Hah, fun and funny replies. Thanks for the nice words on my picasaweb albums too, I appreciate it. My garden is quite small, so I have to try to keep myself reined in, LOL. While small, my garden DOES have a fun key-hole shape, so I love it even if some trees are too large for my place. Too bad your olive is a fruitless one since you would actually process any fruit. I don't know anyone who does that but I'd love to see/hear it firsthand from someone. There are a lot of mature fruiting olives around town, you should have no trouble foraging, LOL. This is a great time of year for leafy greens--I've got leaf lettuce coming out my ears, so if you've got the itch to grow some edibles, lettuce in a moderately sized pot or in the ground will produce nicely for you. A lot of my leafy plants die in summer (like they do in winter in cold winter places, so it all evens out), so I just replace them (pansies, geraniums, petunias) with heat lovers like zinnias, celosia, and vincas, so no need to prepare for UTTER death in the garden in summer, LOL. Have fun, post often, and keep us posted on what you're doing and how it works out! Happy gardening all, Grant Here is a link that might be useful: Grant's garden pics (so far) January 2012

Welcome to the forum, and to Arizona gardening! I think this is the MOST fun, interesting, and festive gardening climate in the U.S. Great stuff! The first thing I'd suggest is that you get your hands on some of the many good, LOCAL gardening books. They will really help give you a lot of information on different styles of gardens, and their plants, and then what those plants need. They'll also remind readers that our long, easy gardening season is autumn, winter, spring and early summer, not the way folks did things "back home". You can search this AZ forum for recommended books, and I'm sure folks will chime in with suggestions too. You'll be happiest growing plants that do well here (that applies to any climate of course, LOL), and there are TONS of leafy and non-leafy plants, plus citrus and all sorts of fun shrubs, vines and trees. Just remember that not everything here wants rich loamy soil. Most desert plants don't want a ton of organic materials in their soil, though things like roses, veggies etc do. There are a lot of great books for this area that will save you heartache, most are available at large local book stores, and all are available at the big online book sellers too, and again search the forum's archive to see various lists of books folks have suggested. Just off the top of my head here are a few: "Arizona Gardener's Guide" by formerly-local author Mary Irish "Desert Gardening" by George Brookbank. He's a bit of a curmudgeon, but the advice is great and really helps explains to gardeners how the soil, climate, watering and plants work here. "Desert Landscaping: How to Start and Maintain a Healthy Landscape in the Southwest" also by G. Brookbank. It's really great if you can get over the B&W photos. Good information that is timeless. "Plants For Dry Climates: How To Select, Grow, And Enjoy, Revised Edition" by Mary Rose Duffield "Native Plants for Southwestern Landscapes" by Judy Mielke. Don't let the "native" part discourage you--most of these plants are now very popular in the nursery trade (and can even be found at the Big Box hardware stores, plus local nurseries too). Great information on where these plants are found in nature, and how to keep them happy. If you're concerned about a plant's tolerance of our warm summers (and warm summer nights especially), check out "Heat-Zone Gardening: How to Choose Plants That Thrive in Your Region's Warmest Weather." It's a fun, interesting book that helps us weed out plants that just won't make it here (and it highlights and confirms the many that thrive here). If you want a lot of fruits and veggies, "Extreme Gardening: How to Grow Organic in the Hostile Deserts" by David Owens is good, if a bit slapsticky at times. Good information though, especially for veggie growing. Those are just some quick thoughts, but spending just a little money and time on some or all of these books will give you tons of information and entertainment, and will get you get up for a wonderful Arizona garden. Plus being on this forum will be really helpful too, and fun! So many folks here have wonderful, wonderful gardens, and there's no substitute for hands-on experience from real gardeners of course. Just for fun, I'm putting a link to my little garden's pics from this month. All of my garden photo albums are viewable, so you can scroll through them to see what's blooming when (I organize them by month and year). So many great gardeners here will be willing to help out too. Oh,and we love pics too! :) Happy gardening! Grant Here is a link that might be useful: March 2012 garden pics

I just wrote a nice detailed and lenghty (of course!) post and it was lost. Trying again. YG is 100% correct. You have to have all shrubs on hands AND find out where the sprinkler line is before planting you anchor tree. I had so many disappointments when perfect thoroughly thought plan was ruined by some unexpected ledge or huge rock laying just under 2-3" of top soil. Yes, I was talking about this particular bed. As soon as you finish planting your deck's bed (next week, next month or next year) you'll realize that this(ES) bed look skimpy and need to be increased to watch the bed on another side of the stairs(deck's bed). That will involve major reshuffling and not necessary will be to the benefits of the plants' well being. The younger the shrubs the easier this job could be done. Again, as I said before, I'd rather see white blooming SM-tree surrounded/offsetted by the blue ESs than a white-white combo of Annabelle+SM. Matter of taste of course, since culturaly ES and Annabelle are fairly identical. Also, don't forget that by the time SM will be in full bloom your Annabelle will be or soon will be in a green stage and that may create somewhat clashing effect, I think. So, I'm suggesting to use 2-3 ES on a sides/around SM and to separate your pair of Annabelles and move the right one to the far right end of the railing where the entrance is. In this order: A-ES-SM-ES-A. There is a possibility that A will eventualy outgrow ES (or maybe not), but at least give a thought to this idea. Maybe just remove one of the A (or both) and plant it(them) in a bed currently occupied by ESs. Re: BBillow. '... isn't Blue Billow supposed to require much shade and not a drop of noon and afternoon sun at all? ' Absolutely unsubstantiated notion. If ES doing good there, BB will do good as well. One thing is for sure, I wouldn't be looking for place for BB in a deck's bed for one and simple reason, you don't want to waste 40-50 days in a height of the summer for its 'ugly duckling' period. Good luck, G

