Flowers, Flowers, and More Flowers

"The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live."

(Sonnet LIV)

In Arizona we do things a little wonky. Instead of preparing for the winter, we prepare for the summer. We try to do as little outside when it is 110+degrees (that's about 43 degrees celsius), in the summertime, and if we do need to work outside, we do it in the early morning or in the evening after the sun has gone down.

Anyway, we are winding down the spring vegetable garden and I had such a great garden this past winter and spring so I sent my son, the photographer, out to take pictures of the vegetables; tomatoes, artichokes, lettuce, carrots, beets, and cabbages.

I guess it goes back to the fact that he doesn’t like too many vegetables and instead of the veges, he stopped at the flowers and took pictures of them.

We don’t have too many flowers that bloom in the heat so we love to see them all winter and spring. My sweet peas were over 8 feet tall this year! WOW! And people say you can’t grow in the desert! The Roses still bloom in the summer but the blooms shrink to small blooms in the heat of July-September.

The interesting thing I have found about gardening in Arizona is that so many plants have varieties that are desert varieties and use less water than the better known varieties that grow in other parts of the country.

We do have a year round growing season here for vegetables but I usually take off July and August. It is too hot! But as I always tell my family who live in the frigid cold of Northern Utah, it is so much more fun to get cool in the summer in Arizona than to get warm in the winter ANYWHERE it snows. I have never liked the snow and cold. All we have to do is get wet in a pool, sprinkler or just spray ourselves with a hose. I love Arizona, even in the summertime.

Come and visit some time!
The one question that has always puzzled me though; If fresh squeezed lemonade is a summer cool down drink, why do the lemons ripen in December and January? HUMMMM????? As Alice in Wonderland said..."curiouser and curiouser".