One thinks of a desert in such negative terms, generally. Of course, so many of us were raised watching terrific Disney films involving desert life that it took a bit of pain out of the notion, notwithstanding the nastiness of the snakes, Gila Monsters and Tarantula’s, lol. Pictures of “Sidewinders” have dominated my snake dreams for decades. 
Yet, aside from embracing the horrors, there is, in fact, tremendous beauty in a desert.
There is more than one “desert”, in fact. Indeed, it’s just like the fact that there is more than one “forest”. My personal experience with desert life was two-fold, both, however, involving Northern Nevada and the “High Desert”. The Great Basin experience involves a desert which is around 4,500 feet above sea level. The air is lighter, the skies are absolutely immense and clear. I remember sitting out on my porch just outside of Reno and watching satellites go by in the night sky. The Milky Way was resplendent, making nighttime a gorgeous feast of stellar delights. Needless to say, a telescope was a secret passage to things I had never seen before.
But on the ground is where I work. One of my desert incarnations was working as a counselor/’coach’ for a judicial facility for young guys – JD’s, one and all. We got young miscreants from Oakland, LA, even Seattle and Houston, Texas. My job dealt with the “Boot Camp” at Rite Of Passage, a spot set (intentionally!) solidly in the real desert, as the kids are told, “20 miles from the nearest tree”. It was out there, watching kids run one of the 2 3 mile runs they ran each day, where I really got close to the plant life. It was phenomenal in microcosm and even more so after a rain or during Spring. One could have plucked blooms of a thousand colors – Indigo, Indian Paintbrush, small Yarrows and Vetches, Desert Primoses, Apache Plume as in the photo above – it was stunning in its profuseness. And, of course, this does not include the fragrant and actually quite beautiful Rabbit Brushes, Sages and Desert Peach which are each 100 year old plants, doing what they do best.
The implications of all this can be wildly presented in the designs of landscapes in the region. Typically, of course, this deals with homes and commercial developments which, by their very nature take place in more urban environments. But make no mistake – the desert itself can be uncommonly pretty and amazingly – stunningly – fragrant. Each rainfall presents a massive outpouring of sage aroma, permeating the air like something all-encompassing and suggesting a sensuality which you just live in and absorb like ions. It makes for the most heavenly walks.
(picture courtesy of Tim McGuire)
My landscaping attempted to use as many natives as I could stuff in, with a huge emphasis on perennials and, in particular, Gaura and Penstemon. Yes, I added some totally “English Model” plantings, as we see from the Berberis and Variegated Dogwood shrubs, below, but I went ‘perennial-loco’ and never regretted it for a moment.
I mean, I have the benefit of an ample water supply by virtue of drip irrigation systems, which locate and deliver the water to the roots themselves. This is quite a technological advance, by the way and it has revolutionized landscaping in the High Desert, to say nothing of other, more hostile desert climates such as those further South.
Th irrigation supplying this project is completely underground, as an example:
Without drip irrigation what would be an amazing evaporation rate if delivered from above can get the water to where it’s needed – and in timed deliveries. There are the evaporation issues stemming from wind as well - with an ever-present wind – another feature of at least Reno, with it’s ‘Washoe Zephyr’ so predictable at noon each day for 3-4 months a year. Caused by the desert heat sucking the air away from the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra’s, this wind flow is completely predictable and an amazing pain in the butt for landscapers and dirt workers on road or starting projects. It’s the “dust thing” ya know. Complete with dust devils, lol, small tornadoes which are actually no laughing matter.
Burning Man supplies ample of these every Labor Day, as this picture suggests.
But the landscaping enterprise itself offers the one thing which other climates simply cannot – Sunshine. Lots and lots and lots of Sunshine. If one treats the soil good and follows the script, the chances for perennials to become an overwhelming part of any Reno Landscape are humongous good. And the native perennials? Wow!
The Penstemon above and these Evening Primroses below give an idea of what is possible.
The wonders of High desert Landscaping are wide and wonderful. I’ll continue with more on this fascinating corner of landscaping next.
How many of us miss Spring? And if you are psychic, feel free to raise my hand.
Yeah, I want to see me some Tulips, I confess. I realize I am whining. I post all this fully aware I am lamenting reality in favor of hoping for some unrealistic mess. I am just that bad about Winter – that’s all I want to say.
One could say I “don’t do Winter well.”
(click pics to enlarge)
Man, I guess my biggest complaint is that this Winter began about a month early, by my reckoning, making it seem somehow all the more remote. I miss Dogwoods. Seeing them again will make my Millenium.
I’d go to a graveyard for the pleasure of just a few blooms.
Or a park………….
I’m, easy that way……..
Heck, my own local walks can be just breath-taking enough for pure unadulterated joy of living on this sometimes very cool planet…….
I guess I’ll have to gab with Abe about it all. He often provides words of wisdom for pretty much anyone who’ll listen…….. He’s a Winter buddy of mine.
OK, I’m done with my rant………….sigh.
Mom’s waiting for me over by the Imaginary Magnolia Soulangiana’s. Better go say hi.
