Just like someone mentioned before: do everything backwards from what you've learned... not really, but honestly if you've amassed gardening know-how up north, you might as well chuck most of that knowledge in the "doesn't apply here" bin and listen to the folks on this forum. Gardening in AZ is extremely different from gardening up north. one thing to always remember: If the label on a plant at Home Depot or Walmart says "Full Sun", in most cases that translates to "morning sun, afternoon shade". There are not a whole lot of plants that can thrive in our full sun although there are some good ones. The winters here still do get cold enough at times that we can't grow tropicals without protection. Yeah we don't get too many freezes, but we do get them from time to time, so things like avocados, bananas, mango, are a challenge here. There are a few things you can grow in the summer, but your main gardening seasons will be spring and fall. I'm mostly an edibles gardener so my post will reflect that. In the summer I've had good luck with Armenian cucumbers, Okra, Cantaloupe and Watermelons (they use a lot of water, but they love the heat). Corn is supposed to also do ok in the summer, but I haven't tried that yet. In the fall you can do a lot of things. Since the growing season is fairly short so you need to go with short season varieties. Winter is one of my favorites for gardening here. That's when I do greens. Carrots, Parsley, herbs, Lettuce, Brocolli (It does extremely well here over the winter), peas, spinach...basically all your salad greens. So from about late Oct until around March, you can be swimming in greenery. I was supplying my whole extended family's salad needs most of last winter. The soil here in most places is about the worst soil you could imagine. Mine is hard clay, with caliche that is about as hard as concrete when dry. Some areas have a lot of crushed granite. There are areas with good soil as this used to be an agricultural area. The first thing I would do if I got a plot of land here to garden is I would dig out the soil in some of the areas where I plan on having a garden and get several BIG loads of horse manure and dump it in that area, then let it compost into place. Stuff breaks down fast here IF you keep it moist. BTW, you can get as much horse manure as you want around here for free, there are several places that have horses and they'll load your truck or trailer. In a few years you can develop some decent soil around your property and that will help a lot. I wouldn't bother with bagged "compost" or garden soil and crap like that. I think the quality of that stuff here is terrible and it's not worth the money. The soil here is very alkaline, which means that putting lime or ash on it makes it worse. You want to acidify it if possible by using sulfur. A little vinegar in the water can help temporarily. Also gypsum helps break down the clay. Plants need a good amount of nitrogen here because the heat breaks it down very fast so fruit trees will need to be fertilized at least quarterly. Some of the mineral deficiencies common here are iron and zinc defficiency. If you acidify your soil a little, it helps quite a bit. For iron, I don't like ironite, but chelated iron seems to work much better. Some fruit trees that do well here would be most of your citruses, dates, figs (very nice for ornamental and shade purposses as well), pommegranates are a piece of cake here. Peaches and nectarines will do ok too. A few varieties of grapes (especially Thompson seedless) do extremely well here if they get some afternoon shade. One of your biggest challenges will be birds, insects and diseases. Ants (particularly fire ants) will make you really really hate Arizona at times. I hate the nasty SOBs. Pest problems develop very FAST here, and you need to address them early. Some things have easy organic solutions, like for grape leaf skeletonizers you can spray them with BT which is safe (not poisonous) and they'll be gone. Other problems like white flies can be really hard to get rid of without pesticides and they can get inflict some serious damage if they get out of control. In my opinion, here you get several years's worth of plant growth in one year (I'd say in some cases about 3 yrs worth) and that translates into a LOT of work. pruning, digging up weeds...etc. A good thing to know here is that in AZ they encourage people to recycle their graywater by using it on ornamentals. I changed the plumbing in part of my house to allow my bathwater to go to my shade trees. Water is not cheap here, and if you're going to garden, it's going to be a precious commodity. For shade trees there are a lot of choices but I've fallen in love with Sissoo. Fast growing, not messy, can handle some drought, looks beautiful.

Like a lot of folks have mentioned, bearded iris do very well in the warm-winter areas of AZ (and the cold-winter areas too). I grew quite a few at my last garden here in Scottsdale and just made a Pity Purchase a couple of weeks ago for some very dry/neglected 'Batik' irises. We'll see if they make it, but when I've purchased non-neglected rhizomes in the past they've always thrived. Keep us posted on what you plant and how it does, and keep that camera handy this spring/summer. :) Take care, Grant

This may be my answer to dark spots (aka, age spots) on the backs of my hands. I've tried so many creams over the years I could have bought a couple of laser machines with the $$ I spent. I've heard of Hand Spa but cannot find a salon that has one. I think that may be laser, but I'm not sure.

tinman, I am a Master Rosarian in north Phoenix. Perhaps I can help you. As you've guessed, bare root season in Phoenix ended in mid-February. Any bare root rose you purchased after that date had less than 50% chance of growing enough to protect it from hot temps, hot soil, hot water, etc. Bare roots purchased now will have 25% or less chance without some major work. First, no more ground planting until after Oct 1. The soil is so hot right now, that feeder roots will cook. Use the largest light-colored container, with excellent drainage, a rose-planting mix and plan to place the bush and container in the shade, preferably on the patio. You'll not only need to water the bush every day but you may need to erect shade cloth over it. My recommendation would be to create a little shade structure using part of your covered patio. You can purchase outside roller shades that produce the same effect and don't look quite so ugly. These are weighted shades that can resist some monsoon winds. Better to roll them up before the dust moves in, though. Don't feed those roses until after Oct 1. The planting mix will have enough nitrogen to give the roots a boost through the summer. Too much nitrogen will just cook them. Soak the bare roots for up to 24 hours in a 5-gallon bucket of water with several drops of SuperThrive. You can continue to use SuperThrive at least once a week throughout the summer. Unfortunately, you'll also need to mist these bare roots every day until they leaf out. There are several methods of erecting shade structures for established roses but all need to be weighted in order to withstand the monsoon winds. Trellises need to be galvanized, powder-coated or redwood for best results in heat and dry. The trellis should be attached to the wall with at least 4-6 inches of airflow between. You can accomplish this by using a 4x6 block between the trellis and wall and using masonry bolts to anchor. There are plastic polypropylene trellises but they don't last any longer than a lawn chair made of the same stuff. I start most of my bare root climbers in a large (20-24") container and use a tomato cage to hold up the canes. I do the same for David Austin English Roses that droop and OGRs that do the same. You can also use a large/giant tomato cage and shade cloth to create individual shade structures for these bare-roots. Attach the shade cloth with twist ties, shower curtain hooks, or some such. You'll need to weight the shade cloth down with bricks, pavers or similar. Leave some type of access to get water and mist inside the shade area. Next Phoenix Rose Society meeting is Tuesday, June 20, 6:30pm, at the Valley Garden Center, 1809 N 15th Ave, Phoenix (between Thomas and McDowell Roads). It's the potluck before we take a summer break in July and August. You can also find me at the public rose garden most Saturday mornings at about 9am. During the winter, I'm there for several hours a week but during the summer, I may only drop by for a couple hours, 1-2 times a month.