Monday, March 18, 2013

March 18, 2013 - The Desert Begins to Bud

Gray rabbitbrush

Purple sage
 
Bitterbrush

Tall sagebrush

Welcome to the shrub-steppe environment.  Most of our larger plants are gray in color, and several are just beginning to put out leaves.  (The sagebrush keeps its leaves year 'round.)  When we moved to Burbank, I decided to grow a shub-steppe area out in the back, in a section that had previously been a pasture.  The tall sage is doing stupendously well - some of it is considerably taller than I am.  (I started it from seed several years ago.)  The rabbitbrush self-starts here - but the purple sage and the bitterbrush I purchased.  I've added a few flowers for color, but it's too early for any of the ones I have to be in bloom.
 
And of course, there are the natives that grow on their own.  I have some yarrow (white), lots of fiddle-neck, plenty of milkweed, and more blossoming weeds (non-natives) than you can shake a stick at!  It's almost a full-time job, trying to keep down the plants I'd rather not have in the garden.  That said, pulling weeds is a wonderful occupation - an excellent way to evict all sorts of frustrations and irritations from your life, while exiting them from your garden, as well.

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