Earth – the substance of the land surface – in my part of Arizona it reminds me of the saying ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’! Landscaping strategies here include generous numbers of Rocks and plenty of gravel Hardscape.
Our yard consists of a gravel mulch that covers soil that is a course reddish material with large sections of impenetrable caliche (soil particles that have been cemented together by calcium carbonate.)
Meandering from one end of the yard to the other is a stone feature I call ‘Big River’.
‘Big River’ is a make believe creek bed that only gets wet when it rains.
‘Big River’ begins in a spiral rock feature I call ‘The Maze’.
A large stone lizard slithers towards the patio and breaks the monotony of yet some more gravel (the maze area is in the distance.)
In contrast, Earth at our Alberta house is a rich black soil. A carpet of green grass (sometimes a blanket of dead yellow grass if we don’t get enough rain) circles flower beds and stone walkways.
The Arizona yard and the Alberta yard, though on different ends of a spectrum of what Earth has to offer, are in just two of the many ecosystems that the Earth’s surface can support. What kind of land surface do you call home?
This week’s WordPress Photo Challenge is Earth.
East of Phoenix are the Superstition Mountains. In the spring, they sport a coat of green, sprinkled with bursts of color when the desert plants bloom. The mountains rise steeply to an elevation of 5,024 feet, and are characterized by sheer-sided, jagged, volcanic peaks and ridges.
North and east of Phoenix is the Water Users Recreation Site on the Salt River in Tonto National Forest. The Tonto National Forest, encompassing 2,873,200 acres, is the largest of the six national forests in Arizona and is the fifth largest national forest in the United States.
North of Phoenix is the community of Fountain Hills. At noon on St. Patrick’s Day, the water of the Fountain Hills Fountain is tinted green, and when it is turned on, it shoots to the maximum height of 560 feet. Normally the height of the fountain is limited to 330 feet. It runs for 15 minutes at the top of each hour from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day of the week!
Small 2 inch leaves will grow from the stems when there is enough moisture. They may lose these leaves, and then sprout new ones, five to eight times a year. Dense clusters of red tubular flowers grow from the end of the stems from March through June. Here in our Arizona neighbourhood, most of the Ocotillos have leafed out, and many have started to bloom.
This would be perfect in The Car Guys garage.
