11/06 3eme semaine/ 3rd week

Et bien voila c'est fait.
40 Oleanders viennenent d'etre plantes, de maniere a ce que quand l'ete arrivera, les murs seront couvert et nous cacherons le beton!
La photo du haut, c'est pour mon copain Eric, sceptique comme toujours, qui trouve que l'espacement de seulement un metre, est trop pret, et qu'il va falloir sans doute deraciner quelques plantes!
L'avenir le dira, mais celles qui ont etes plantees il y'a seulement 7 mois, font leur boulot, et nous, on trouve que ca marche relativement bien pour un desert!
Ca c'etait pour cette semaine.
Encore une semaine de boulot qui arrive, et de nouveau 3 semaines de vacances apres ca, dont une destination surprise... Comme d'habitude, affaire a suivre.

Ah, Darwin. He said the key to survival was adaptibility. In fact, most scientists and theoriticians agree that the single most indicator of intelligence is the ability to adapt. So, on that behalf, Richard and I spent the week gorging out the Earth of our backyard and had over 40 Oleanders planted - the world's most intelligent plant. Why? Because it can survive in the worst soil, under the worst conditions, and will not only survive but will thrive. Yes, there are a myriad of plants in the world, but few that thrive in the sweltery, perpetual dust bowl known as the Arizona desert. In fact, Oleanders are so perfect that, after rooted, they can be removed from water and sustained only on what little moisture is offered by the desert skies. Voila!

To continue from before, yes, there are a myriad of other plants in the world, many more beautiful. But most of those will eventually die here unless watered to the point of waste akin to a rich man throwing money out a window. And in the desert, whether the Sahara or the Sonoran, water is a scarce, precious resource. Water is Life.

So, turning our collective marital backs on those other temptresses, we bowed humbly to logic and chose to succomb to the power of Nature. After all, Nature always wins out. Man is but an insect riding her ever present, ever ready to explode back.

And wasn't it so sweet and nice of Richard to give the go ahead for our backyard landscape expansion? (That's not really a question - insert rhetorical here.) In fact, this expansion is multifold with demonstrations of Darwin's adaptibilty because these humble, very inexpensive plants allow us to also block our neighbors, provide sun screen, and, frankly, just make the place more pretty and inviting. In fact, our backyard has already become a haven to tons of birdies of all shapes and sizes. This has the added benefit of creating new friends for our dog.

So, forward we move as we watch our plants grow. Oh yeah, that's another genius of Oleander. The right type grows incredibly fast, up to 6 feet a year. And since they can also be turned into a very pretty tree, which, again, can also grow full in just a few years, they are truly a masterpiece of nature.

Good going Oleander. Good going Darwin.
:)