THE STOCKERS TAKE STOCK

 Moving to a new garden is no piece of cake. Unless maybe it is your first and comes already made. Such was the case when we bought our first house in 1972 in Beaconsfield, Quebec, Canada. It came with lawns, fruit trees, a Russian olive, a weeping willow, lilac, spring bulbs, iris and a rockery. What more could a newbie gardener wish for. I did tinker with it adding a veg. garden and fruit bushes and a post and rail fence.  Fast forward nearly 50 years with 6 more gardens under my belt, none of which came with so much as a blade of grass, to December 2021 when we purchased, what we expect to be our final house, in the Sonoran desert of Oro Valley, Arizona. The much smaller house on a very small lot is already landscaped and to a non-gardener might be considered complete. 

The builder was very generous with the plants which was clearly required by the association to make sure properties were pleasing to the eye. Even to installing lights and drip irrigation. It would appear the original owners added more plants to the plan although many have been lost. Javelina, rabbits, rats, mice and lack of care may be to blame. Or was it just over planting? If they had just waited, but you know how that goes. They left me the plans which are very helpful in identifying a few of the plants I am not familiar with.  

 

Then, there were additional plans with more plants added. I have no idea how many were in the final installation but it is clear that many are missing like S. greggii and gaura. 

I was incredibly excited to find quite a number of Agave "Blue Glow" and Anacacho orchid trees, Texas mountain laurel and a number of Mexican olive trees. Now I learn the latter are rather messy as their brown leaves hold even through winter and I will need to remove the fruits so we don't encourage rats.

 

And several Agave Victoriae reginae. I brought Brer rabbit with me and he seems happy in his new home. He was a housewarming gift 22 years ago when we built our last house.

There are more large A. weberi that I need. Already past their prime. We have already begun removing some of the lowers leaves becasue they provide a good hangout for mice and rats.

 And we are not making a pineapple out of this one but slowly removing the leaves with each trash day! It will finally be removed and as yet I don't have plans for what will be there. Maybe a Whales tongue, A. ovatifolia. There are a number of pups which I will likely use to replaced other outgrown agave.

Oh! and there are quite a lot of red tip photinia. That was a no-no in Austin so not quite sure how conditions might differ here. They look healthy. I suspect they are the builders standard plant which grows quickly is evergreen and wows with those red tips.

There are a number of bushes I am not familiar with and frankly most of them will have to come out or at least be cut down to the ground as they are growing into other bushes.They have been miserably hacked by the landscapers to keep them under control-with a blunt pair of sheers. It is sad to see the Texas mountain laurel treated in this way as well as a number of Anacacho orchid trees. Only one has been allowed to take a tree form and then a small one shows promise of making it to adulthood. 

At first glance I remember thinking there wasn't much gardening to be done but a second glance has told me otherwise. I have been scanning local landscapes for which plants will work best here. Once again much will depend on micro climates and visiting wildlife. Although our property is fenced on 3 sides we intend to complete the fencing. It may keep javelinas away but not rabbits. 

This weekend we got to grips with some drainage we needed to understand and the irrigation system. We have had to order a new control box as most of the buttons weren't working. What was that David was thinking about not having to do such things! We also removed the Mediterranean fan palm(what a brute) and I planted an Agave desmettiana I brought with me. It feels good to get my hands in the dirt although I'm not sure I would call it that. It's basically just gritty sand. 

Maybe I will get to a nursery this week.