Out in the Yard to Play or Minimalist Love

The desert marigold that left my little patio garden wasn't running away, it just went out to the yard to play.

My verbena, desert marigold, and an unnamed other, have bloomed continuously for nearly ten months.

My gardening style might be called on of benign neglect, but I think it might be better called one of minimalist love.

One Multi-blossomed Marigold

Verbena


 

The wild flowers in my patio, which I have been nurturing since early April, are beginning to show the sear of winter, but they are stilling blooming. I have been enjoying their blossoms for eight continuous

  months now!

The Verbena shown above is not the only flower in bloom. Pretty yellow desert marigold are also still showing off. I had the little garden plot surrounded by eight potted cacti, but being wild, many of the plants escaped to areas beyond the surround.

The desert iguanas no longer come in to see them, the jack rabbits are to big to get into the patio area, and I haven't seen a ground squirrel for a few days. However, chipmunks still come in and seem to enjoy the flowers as do the cactus wrens. The cottontail seem to find great comfort in them and do not eat them.
These flowers are truly wild. They came into the patio area because they wanted to. The escaped the encircling cacti because the wanted to. One marigold has escaped the patio and is heading for the fence.

Rabbits

Bunny Rabbits or cotton-tail are just rabbits when they are eating my verbena bare. I thought that maybe the season was making my verbena stems look bare. I knew that cotton tail and other little mammals were coming into my patio, but today I watched those rabbits eating the leaves and flowers from the stems of the verbena.

I really love the verbena, but it is great to watch the little critters too.

Yesterday I watched two families of quail in my little front yard.
I feared that I would lack the wild life when I left Camp Thunderbird for the village. Glad I didn't spend more time on the fear of that imagined loss; I'd have made it a greater loss.

Here I have my days are made better by being able to see almost as many animals and have the added pleasure of the verbena. And now that I consider it, I can see the animals at greater ease here.

Warm Desert Life

The desert is warming. Verbena and other herbaceous plants are still blooming. Cactus is showing hints of the intention of flowering. The cotton-tail and ground squirrel have gotten fat. Dove have built their careless nests and perhaps have already lost their first offspring of the year. The cactus wren are building their well conceived nests.


Life on the desert.

Beautiful Flowers

The verbena in the patio is spectacular.

Patio

I see bushy-tailed grey ground squirrels, bold little chipmunks, and handsome desert iguanas visiting the verbena in my cozy patio area.