Landscaping at the lunatic fringe of wealth, like carpeting at the lunatic fringe of wealth, or any other contracting trade, is its own class. Whereas it is a most heavenly possibility to help relieve these people from their overburdened wallets and bank accounts, the results can be disappointing, sad to say. Let’s just leave it at the point that not every encounter with the Uber-Wealthy is a positive experience. In fact, it’s about 50-50, the truth is.
I will absolutely not name names in my blog, other than referring to conversations of a casual or humorous nature. But I can tell of stories where people were strikingly miserable who were wealthy into the hundreds of millions and even billions. They’re people too! They need landscaping and all that stuff. Let’s just say – on a personal level – in many cases people get predictably suspicious of others when they have a lot. There is something to the adage that plenty yields some paranoia. Sometimes, a whole dam lot of it. In some cases, it becomes a threat to your own security. The rich play by their own sets of rules. In fact, many is the time that they make them up!
Anyway, rather than continue this line, knowing nothing we can say will change things that much, just know that merely working for impressive people with “beyond-impressive” homes is not some automatic entree to becoming rich one’s self. You can also go broke working for them – and almost just as easy. Sometimes – through no real fault of your own.
Here’s the third most expensive home in the US: (weighing in at a mere $100 million)
Here’s the pool! That’s marble, by the way.
Now, I admit, that was something of a freak show. In one case, it may well have been the most nervous time I ever spent landscaping. We literally had to transport ourselves in a huge excavator, complete with about an 8 ton boulder in our grasp, for placing in a water feature I regret to say I have no pictures of. The slightest rock or article in the way as we crept inside could have tipped the machine enough to scar the walls – or worse, of course – of the granite facing, there was that little tolerance. In fact, we graded and raked towards a perfect finish underneath, just so we could get that monster machine between the walls without incident. It was a white knuckle experience, right off the get go. In fact, as interesting as this project might seem to an outsider, it was a small version of Hell in many ways, there were so many eyes, including the owners – on us at all times. Nor did we last – lol, there were a total of 5 different companies who worked on the project, jettisoned one after another like players on a chessboard. Some projects are not worth the trouble, frankly. And that’s a tough lesson.
Now here’s a mere 17 million dollar home. Now we’re slumming!! Actually, this homeowner was in the dumps at various times for reasons which were his own, lol. I confess, I never really cared for the dude. He once referred to it as a “dump”. Go figure. Fortunately, we were contracted by the builder, rather than the owner, so we almost got paid completely! Oh – I almost forgot – it’s rare to get all your money with many of the more miserable of these types. What really makes that odd is the generation of higher prices to begin with for the proactive contractor, familiar with their ways. I once literally gave a rebate to a client in this category of wealth because he paid his bill in full. I’m not kidding, either. It may well have been the best few bucks I ever spent too. He sent more people my way than I had time to do.
So here’s what $450,000 worth of landscaping will get you: (bear in mind the more open areas were filled with perennial and annual plants and some very gorgeous lamps and lighting which were articles of beauty on their own at about $250 a piece, copper tulips, in fact, with blooms for lights, all multicolored. It is typical of this site that my pictures are made either during construction or soon – like real soon – after completion. We then move on.)
That waterfall there is a two part deal, branching out at the top and going in both directions. Here is the other side of it:
From the street, here is a longer range view:
Nor were these the only water features! We installed this one up by the front door.
It’s rather hard to make out owing to the fact that our drip irrigation sprayers were on at the time. Those Aspens, by the way, were our additions. 30′ feet high, it was a mighty tight fit putting them in so close to the house. They each weighed a couple of tons and were placed by a monstrous hydraulic tree spade, along with some Noble and White Firs we placed at other locations nearby.
Anyway, here is what the little water feature looked like in process. From this:
To this, then the finished product above. What was funny was that we decided to toss this in as a “toss-in”:
It had one humongous rear patio of stamped concrete:
The stone work was a triumph, however. These walls really add to the overall ambiance terrifically:
The driveway was an interesting mix of brick pavers and stamped concrete.
I really enjoyed the brick work on this project. It worked out outstandingly. Note the Firs in the picture above. Those we also planted, same with the Aspens. Here is a look at the large trees we inserted before we worked on the pavers. One is before we finished the project and the other is after. Of perhaps even more interest is a look at the wild numbers of electrical wiring, pipes and the general traffic in underground services, shown only slightly in the picture just below. Wiring for lights was inserted at the same time as the irrigation piping, irrigation wiring, electrical for the pumps running the water feature (220V) and even power for the heat tape and security gate which goes under the brick driveway:
Stressful at times, yet often resulting in sublime satisfaction for purely selfish reasons as an artisan and tradesman, projects such as these are what we literally die for.
I have a few of these cataloged and I await some pictures from my brother which include other outrageous projects, all of which mixed pleasure and pain in ample amounts – and in every conceivable way.
The Penstemon above and these Evening Primroses below give an idea of what is possible.
The wonders of High desert Landscaping are wide and wonderful. I’ll continue with more on this fascinating corner of landscaping next.
