I love gardens! Both growing and visiting them. From 2015 - 2021 my focus was our Phoenix backyard garden. My inspiration came from visiting friends with productive yards and the dream boat Monty Don. The show Big Dreams Small Spaces was a huge catalyst. Right now I don’t get to get my hands dirty as much as I would like. Currently, I enjoy a visiting gardens around the world. I keep a very messy garden inspiration folder from my travels. Here’s a log of my garden design education.
Gardening in Phoenix
2021
2015-2018
Gardening in Phoenix was a bit of a challenge. People from Iraq are in the Phoenix gardening groups because we have a similar climate. It freezes enough to be dangerous to tropicals, it gets really hot, and there’s not much water.
Some strengths of the Phoenix area: it was an agricultural center and has many of the legacy businesses, it has good dirt, and some very successful gardeners like Jake Mace, Shamus O’Leary, and Greg Peterson live here and provide free advice.
Some great resources are Chip Drop and free stuff from neighbors and friends, and big sales at nurseries.
Threats: disgruntled neighbors, city regulations, pests, and severe heat / cold.
The main tenants of the yard came to be:
- make shade
- choose abuse tolerant, edible plants
- mulch A LOT
- add sulfur