Growing roses

Water-wise lawn replacement 

Most of the newsletter this month is a personal commentary and editorial  There are summer gardening recommendations toward the end.

Visiting My Creosote Bushes.  Several years ago during my Master Gardener training I spent one summer caring for creosotes (Larrea tridentata) that were to be planted in the planned Springs Preserve in Las Vegas.  Once a week I would go to the Desert Demonstration Gardens on Alta Drive early in the morning and water 400 small pots of creosotes.  By the time I finished it was usually about 10 a.m. and close to 100F.  So when the new Las Vegas Springs Preserve opened recently, I was looking forward to visiting "my baby creosotes" -- presumably grown up by now.

Before I go further, I should tell you that the Springs Preserve and the now-closed Desert Demonstration Gardens are owned by the Las Vegas Valley Water District.  The Water District has been a major source of gardening advice and education for Las Vegas residents for years.

At the Springs Preserve parking lot I was pleasantly surprised to see solar panels providing shade for parked cars.  It was 110F that day and the shade was welcome.  The solar panels provide power for the facility which has won a U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) award for architectural sustainability.

But, alas, the solar panels were the last pleasant surprise as I went in search of the creosotes.

Entering the Springs Preserve one goes down stairs and into what appears to be leftover "rocks" from a lion or tiger exhibition on The Strip.  The signage states that this is a slot canyon -- without revealing that slot canyons are among the most dangerous geographic features of a desert.  Happily, however, there were a few creosote bushes planted by the path at the bottom of this fake slot canyon.  "My babies."

What came next was astonishing: a concrete jungle of buildings, walkways and enclosures with few plants.  Where were the demonstration gardens?  Where were the meadows that gave Las Vegas its name?  Where were trees to provide shade?

Are tons of concrete, rammed earth and crushed stone supposed to be the way of the future in the desert?  It is quite stunning that this heat magnet won a sustainability award.

Finally, at a very well stocked gift shop I asked for the location of the demonstration gardens and was pointed to another concrete (or was it rammed earth?) building and told the demonstration gardens were beyond it.

I traversed a maze of concrete paths and stairs, passed by a grassy, unshaded amphitheater and eventually found the 8 acre demonstration garden-- way in the back.

This area of the new Springs Preserve demonstration garden has many surfaces that can be used on  walkways and patios -- and soak up heat thus creating an oven effect.

The Springs Preserve demonstration garden is a major disappointment.  With the exception of a very natural appearing cienega (a marsh or swamp, for you non-Spanish speakers), the theme of sizzling hot concrete and crushed stone with a few plants -- almost as accessories -- continued.  I asked myself: Who is going to put a cienega in their backyard?  And if they can stock that gift store so well, why are so many of the plants unlabeled?

The contrast with the now-closed Desert Demonstration Garden is sharp.  It was a center of learning and education about desert gardening.  It had been maintained for decades by a devoted staff of gardeners.  It had dozens of examples of water-wise residential gardens.  There were shaded amphitheaters for lectures.  Classrooms for meetings.  And lots and lots of mature plants for a hot, dry climate.  Entry to the Desert Demonstration Garden was free and the classes were either free or low cost.

Later I read more about the Springs Preserve and its goals seem to be primarily educating children about the Las Vegas Valley and Nevada history.  Water-wise, drought tolerant gardening education for adults, particularly the thousands who move to Las Vegas every month, is not a priority.  

So the old Desert Demonstration Garden sits behind locked gates.  The ever-growing number of citizens  in the Las Vegas Valley deserve better.  They deserve to have the Demonstration Gardens re-opened.

So save your $18+ entry fee at the Springs Preserve and do something extra on The Strip during your visit to Las Vegas.

(P.S.  After publishing this online I heard from a Master Gardener in Las Vegas who told me that the old Desert Demonstration Garden will be used as a day care center.)

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Pining for the Old.  The old Desert Demonstration Garden has a beautiful Chir Pine (Pinus roxburghii) that I never could figure out how to photograph, so I had not written about it.  But if you want a tall, open and gorgeous pine tree with lovely, long, bright green needles, plant the Chir.  Its color alone makes it a standout among pines.

Chitalpa Revisited.  The Chitalpa trees (Chitalpa x tashkentensis) on our Fast Growing Trees page had obviously been newly planted.  There is now a second photo of the same two Chitalpas, taken 4 years later.  They have almost doubled in size.

Asleep in the Garden.  Do not fertilize plants in your hot, dry garden at this time of year.  Plants are in summer dormancy and do not want to "wake up" and grow until cooler weather in Fall.

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