鲜花、工作和牛仔靴

After a record-setting February, I think that it’s safe to say that spring has officially arrived. Plants are waking up a bit early with flower buds bursting forth with glorious blooms.

图片:“Sierra Star”仙女掸帚(Calli和ra“Sierra Star”)

Of course, an early spring means that people are anxious to get out in the garden. I always say that spring for horticulturists is like tax season for accountants as we get very busy helping others with their gardens.

过去几周对我来说确实如此.  熬夜到凌晨1点.m. in the morning 和 then up early the next morning for the next appointment 和 afternoons spent designing l和scapes 和 writing articles – I can hardly see straight at the end of the day.

I thought that I would give you a snapshot of the past 10 days.

It all started with an early morning meeting with a l和scape committee regarding adding come color to the entry areas of a community. 一个小时后, 我站在一条繁忙的街道中央, dodging traffic while taking multiple photographs of sixteen different corner l和scapes.

Photo: Cereus peruvianus with golden barrel cactus (Echinocactus grusonii)

后来那天早上, I met with some clients who had a lovely home 和 a l和scape with ‘good bones’, 但是根据客户的要求，还需要更多的颜色.

图片:铁木树(Olneya tesota)

The property was situated along a golf course 和 had lovely specimen trees that offered welcome filtered shade.

Photo: Fragrant flowers of Texas mountain laurel (Sophora secundiflora)

As I walked around the l和scape taking photographs for my report, I took some time to stop 和 smell the fragrant blossoms of their Texas mountain laurel, 闻起来像葡萄糖.

照片:粉红色的凉亭藤(潘朵亚茉莉)

The next day, I visited a family who needed help redesigning their backyard. 然而, 当我走近前门时, my attention was caught by the beautiful pink bower vine that was blooming in the courtyard.

那个星期三我一直在做设计和报告.

第二天，我参观了一个可爱的农场式住宅. The 后院长满了草 和 the homeowner wanted to create a border around the entire yard filled with flowering shrubs 和 perennials.

Photo: ‘Heavenly Cloud’ sage (Leucophyllum langmaniae ‘Heavenly Cloud’), yellow bells (Tecoma stans stans) 和 bougainvillea in my backyard.

As a flower type of girl myself, this was a fun design to get to work on. 我创建了一个植物调色板 白色和粉红色的北美草原 (Gaura lindheimeri), 紫色的丁香花葡萄树 (Hardenbergia堇菜科), 植绒的月见草 (月见草丛生), 爆竹penstemon (Penstemon eatonii), 粉色小号葡萄树 (Podranea ricasoliana), 和过黛西 (Tetraneuris acaulis) 其中包括确保全年开花.

Friday found me at a 山脚下美丽的家 w在这里 the client had recently moved in. She wanted help adding more color as well as symmetry to the l和scape. This was a large project that was split up into four separate designs/reports.

周六上午参加了SRP水博览会, 我在哪里买了打折的智能灌溉控制器.  

T在这里 were numerous displays, each with a focus on saving water in the l和scape.

I saw many people I knew 和 walked away with my new irrigation controller, 在我的景观中，哪种方法可以节约水. 您可以了解关于这个控制器和博览会的更多信息 在这里.

After such a busy week, I indulged myself with 得到一个修脚 🙂

This week was spent working on creating designs 和 reports for all of my consults the week before. 我有几个预约, 其中一个, involved issues with problems with the turf areas in HOA common areas during which, 我发现了更多的疑似病例 夹竹桃叶枯萎.

This area of Phoenix is seeing a lot of cases of this bacterial disease for which t在这里 is no known cure. Affected ole和ers typically die within 3 – 4 years from when they first show symptoms.

Photo: Gopher plant (Euphorbia rigida) 和 Parry’s penstemon (Penstemon parryi) in my front garden.

在家里，我自己的风景也在做一些工作.  betway旗舰版下载有15年历史的滴灌系统正在更换. The typical life span of a drip irrigation system is typically 10 – 15 years, so when ours started developing leaks 和 the valves also began to leak, betway旗舰版下载知道是时候了. So, my garden currently has trenches running through it with PVC pipe everyw在这里. 如果能尽快完成并投入使用，那就太好了.

On another note, my little gr和son, Eric, is now 13 months old.  He is a bright ray of sunshine in my life 和 helps me to keep life in perspective when the busyness of life threatens to overwhelm me.

I am so blessed to have a front row seat as he is learning 和 discovering the world around him.

我想他会喜欢自己的牛仔靴的，你说呢?

诺艾尔约翰逊, 又名, “阿兹植物女士”是一位园艺师, 认证树艺家, 以及帮助人们学习如何创造的景观顾问, 成长, 在炎热的天气里保持美丽的沙漠花园, 干燥的气候. 她通过自己来做到这一点 咨询服务，她的在线课程 101年betway苹果下载和她每月的会员俱乐部， 穿过花园门. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."