No, Those Aren't Triffids In My Back Seat

I stopped at Watters on my way home today...

A very helpful young lady at Watters Garden Center in Prescott by the name of Ella helped me pick the first of several planting projects for this spring.  Living at 6,200 feet in Groom Creek I need plants suited to Zone 6 or 7 that are also willing to live in the shadows of my Ponderosa pines.  Being a member of the Groom Creek Water Users Association I need plants that once established will not need much water in order to thrive.

My property is surrounded by a chain link fence.  I like having the fence I suppose, but I don't like looking at the fence.  Solution!  Trumpet Vine, Campus tagliabuana "Madame Galen."  I'm told it will grow like a weed once it takes root and cover the fence between my house and the road with green leaves and orange-red blooms.

To the east of the property is a four way stop.  Solution!  I'll plant "Gold Spot Euonymus" Euonymus japonicas 'Aureovaiegatus' (five to ten feet tall and three to six feet wide) along the inside of the fence to form a hedge that will afford me some privacy and keep the headlights from shining into my bedroom window at night.  In the middle ground I'm going to plant Pipa's Red Chinese Fringe Flower, Loropetalum chinense "Pipa's Red" (five feet tall).  I've yet to select the planting for the foreground but Ella has given me some nice ideas.

The gentle slope to the west of the house will have to wait for now.

Son Erik is coming home this weekend so we should get everything in its proper place by Sunday afternoon...

Yes, I know, a Volvo S70 isn't much of a gardening vehicle.  I'm working on that too...