Winter rain in the desert

-
It's the morning of January 26th and a gentle rain started last night. For those of you who live in the desert, "rain" is water that falls magically from the sky. And desert rats, like me, walk out and watch the stuff. I am taking a break to write this post, but I will be back watching it again soon.

Living in the desert, rain is about the last thing that we think about in our gardens. But I grew up where it rained a lot, so the first time it rained here at The Tropical Paradise, I took my umbrella and walked around my property, making sure that it drained properly. And I've done it regularly several times over the years.

A suburban lot like mine is designed to hold a certain amount of rainwater. That is, it shouldn't all run away down the street. There is a gentle slope from north to south and then to west. The artificial turf is perforated, so it allows water to seep in to deep water the roots of the trees. I have a gutter along the edge of my patio that directs the water in that direction, instead of pouring off of the edge of my patio cover, which it did for years.

As the rain continues, "Hall Lake" is formed in the southern half of the backyard. As the water rises, it flows along the southern edge of the house out into the courtyard, which holds water for a while. When that water gets high enough, it flows out of a hole at the bottom of the courtyard wall and into the street, where it flows to a detention basin a few blocks southwest of my neighborhood. And any overflow of the detention basin flows into storm drains that go to The Agua Fria River, down to the Gila River, and ultimately to The Pacific Ocean at Baja California.

If you've done extensive "remodeling" of your landscape, you can easily undermine the original design of the property, which is designed to make sure that rainwater doesn't come back up into your house. If you've not taken a look for a while, or never taken a look, get your umbrella out today and walk your property.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to tell if your cycad (sago palm) is alive or dead

-
Image
Cycads are strange plants. They're beautiful, and look like small palm trees, or large ferns. They grow very slowly, and can be very expensive, even common ones like "sago palms". But sago palms, in spite of their common name, aren't palms at all. They belong to a group of plants called cycads. They are wonderfully weird, and grow in strange ways. And sometimes they lose all of their leaves. Of course, if it were a palm tree that lost all of its leaves, you would know that the plant was dead. But it's not true of cycads. So don't dig that cycad up and throw it away! Not yet. If you've recently transplanted a cycad, and the leaves have all faded away, hang on. Take a look at the top center of the plant, at what I call "the pucker". There you will see some stubby, soft fronds, no more than an half-inch or so. At least that's what you should see. That means that the plant is still alive, and has dropped its leaves to focus on building r...
Read more

Rooting sago palm pups for more plants

-
Image
Once a sago palm ( cycas revoluta ) reaches a certain level of maturity, it starts to create pups. Like agaves, these are little plants that are exactly the same as the parent plant, only smaller. And yes, you can trim them off and grow them into new plants. This is how to do it. Cut them off from the parent plant with a sharp knife. If there are any roots at the bottom, try to save them, but chances are there won't be any. That's not a problem. The next step is rooting them. Douse the cut part and the bottom of the plant with some garden sulfur and some rooting hormone powder. Rooting hormone powder is pretty easy to find at your local Home Depot. I had to go to a real nursery to get garden sulfur. Anyway, the idea is to keep the little plant from rotting while giving it time to grow its own roots. Sago palm pups being rooted Bury them fairly deep in some free-draining mix. It should include volcanic pumice, if you can find it, and if not, you can use perlite. I ...
Read more

Growing sunflowers from Pennsylvania in Arizona

-
Image
It's October 21st, and I just received some sunflower seeds from a friend in Pennsylvania. Their season is ending and the season for planting here in Arizona is just beginning, and I'm kinda wondering if the seeds are wondering what's going on? It's spring again already? If you're new to the Phoenix, Arizona area, and are from back east it must seem kinda strange that fall and winter is our flower season, but it is. By springtime it will start to get so hot here that the flowers will die, and of course back east the season is just beginning.  Sunflowers growing in Peoria, Arizona, about a mile from where I live I've seen sunflowers blooming around my neighborhood of Glendale, which is a suburb of Phoenix, in the winter, and although I've never grown them I understand that they're easy to grow. I guess I'll find out - I learn best by doing! The seeds arrived safely, and it's my understanding that they were still connected to the spent flower (I do...
Read more