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 to the Monsoon Season. The North American monsoon happens every year during the summer in the American SW. The wind in Arizona usually flows from the west. At the start of Monsoon Season, it begins to come from the south. What difference does that make?
Moisture. Low-level moisture – and here’s the delicious part – thunderstorms!
Who doesn’t love a good thunderstorm. Humphrey, that’s who. But that’s a story for another day.
As an FYI, a thunderstorm is not a monsoon. The monsoon is the season, not an individual storm.
There’s a lot of technical detail, but I’m more interested in seeing the storm than exactly why it’s happening. But this season and its storms, driven by heat, produce some oddities unknown in other areas such as:
- Haboobs – (yes they’re really called that) these are the giant walls of dust like the one that engulfed downtown Phoenix last year.
- Dust Devils – this looks like a tornado but forms from the ground upward, not the clouds downward. It’s just what it sounds like – a spinning tower of dust created by extremely hot surfaces and rising heat. We see these all the time in Arizona but it’s very odd unless you’re used to it.
- Gustnadoes – More of a combination of a dust devil and tornado, can be strong enough to cause significant damage.
Then there are straight line winds, tornadoes, hail, flash flooding – but don’t let that fool you. Most days we have bright blue Arizona skies and the storms are generally welcome when they come.
“But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
-Maya Angelou
What does this mean for my garden?
It means some of my trees are – leaning. To be clear, it’s not windy out when this photo was taken. This is just the new shape my olive tree has taken on. Fortunately, olive trees are fairly pliable and it was easy enough to give it some support with bamboo stakes. I’m hoping it stays up!
That’s a bit better. And look at those early morning Arizona sun rays!
The other tree that I finally noticed needed some support was my potted orange tree. I don’t know much about citrus trees (this will become abundantly clear in a future post). This is what my tree looked like.
I had been thinking for awhile that I had a weeping orange tree. Pretty cool. Then today I took a look. Is it a coincidence that the tree starts to “weep” right where the vertical support stops? These are laughing at myself moments. So I gave it some support. We’ll see what happens.
This also turned into a moment of catching Humphrey stealing mulch out of the raised bed. Good thing dogs don’t play poker – Humphrey doesn’t have the face for it. His eyes tell the truth every time – they’re my favorite thing about him (or in my top 10 – he really is the best)
And for one more little update – here is my Princess Kate clematis.
This is pretty much how it looked when I planted it. No growth at all. But in Arizona in July, that’s totally missing the point. It’s alive. It’s 115 degrees out and it’s alive. This is a tremendous success. Believe it or not, I think that this is one of gardening’s greatest gifts. Adjusting expectations to reality. What a lot of trouble that saves!
Once more unto the breach,
🌿 Ruby
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