Back to the Mundane… Yard Work
/After a fun, but hectic holiday season on the East Coast and a rousing week at CES 2023 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, things have calmed down. Taking down the Christmas tree and all the decorations and packing them all away is always a bit of a letdown. Luckily, Valentine’s Day followed by all the Spring holidays is just around the corner. In the meantime, it’s back to the mundane… housework, repairs and yard work.
This Queen of the Night cactus lives in our front yard. She’s pretty independent, very low maintenance and requires very little water.
Living in the Mojave Desert, we have a quasi-xeriscape yard. It’s not totally waterless as we do have a drip system for some plants, but most thrive with very little water at all except during the hottest part of our Las Vegas summers when they can use a little help. Most of our yard is stone-covered. We have no lawn and certainly no plants that require excessive watering. David and Paul built a raised planter a few years ago and we sometimes plant herbs there and maybe a tomato plant or two. It has a drip system that can be turned off when nothing is planted. We also strive for plants that enhance the yard, but do not require excessive maintenance since we’re gone so much of the time.
The cacti and agave in the front yard only require pruning once or twice a year. The rosemary and juniper bushes get haircuts about as often and the pine tree gets a low branch lopped off every once in a great while. David usually takes care of semi-annual pruning, lopping and haircuts. My job is taking care of the lantana plants. They’re absolutely gorgeous when they’re in bloom… all bright yellow, spread-out and lush (except for one eccentric bush that insists on blooming red). We have them in our front yard, along the entryway and all along the walls in the backyard. They thrive in this harsh, dry environment until winter when they turn brown and need to be cut back. Unfortunately, that’s now!
Lantana are beautiful in bloom and they bloom from Spring to Christmas.
I always begin this chore with dread and regret and put it off as long as possible. First, because I know it’s going to take much more effort than I feel like giving it and second, I feel like I’m doing an injustice to these poor guys by severely pruning them back. They look sad and wretched when I’m done. I talk to them as my sharp pruners do their thing, reassuring them that this drastic cutback will reap its benefits in the Spring. My back hurts and, despite wearing heavy gloves and long sleeves, my hands and arms are usually scratched.
The lantana and I are not the only ones who dislike the severe pruning exercise. We have lots of desert cottontails and lizards in our neighborhood and they like to seek shelter beneath the lantana in summer and winter. When the lantana goes, so do all those neat hiding places.
Desert Cottontails love to seek cover under the lantana. They’re pretty disappointed when I prune all the plants and the hiding places quickly disappear.
But as I progress and the chock full, super-duper, extra heavy-duty size trash bags start piling up, I start feeling a sense of satisfaction take over. The job is nearly done and though the result looks devastating at the moment, we’ll begin to see new green growth in just six weeks or so. I can’t wait for Spring!
