maybe.) This last week has been especially hot here, but it was kind of mild (for Vegas) before that. At the grocery store today there was some gossip at the checkout line about possible monsoon moisture moving in. We’ll see!
This is a beautiful essay, and so are the photos from your garden! Is it my imagination or do I see the foliage of a coyote gourd in one of them?
Gardening has saved me many times as well. But there have been times when I did not have a garden, and relied on the view of a tree from my window to save. In summer, it's thoughts of the relief October (hopefully) brings that keep me going, and plans for fall and next spring's garden.
There's a book called Getting Over the Color Green, an anthology of poetry, essays, and short stories all having to do with the desert and different experiences of it--I don't know if you're familiar with it but this post and many others you've shared would fit right in! It's a great book.
Thank you for the kind words and the book recommendation. I’ve not read it so I’ll add it to my list.
It’s funny about green because in temperate climates silver foliage is all the rage (or at least it used to be?). I guess it’s a case of wanting what you don’t have. I stumbled on a large Agave montana on discount once at Hafen nursery, kinda sad and lonely in the back, and I planted it because I loved the rich, dark green. But of course it didn’t thrive :( Ha.
And yes, that is coyote gourd. Good eye. I have a couple rambling about here and there. The foliage on one is almost white—hardly any greenish/blue veining at all. It’s really striking and vigorous enough that I think it’s still healthy.
Beautifully written. I feel I must now learn more about the giant ground sloths of a bygone era and their wicked ways.
I often think that one can only hope for a worthy foe to “battle” against, and although I may have perceived the desert climate as such a foe, this has provided a new perspective . It may, in fact, be more friend than foe.
Ugh I think this is my favorite post yet. I can feel the summer doldrums in your words! I loved your little desert praise song. I will
be embracing the common sunflowers and cleome with all my heart next summer. I naively plucked out most of the common sunflowers at the beginning of the summer to make room for the hybrids and mammoths and of course they haven’t done well with this heat and no rain! Garden hubris at it’s finest. And yeah Governor Cox is literally the dumbest.
I’m sorry to hear about the sunflowers :( I was looking forward to seeing photos of the mammoths. I’m always so surprised by the resilience of plants—and also what you think should thrive but ends up languishing. (It’s microclimates within microclimates maybe.) This last week has been especially hot here, but it was kind of mild (for Vegas) before that. At the grocery store today there was some gossip at the checkout line about possible monsoon moisture moving in. We’ll see!
This is a beautiful essay, and so are the photos from your garden! Is it my imagination or do I see the foliage of a coyote gourd in one of them?
Gardening has saved me many times as well. But there have been times when I did not have a garden, and relied on the view of a tree from my window to save. In summer, it's thoughts of the relief October (hopefully) brings that keep me going, and plans for fall and next spring's garden.
There's a book called Getting Over the Color Green, an anthology of poetry, essays, and short stories all having to do with the desert and different experiences of it--I don't know if you're familiar with it but this post and many others you've shared would fit right in! It's a great book.
Looking forward to your next post!
Thank you for the kind words and the book recommendation. I’ve not read it so I’ll add it to my list.
It’s funny about green because in temperate climates silver foliage is all the rage (or at least it used to be?). I guess it’s a case of wanting what you don’t have. I stumbled on a large Agave montana on discount once at Hafen nursery, kinda sad and lonely in the back, and I planted it because I loved the rich, dark green. But of course it didn’t thrive :( Ha.
And yes, that is coyote gourd. Good eye. I have a couple rambling about here and there. The foliage on one is almost white—hardly any greenish/blue veining at all. It’s really striking and vigorous enough that I think it’s still healthy.
Beautifully written. I feel I must now learn more about the giant ground sloths of a bygone era and their wicked ways.
I often think that one can only hope for a worthy foe to “battle” against, and although I may have perceived the desert climate as such a foe, this has provided a new perspective . It may, in fact, be more friend than foe.