Greetings to subscribers of Plant Whatever Brings You Joy! It has been a full year since I placed this blog on hiatus, giving me time to adapt to my new environment in New Mexico, which offers a wide variety of plants heretofore unknown. Some of the plants I have knowledge of can adapt, however, or can be grown annually. The one that stands out readily for me are morning glories, one of my favorite garden flowers! What led me to try them here in the high desert of New Mexico was finding myself now living in a home with space for a garden, but requiring top notch flexibility. I was initially discouraged, to be honest, but as I sat out on the back patio one morning I reflected on the fact that there was a long border of dirt at the base of the fence that separates this property from the property just west of mine. You will be surprised that it is only about four inches deep. But it is, in fact, many yards long. It suddenly occurred to me that any vine would probably adapt if properly prepared. I pulled out my satchel of yarns and found some metal decorative edging I had brought with me from my California garden and got to work! I strung various colors of yarn from the metal edging up and around the top of each wooden board of the fencing. Perfect. This was followed by planting various kinds of morning glory seeds in the dirt at base of fence, and within a short time they sprouted and began climbing the various yarn supports! It was quite exciting!
Eventually I found myself enjoying a lovely wall of morning glories of various lovely colors. I have now done this twice and will soon begin again, experimenting with different varieties to create different color combinations. Japan seems to be a place where different seeds are found and they are not that hard to find.
This is Fiona. You will hear about how she came to us in a future post!
Some of the loveliness I have brought into the morning glory wall!
Heavenly blues:
A feature of this emerging corner of the back garden is an amazingly luscious spectacular desert willow tree, which actually grows on the other side of the fence, but 2/3 of the tree actually hangs into my garden, offering much needed shade, incredible beauty and a place for birds to visit and eat suet every morning all year long.
The desert willow is in the catalpa family, with which Californians will be familiar, most likely. What a treasure that lasts quite long!
We are blessed, no doubt. Each season I learn what grows here, what lives here and how best to enjoy this new ecological experience!
Love and garden blessings,
Kathryn
Footnote: My book Plant Whatever Brings You Joy: Blessed Wisdom from the Garden is currently available primarily as an ebook on Amazon and through B&N and Kobo. Copies of the original can be purchased at Gallery Bookshop in downtown Mendocino. Watch for new options soon!
Posted on February 14th, 2025 by Kathryn
Filed under: Plants
