Tag: plants

  • Identifying and Dealing with Hotspots in the Desert Garden

    Phoenix is an urban environment in a hot desert. Because of concrete roads, sidewalks, and walls, the city environment has more extreme microclimates than the desert surrounding it.  The desert outside of Phoenix is actually better for plants than the city in some ways. Heat is trapped by the inversion layer that settles over Phoenix…

  • Summer Threats to Plants in the Low Desert Part 2: How Much Sun?

    The harshest learning curve in desert gardening is probably the realization that beloved full-sun plants from other parts of the world like lavenders and roses just can’t handle afternoon sun during the summer months here in the low desert. Plants limping through June, July, and August suffer from sunburn, dieback, and attacks from pests when…

  • Summer Challenges of landscaping in the low desert

    introduction to hot weather thinking Put very simply, the key is “Right Plant, Right Place”. The start of my career in horticulture came when I was hired at a plant nursery down the street in Fountain Hills AZ. I was a nursery tech and customer service employee primarily, because without plants and customers there is…

  • Plants that don’t play well with drip systems

    Plants that don’t play well with drip systems

    In Arizona we are lucky to have drip irrigation systems that keep our plants watered so we don’t have to worry. In the desert, many irrigation systems are initially programmed to water once a day. But some plants never adjust to daily waterings and never will. For some plants, daily watering could even be deadly.…