Well, the heat FINALLY broke around here, and it was a perfect weekend for me to get out in the yard and get things (that I’ve been putting off) done!  My first order of business was to get my lawn sprinklers up and running again… I’ve had so much trouble with them over the years it’s been driving me crazy!  I did get everything under control, thanks to the amazing Pat – the pro –  over at the Power/Germann Home Depot.  As I learned again (like so many times before) with so many things in life, picking the right product can be a big part of the picture, but SUPERIOR knowledge makes it happen!  If you live in that area, and need help with your landscaping or lawn, go see Pat in plumbing, he’ll take care of you!

OK, so the sprinklers are out of the way, and my wife can have her lawn again… Onto the garden… My wife and I have become amateur gardeners over the past year or so, and now that it’s a little cooler we can start planting the fall garden.  We had a summer garden, and have had some basic success, but we’re still learning how to manage the heat, and insects – the ANTS!  Here’s what we’ve been able to grow in the summer so far:

We haven't had much success yet, but we managed to grow a sunflower!

A Sunflower in the Arizona Desert!

A hot pepper plant!

A hot pepper plant!

Corn!

Corn!

 

The sunflowers were quite easy, they grow by themselves, really.  The hot peppers grow really well in the heat too, we did have to help them pollinate.  The corn grew fairly well, and we were able to get a few ears out of it, but those ants just seem to eat everything they can!  We’ll have to figure out how to control them at some point (without dumping a bunch of pesticides around the yard). 
We had a horn worm on the pepper plant once, and my kids were going to bring it in and watch it cocoon, but it was gone before they could get to it!  Here’s an Az gardener’s site where her kids had a successful cocooning experience!  Pretty cool!  We’ll have to move more quickly next time.
We’ve tried to grow other things, such as tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, and cantaloupe, but as of yet have had no success.  We are typically able to get the plants to start growing, but aren’t able to finish the job!  We’ll keep working on it, I know success is just around the corner!
We’re going to plant for the fall in the very near future.  Hopefully the lack of extreme heat will work in our favor, and we’ll have a nice full garden for me to blog about!