desert
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Week 17 – Whose Line: Song Titles
Whose Line Is It Anyway was always good for a laugh when I needed one. A simple, easy laugh that didn’t take much thinking. The jokes took hardly any thought since it was all improv but somehow it could be really funny. One game was Song Titles, where the players could only communicate to each…
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Week 16 – All Things Weird and Wonderful
Arizona is under an excessive heat warning for the next 5 days. I’m not sure what the exact definition of that is. As far as opinion goes, it depends very much on who you ask; triple digits may seem excessive to some people but not to others. Tomorrow, however, is probably the highest forecast high…
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Week 15 – O Bubba! My Bubba!
For anyone who may not have read (or, like me, remember all way back to Week 4) it was about finding this marvelous native desert willow in bloom a hundred yards from our house on an evening walk and realizing that this tree wants to be here. Therefore, we should get one. It wasn’t easy…
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Week 14 – Triumph and Disaster: Gardening Perspective from Wimbledon
I enjoy Wimbledon every year tremendously. If there was a single sporting event I could choose to attend, it would be Wimbledon. The tennis is played on perfect grass courts, the players are all attired in white, the crowds wear straw hats, blazers, and floral dresses; flowers are everywhere. Boxes full of white and purple…
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I’m Not Dead! Where Phoenix Summer Gardening Meets Monty Python
I thought that the gardening concepts I would need to relearn in Arizona would center on timing. When to plant, prune, etc. Seasonal items. Then I learned about clay soil and caliche, potting mixes for native desert plants vs. desert-adapted plants, low-water irrigation, and on and on the list goes. Have you ever gotten a…
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Summer Breeze: July Winds in My Arizona Garden
Arizona has nice, light breezes. Then there was the sunny day when we came home recently and found the chaise lounge in the pool. Either our neighbor lost his mind or some crazy wind kicked up while we were out. The latter seems far more likely. But it was so nice and calm out. Welcome…
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Amaranth (Love-Lies-Bleeding)
PLANT SPOTLIGHT The Basics Sun: Full sun Water: Low Mature size: 1-10′ ft tall, 2-8′ ft wide Bloom time: Summer–fall Hardiness: Zone 9b Notes: Strong as an ornamental and an edible. Size variation based on variety. My gardening love will always be flowers, above all else. When I was growing seeds in the Northeast, I…
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Week 11 – Learning From My Neighbors’ Gardens
Gardening is not like school. For one thing, you can go to the bathroom without getting special permission. But I digress. What I really meant was that copying the person next to you is not cheating. It’s not even frowned upon. It’s actually pretty smart. Figuring out what works in Phoenix takes a lot of…
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Week 10 – 108 and All’s Well – Dealing with June Heat in My Phoenix Garden
Does anyone remember Disney’s Robin Hood with the animals? Robin Hood was a fox, and there were those palace-guard birds who marched back and forth announcing the time – “One o’clock and all’s well!” I feel like we do that with summer temperatures in Phoenix. Everyone on the phone asks: “How hot is it now?”…
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Week 9: San Diego Garden Inspiration for a Phoenix Yard
That says it well. I do love both traveling and staying at home. But sometimes, especially when it’s getting warm (that’s a euphemism for roasting) here, a day or two in cooler temperatures is good for one’s sanity. We’ve looked forward to exploring the West since we arrived in Phoenix, but somehow never got around…