Welcome to the forum, and to Arizona gardening! I think this is the MOST fun, interesting, and festive gardening climate in the U.S. Great stuff! The first thing I'd suggest is that you get your hands on some of the many good, LOCAL gardening books. They will really help give you a lot of information on different styles of gardens, and their plants, and then what those plants need. They'll also remind readers that our long, easy gardening season is autumn, winter, spring and early summer, not the way folks did things "back home". You can search this AZ forum for recommended books, and I'm sure folks will chime in with suggestions too. You'll be happiest growing plants that do well here (that applies to any climate of course, LOL), and there are TONS of leafy and non-leafy plants, plus citrus and all sorts of fun shrubs, vines and trees. Just remember that not everything here wants rich loamy soil. Most desert plants don't want a ton of organic materials in their soil, though things like roses, veggies etc do. There are a lot of great books for this area that will save you heartache, most are available at large local book stores, and all are available at the big online book sellers too, and again search the forum's archive to see various lists of books folks have suggested. Just off the top of my head here are a few: "Arizona Gardener's Guide" by formerly-local author Mary Irish "Desert Gardening" by George Brookbank. He's a bit of a curmudgeon, but the advice is great and really helps explains to gardeners how the soil, climate, watering and plants work here. "Desert Landscaping: How to Start and Maintain a Healthy Landscape in the Southwest" also by G. Brookbank. It's really great if you can get over the B&W photos. Good information that is timeless. "Plants For Dry Climates: How To Select, Grow, And Enjoy, Revised Edition" by Mary Rose Duffield "Native Plants for Southwestern Landscapes" by Judy Mielke. Don't let the "native" part discourage you--most of these plants are now very popular in the nursery trade (and can even be found at the Big Box hardware stores, plus local nurseries too). Great information on where these plants are found in nature, and how to keep them happy. If you're concerned about a plant's tolerance of our warm summers (and warm summer nights especially), check out "Heat-Zone Gardening: How to Choose Plants That Thrive in Your Region's Warmest Weather." It's a fun, interesting book that helps us weed out plants that just won't make it here (and it highlights and confirms the many that thrive here). If you want a lot of fruits and veggies, "Extreme Gardening: How to Grow Organic in the Hostile Deserts" by David Owens is good, if a bit slapsticky at times. Good information though, especially for veggie growing. Those are just some quick thoughts, but spending just a little money and time on some or all of these books will give you tons of information and entertainment, and will get you get up for a wonderful Arizona garden. Plus being on this forum will be really helpful too, and fun! So many folks here have wonderful, wonderful gardens, and there's no substitute for hands-on experience from real gardeners of course. Just for fun, I'm putting a link to my little garden's pics from this month. All of my garden photo albums are viewable, so you can scroll through them to see what's blooming when (I organize them by month and year). So many great gardeners here will be willing to help out too. Oh,and we love pics too! :) Happy gardening! Grant Here is a link that might be useful: March 2012 garden pics

http://wildomarmagazine.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/dscn0663.jpg hope this works, are they a yellow like this?? around the fruits?? then they are ok... slim

Are those the branches from the larger tree? Goodness! I have three year old twins and they know they can't touch "Mommy's sticks" when I'm rooting them ;). You can cut the broken ends cleanly, and then do a forum search on callus and rooting to make each broken branch a whole new tree. Good luck! Fortunately these trees are pretty hardy about breakage... It's one of the ways they reproduce themselves.

Hi Jessica, Your florescent lights will not "burn" your tomatoes. If they have been in any sunlight, they have already started to develope the thickened cuticle and growing their chloroplasts arranged to take advantage of the amount of sunlight they get outdoors. I've linked a great article that is in layman's terms below. In spite of the fact that it is cloudy outside, your plants are getting more solar radiation that they would get from your florescent lights, so frankly where the light is concerned, I don't see a benefit to taking them in and putting them under florescent lights. On the other hand, taking them in to avoid winds and heavy rains makes perfect sense. Bets Here is a link that might be useful: Hardening Off and Physiological Changes