Neighbors and friends of the El Presidio Homeowner's Association came together in March to clean up the property after our terrible winter season.  As you can see, life goes on and a tidy garden makes a happy gardener.  Spring also promises some wonderful surprises.....

The pollinators are out and about getting the fruit trees ready to bare fruit.....check out this bee in the Red Baron Peach tree......

There is nothing better than Spring Clean Up!!!  This property would be very difficult to manage without the help from other homeowners of the El Presidio Complex.  Everyone came together on the 13th of March and made this place sparkle and shine!!!  Afterwards, we had a potluck and meeting to go over agenda items.  These days allow me to breathe a sigh of relief and watch everything get cleaned up.  It's always difficult for me to not  play "Mother Hen" over the plants...."Be careful!", "Trim it this way!"  "Don't pull that plant!" "Watch out for that plant!" or, "It may not be dead.....don't prune."  But I pull back and show people how to do it and if something happens; something happens.....everyone did an amazing job and I was able to sleep better that night knowing that several more time consuming projects were taken care of.......and that is perfection.  Thank you homeowners and renters for all your help!!!  El Presidio is tidy again:)

Labels: El Presidio Spring Clean Up, spring clean up, spring projects, tidy gardens

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Hamilton Pool, near Austin Texas

Hot and sticky....but green....Austin Texas.  I was shocked by how green the entire city was during the summer.  For awhile, it was America's best kept secret until this 2nd "Silicon Valley" emerged.  It's still a beautiful, but expensive, city with lots of water holes and amazing gardens, but back then, no one knew about this place. 

Watch your feet...we spotted this little guy taking a sip from this pool

 It was a wonderful swim on this very humid day. 

Austin and Tucson have similiar gardening requirements.  They obviously can grow different things with a tad more water than we have to work with here in the desert.  Austin is gardening zone 8 and Tucson is 9.  Some minor differences, but a lot of the same principles apply to our gardening techniques.

For more information on Hamilton Pool, click here:

http://www.texasoutside.com/hamiltonpool.htm

Speaking of things Texan, the video below is from one of my favorite shows to watch out of Austin, Central Texas Gardener with host Tom Spencer.  If you use Youtube, you can watch the weekly episodes that are normally posted Wedesday.  It's one of my weekend morning rituals.

Labels: Austin Garden Zone, Central Texas Gardener, dripping springs, Hamilton Pool Austin, spring projects, swimming hole, tomatoes

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Yesterday, I completed the first full spring project. The barrels were heavy and thank goodness a neighbor helped me carry them to the front.  It will take awhile for these cactus/agaves to fill out, but once they do, it's going to be very beautiful.  They are very low maintenance for care here.  I look forward to seeing how this cacti garden will turn out. It's winter at El Presidio and so things aren't as lush as they usually appear to be. Days are warm and nights are cold.  Once the evenings get back to a low of 50 degrees, the plants will start coming back.  In the background you see the California Palm with the large messy 2 Live Oaks in the background.  Currently they are dropping acorns....and lots of them.  After that is done, then they drop leaves....and lots of them.  After that is done, they drop pollen...and lots of it.  Yeah spring with these oaks is not too much fun:)

No matter how hard you try not to prick yourself; it still happens.  I got needles everywhere....in my fingers(even though I wore gloves) and in my tongue and lips.  Long story, but I'll tell you this much, I'm glad I'm done with the plantings. I sealed the pots to the cement to keep them in place. 

I look forward to their growth and flowering habits.  It should be a quite a show in about a year.  A low maintenance garden that punches up the drab front a little.  I have some castor bean work to do now to add that purple punch on the wings of those cactus.  The front is going to look great....or at least I hope.  Until next time, happy adventures in the garden!

Labels: cacti, cacti security, cacti wall, live oaks Tucson, spring projects, using cactus as a barrier, Xeric Garden

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Dedicating my time this weekend to writing and projects, I've gotten busy and contacted my local arborist who met with me this morning.  This is blog number 3 on the El Presidio Spring Project list. After clearing the brush from our eastern planters, we now have piles of plant material sitting alongside the wall of the parking lot.  This can be an eyesore for some residents. If you ever have large amounts of clean up like this, I recommend you

 do several things.  One.  Do it before the Brush and Bulky Day which picks up lots of stuff if you can't make it to the local city dump.  The city has the days all set up for us and your personal information can be found by clicking on the link here...  http://cms3.tucsonaz.gov/es/content/brush-and-bulky .  Remember to keep your branches at 5 feet and at less than 24 inches diameter.  But let's say you can't wait until March 21st like me.  At this point, you'll need to consider the second option.  Personally, I call my arborist who will come out with his truck and mulch the entire pile for 235 dollars.  At that point, I can then reuse that mulch around the property for plants, etc. to protect from the summer sun. 

However, on a side note I just received a notice from Tucson yesterday that they will be doing our brush and bulky pickup on the January 31st!!  In either event, I am ready for them:)

So now that I've dealt with all the plants, it's time to deal with the stumps in the planters.  At 40 bucks a stump x 10 stumps, we've got a price of 400 dollars. With the mulching and the stump removal, we are now at 635 dollars.  I had several other items to clean up like our courtyard palm tree and a branch off the mesquite.  The total cost came to be around 850 dollars which isn't bad at all.  We have various wires in the planters and have contacted BlueStake to come out and label where the telephone and electric wires are buried before we begin the stump removal.  This service is free was taken care of by my aborist for me.   I'll be talking about him in the next post as we examine what types of things you look for when contracting with a tree service.  The importance of this post is that people plan for the financial costs afterward and think about what they will do with all the brush once it has been cut. More important is to remember where your sewer, water, and electric lines are located!  Don't dig until you've had someone come out to look first. This could save your life.   The mulch is definitely a great way to reuse what was already yours.  You could even rent a machine and do it yourself for less money, but I am letting the professionals do it.  The fun part of the project was cutting down everything and piling it up.  Stay tuned for the next post on finding an arborist to do the unreachable or difficult work. Until next time, start planning and prepping your Spring projects!

Labels: BlueStake, brush pile, mulch, reuse, spring projects, tree stumps, Tucson Brush and Bulky day

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