Growing plants in pots on your patio in Phoenix, Arizona

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I love living in the Phoenix, Arizona area, but ya gotta admit that it gets crazy hot here. And I don't mean "it's a heat wave", it's more like month after month where you feel as if you're walking into an oven as soon as you go outside, even in the shade. So growing plants, especially in pots, can be a challenge. I'll tell you what I've learned.

First of all, your patio should be shady. If it's not, don't even think about putting any plants out there. My patio is covered, and faces the rising sun, so the plants get the sunlight they need in the morning, and aren't cooked to a crisp in the afternoon.

Another thing I realized is that they do better in individual pots. I tried growing plants in big pots, but they all died. So just this past year I put some plants in smaller pots and then put those pots in a big pot filled with soil, and rocks. The plants love it!

Oh yeah, I keep a bottle of water on the tiki bar so I can mist the plants, which I usually do in the morning as I sit and drink my coffee. It doesn't have to be every day, but the desert is a dry place, and plants appreciate the additional humidity.

I water the plants a couple of times a week, more in the summer, less in the fall, and winter when it cools down here (finally!). And just in case you're wondering, the blue spiky plants are agaves, the ones that look like green sticks are euphorbia, and the green one in the middle is a ZZ plant.

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