Permagarden

07/18/2026

Trying my hand at growing some native plants. I pulled these pods off of a desert milkweed plant I saw when I was out on a dog walk.

07/18/2026

This mesquite has grown so much in 2 months! I also have some watermelon and squash growing symbiotically. They create a living mulch and the tree provides a bit of shelter for these plants from the intense AZ sun.

07/15/2026

These mesquite tree volunteers have been repeatedly cut and they repeatedly grow back. I prefer to take the time and remove unwanted plants by the roots. A little bit of hard work makes for less work down the road. This is the root of all sustainable practices!

07/05/2026

I keep this bucket of water aerated. it’s what I use to water my plants. These wasp are taking advantage of the scarce desert resource. These wasp don’t like to be swatted at but otherwise are pretty chill. They are welcome in my garden because they reproduce through parasitism of garden pest.

06/11/2026

This homeowner got a controller upgrade today. I haven’t seen too many controllers this old before.

The amazing thing was that it was still working!

It was time to retire this relic though. It’s Pretty challenging to program. It’s strange that it was mounted so high . High enough to where you would need stand on a ladder or a stool just to operate it!

The new controller is an industry standard, the Hunter pro-c. Very reliable, intuitive to use and easy to expand.

Mounted at a very ergonomic eye level.

06/04/2026

I planted this Peruvian Apple cactus today. It was a cutting I had rooted into a pot. It’s looking pretty good now it’s growing a couple new arms. There is a lot of caliche to break through in this yard. I like to pick it up and remove it. I also like to rake back the gravel to give plenty of room for the dirt and coliche to pile up as I dig. It’s obvious that a previous landscaper was not so thoughtful because you can see a lot of the gravel is mixed in the soil and caliche is strewed about the whole landscape mixed with the gravel.

06/03/2026

06/03/2026

A good landscape is made possible by incorporating a variety of key elements to support long term sustainability.

~Native plants
~Soil compost & mulching
~passive Water harvesting
~Efficient & reliable irrigation

06/03/2026

Before and after an overgrown Greg’s mist. If I do a good job it looks like nothing was done.