[Photo taken May, 2009]
I've been trying to adjust to gardening in the desert, but the cycles are so alien - I keep missing the important plant dates, and feel like I am constantly fighting the climate - oh, wait, I AM constantly fighting the climate.
I could be savvy and plant only native plants, and take the brown, blown-out look of the summer months as due course. Others do this, and their gardens are beautiful. Even in summer. It's a local look that can be achieved with the right plants and a bit of design work.
But I'm too much the Midwestern garden girl, and I crave the greens of the heartland. I'm trying to find plants that take the heat and dry and, with some applied water, stay green and lush, but it's a battle.
I get actively angry when I go in to the local garden centers, and they are showing plants that can only survive here on a constant drip feed of water. I'm just not going there, and nobody else should be, either. It's going to be a very rude awakening when the valley finally has to ration water. Too many people here are just too damn complacent that their water supply won't be threatened. Huh. Really?
Top that with our monsoon season being exceptionally stingy with the rain, and I'm down in the dumps.
