Above, the big glass hearts that Sam gave me when I visited Hacienda Mosaico, in Puerto Vallarta. Michele and Steph are down there now, digging the sun and probably seeing Mr. Teeth, Raymond’s iguana. Look for a mailing from me soon with news of a January 2010 class down there- we’ll be taking reservations with a small deposit starting next week. The triangular fabric is a canvas shade sail, very popular here. It’s shading the creeping fig roots and the space under the orange tree from the afternoon sun.
Above, flowers and fruit. Foreground, a Roma tomato plant, a keiffer (Thai) lime tree and a pot that will soon be spilling over with zinnias and geraniums.
Below, a white Lady Banks Rose I bought today. This is a great plant- it grows like a house on fire, once it’s established it asks for no water, it is hardy down to zero F, and loves full sun. It blooms lushly all spring and summer with fragrant white roses, and is salt tolerant. (This matters because I want to water it with the backwash from the pool. Chlorine is a product of sodium chloride; salt.) Here is a great list of salt-tolerant trees and shrubs if you are in the same boat. They forgot oleanders; mine seem to tolerate anything, including old pool water.
What a magnificent plant! I expect that it will mostly cover this arbor (meant for an outdoor bathroom) by the first frost. I have fond memories of a rose like this (also called a Tombstone Rose in Arizona, named I think for the town and not the graveyard) from the back yard of my first house, a pretty old Victorian downtown.
The rose will have some help from…. a trumpet vine. A person has to think long and hard about whether or not to put in one of these. They are Eaters, you know, they just grow and grow and grow and flower and freak and… well. I decided that I definitely had what it took to become one with an orange trumpet vine, and the hummers really love the flowers.
From the Beginning Gardener’s Handbook: “Trumpet vine is a thuggish creature- it’s aggressive and can reach thirty to forty feet, climbing and scrambling over any obstacle. It never met a trellis it didn’t like and it will cover any screen quickly. When planting it, jump back quickly as it has been known to break gardener’s ankles in its zeal to find growing space.”
When they call a vine “thuggish” in a gardening book, you know you’d better think it through.
And the best news of all- we started swimming today. Well, the boys did. It’s still a little too cold for me, but hey, we’re off to the races.
Still to plant: lettuces, zucchini (I got a SIX-PACK of little zucchini plants, do you know how much ZUCCHINI that is? I’m thinking stuffed squash blossoms) more zinnias, the two vines, a pretty pink penstemon, some marigolds, and a lovely orange nasturtium. One of the nasturtiums went in today under a trellis; hopefully it will take off in the morning sun it gets and mingle pleasantly with the white potato vine. Potato vines don’t seem to have anything to do with potatoes, I’m not sure about the name. Still to buy: watermelons, cilantro, and a few varieties of basil; a couple of creosote bushes, a passionflower vine.
Mr. ChipChip, our red male cardinal, supervised all of the activity today. His wife must be on a nest; she is Miss Nowhere lately. Speaking of nests, I’ve about never seen anything cuter in my life than those two fuzzy little eagle chicks in Virginia. Number 3 should be cracking out tomorrow, I’d guess. The chicks are eating lots of frequent rotty fish bits. Yum.
