Department Reports

Summer is ending and I have asked my division heads to report in. Here are their season summaries:

Forestry Department:

All the trees in the yard look fabulous, ma'am. The redbud has fat, glossy leaves, although it just won't put on any height. The ironwood by the guest room window is elegant, and unlike the redbud it is getting tall. The crabapple is thriving and getting fuller. Even the fluffy looking, delicate Japanese maple, unsuited to this climate, is doing well as it practices a graceful lean.

The new little serviceberry is too small to photograph, but I can report it is healthy and green and has nice leafage going on.

And the big trees? Well, ma'm, they are doing very well. The cottonwood had no signs of wet, dripping slime flux this year. The Scots pines in front of the house are so green, the greenest they've ever been, with branches drooping downward. Lots of pine cones.

Grade: A

Wildlife Management:

A totally unexpected year, chief. No rabbits. We only saw one in the front yard, at the very end of August, and it was small and looked confused. No idea what's going on.

The funny spotted towhee birds are few this year, but there were many other visitors to the birdbath. We kept the water refreshed and clean even on the hottest days.

Insects? Yeah, we had a few. We treated for aphids, left the cutter bees alone, and tried to ignore the earwig damage. An average year. Except for the ants. The ants were bad this year and we apologize for all those that got in the house.

Grade: B+

Bureau of Water Conservation:

This year was a fright, boss. A regular affliction. There was no rain. All of July - no measurable rain. All of August - half an inch total, in one short event. The rest of the summer, nada, nothing. My crew hand watered every single day. Tedious. A lot of overtime had to be paid.

And I ran the irrigation system 4 days a week, from 5 in the morning til 10 a.m. using 350 gallons a day, 1,400 gallons a week. But to tell the truth, boss, it doesn't do much.

Well, it does. It keeps things alive until I can give them a hose soaking. But the little drip emitters only wet the three inches around each tiny dripper and when the soil is parched, the water won't spread.

So a plant has to be within inches of an emitter which works okay watering row crops, and it gets water to at least a section of tree roots, but in a naturalistically planted flower shrub garden with small plants all scattered about, emitters aren't always close enough to every plant. Design flaw, I think.

But we did our best. 

Grade: D minus for conservation, B for effort 

Meadow Restoration Team:

The common area next to the driveway is not a success, sir. It's not a meadow and likely never will be. 

One of the planted Gambel Oaks crisped up and browned in the hot dry summer, despite hose watering with frequency. One of the three tiny piñon pine seedlings succumbed. 

The desert willow planted five years ago is green and healthy and not one inch bigger than when planted. It doesn't bloom. It just sits there, getting watered and refusing to do anything.

The soil is terrible. It's sand and caliche and building debris. A scattering of a quarter pound of blanketflower seeds produced absolutely nothing. No rain, sir. That was the problem. We hose water the planted oaks and shrubs, but can't even begin to wet the rest of this acreage. 

We gave up on the Maximillian sunflowers. They were taking too much water and hose time. 

I have no pictures, sir. There's nothing visible to take a picture of.

Grade: D

Department of Container Maintenance:

Pots were .  . okay. Never great. Container garden design is not a strength because we continue to lack a creative director. We plead for understanding while we seek a qualified hire, and ask not to be rated until we can hire a garden designer or Instagram stylist or anyone who knows how to keep plants in damn pots looking good out in the hot sun.

Grade: not evaluated.