16 May 2012 - Odd reversals

I was hit by an odd epiphany today.  I had gone to the library to return books, and as is my wont, I took a different way home, this time driving through a neighborhood in Holladay. The gardens in this area were stunning, full of flowers. Blooming right now are iris, peonies, clematis, roses, wisteria, globe mallow and so much more.  It dawned on me that in Michigan, you rarely see neighborhoods where every yard is full of flowers, yet Michigan is surrounded by lakes, has a lot of rain, and no real shortage of water.

Here in Utah, it is a desert. Water is a precious commodity. Snow pack determines if we have a good water year or not, but still, everyone has incredible gardens that all need water. I have half a notion to dig up all the lawn and replace it with native plants that are drought tolerant. That is a bit more of an ambitious plan than I can handle this year, but who knows.

 In addition to the front yard gardens, people have done beautiful things in the parking strips as well, such as this 40 foot strip of iris. 

Or this one full of native plants, sage brush and grasses.  

Here's an example of a yard landscaped in a water-wise plan with native plants.  Mulch and hard-scaping help conserve the water. 

Here is another naturalized yard, but in a shady location, so the plants used look quite lush.  What you can't see in a picture this small is that most of these clumps are blooming. Charming!

Many homes in my neighborhood have yard services. This particular service always cracks me up. Their trailer is covered with stuffed animals and dolls. Very peculiar. 

Oh! And speaking of parking strips, how about this one on a major street outside of a Mexican take-out? 

Roses and iris, always a winning combination.

Just down the street in front of another restaurant is another native, naturalized setting. Lovely.




While we are talking about reversals, how about this? Every day I go out front with my bucket and pick up pine cones.

 Because I can't help myself, I count them. Today I had 56. Yesterday was windy and 84 fell. The day before that, only 35. I haul my bucket out to the garbage bin and pitch them. 

I was rooting around in the garage looking for a box of nails and I came across several stashes of pine cones thanks to our red squirrel. 

He fills containers with pine cones.

 

When we were removing debris in the yard, I picked up a pile of limbs and found a huge hoard of cones buried beneath the branches. 

Guess we both are collecting and stashing pine cones, just for different purposes.