Yardscapes

Saturday we spent several hours driving around a local nursery ('just use your car as a shopping cart!') to select some trees for the backyard. I would have liked a few organic citrus trees from a smaller nursery, but they were down to the last few (all new fruit trees currently have to be sprayed for Asian physillid or something). And since we need a 'specimen tree' and want to have it delivered, we need to get pretty much all the plants at once. However, I am not a landscape designer and am not sure how to translate my list of 'plants I would like to have' into a landscaped yard without having the yard look like a jumble of plants placed hap-hazardly around. In any case, I think we have selected this cassia (or one like this, we didn't tag anything) for the specimen tree. It is a cassia leptophylla or gold medallion tree, and will bear stalks of yellow flowers in summer and has fun long beanpods. It is also drought-tolerant and can grow up to 20 feet tall.

Continuing our drive, we would spot a tree we liked and shout, 'stop the car' and then one of us would jump out and check the tag to find out what kind of tree it was (and then we would consult the product list to translate the latin name into something more familiar and then check the price list and ...) and meanwhile JT kept yelling, 'I want to get out!' 'Where is the palm tree maze?' There wasn't a palm tree maze, but there were palm trees and palm trees and palm trees and bougainvilleas galore.

We also liked this cassia - a Cassia Slendida 'Golden Wonder' but I like the other better. Mr. Burli suggested this one for along the back fence, but I think maybe we should do some other screening plants. Perhaps a purple hopseed bush or two? I am having trouble imaging plants growing along the back fence. Any suggestions? At the moment we can see the back of the neighbor's house and while they are friendly*, i would prefer more plants. We forgot to look for a desert willow; we got sidetracked when the salesperson in the front recommended this 'desert museum.'

This is a palo verde and would look fantastic in a xeriscaped yard. Maybe even our front yard if when we get around to that project.  A desert willow has pink-purple flowers and is also drought tolerant. It might work in the back as well. At the moment, all we have along the backfence is some sort of pokey plant (perhaps a Spanish bayonet - yucca) and a scraggly Mexican sage, so we are open to suggestions. However, the budget is shot after 1 specimen tree, 2 citrus (Valencia orange and Eureka Lemon), an espaliered plant for along the wall of JT's room (he selected a cape honeysuckle) and of course, the delivery charge - but since we have to pay for delivery, we are trying to order a few other things as well. So name your favorite plant and I can look up the latin name, cross-reference it on the price list and availability charts and google pictures, read reviews, etc., etc. and hopefully not procrastinate too long, because the holes have already been dug for the 3 trees! (And for the apple trees, too, but I am planning on buying bare root trees in Janurary.)

So, to wrap up, friends in North Park redid their backyard, and I am using it for inspiration. I would like a path like theirs with some plants growing around the flagstone (or - more likely - concrete stepping stones from HD since they are more affordable, but maybe replaceable at a later date) and some boulders. Er, no boulders, since we are not DINKS like they are. They have also redone most of the inside of their craftsman home and it is gorgeous. I try not to get too green with envy when we stop by to visit them. (He is also from Austria and they are very nice.)

* = they really are friendly. All week Mr. Burli has been getting up early to work on the deck. Because of the time change it has been too dark to work in the evening, and since he was up an hour earlier, he just went out. Well, Friday he went out even earlier than usual - he just couldnt' sleep - and at 6:15 or so started hammering. A voice called over the fence, 'No hammering before 8 A.M., and Mr. Burli, being somewhat hot-tempered, responded, 'Construction starts early!' However, he did stop and just worked on other things until 8. (I looked up the code and 'noisy construction noises' are allowed to start at 7, actually.) So, I made some sweet and spicy pecans, put them in a nice jar with a ribbon and dropped them on the backyard neighbors front porch to apologize. Then, that evening they rang our doorbell and laughingly explained that they weren't the ones complaining. Apparently she was outside with the dog and heard the exchange - it was HER neighbor (from the house behind our next-door neighbor) and she wanted to yell out, 'That wasn't us!' So, they offered to take my peace offering nuts to the other guy, but I demurred. I think I prefer that the nice neighbors get them.