Some Fig trees.

Royal Blenheim Apricot. Produces lots of amazing fruit.

Chickasaw Plum tree planted November 2011.

Close up of Chickasaw Plum tree.

In the far corner is my new Loquat.

Did anyone notice how nice and green all the weeds are?

LOL! Thanks for starting the theme this month. I had a hellacious early start to the month at work, but all is getting better. Anyway, great fun to see your pics and updates! Your plants look so happy and vigorous, so fun to see, and very productive! Get those weeds while they're green! Don't you find they're like five times more annoying when they've turned brown--I sure do (and yes, I get plenty too).

So fun to see!

Here's something looking good in my garden right now, bearded iris 'Batik'. So easy, and so fun, I've gone a bit overboard with bearded iris, but why not, right? Easy to grow/bloom, and their sword-like foliage blends in nicely with cacti and succulents.

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Here's a variegated gazania (G. repens) I've been growing for years, starting to really bloom now. Another easy, fun plant that looks great 365.25 days a year. Even though it's variegated, the foliage is sun resistant, yes, even here! Like all gazanias, it's easy from stem cuttings rooted in soil or water.

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Thanks for starting the theme while I was slacking, hah! Let's keep the updates (pics or not) coming! Happy gardening all!

Here is a link that might be useful: What's blooming in Grant's garden so far April 2013

Grant, your bearded iris are beautiful. Do you find growing iris in the Phx area easy? I've tried growing bearded iris, but have had some trouble growing them. I grow mostly roses so have planted the iris with the roses and some do ok, but most not so well. They don't usually die but don't bloom. They also don't spread at all, which I was hoping they would.

Suggestions?

Mexican Bird of Paradise is starting to bloom

The bottlebrush trees I planted last fall recently bloomed. The aloe flowers are about done.

Really nice to see pics guys. Thisisme, thanks especially for the pic of your illinois everbearing mulberry. My little ie stick has been in ground for only a couple of months now. I removed the block in the pic to give it an extra half hour of morning sun.

You've given me something to look forward to.

(Edited to resubmit pic. These popups are driving me nuts).

This post was edited by Centurion_ on Sat, Apr 13, 13 at 22:50

Desert King fig (from thisisme) waking up. Pic was taken last week. I counted 42 brebas this morning.

(Don't know why I have to keep resubmitting pics. But I do).

This post was edited by Centurion_ on Sat, Apr 13, 13 at 23:19

Cats supervisin the day's work.

Very nice new pics, all, thanks for posting them! Nick, I really like the look of your home, garden, and neighborhood. Neat neat neat! Centurion, your plants and kitties all look really good too. You all are making me want to save the mulberry that popped up in one of my aloe pots last spring. Hmmmm...!

Jasper, I DO find bearded iris to be very, very easy here. So easy in fact, I've gone a bit overboard with them. When I first moved here in 2000 there were several large commercial iris nurseries in Phoenix, so that tells you how well they do here. I just give them full sun, or full sun with a touch of afternoon shade, and water once or twice a week spring through autumn, then monthly in winter. I slop all purpose Miracle Gro fertilizer on them every few weeks spring and summer and that's about it. They look tired by the end of summer, but start perking up in autumn or winter. You'll find lots of bare root rhizomes for sale in autumn, the best time of year to plant them here. I leave the top 25% of the rhizome UNcovered. "They" say the extra light on the rhizome encourages flowers. What problems have you had with them in the past?

Speaking of bearded iris, here's a new-for-me variety 'Easy Being Green' starting to bloom right now:

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Here's a big leaf big flowered crown of thorns (Euphorbia milii) blooming on the patio, with Wilson the tennis ball included to show size.

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Finally, another pic of petunia 'Pretty Much Picasso' which has been absolutely covered in flowers since early November (that's already six months! eat your heart out "it's too hot in Phoenix to garden" people).

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Happy gardening all!
Grant

Grant, thanks so much for the info on the bearded iris. I might have planted them too deeply. I'll keep trying as I love them! Your pictures are always an inspiration to me.

I love your petunias. I'll have to put them on my list!

thisisme, when all those trees mature, you'll have a lovely, shady yard. Good job...I love trees.

Grant, your stuff alway looks totally wonderful, you certainly have the gift.

And I especially like Centurion's supervisors. ;-)

Here's a few pics from the garden: I'm going to do these in separate posts because they are not on-line and I just have a minute.....

Got tomatillos?

Sweet cluster: (gee, I wonder why they are named that??)

Siberian Red:

Your tomatoes look GREAT. We're probably 6 or 7 weeks behind you up here. My little early girl has just put out it's first blossoms.

Grant I am always impressed by your beautiful plants and flowers. I purchased a bunch of seeds of varieties you grow this last winter. I panned on planting them but my other half would not have it. If she had her way our yard would be paved over. However she likes your pictures very much. She thought your blue and white bearded iris was so beautiful that it could not be real. Could not believe it was grown in Arizona.

Nick that Mexican Bird of Paradise of yours looks amazing. Truly a sight to behold. ItâÂÂs just so exotic looking and looks so perfectly healthy. When more of those flowers open could you post another picture?

