Southwestern Springtime Gardens - An Inspiration!

Recent increased hours of sunlight and warmer temperatures in my home town of El Paso, Texas were enough to set me daydreaming about the spring gardening season ahead. When the El Paso Rock and Cactus Club announced their annual tour of local desert gardens,  I knew how I wanted to spend a leisurely Saturday morning.  My intention was just to ooh and aah over other people's efforts. Little did I know that the tour would inspire a new gardening project at our house.

Here are some of the photos of gardens my husband Wayne and I viewed on the tour that started the creative juices flowing.

A pleasing assortment of rocks, cactus, clay pots, and native plants and bushes.

Purple verbena add color to this desert scene

Blooming Apache Plumes in a raised bed

Desert gardens can be shady too.

Armadillo enjoying life in the garden

A gardener cannot have too many pots

Cairns remind me of walking in Scotland

Back home,  I started feeling guilty about having neglected an area in our yard that receives late afternoon sun, which can be scorching. Gardening had been touch and go in this large area, with only the hardiest of native plants surviving:  Mexican Bird of Paradise, Mesquite bushes, Desert Marigolds, Prickly Pear Cactus, Red Bird of Paradise, Vitex, Golden Ball Lead Tree, and some volunteer Palo Verde trees.  I wandered out into this yard one pleasant evening about thirty minutes before sunset with the intention of doing a little pruning and raking. 

An inspiration built in my mind as I inspected the new growth on plants, listened to the songs of birds and cooing of doves, and looked forward to watching a brilliant sunset.   I saw the perfect spot.  It was under three palo verde trees that would some day grow tall and produce fragrant yellow blossoms.  

Wayne hauled an old metal four seasons bench around from the back yard and positioned it under the palo verdes. We swept off a crumbling sidewalk and used the rocks to create a round planting area. My first thought was to raise wildflowers in the circle, but hardy grasses and  native plants like guara or wallflower may add color needed in an otherwise green and gray landscape.

Here is a picture of the beginning of the newly repurposed yard.  Use your imagination to fill in the details! I'm still daydreaming.