List of plants for Moonlight gardens Thanks to GCorman for compiling this list and other members of our forum for their contributions. If you can't make a nice garden out of this lot, you ain't trying very hard! Night bloomers Cereus spp. Datura wrightii "Sacred datura", "Jimson weed" Echinopsis spp. Hesperaloe nocturna Moraea iridoides Fortnight lily Oenothera caespitosa "Tufted evening primrose" Peniocereus greggii "Queen of the night" White/pale blue flowered perennials Asclepias linaria "Pineleaf milkweed" Bauhinia lunarioides (congesta) "Anacacho orchid tree" Convolvulus cneorum "Bush morning glory" Cordia boissieri "Texas olive" Cordia parvifolia "Little leaf cordia" Gaura lindheimeri "Gaura" Jasminum sambac "Arabian jasmine" Lantana montevidensis (white) Lonicera japonica v. halliana "Japanese honeysuckle" Moraea iridoides Fortnight lily Plumbago auriculata Plumbago scandens "Plumbago" Ruellia brittoniana w/white flowers Trachelospermum jasminioides "Star jasmine" Zephyranthes candida Zinnia acerosa "Desert zinnia" Gray foliage plants Acacia aneura "Mulga" Acacia cultriformis Artemisia ludoviciana "Western mugwort" Asclepias subulata "Desert milkweed" Atriplex canescens "Fourwing saltbush" Atriplex hymenelytra "Desert holly" Atriplex lentiformis "Quail brush" Atriplex nummularia "Old man saltbush" Bahia absinthifolia "Bahia" Baileya multiradiata "Desert marigold" Brahea armata "Blue hesper palm" Buddleia marrubifolia "Wooly butterfly bush" Cassia artemisioides "Desert cassia" Convolvulus cneorum "Bush morning glory" Cupressus arizonica "Arizona cypress" "Sabino" Dalea greggii "Trailing indigo bush" Dalea pulchra "Bush dalea" Eremophila cv. Valentine "Emu bush" Euphorbia rigida "Gopher weed" Gazania rigens v. leucolaena "Trailing gazania" Hyptis emoryi "Desert lavender" Lavandula species "Lavender" Leucophyllum pruinosum "Fragrant rain sage" Olea europea cv. Swan Hill "Swan Hill olive" Pedilanthus macrocarpus "Slipper plant" Perovskia atriplicifolia "Russian sage" Psorothamnus spinosus "Smoke bush" Salvia clevelandii "Cleveland sage" Santolina chamaecyparissus "Lavender cotton" Simmondsia chinensis "Jojoba" Sophora secundiflora "Texas mountain laurel" (Silver Peso) Teucrium fruticans "Bush germander" Yucca rigida "Blue yucca" White barked trees Acacia willardiana "Palo blanco" Eucalyptus erythronema "Red-flowered mallee" Eucalyptus papuana (aparrerinja) "Ghost gum" Accent plants for lighting and shadow effects Cereus peruvianus (and v. Monstrosus) Cleistocactus spp. Dasylirion wheeleri "Desert spoon" Nolina microcarpa "Beargrass" Oreocereus spp. "Old man of the Andes" Pedilanthus macrocarpus "Slipper plant" Yucca elata "Soaptree yucca" Yucca rigida "Blue yucca" White/pale blue flowered annuals Antirrhinum varieties "Snapdragon" Cyclamen varieties "Cyclamen" Lobularia varieties "Sweet alyssum" Matthiola varieties "Stock" Papaver nudicaule "Iceland poppy" Petunia varieties "Petunia" Viola varieties "Viola, Violet, Pansy" I've thought of some more - I might add Agave spp. and Palo brea to your accent plants. Does the Abutilon palmerii have gray enough foliage to make the list? I guess it's still pretty green... ? How about Asclepias subulata for accent or gray? And Artemisia x Powis castle - Ok, I know how everyone feels about oleander but I inherited a hedge of petite whites and right now they are beautiful day and night. One to add to your list. Maireana sedifolia or Pearl Bluebush. It's native to Australia and has the most interesting silver/blue foliage. The leaves are about 1/2 inch long and almost succulent-looking and are covered with very short hairs, making it look soft. I had two of these plants at my last house where they received full sun till about 4pm. The plant has a sprawling growth habit to about 4 feet wide and three feet tall. The oldest plant, which was three years in the ground, flowered the spring before I moved. It had tiny inconspicuous tan flowers. Now that I'm in another home, I've planted one on a western exposure about four feet from a block wall.