Rooted Friends

I loaded up the U-Haul with the succulents I'd purchased in June and planted in pots on Mercer Island.  With Nate and Mela buying our house when theirs sold I figured I'd begin my desert garden early.

Ave Friends

Prairie Falcon with coot

Prairie Falcon at attention

Prairie Falcon in flight

Sandhill crane loving to sleep on one leg

Sandhill Crane searching

Little Lake Tamarisk  Feb. 27, 2011

Master Desert Gardener

The Living Desert Museum and Zoo offers courses toward a couple of interesting certifications.  I'm going to begin the first weekend in February with a class in Pest and Weed Management.  If I choose to complete all 57 hrs. of requirements I earn a certificate as a Master Desert Gardener.  Another option is certifying the garden as a Backyard Habitat after completing 9 hrs of class and including certain requirements in the garden.  Also, they offer a Master Desert Naturalist after 60 hrs.  The certification process is far less important than the knowledge of desert environs I'd like to acquire.
www.livingdesert.org/

Certification Requirements for Master Desert Gardener:

Note: Class titles may vary slightly from semester to semester. Rev. 9/29/10mm Class offerings will vary from year to year. - 1 - 

 The Living Desert Master Desert Gardener Certification Worksheet 

Participant Name : ___________________________________________ 

Directions: Find the classes you have taken and circle the hour credits associated with each class. (Don’t forget to make a note of the class date.) Subtotal each section in the boxes provided, paying close attention to hour and/or class requirements. ClassID	Class Name	Hrs.	Hrs.	Hrs.	Hrs.	Hrs.	Date Taken
Section  A	GENERAL DESERT GARDENING
G100	The Desert Gardener	3 March 19, 2011 w/Kirk Anderson
G101*	Basic Botany for Desert Gardeners (mandatory)	3
G103	Plant Pathology	3
G114(a)	Propagation of Native Plants From Seed	3
G114b	Propagation of Native Plants From Cuttings	3
G117	Success with Succulents	3
G118	Proper Pruning in a Desert Garden (highly recommended)	3
G120*	Irrigation & Proper Water Management (mandatory)	3 Dec 3, 2011 w/
G121	Plant Placement & Irrigation	3
G202*	Ecology in Desert Garden Designs (mandatory)	3  March 19, 2011 w/Glenn Huntington
G210	Entomology in the Desert Garden	3
G301	Soils of the Coachella Valley (highly recommended)	3
L103	Landscape Design Workshop	3
L104/  G104a	Do-It-Yourself Desert Landscape Design	3
Special  A	SOILS OF THE COACHELLA VALLEY  & THEIR USE IN DESERT GARDENS	Credit for the following class may only be used towards Section A Master Desert Gardener Requirements if class dates were prior to September 2004, due to Requirement Changes.
NH303	Geology of the Coachella Valley and Surrounds	3
Section  B	PEST MANAGEMENT
G115	Introduction to Pest Management in Desert Gardens	3  Feb 5, 2011 w/Glenn Huntington
G211	Insect & Vertebrate Pests in a Desert Garden	3
G212	Pesticide Use & Safety	3
G213	Pest & Weed Management in a Desert Garden	3
Section  C	DESERT PLANT IDENTIFICATION
G102	An Introduction to the Desert Plant Palette	3 Jan 7, 2012 w/Glenn
G105(a)	Desert Accent Plants for Landscaping	3
G105b	Yuccas & Agaves in Desert Gardens	3
G108	Year Round Color in a Desert Garden	3
G109	Southwest Plants on Parade	3
G116	Desert Annuals and Perennials for a Colorful Landscape	3
L201/  G201	Desert Trees for Landscaping	3
L202	Flowering Shrubs, Vines & Ground Cover for Desert L…	3
L203/  G203	Desert Shrubs, Vines and Ground Covers for Landscaping	3
G207	Color in Your Desert Garden	3
G323 SECTIONS A-C HOUR SUBTOTALS	Desert Landscapes    March 5, 2011 withPaulOrtega       for small spaces                      3 HOURS
A	Total General Desert Gardening hours (12 hrs. minimum)  *MUST INCLUDE G101, G120 & G202
B	Total Pest Management hours (6 hrs. minimum)
C	Total Desert Plant Identification hours (9 hrs. minimum)
A – C	Add Hour Totals for Sections A-C  Minimum 39 Total Hours for these sections  G111 Vegetable                 taken Jan 7, 2012 with Don Ackley    Gardening                 3  G800 Coachella Valley Garden and Landscape tour: Smoke Tree Ranch w/Mike Chedester 3

