When growing non-native plants in Phoenix, the first “protection” that used to come to my mind was from the sun in the summer. After starting some tropicals this past fall, I’m now equally concerned about frost/cold protection. We had an impressive freeze right before Christmas in South Gilbert, dipping down into the twenties. For a mango tree, that could spell doom. Unfortunately, our first round of frost protection was very...
A Tribute to Our First Garden
We are coming up on a year in our new house. It has been a crazy first year moving while in my third trimester, and then having our first baby. I took some time to look back and reflect on the amazing things we built and grew in our first house. We planted trees in a barren, dirt backyard. We built a garden and watched it grow year after year....
Flood Irrigation Project: Diverting the Flow
When we purchased our new property, we were so excited to reap the benefits of flood irrigation. Aside from being dirt cheap ($8/hour every couple of weeks), the water is better for plants than city water and allows for truly deep watering of our trees. We have two, large 12″ pipes that stick out of the ground in our front yard with metal caps/screws. When it is our watering slot...
Our New Mini Homestead and Food Forest
As you may know, gardening is a huge passion of mine, which has now morphed to permaculture/food forest/mini-homestead proportions. Our family recently moved to a new, 1.4 acre property in south Gilbert, Arizona. This gem has more than thirty mature pink grapefruit trees – our entire neighborhood was once part of a citrus orchard. The plan over the next few years is to plant as many fruit and nut trees...
Building Redwood Raised Garden Beds
I came across these photos on my computer and have been meaning to share how we built the garden boxes at our first house. We have since moved and our lovely first garden is bearing fruit, veggies, and love for another family. These boxes are very simple to build. They are not the most beautiful or polished, but also not all that complicated to build. The only tools we used...
Five Tips for Growing Grapes in Phoenix
Grapes are one of the fruit-bearing plants that grow abundantly well in Phoenix, Arizona. They provide ample greenery and help create a lush backyard. I am always surprised to find a plant that thrives in the oppressive summer sun and can survive the occasional freeze in the winter. I only have experience with the Flame Red Seedless varietal, but I think much of this will translate to others. We planted three...
How to Rid your Yard of Pocket Gophers in Arizona
So you have mounds of fresh dirt in your yard that are ruining your landscaping. Now what? Read on to find out all the gopher removal strategies that DON’T WORK, and one that DOES! Our gopher saga is vaguely reminiscent of Caddy Shack short of the plastic explosives. We live on a 5th of an acre lot backing up to a community path and one of Phoenix’s many canals...
What’s Growing On? Early Summer
I’m coming back after a long absence writing on this website. My first order of business is to share our garden, which is a new passion. A lot of work and almost two years went in to designing and building the garden, including the fence, irrigation system, garden boxes, shade cover, and laying the stone and pebbles. Here is the layout of our backyard: The pictures below show the garden...