Mary I will be keeping all of those trees fairly short for easy picking. No taller than I can reach. I will be planting a mulberry soon though for shade. I would say your tomatoes are about 4-5 weeks ahead of mine. Looks like you really know what you are doing. What do you do with all of those tomatillos?

Centurion my friend. I look forward to your late summer pictures. I suspect parts of your yard are going to start looking like a jungle in a few years. By the way. There is now a stray four legged supervisor in my backyard too. We do not feed it and yet itâÂÂs somehow gotten so fat on something that itâÂÂs having a hard time getting over the block wall.

Your little supervisor must belong to a neighbor. That's the best kind. You don't have to feed it. And...it will keep your yard free of gophers, squirrels, rats, and mice. It will get the lizards too though. I am constantly chasing my little guys down to rescue members of our lizard population. Those little guys eat a ton of bugs. (as do the cats ).

(BTW, Has my morus nigra noir of spain arrived yet)?

The Morus Nigra is expected to arrive the 18th. As far as the supervisor goes. We have tons and tons of lizards in my yard. I bet thats how he's getting so fat.

Wow! Great new pics, Mary and all, thanks for taking the time to share them with us! The tomatoes and tomatillos look so great. You always grow them so well!

YES, bearded iris do really well here. So easy! Just give them sun and occasional water and they'll do great. Here's another one looking good right now, 'Jennifer Stout'

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And, I'm excited to share, my first cross pollination experiment in Hippeastrum (amaryllis). Four years ago I crossed 'Sydney' and 'Minerva'. Here's the very first seedling to bloom. Not bad!

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Finally, for my fellow succulent lovers, here's some Dyckia fosteriana blooms with a big blue Agave americana in the background:

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Thanks for the nice comments on my pics, and definitely keep your pics and comments on other photos coming. Happy gardening all!
Grant

Here's a picture of my C. Gilliesii. Amazing blooms!

jasper, what an incredible explosion of color, nice job there!

Thanks for all the good words on my gardens, it's a lot of work but I enjoy it. thisisme, I don't think I know what I'm doing at all, kind of a throw it against the wall and see what sticks sort of approach. This year I think my secret is all the home compost as well as purchased garden soil, in bulk (1/2 to one full yard at a time) from sand/gravel vendors. The Garden Guy's book, Extreme Gardening has one line that spoke to me: "Feed the soil, not the plant." if your soil is healthy you won't need alot of additional amendments through the grow cycle.....at least that's the idea I'm currently throwing at the wall. ;-)

I plan to finish this gardening cycle by early June and then let the beds rest through summer. I'm so done with trying to get tomatoes to grow through summer. I'll pull 'em and start over late summer/early fall.

Happy gardening to all!! - I love daisies, don't remember if I've posted this one here yet. These happy faces are all but gone now, I'm thinking of planting something edible in the front flower bed, a squash or melon.

Amazing pictures some of you have, very inspiring! Here are tree roses I bought a few weeks ago, couldn't resist, and the coral bells look nice under them.

Here is a mixed planter, the blue and white lobelias are a new heat resistant variety at Lowes.

I like blue flowers and planters, nice cool color for the heat.

Pretty mixed planter.

Here is a good view of the length of the patio, everything is growing well.

Mulberry tree is putting out amazing tasty fruit, goldfinger banana is coming back from the freeze as are the plumerias and dragon fruit. Newly planted Rajapuri banana in the back (with 3 pups, which will be replanted) 1 and one half solo papayas planted in the back (dog destroyed one, but it is coming back), new calomodin plant, new Big Jim Loquat, new Strawberry Guava. Room for some more plants, I lost the beautiful papayas that were fruiting at the time of the big freeze...

jaspermplants great looking picture. Thank you for posting it. EveryoneâÂÂs garden looks so nice compared to mine. All the weeds are gone now though. Which for me means no more flowers.lol Well except for a few scattered citrus flowers and those on the honeysuckle and Star Jasmine or on tomato and pepper plants. Nohing pretty though.

Hi thisis me,
Your yard has great potential, why don't you get some nice plants like I have that thrive on tough love, lol? My yard plants often get eaten by the local rabbits, and these plants are rabbit proof and have great blooms.

The above picture is Mexican Bird of Paradise, and this one is the super pretty Desert Willow tree, overshadowed by a Palo Verde.

I made this rock garden to cover up what used to be a bare spot in the yard. Rabbits have eaten a lot of what I put in, but the remaining plants are rabbit proof, and I have lots of Russian Sage in the yard with pretty lacy foliage, very tough and has pretty purple blooms. Agaves are a great plant, and trailing rosemary is a good choice.

Here is a double salmon oleander, the back yard has white ones lined across the fence, but I love the color. Hope I've given you some ideas, good luck! I'm guessing jaspermplants and grant spend a lot more time in their amazing yards than I do, these plants are easy.

GREAT new pics and posts everyone, so fun to see! 1212dusti your garden is terrific, thanks for taking the time/effort to let us all enjoy it! Happy gardening all!

1212dusti sorry I was not more specific. we have some of those plants and bushes in our front yard. We have an HOA which requires us to plant things in the front yard. My wife is not happy with me planting anything in the back yard. She says if it gets watered it makes weeds grow.