January

2011

Rockery project

Rockery view from lake

Rockery project with engineer

Lake side planting bed project goals: improve walk from dust to durable, attempt to redo rockery to minimize weed issues and provide place for pots, add ground cover shrubs to southwest corner of rockery

Rockery After

Better!

With rosemary and boug

We bought some cheap colorful chairs for use in the entrance and on the lake patios.

Another garden goal has been to increase organic approaches.  Years ago Mike made an enclosed rail tie area for grass clippings.  I tried to turn this into a compost area.  Just adding kitchen compost didn't work so I removed half of the dried grass clippings and added dirt from the new rockery project.  I included  green grass clumps with worms.  The whole thing was sprinkled with a hose and covered with a green plastic tarp.  To date I've turned it once and added more kitchen compost.  Moisture is being retained now and I hope for the breakdown of the kitchen compost to enrich the soil if not for this spring perhaps next fall. I'd like to make this compost a viable organic soil alternative.  Others at Lake Tamarisk don't appear to be doing much if anything in this regard.  Problem: biting red ants gather under parts of the tarp and rocks used to secure it.  Danger. 

December

2010

Spent two weeks in La Manzanilla, Mexico.  Returned to some cold nights. Followed freeze alerts on Oregon Weather Station and covered bougs with sheets at night. Put Christmas lights on old boug in entrance.  Worried about heat of bulbs.  Didn't cover for freezes.  Damage to leaves and blooms noticed.

Before leaving trimmed back cacti garden, cleaned, added accent rocks and gravel.

St. Margarita was originally planned for the cacti garden.  The wind gusts soon made that not an option.  Instead we chose to position St. M indoors in the dining area to protect her from the weather.  Cleaned and repaired she looks good in her permanent position.

November

2010

Arrived mid-Nov with the goal of getting things in the ground before the cold arrived. Decided that our best for color and durability was bougs.  Bought three: orange, pink, red from Bob Williams. Planted two in entrance north and one under kitchenwindow. crossing fingers.

Wanted to find appropriate places for succulents brought from Mercer Island in pots. Aviary was started.

Resources

• Desert Gardening the Complete Guide by George Brookbank
• Designing with Succulents by Debra Lee Baldwin
• HotPots Container Gardening in the Arid Southwest by Calhoun and Hassler
• Palm Springs-Style Gardening by Gilmer

From Soggy to Bone Dry

January 30, 2011

I'm curious whether this form of garden journaling will be successful.  There is something to having a book and pen in hand while relaxing after working in the garden that feels more earthy and natural than a plastic keyboard and display screen.  I've spent over a decade detailing my gardening efforts on Mercer Island in an 8.5x8.5 inch five year record book.  Now held together by plastic packing tape, smudged by not so carefully washed fingers, and crammed with bits cut from gardening advice columns I'm dubious that my laptop will satisfy that tactile gardener need.  We'll see.   The Sunset Western Garden Book puts Mercer Island, Washington, in Marine Influence Along the Northwest Coast, Puget Sound, and South Vancouver Island: Zone 5 and Desert Center, California, in Southwest Deserts: Southern California Zone 13. In other words, I'm switching from soggy to bone dry.  I've got a lot to learn.

I'm not clear how to best organize this blog to be useful for my chronically of garden activity. I hope to record the vital statistics- plant adoptions and obituaries, seasonal changes, insights and remorses, and lots of visuals.  We'll just have to see how this medium adapts.