Ask the Desert Botanic Garden, and the U of A's agricultural extension service. They would have seed recommendations. You have to fence it to keep range cows out ... there might not be a grazing lease active, but if you have grass in the fences area and none in the unfenced, something is eating the grass. For fast runoff control, get those "snakes" filled with straw and place them across the runoff areas at intervals, at right angles to the flow of the water. Plant a strip just above and below the strips to get a stripe of grass going to slow the water down when the snake eventually decays. Gabions in the deeper eroded areas will slow down the water, as will brush dams. Start in the smaller erosion channels at the high points and stake bunches of brush down with forked branches (like making a beaver dam). Work your way down the channels. Multiple small dams are better than one big one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabion ************ Searching Google for Arizona Native Grasses: http://www.nativegrasses.com/info/ornamental/southwest.html http://www.lgyp.com/brochure.asp?c=294897

Milorganite does not keep the squirrels out of my newly dug beds. Around the cities you can get it even in most ACE hardware stores, and in any garden center worth its salt. But once the garlic is up they stay out. Run a few cloves through the blender and mix with water, and spray it out around what you to protect. It works as good as most other repellents. That is something the tiny interior cloves are actually good for. You can also dissolve garlic powder in water and spray that, but fresh garlic works better. For me the big problem is the squirrels who get every red ripe tomato before I get to pick them. Chicken wire cones protected the ripening fruit until the plants topped the chicken wire, when the squirrels just climbed the wire and picked the tomatoes right off the top. My problem with the squirrels is that neighbors (empty nesters) treat them like pets and hand feed the little ******. They are nice folks so I sorta grin and bear it with the squirrels or I would be trying to kill them off! We have cottontails around now but we never used to when there still were aging widows on the block who fed the stray cats, lots of them,too. They got the baby rabbits which is where your reduction needs to be in a metro area. In the country a good outside dog like a lab or a border collie and/or something along the line of 22/100 or 410/1000 is pretty efficient. Also wrap young tree trunks up to well higher than the snow line. Young tree bark, especially young fruit tree bark, is a bunny magnet in the winter.

A friend of mine who created a deer "hedgerow" to try and keep them in the ravine rather in her garden, considered mock orange one of those the deer would browse but not kill, and that once it was established at least, was able to withstand their affections for it. Perhaps create a cage for it from chicken wire or something, so that at least initially, it has space to grow, and the deer can only nip the outlyers? For what its worth, it tends to like similar conditions to your Ceanothus- sunny edge to open areas, preferably on the dry side once established. Happy with summer irrigation, but once going strong shouldn't need it. In shade the plant will grow well, but not necessarily flower too well. On cascara as a moist forest species, I beg to differ. It is one of several trees folks taking care of the Mima Mounds, Glacial Heritage and similar prairies in the south sound area are weeding off the mounds and out of the meadows. It can and will take dry conditions very well. However, it does tend to change how it looks in dryer soils- smaller leaves, more compact habit. Osoberry will do the same, though it is much more dependent on moist spring soil than the cascara. Cascara does NOT like wet feet either. It will do ok along the edges of marshy areas, but rarely seeds itself into saturated soils. Of course, in the garden it will typically get more moisture than it tends to in the woods anyway. As far as Anna's not being native, well neither is the honey bee, lol. At least the Anna's is an American Native. Honeybees are old world bugs, however treasured by many. Both enjoy a winter nectar source.

I'm glad you caught him at the right time and he was open to stem burying. Composting in place sure beats hauling it all out. It's wonderful how you've partnered with others to find more space to garden. I'm sure your neighbor enjoys the fruits of your labors. I decided to leave a lot of the sunflowers up until after Halloween and maybe beyond. They look awful, but the birds are still foraging from them, so they'll stay until I know all the seed is gone. I'm in no hurry cut back most of the perennials, too. I know aesthetically, that's not for everyone. I imagine in the city or suburbia you could get a code enforcement ticket or complaints from the neighbors, but that's not an issue for me, the closest neighbor is 1/4 mile away. I see how the birds use the plants for food and shelter. I noticed a lot of bees out and about yesterday. If I'd cut back the asters, marigolds and mums already, what would they forage from? I think there's been a lot of progress in the last 10 years in educating people on the benefits of composting and I'm glad to see it. A co-worker who lives in Denver said she's joining their composting program. I don't quite get their business model, though. You gather scraps and then pay to have them picked up. At the tail end, you have to buy the compost, too. I have to keep in mind most people don't have room or the inclination to have a compost pile to deal with. They are providing a service and that comes with operating expenses. I'm all for keeping that stuff out of the landfill, however it gets done. In my mind, all manure is not created equal. When I had horses, I had nice, sweet smelling stuff, at least it didn't smell offensive to me. Cow and chicken manure can be pretty rank before it breaks down. I'm using composted, bagged manure now. Barb