The Brave Gardener

Truth be told, I’m a little afraid to go out in the garden lately. It’s not that I live in a particularly dangerous part of town. Although bears and coyotes (and rarely a mountain lion) have been known to visit the neighborhood, I’m not particularly afraid of one suddenly appearing in my yard. No, it’s something much smaller. On my return home one day, I noticed a dead mouse in my back yard. Then a dead rabbit in my front yard, a full grown rabbit, that looked otherwise healthy. Three dead birds. I went back into the house, picked a flea or two off me. Will said to me something like, “Uh, shouldn’t you be worried?” I hadn’t thought of it much, but you are probably thinking, “DUH!”



If you aren’t thinking that, or if you are thinking, “Oh, puleeze, why be afraid of a few small dead animals or a few fleas?” then you don’t live in the desert southwest, where ever so often, they find pockets of plague. As in Black Plague. Or Bubonic Plague. Or Pneumonic Plague. As in “spread by fleas from rodents to humans” plague. Last year, tularemia wiped out the rabbit population, and luckily, no one got sick, even my neighbor who puts carrots out for them every day.

But before jumping to conclusions, I talked to my neighbors. Yes, the next door neighbor had a large dead rat in their yard. The neighbor two doors down had mouse poison in the house, but no one was exterminating. So lately I’ve been feeling like I could be putting my life at risk by spending a lot of time in the garden, being nibbled on by fleas. Never did I think that taking the garden photos would seem like such a brave thing to do. But here are a couple. I feel as tough as Indiana Jones.

Karl (Calamogrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster') is putting out its fluffy plumes which will soon narrow to the readily recognized spikes. As much as Karl is overused these days, I can't help but love the way the plants move in the breeze. I'm thinking of making a whole swoosh of them crossing the entire back yard so that I can watch the wind move across them. Then again, I wonder if I could do the same effect with less water with Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans)?


Some self-sown Penstemon barbatus started blooming. They are about 6 feet tall, a close contender for height with P. palmeri.


Eriogonum jamesii hasn't done much most years, when it gets eaten down by rabbits. This year, with less rabbits, it is a cloud of near-white, tougher in drought than the Blackfoot daisy surrounding it.