Thanks for looking/commenting Kevin and all. I love that 'Monterrey Frost' agave too, so nice and impervious to the recent cold. Yay. My 'Hercules' aloe definitely has tip damage too. It's been in the ground for six years and has grown a ton--I'm excited to see the blooms and to see that it's finally branching. I'm sure yours will do the same too. Now for something that looks (looked!) bad, and then good. I'm tired of the "dwarf" oleander around part of my covered patio, so this weekend I ripped them out (big job) and replaced them with fifteen rosemary plants, and added 1000 lbs of gravel mulch. I cleaned up the arbor too and planted honeysuckle, which is thriving on a trellis nearby, and I finally added some pavers underneath the arch too. I'm embarrassed about the "before" pic, but with the holidays, a month of houseguests, this awful weather and my work things just got nasty, hah! It took all weekend but now it looks better. Not great, but better. Happy gardening all, keep the updates coming! BEFORE: tired, sickly, abused "dwarf" oleanders and an orange that unlike my others never looked good. Not the open soil under the archway. Shame shame on me, hah! AFTER: not perfect, but better. I removed the sickly citrus, and the oleanders and replaced them with rosemary which does so well here, and has great scent and blooms and color. I also added pavers under the archway and planted two honeysuckles (Lonicera japonica) at each side. Last year I had all sorts of different vines on there--quite a mess. The recent cold snap took care of that so out they went, plus I cleaned up the remaining twigs (tsk tsk tsk).

By variety, so I can get a log going on yield and flavor, the best flavor so far was scintilla, oneal, and misty, bountiful blue has yielded the most but flavor is just ok and they have noticeably larger seeds. This is just my first full year with blueberries, the key for me has been selecting varieties that have low chill hours needed, keeping soil ph low and shading south and west in summer, first season I fertilized with ammonium sulfate at 1 tsp per gallon of water, per plant each week with supplemental watering in between as needed to gain size quickly, and have backed off to every two weeks this season. So far so good.

Here's a couple pics of two of my Mango trees that were planted in ground this early spring. They're both doing quite well despite the extreme temps and no extra shading. Usually new young tropical fruit trees need sun protection on their first few summers here to get acclimated but these ones don't seem like they need it. They're throwing out new growth all over the place with only minor sun burn on the older leaves. Mango 'Lemon Zest' Mango 'Coconut cream' I threw several good Manila mango seeds in pots and a few are starting to sprout now. I'm going to dig a few deep holes in the ground and transfer these in fall to get their taproots to start growing deep. They'll probably going to grow much better than the grafted ones without taproots. Elephant ear fig is doing very well too. No sign of sun burn on these big leaves. I'll plant out a few more of these in the front yard in the fall. My Longan tree is doing well too in the heat. Full sun all day and flushing new growth. My Shell Gingers are finally starting to take off. These guys really like the heat. I've had them in ground for more than 7 months now, started them from rhizomes. Very slow growing, I was expecting them to grow as fast as my Canna lilies. Afternoon shade is recommended for these guys. The one's I have in full sun all day aren't as good looking as these ones that get afternoon shade. Lots of water and rich organic soil is a must. I can't wait until they get to 7+ft tall and flowering. I can't wait for the monsoon rains to roll in! I'm tired of watering every day! LOL

I have a few things with galvanized metal in the yardThis is actually steel roofing, we used for an overhand on the back door, so it all started here, this is ungalvanized and rusted the first day which I thought was fantastic. It is very heavy steel and rusting does it no harm, just on the surface. This is a gazebo we built. The roof and all the siding were from a lot that sold and they tore down what was there and were throwing it all away. I asked if I could take the metal and the old fence and this is what we did with it. I found an old real estate sign up on Black Mountain just rotting away on a vacant lot, we looked it up and this was the biggest real estate company in AZ in the 70s and 80s, and I think it became part of Coldwell Banker after that. My husband made them into planters for me. This one is planted with Kale and the other one on the right is planted with zucchini that I am trying to train upright on the bamboo pole. I saw it somewhere and thought it was worth a try. here is an example on pinterestSo here is the garden that you mentioned. It is an experiment with square foot gardening. I needed something that was high enough to keep the javelina out as they had gotten into one of my other gardens with lower walls by getting under the chicken wire. We have since fenced the javelinas out of the yard but we figured there was no way the pigs could get into this.We used the metal for the sides around a wood frame and then lined the whole thing with rubber matting. I read the article that Mary put up and I liked the idea of painting it with a rubberized coating. I haven't tried that but it should work. The inside of the bed is wood coated in chalkboard paint so I can write what I planted and when as I tend to forget what is where and when it should come up. I have been using the chalk markers which last through the waterings but maybe too well. It is hard to get the old chalk off and mark with new plants. It takes water and a magic eraser and still not altogether "off". I took these this morning and the sun comes around to the bed in about an hour and then gets shaded by late afternoon. I got the idea for this on pinterest so it is not an original one.see here And this is the last of my galvanized in the yard. More recycled fencing and metal from the lot. This is my garden shed that I store soil and fertilizer and such in. Had I know how much garden I would have now, I would have made it bigger... There is the rusty patina I like. It amused me to make it like an old outhouse, what can I say. Hopefully, that answers all the questions (and then some) about what can be done with galvanized metal, nmfruit. I look forward to seeing what you do with yours. Sorry, I forgot to answer about the reflected light issue. I didn't do it for that, as I said it was more for strength of material and height to keep out javelina. We built it in April and so this is the second crop that has been planted. Things have grown very well in it but I am not sure about the reflected light if it is a factor. I will try to pay more attention and see. Shannon