Ghostwater Garden

Heh. heh heh heh....

Oh, yeah, this SOUNDS good.  And I love the bit about the 'Growing Area' map, with the line that states:

The green area shows where Eco-Lawn does not need watering once established. Below the green area, you will need to water occasionally.

BWA HA HA!  Ya think it'll grow HERE?

Yeah.  I'm not buying it.  Sounds great, though.  Anybody out there trying this in a temperate zone?

Desert Garden Resources

Because desert gardens are not the norm, it's not always easy to find good resource material.  I'm always looking for what is basic information elsewhere, seeing how it translates to the environment I now find myself working in. 

Pruning, for instance.  We have two bloom seasons here.  Spring is the obvious one, but we are in the middle of the second bloom season.  Fall, or post-monsoon, is when the plants that have caught some water, or just benefited from the additional humidity of those months, let out with blooms, often the second flush of the year. 

And we don't, as a norm, get any freezing temperatures.  So while there are plants, like many of the trees, that are currently dropping their leaves for winter (quietly, a few at a time, going soft yellow and falling to the ground - almost unnoticeable until one sees the yellow drifts of tiny palo verde leaves on the stones and sidewalks) there is no definite marker for 'now' being the time to prune. 

When is that 'now'?  Luckily I found an article online for this very information. 

It's from az.central.com, and I've reposted the critical parts here for my records:

Catalogs...

Here in Arizona, the seasons are all topsy turvy.  I've been excited this week to get the latest copy of Thompson and Morgan's Seed Catalog.

I'm already late in getting in much of the fall veggies.   Or rather, I would be if I had prepared ground for such this year.  I was hoping to get a patio tomato going, and I may still have time for that.   

So the arrival of catalog was late!  Even though I received it in November!  How very strange is this desert living. 

Any way, like any avid gardener, I immediately began the journey through the pages, and all over the world, looking for likely candidates for MY little patch of ground.  Mark is used to my moaning over catalogs.  This time, though, he did a double take. 

"Moan" said I, "zone 8," with a sigh. 
He shook his head.  "That's backwards," he said.
I nodded.  "I never thought I'd be on the wrong side of zone 8, that's for sure."

What a strange, strange thing. 

Meanwhile, in all the time I haven't been posting, I've been busy.  The weather FINALLY cooled off enough to open the windows at night, and we've been sleeping well.  We've started hiking the McDowells on the weekends.  I've got Bailey signed up to start agility training in a few short weeks.

Busy, busy, busy. 

I do have a growing collection of patio plants, and I do intend to get around to posting a few photos... one of these days.  I haven't forgotten y'all.