To my sister's chagrin, Peachy lives on

All these flowers and wishes for Valentine kisses paid off. My adorable little peach tree is a hanging-on-the-ground laden with sweet, fuzzy peaches. And to think, my sister didn't want to plant him.

Desert Blooms

Two times two, times two, times two, times two, or amazing red to the fourth power. I absolutely love the color of this cactus. I don't know if it's poisonous to us but it certainly looks poisonous to something. It puts out these adorable flowers and pretty green leaves but if you tilt your head and study the stem you'll see the most vicious collection of spikes ever put together.

I also love this desert dweller. It's so happy and not so interested in being scary. No spikes on this one! I love that it has that charming shade of green mixed with a cute shade of yellow and then it's topped off with pink. Pink! You make me happy pink cactus.

And this green guy has just exploded with new shoots. We thought he was this mellow, earlobe shaped cactus that would kind of hang out and spike the dogs when they wrestle into him. But apparently he has some other plans in mind. Is he going to bloom? Grow into a tree?

How does your garden grow?

Thomas always says that our garden grows despite my best efforts. I think that was true at first but I'd like to think the plants are responding to the copious amounts of time I now spend doting on them. Perhaps they are showing off for their portrait sittings. Whatever the reason I'm ok with it.

Cactus Hill

This slope has started to erode and before it fully disappears and part of our patio cracks off and slides down the hill we thought we'd better put in some plants. The dogs use this hill as a main highway to get up and down the yard quickly. (Those steps are just too burdensome!) So we felt we needed to get some hearty, drought-tolerant vegetation to help hold the hillside together. Here's what we chose:

We decided on a variety of colors and textures. The flats on the right break up into lots of small-rooted plants. This is a succulent ground cover that will eventually fill in and produce a blanket of shimmering pale green foliage with little purple flowers. Then we chose different, fun looking succulents to scatter around the hill. Some have yellowish undertones and some have redish-brown, some are smooth and some are furry. Oh, and the giant one on the left, his name is Big Spikey. He's the favorite. We also got a pink and white bougainvillea to climb along the fence edge to give pretty backdrop.

It doesn't look like much right now, but I can't wait for it to fill in with growth. In the meantime, we are attempting to keep Henry and Lola off the hill so everything can establish without trampling.

Millions of Peaches

February showers bring Spring flowers, or at least that's how it goes in Southern California.

Meet Peachy. He's so adorable. This is his third year in my yard and every time I look at him I swoon with adoration. He has been through some of the toughest times in my garden. Like when I didn't think I had to water more than once every two weeks because I grew up on the East Coast and you didn't really have to water except in the brutal August heat. It wasn't August, so why water? It's only 18% humidity and we get a maximum of 9 inches of rain per year? Why would I water?

Then he survived my oldest sister trying to kill him. (That's right, Jen, I went right for the jugular with that one. Oldest sister.) Peachy was weak and frail but I insisted he would be great if we could just get him in the ground. Reluctantly Jen planted him but then as soon as I turned my back she kicked him! With a full-force karate-style kickboxing move unleashed from the depths of the earth she spun around and HI-YA!

Peachy held strong unlike so many before him and today he is a beautiful young lad and I hope lots of honeybees come smooch his flowers for Valentine's Day.