Return to the Hillside Desert Botanic Gardens

The second stop on our recent trip to Yakima, WA, was the Hillside Desert Botanical Gardens, a private garden with a big name. I'd visited twice previously first in 2012 and then again in 2019.

The 2019 visit was a special one. I was there to interview the garden's creator, Ron McKitrick for my book, Fearless Gardening. Ron and I spent a couple hours sitting in the sun talking about how he got his start in gardening and why he was so drawn to desert plants. He was a force for good in the horticultural community of Yakima, spreading the word about how the area's arid climate (it's the "Palm Springs of Washington") was great for growing these hardy, low water plants. Sadly Ron passed away before the book was published, before I could share it with him. 

I'd heard one of his sons was keeping the garden open for visitors, so I looked it up online, and was happy to see the website was still active. I reached out to see if Andrew and I could stop by for a visit while we were in town and received a quick email and then text from Brian McKitrick confirming.

Late September isn't the best time to visit a garden like this if you're looking for flowers, which was a concern of Ron's. To my eye these plants look fantastic no matter when you visit, no flowers needed.

This looks to be a baby Yucca brevifolia developing at the base of one of the tall ones.

A spiky clumping yucca.

We found Brian working in the larger greenhouse, putting together mixed planters he sells at a local farmers market.

The spikes! The fruit!

The two tall Y. brevifolia are definitely taller than on my last visit.

There's still plenty of cresting on Ron's crested Cylindropuntia.

A lot of the larger agaves I remember from the garden have bloomed (and thus died) in the past few years, but Brian has been planting others, specifically some different Agave utahensis.

I love this angle on the garden, with the greenhouse and the hillside beyond.

Delosperma sp.

Agave parryi?

The green lawn still gets me. Such a strange juxtaposition with the plants.

A few more spiky Agave utahensis...

And another very "fruitful" Opuntia.

I couldn't help myself, I had to snap all the angles...

And all the agaves.

Yucca elata I believe.

Where a Yucca elata was removed and babies keep popping up.

What beauty. It's leaf margins are so dark.

Hesperaloe parviflora in bloom.

Ron kept a small nursery onsite, so people could purchase plants to take home.

I was glad to see that was still there as well.

This expired Agave bloom spike was a new addition since the last time I was there.

It was secured to the back of one of the greenhouses. 

If you're going to be in Yakima and would like to visit HDBG get ahold of Brian and set up a time. The website has a "contact us" feature, but Brian says giving him a call is better, the number on sign at the top of the post works (1-509-248-1742) or try him on his cell at 509-930-7419. 

I brought home this interesting piece of metal (the possibilities!), and a small but spiky Opuntia... a big thanks to Brian for both the time he spent with us, and for keeping the garden open and looking great!

The drive to and from Yakima is a beautiful one. Lots of big sky and long views. I only took one photo from the road though, as we were headed home. It's looking across the Columbia River towards Lyle, Washington.

The Bit at the End

Kris, who blogs at Late to the Garden Party, recently noted some issues she's having with Blogger's blogroll feature. In addition to that issue I wanted to mention that I've been having new and frustrating difficulties uploading photos. Thankfully I have enough material saved that I'm usually working a week ahead of time publishing posts, so I've typically got something in the queue. But it all feels so perilous now. Like at any moment Blogger (Google) could make it all impossible. I guess this is me saying I currently have no plans to cease blogging, so if I go away...well, it's not on purpose!

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My dispersed garden

I do the grocery pick-up once a week. Back in early June Andrew happened to be with me, I warned him that I planned to drive by a couple plants on the way, you know, as one does. I mean, you keep a running map in your head of the distinctive plants in your area, and if you're going to be near them then a detour of a few blocks is warranted, right? Right.

First stop that afternoon was a trunking Yucca rostrata that I'd noticed was sending up a bloom. My timing was perfect to see the flowers all open.

I was a little surprised at the (lack of) height of the bloom, for some reason I thought it would be taller, more clearance between the leaves and the flowers. Maybe because my Yucca filamentosa have such tall bloom stalks?

The blooming yucca is accompanied in the hellstrip planting with a fine Arctostaphylos and another Y. rostrata.

So what seemed perfectly natural to me, became a point of discussion that day. Andrew dubbed this visiting of plants around town my "dispersed garden". In addition to plants that I grow, but were behaving in a way that wanted to track (blooming for instance), there's also a collection of plants I visit that wish I were growing, but for one reason or another I am not. Like this Fremontodendron californicum...

It gets way too big to shoehorn into my garden, but since there's one growing at McMenamins Kennedy School (just 5 blocks from home) I feel like I don't have to grow it here, I can just visit it there.

Another example, I love Rhus typhina, the staghorn sumac and my next door neighbor grows it, so I can enjoy her plant(s) and don't need my own. Or Nolina hibernica 'La Siberica', which I no longer have growing in my garden, but Kennedy School to the rescue again. They have a couple of huge specimens I can admire any time I want to go for a short walk.

Photos from the next stop on my dispersed garden tour span the time frame of May 10th to June 14th. 

I first wrote about this fabulous garden back in 2021.

I was visiting again because I got a text from the garden owner (Scott) letting me know that his Agave ovatifolia in the hellstrip was blooming, and doing so with two bloom spikes. Perhaps it had been damaged (winter?) and had developed two growing points...

So nice with the orange poppies and orange truck...

I stopped back by on June 1st.

It was so hard to photograph only the blooming agave, of course my camera strayed again from focusing on just the star.

June 14th. This was the closest I got to actually seeing it in bloom.

The next time I drove by it was way past its prime so I took no photos that day.

This Agave ovatifolia is part of what once was a trio. The first one bloomed last summer, and now...

Doesn't that photo above look like the spike is coming from the grass? Here's a better shot.

Sadly I didn't make it back by this one to see any more of it's development.

This one however, it's been a regular stop on my drives about town. In fact it started to send up it's spike last fall, and then paused for the winter. Agave parrasana, photo taken June 1st.

And full bloom on July 22nd.

Wrapping up with a stop at what I call the desert on Ainsworth St. This is another hellstrip garden (a very wide hellstrip) that erupts in cactus flower every June.

It's a spectacle of beauty.

Back home I look at my large Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue' and wonder how much longer I've got with them...

So do you have a dispersed garden? If not I highly recommend getting started...

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.