Preparing your garden for the warm weather of Phoenix, Arizona

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Although it's still chilly today, in February, I guarantee that it will be HOT here soon. I live in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, and just as sure as you can guarantee snow in Minneapolis, you can guarantee hot weather in Phoenix. So the idea is to start to prepare for it, before you need it.

I have several suggestions for you, the best of which is to time-travel back a couple of decades and plant some nice shade trees. I was fortunate to move into this house ten years after some tiny trees were planted, and over the years I've been here they've grown, and in addition to shading the house, they shade the garden. In fact, I have so much shade here that the backyard is often chilly in the winter, and my wiener dogs have to run out there and enjoy the sun when they can!

On a more practical note, there are things that you can do right now. I strongly recommending putting in a low-pressure watering system - you really don't want to be out there dragging a hose around when it gets to over 100 degrees! And speaking of which, I suggest that you look into getting some artificial turf - mowing in the heat is really awful. Yes, it's expensive, and yes you should have it professionally installed, but it's wonderful, and what you're looking at there is over a decade old, and still looks great. Of course it's not as cool as real grass would be, but it's a whole lot cooler than if you paved your back yard - don't pave your backyard! And yes, the dogs can go on it, it's perforated, and when they go "number two" it's easy to see, and clean up.

Since you've got artificial turf now, you can leave a table out there, with an umbrella. I like the look of my plastic "tiki" umbrella, which I got online years ago, and it's held up nicely. I took the pic at the top of this post at 10:30 in the morning, and by early afternoon the whole yard is shady, so the umbrella is more decorative than anything.

That's about it, set up your automatic watering, and if you have battery-powered timers, this would be a good time to change the batteries. Then when the harsh weather comes, you can just sit back and relax.

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