Our Casa Encantada April Garden Tour!

Casa Encantada. Ahhhh!! Come on in and see how our garden is doing today…

Above photo taken this morning -- street view.

As it probably has been for a lot of you, this last month has been one of planting here at Casa Encantada! I am one lucky gurl because Ken is not only a mad planter but he is good at it, too – and quick!  And I am thus relieved of the heavier work. Phew!

Ken’s been a-planting trees; I’ve been a-planting pots and beds. Here’s a lookie-loo!

Ken planted 3 new Queen palms (Syagrus romanzoffiana) in the backyard around the pool.  Here’s the tallest, to the right of the existing Yucca tree (Yucca brevifolia):

And here’s the same tree from a different angle:

Another Queen palm over behind the carport:

Another view of the Queen palm by the carport. Kirby had to get into this shot.  What a ham!

The third Queen palm got placed by the outdoor shower --which you can’t quite see here…  It’s tucked in to the far right:

In the front yard, a sweet little Pygmy date palm (Phoenix roebelinii):

In the front yard, our giant oleander had been hiding a treasure!  When Ken was renovating the irrigation system last month, he uncovered a 12-foot tall beauty of a palm. I think it’s a Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis).

Last week, we lost half of the Yucca tree by the pool in a windstorm. Ken heard that you could just plants the Yucca heads right in the ground, water ‘em and they would grow. If this works, then we have scored some very lovely specimens for around the yard. The next four photos show where he put them. They look great right now, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that this radical transplant method actually works! 

Here, he put the largest one back by the back gate, near the compost bins:

This one went along the east fence:

These two went near the master bath door:

Same plantings from a different angle:

And here’s our very lovely compost corner, luckily hidden from view by the pool fence! It’s on or list of places “to get to”:

Now, we move on to my handiwork.  Here are a few shots of the semi-wild bed nestled up against the front porch:

(Warning: dawg butt!)

Here’s the front porch with an asparagus fern (Asparagus densiflorus 'Sprengeri') that is sooo happy in this spot that it is about to take over the planet.  Next to it is a large split-leaf philodendron and a colorful pot of annual potato vines, petunias and verbena:

And Tidal Wave Petunias waiting to be planted. I recently learned that Tidal Waves are medium-height climbers and that they form a hedge if they are planted tightly… so I am going to give them a try on the fence back by the pool! I can’t wait to see how they turn out!

And here are a sampling of  pots from the pool are and east courtyard:

Notice the volunteer Wave petunias that have sprouted up from between the bricks! Cool!

The rubber tree plant gets to spend the summer outside:

These were pots that I planted in February:

This pot filled with asparagus fern and petunias survived the winter here just fine and is coming back for quite a show:

And my beautiful and fragrant gardenia getting ready to bloom (isn’t that solar pool cover attractive?!):

And finally, a few beds. Here’s the progress on the Lady Banks climbing roses, sweet peas, Carolina jessamin and bougainvillea that we hope will camouflage this fence very soon! See this post for what it looked like last month. Not a HUGE difference, but some progress, especially the famously fast-growing Lady Banks rose:

The rosemary (in front) LOVES the full blast of the desert sun:

Lantana and bougainvillea:

…with one dark purple Easy Wave petunia throw in for fun contrast:

And we are valiantly trying cosmos again this year.  Last year, we tried cosmos starts two or three times in the bed by the front porch and it never lasted more than a week or two. Silly non-native desert dwellers that we are, we think just because the nursery sells it that it will actually GROW here! So, here, we are trying it in the backyard instead. It does NOT look promising so far.  We’ll keep you posted!

So, that wraps up the late April Casa Encantada Garden Tour!! Thanks for stopping by!!