How are your plants doing? Save for some serious flash floods and downpours in Twentynine Palms – this summer has been relatively rain free for the rest of the Morongo Basin. Small showers and periodic precipitation are no replacement for monthly monsoons and sustained storms that give the desert a drink and refreshes the aquifer that our trees and other ancient natives tap into.
I’ve stepped up my watering of my outdoor plants to try and keep pace with relentless heat. Certain natives I put in the ground well before summer are thriving – a desert museum palo verde I got for free from Joshua Basin Water District over a year ago has swollen up to twice its size, with new branches sporting tiny leaves and a deep satisfying green that looks amazing in fading pink light of a desert sunset. A couple penstemons from the Mojave Desert Land Trust are maintaining – both were put in the ground in fall and flowered in spring.
I thought I was going to lose a paperbag bush until it seemed to take root right before summer, and a whole variety of native plants popped up this winter with no help from me. My mom calls these tiny plants “volunteers.” I grew up in the mountains of Oregon where dozens of these volunteers cedar saplings would pop up each spring, and soon these tiny trees would be transplanted into pots by my mom and given to anyone who would take one.
I’m starting that practice here in the hi-desert with my abundance of silver cholla and other native cacti that continue to pop up.
I was happy to hear on last week’s Unique Garden Show with Mike Branning that he is suggesting folks give extra water to natives plants and animals during the summer.
Mornings and evenings are the best time to water – giving the plants time to soak up the h2o before the sun gets to them. Young Joshua Trees on my property get a drink from the hose every once in a while – and fully established trees will get a spray down in the raking evening light from time to time as well. I’ve noticed the creosote in my backyard is drying out quicker than last year, so some of my larger bushes get a spray down every couple evenings. It smells great and reminds me that rain will return…
Hilary Sloane did a great piece on the interconnectedness of the plants and animals here in the Mojave, and one of my favorite things she touched on was the mycorrhizal networks of fungi that sequester carbon in our desert’s soil as well as help plants with water and nutrient uptake. I like picturing these microscopic networks under the soil waking up with each watering – helping the plants transport water and nutrients where they need it most.
If you haven’t listened to the Unique Garden Show with Mike Branning – it’s on every Saturday morning, and its full of information you can only get from someone like Mike, who has a nursery here in Yucca Valley and always comes to each show with a wealth of desert growing information. And if you have a specific question about gardening here in the desert, you can call in and get an answer right on the air.
It’s available as a podcast on our website, and it’s 30 minutes of relaxing garden conversation… a perfect companion to getting out in the evening and giving those plants… and animals… a drink.
