Garden Photo of the Day

READER PHOTO! Blooms in the desert

Michelle Gervais, Associate Editor

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Photo: Courtesy of Sara Post Lee

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Today's photo is from Sara Post Lee in St. George, Utah. She says, "I live in the Utah desert not far from Las Vegas, with an annual rainfall of only 8 inches.  Learning to garden here after a lifetime of gardening in the rainy East (near Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania) was a steep learning curve, but after 8 years here, I am getting the hang of it.  We have a large xeriscape garden, but each fall, near the house, I plant winter-hardy (in this Zone 8+ climate) annuals that are not waterwise. They bloom a bit all winter and then really burst forth in spring with no irrigation or water other than our winter rains.  This year, we had a more lovely show than usual, thanks to the La Nina weather coming in from the West Coast. By summer, the pansies will be gone, of course, but the snaps will live on if I water them, and the extremely waterwise perovskia and psilostrophe will take over, giving us a completely different landscape. But that's another story - and photo.  In the meantime, I enjoy the spring blooms, made even more beautiful by their ephemeral nature." Beautiful, Sara -- thanks for sharing!

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Comments (5)

LastAngel writes: superb uniq sorry my pure english Posted: 10:46 am on May 18th

sheilaschultz writes: Awesome, Sara, I'm eager to see the garden in the summer. I would say you have definitely gotten the hang of gardening in the desert! Posted: 10:50 am on May 12th

gardeningmum writes: Excellent job, Sara. Just love the boulders and the structure in the back. Gardeners who have not experienced dry, windy, desert conditions don't fully appreciate what you have accomplished with your garden. I live in Colorado where we get just a little more rain than you do, so I know how hard it is to make it look beautiful. Blessings for continued success. Posted: 8:40 am on May 12th

SunnyDispo writes: I just love lots of snapdragons! Thanks for sharing, this is just lovely. Posted: 8:16 am on May 12th

ncgardener writes: That is gorgeous. I love the colors! Posted: 4:31 am on May 12th

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