Just so enjoyable

     This season I built three moss gardens for a private client who lives about an hour from my home.  He has a great deal of garden antiques in his gardens, many from Europe.
     These photos are of the first garden, started in March.  They show me building the outline of two mounds with mossy rocks I found nearby--over 300 in total.  Then I filled in the areas with mainly Thuidium delacatulum moss.  I added oak bark mulch between the two areas and around a fountain of two children holding a large fish.  This structure used to be an operating fountain in England, and it was built in Italy in the 1800s.  The tubing is still intact, so it might be operating again in the future.

Back from the desert

     I recently returned from an 18-day trip, spent mainly in Utah and Arizona.  I need to rest up, as I leave for another trip in two weeks, this time to Nicaragua and Honduras.  I will be gone a lot this winter, hoping to see lots of gardens and green stuff, in general, as not much is green here anymore--except for my moss.
     I spent three delightful hours visiting the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.  As it is in the Sonora Desert, the gardens has a huge variety of cacti and succulents.  The most interesting plant I found was what looked like a power pole with spikes protruding from it.  It is Fouquieria columnaris, or Boojum Tree, in the Octillo family.  It is native to northern Mexico and Baja California.  It appears in photos four and five.