Scottsdale, Arizona

This is the veiw from my buddy's balcony.  I think that's the McDowell range.  Or maybe it's the Camelback.  No, it's the McDowell range - Google Maps shows Fort McDonald off on the far side.  It's gorgeous, anyway. {Edit:  It's the Camelback.  My geography skills are notably bad.  Case in point.}

I don't have any such ease for the eyes in my new place, but that's what garden's are for, right?

The new place. It'll be nice to not live in a tin can for a while.

Comments

[Sally]

Great picture! Good luck in your new home and garden.

Sally

[Kathy]

Yes, quite different from a tin can. Three bedrooms for the two of you--are you going to have his-and-her offices, or one office and a guest bedroom, or. . . ?

[Ki]

Man, it looks so barren. So, I guess it's Phoenix? I heard that there are so many golf courses in Phoenix and they irrigate so much for farming that the humidity level is very high now. I remember going up the camelback mountains and looked down at the city through a haze of pollution. I thought I was in L.A. ;) Supposedly the surrounding mountains kept the pollution from dispersing. Same conditions as Mexico City. Keep cool.

[Annie in Austin]

What's the 'tin can' reference? I missed something!

The house looks quite similar to many of the not-quite-new houses I've been in around here, even to the big garage sticking out and the 'strange' location of the bathroom. I've seen a lot of those diagonal fireplaces here, too.

It looks like a good place to get your bearings while you learn about life in Arizona. There's some space, the colors are neutral, and it has an orange tree! Wow!

Jenn, we did a lot of deer & drought landscaping in the front yard of our first house in Austin, but the back was all decks... that's where I experimented with plants that I was interested in, growing everything in containers. I bought plants on sale and moved them into larger containers as they grew. Many of these plants became useful garden elements when brought to this house.

I'm not that big on giving advice, but I really hope you grow lots of interesting plants, maybe even small trees[?] in containers while you wait for a more permanent nest.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

[Jenn]

Yes, Kathy, an office and a guest bedroom is the current plan. We currently have our office in the living room, and all of our upholstered furniture has been given away. It will be good to get an entertainment space back, even if we only use it as such once or twice. Makes a big difference in how a house feels, to have that settin' space.

Oh, Ki. That humidity is relative! To these midwestern bones, the land is dry, dry, dry... and the irrigation practices stupid, stupid, stupid.

Annie - The tin can - we are currently living in an aging mobile home. This place has walls that are 2x2, and leaks like a sieve. Doesn't meet any modern code and the insurance guys aren't supposed to insure non-code homes. It's a mess, but it's been good shelter - certainly cheaper than renting! Our plan is to pay it off and hold the land.

- your method of front and back use is pretty much what I had planned to do. The dogs will have most of the yard in back to be dogs in, and I will plant up pots for the patio and a corner next to the patio. The landlord thinks the dead looking stuff I have back there will come back from the root. And it might, but it looks frost killed. The lantana needs shaping and the dead trimmed out, I'm looking forward to seeing it green and happy.

[Rurality]

Hey we live in a tin can too. Tin can, sweet, tin can, I always say. :) I thought we'd have a house built by now, but... looks like another summer of uber-power bills, at least.

[Jenn]

*laughing*

Tin can, sweet tin can.

Oh, my.

[Tracy]

Jenn: Just yesterday my MIL's garden guy cut all the frost damaged/killed stuff down to green wood (bouganvilla, lantana, etc.). The desert plants all survived, just the non-natives were killed by the frost. The same thing happened at my parent's house in Palm Springs. Just trim everything way down - a real hard prune - and see what comes back. The "good" part about irrigating in the desert is that the plants grow like weeds.

Also, now is the time to plant tomatoes if you want them. My father-in-law (also in Phoenix) planted his about 1-2 weeks ago. Actually, I think now is the time for most sun-loving veggies in Phoenix.

[Jenn]

Actually, Tracy, I'm sort of hoping these were killed off. They aren't placed well and I have a different vision for that space... We'll see what is happening when I get back down there in a month or so.

I'm a believer in the 'wait a year and see what your yard does' but we are renting and may not be there next year. I suppose that is a call for conservative behavior, too, isn't it?

"about 1-2 weeks ago"
So much for tomatoes! I will try a patio pot of the Juliets. I just started growing them last year and really liked them, and I found them on a web site yesterday as recommended for desert areas! Maybe I can coddle them to produce? (Or at least keep them going until fall when temps drop and the pollen becomes viable again? Apparently it goes sterile at high temps. Sigh.)

So much to learn!

[Annie in Austin]

Juliets produced here in Austin when the other varieties bailed in our heat. They may not be fancy but we always had a couple of little tomatoes ready to eat.

Annie

[Laura]

Beautiful view!

Best wishes in your new place.

[Molly]

Many years ago my parents moved from zone 4 (Minnesota) to Phoenix and went right on gardening. They didn't know it wasn't possible to grow certain things so they went ahead and grew them. Plus citrus, figs, dates, all the things they couldn't grow in z4.

You strike me as the kind of person who will bloom wherever you're planted. Best of luck in your new location.

[Carol]

What a change from Michigan to Arizona. I'm sure it will be fun to grow some plants you couldn't grow "up north"! Good luck.

[MrBrownThumb]

Congrats on the move. I moved from the midwest to Arizona once. I lived in Phoenix for two days. Yes it was only two days before it dawned on me that it was way too hot and to spread out for my city ways. On the third day I moved up to Sedona (if you haven't visited you should) and lived there for a year before the city called me back.