Wellp, been learning about catnip lately. Once it runs out of water, it drops dead and shrivels up fast. Not really dead-dead, because drenching the soil lets it perk up almost overnight.
Inside but under a table-lamp, it seemed to be turning a bit “pale”, figured it needed some more light, so I put it in the front window. Cold, but bright. Yeah, got its color back. Just hope it tolerates the cold, too.
Getting the hang of it…
NYC tap water, which is almost universally rated the best in the country, strangely enough. No funk, no stank, no eerie stains left behind, etc.
It should be pretty close to neutral, but I’m not sure which side of neutral.
I received the cuttings today.
They look nice and healthy, though they are kinda small.
The seller also dropped the price by about 40% after I bought it, which is somewhat annoying, but there isn't anything I can do about it.
Yesterday my mom bought two Crape Myrtle trees from Lowe's.
They were delivered and planted today.
In total we have two Crape Myrtle trees, two medium CM shrubs and two small CM shrubs, along with tons of other plants.
The CM trees were in 10.25 gallon pots.
They were $32.50 a piece, which was half price.
She was actually looking for smaller, cheaper CM trees, but Lowe's didn't have any.
Yesterday I bought an Ocotillo at the city zoo, which is called The Living Desert.
(I think it should be called the Palm Desert Zoo, but no one asked me.)
Anyways, the Ocotillo was only $9 plus tax, and it has roots.
The Ocotillo is a decent size for the money, and it looks healthy.
Most of the Ocotillos available cheaply online are cuttings that don't have roots.
If an Ocotillo doesn't have roots, the cutting could develop roots and live, or it could just die.
It's a gamble.
I've bought more plants this season than any other season in the last 5+ years.
I think I'm done buying plants for this season, but I could change my mind.
About a week ago, my sister bought a Chilean Mesquite.
This variety is mostly thornless, and is a popular tree in the desert.
Also, today I took a close look at my Aloe Hercules.
The inner leaves look good, but the outer leaves do not.
I think this is normal.
I was going to take a photo and post it on garden.org to see what's wrong with it, but now I think it's okay, so there's no need to take a photo.
Succulents are just about the easiest thing to grow in the desert (if you know what you are doing), so I'm sure it's fine.
Hownahell you mail-order a tree that big??
That's just a pic I found online. 
She bought it at Lowe's, and it's not that big yet.
It's been summertime for a while now, so it's not the best time to buy plants (in my opinion).
Around Halloween, summer may be over, and that's when I'll start plant shopping again.
I think I want at least one more Aloe plant.
I'm looking at Aloe elgonica and Aloe mudenensis.
Basically I'm interested in Aloes that are three to six feet tall and wide.
Plus they have to be able to grow where I am, in brutal full sun.
I haven't decided which one to get, but I have time to make up my mind. 
I love having a garden and often I use my flashlights to search for what bugs are killing my garden at night. Right now I have some tomatoes, onions,squash, and cantalope. My potato plants just died somehow and I dug up maybe a dozen tiny red potatoes half rotten. Anyone have any tips for potatoes? I have also been trying forever to get chamomile to grow but little luck.
I hope everyone in this thread can grow some food cause you cant beat the satisfaction of growing your own and it tastes better than the grocery bought food.
If we didn't have coyotes in the neighborhood, we would grow food for ourselves.
But we cannot because we don't want to attract coyotes to our yard (we have pets that don't stand a chance to coyotes).
After doing a bit more research, I think I've settled on the Aloe mudenensis.
It's more cold hardy, and it probably grows faster than the other Aloe I was considering.
There's one on eBay right now, but I will wait until our very long summer is over.
My family hired a couple of guys to clear out a bunch of dead trees and plants on our property because it's a fire danger.
They did a great job, and used a chainsaw to get rid of a ton of dead stuff.
(I kept telling my family my favorite movie is California Chainsaw Massacre while they were working.)
Now we have an area with bare ground where we can plant even more stuff.
It's going to be a "cactus garden" where we will put pokey plants and plants that have caustic sap (like Euphorbia).
It's a pretty big area, and I have an idea of plant to get.
It's yet another Aloe.
I'm going to get an Aloe castanea.
It's a short tree that grows up to six feet tall and ten feet wide.
So I plan to get an Aloe castanea and an Aloe mudenensis.
I'm going to check eBay and Etsy every day or two, and I'll pick them up if the price is right.
I won't put them in the ground until summer is over, however.
I don't grow houseplants, but my mom and sister do.
One houseplant that I like a lot is Sansevieria trifasciata a.k.a. Snake Plant.
Another one I like is Schefflera arboricola a.k.a. Dwarf Umbrella Plant.
They're both easy to grow and are easy to find in the U.S. at Lowe's or Home Depot.
I have also occasionally seen Dwarf Umbrella Plant at the 99 Cent Store, but that might be just in the U.S. as well.
Update:
The first Lemon Bean Bush that I bought died.
I also have three cuttings, of which one looks pretty bad.
I now think that this plant cannot take full sun in our desert.
So the cuttings have been moved, and will grow where they can get a good amount of shade.
I will put Aloe shrubs where some of the Lemon Bean Bush cuttings were.
I think the Aloe that I will eventually get can handle full desert sun. 
I ordered another Aloe Hercules today!
It was $31 plus tax, including shipping.
I ordered it from somewhere I've never heard of before, tinyplants.biz
The price is reasonable, and right now is the time to plant stuff in the desert. 
Season is over here. A dead ash tree fell on the garden last week and took out about 30 feet of fence. Cutting it up is next on my list along with replacing some posts and chain link.
I thought I was done getting plants for this winter...
We have a cactus garden, though, and I don't have a cactus in it yet!
I acquired an Ocotillo and a False Ocotillo, but they're not actually cacti.
Today I ordered an Eve's Needle.
Here's a picture of a small or medium sized Eve's Needle.
In the wild they get much larger, but I'm not sure how big it'll get here because our climate cannot provide optimal growing conditions for this particular cactus.
I received the cactus yesterday.
I feel like an idiot.
My sister (who lives with me) already has this cactus!
Her cactus has nine trunks that are all larger than the one trunk that my cactus has.
She got it on sale at Lowes, where she gets most of her plants.
So her purchase was a much better deal, though my purchase was the best I could find online.
Moral of the story:
If you're buying a plant that you think is something you don't already have, make sure you don't already have it. 
Kinda like… flashlights.