Getting your garden through the Phoenix summer heat

-

As much as I love living in Phoenix, I would never deny that the summers are awful. The heat is intense, like "fry an egg on the sidewalk" hot. So getting your garden through the summer months, which in Phoenix starts in April and ends in September, can be a challenge. And it's so much of a challenge that you will very often see gardens with only rocks, or cactus. And that's a shame, because you can do so much more. You just have to get through the summer.

The most important thing that you can provide is shade. Yes, there are plants that do fine out in the baking sun of Phoenix, but not many. My property has a few areas that get southern and western sun, which I call "the fires of hell", and in those places I can only plant very tough plants that can stand it. Elsewhere I have two types of shade: from my trees, and from my house.

The "prime real estate" for my garden. Morning sun with some shade from the tree. By afternoon the house will shade this area completely. I just took this photo a few minutes ago, and it's about 9 a.m.

The "prime real estate" for plants on my property is an eastern exposure, with some shade from one of my trees. An eastern exposure means that the plants are planted along the wall on the side of my house that faces the rising sun. Yes, in real estate only three things matter: location, location, location.

But that's not enough. In the summer even early mornings are painfully hot. And that leads me to something that most people get wrong: watering. Because if you're planning to water your plants all summer with a hose, you're gonna have a hard time. And dead plants.

Watering system timers

I installed a simple and inexpensive "drip system" when I first bought the house. I've been tempted to upgrade it, but, nah, not really. It works fine and is automated by a battery-operated timer. It's the one on the right in the photo. The one on the left is a misting system, which gives secondary water to the plants, by misting the air at ground level. Everything is just plastic, and the parts need to be replaced every few years, but I like it, understand it, and it keeps me paying attention to it. Even the best systems need for you to pay attention to it.

Getting ready for the summer heat is like getting ready for the blizzards of winter. You don't wait for an emergency, you do your preparations ahead of time. Then you just hunker down, and wait it through.

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