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10 www.DesertMessenger.com May 18, 2022 DesertMessengerNews Gardening with Dennis is here for you! BONDED NOTARY PUBLIC • Mobile Notary Service • Professional Correspondence • Proof Reading • Copies Year Round Quartzsite Resident 562-682-7283 An Ocotillo Landscape By Alex Taft Ocoltillo is a spectacular landscape plant. Its tall stems make a won- derful accent with cactus and other desert plants and rock landscap- ing. While often called a cactus, it is not. It is a drought-tolerant suc- culent, that when watered or rained upon, produces green stems with small leaves. It blooms between February and April. When there is no rain or it is not watered, it can look dead, and if the lack of water goes on too long it can go from dor- mant to dead. When the parks de- partment for the town landscaped the front of town hall, two ocotillo were planted. They were bare root plants delivered from a nursery in Phoenix. After a year in the ground and they were still looking like gray sticks, with no indication of green in the stems, with no fl exibility in the stems, we determined they were dead and returned them to the nursery for credit. Which leads to the question, in drought years, how can you tell if the ocotillo in your PARK FROM PAGE 1 The Town said, "Town staff feel confi dent the LWCF requirements will be met by the July deadline and recommend that we start the design process for this project." Impact on budget: Professional Services costs in the amount of $66,000 are reimbursable from the AZSP grant. Total Design and Bid- ding Services costs approved in the grant are $71,138. We anticipate ex- pending no more than 25% of these costs by the July deadline. The Town has already paid RICK Engineering $5,000 for application assistance. This expense is also reimbursable by the grant." The total contract amount is an es- timated Sixty-Six Thousand Dollars ($66,000.00). DATE TO BE COMPLETED: Four (4) months for completion of the design phase services from the No- tice to Proceed issued by the Town. Post-Design phase services run concurrent with the bidding phase and the construction phase for the project. The Town Park is located at locat- ed at the northwest corner of Quail Trail and Plymouth Road. The numbered features on the map cor- respond to the numbered listing of the proposed improvements to the Town Park slated for design and construction using state and local funds. Included in the Quartzsite Park Improvement are: 1. Splash Pad 2. Cool Deck Surfaced Con- crete Surround with Multi- Shade Sail over Splash Pad Area 3. Restrooms & Equipment Room with Septic Tank & Water 4. Ramada with 6 Picnic Tables 5. ADA Access Sidewalk 6. ADA Parking Stall Pave- ment Markings & Sign 7. Chain Link Fence Enclo- sure with Gates at Splash Pad & Basketball Court 8. Rubberized Playground Border & Mulch with 4 Seats per Playground Area 9. 24' wide X 45' long Camp Host RV Stall with Electric, Water & Sewer Hookups - Sewer to Connect to Restroom Septic Tank 10. LED Parking & Yard Lights 11. Upgrade Electric Panel at North Restroom & Extend Power to North Parking & Yard Lights 12. Extend Power From APS Transformer to New South Re- strooms & Splash Pad Equip- ment Building and to New Yard Lights 13. 2" Water Line to Rest- room/Splash Pad Equipment Building Actual Construction will depend on many factors, but the project is expected to be completed in the 2022-23 fi scal year. Council Member Lynda Goldberg shared a story, "The fi rst time I saw the Parker Splash Pad in effect, un- der neath the little bucket of water were two benches and probably the youngest person sitting there was 75, so tell the grandkids they will be sharing with some of us!" Mayor Norm Simpson said, "Well, I said this is for the kids, but kids come in all ages!" yard is dead or alive? The easy way is to water it for a week or so and see if it turns green. Be sure to spray water on the stems as well as on the ground around the plant. If noth- ing happens, try bending one of the stems. If it is fl exible it is probably still alive, waiting for more water. If the stem is brittle, the ocotillo is probably dead. Another way is to closely examine a stem for either leaf buds or a streak of green run- ning down the stem. Those are both indicators that the plant is alive. Ocotillos or Fouquieria splendens grow 16-20 feet tall with a spread of 11-15 feet. They can grow in rocky or sandy soils and caliche, but don't do well in areas without drain- age. They can live from 150 to 200 years, according to Charles Kane, in his book, "Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest" available in the Quartzsite Public Library. Also according to author Kane, the plant has medicinal properties as a decon- gestant. Ocotillos are listed as "sal- vage restricted native plants" under the Arizona Native Plant Law. This means that they cannot be harvest- ed from the desert. Ocotillos can be propagated by choosing a stem that grew last year and therefore should have soft greenwood and be fl exible, and cut off 6 to 8 inches of the stem; plant it in a pot of cactus soil and water it with a small amount of root stimulus in the water or use rooting powder at the end of the stem and it should generate roots if you con- tinue to give it water. Once the plant is green and established,not much water is needed. Ocotillos add another dimension to landscaping. If you have one in your yard, give it some TLC in the drought years, which they all are lately, and water it. It will thank you with green stems and fl owers in the spring. Since we had another spring of few wildfl owers along the roads, that is usually a signal that we have another year of drought behind us and all the desert plants in our yards need a little boost of occasional watering. Note: for those who did not know Dennis, he was a part-time employ- ee of the town parks department, a Master Gardener since 1985 and instructor for the Master Gardener Class. He passed away in 2018.

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