Still better than white vinyl.

Gardening here is so fun! You can grown anything in the Sonoran desert with a little patience. The Papaya tree is skying and has fruit on it! All planted from a seed from a $.99 store bought papaya. I still have 100 seeds from it........


Flowers
https://i.imgur.com/wC4KJs2.jpg
Canna Lilly
https://i.imgur.com/16dd09E.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/S8reZ5D.jpg
Plumeria
https://i.imgur.com/8o6biis.jpg
Pink Guava
https://i.imgur.com/Wno3zHW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZKw29Hb.jpg

Papaya
https://i.imgur.com/lMLd7bh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/aN008p5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/qTGFLed.jpg

Climate flexor. They looks great though

Growing peppers is my current thing. Picture is jalapeno, Sante Fe Grande and Serrano peppers (new plant for me from October). I have a habanero plant I just planted last month. The jalapenos are small but HOT as ****! Made salsa today with all these, plus onion and garlic. Will give some away to the neighbors who are Mexican and say my salsa is "pretty hot!" And my Mexican coworkers love it and call me "Mexican Gringo."

https://i.imgur.com/88kTNGF.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/rmUSnxz.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/q92bQHf.jpg

Anybody grow weed? My buddy does it (one plant a year) and he tells me there’s male and female plants and that when he harvests it he takes all the leaves off and hangs it upside down with the buds and stems on it. I asked how he knows when to pick the buds and he said you have to look at the buds with a magnifying glass and look for crystals? Seems like a lot of work but he’s got a never ending supply of weed doing it himself.

We just started 3 different plants. We grew some last year but it didn't mature at the end as needed because it got too hot, so growing in "winter" now as gardening is almost opposite in the desert. The last stuff was pretty skunky. lol

I got 5 fattys in a glass container, it was part of his 2020 harvest and it was a gift to help me sleep after rotator cuff surgery. That shit is better than ambien lol

BTW Nice job with the salsa! Now you gotta get a bag of masa and learn how to make authentic corn tortillas

My wife smokes every night before bed. She says most nights she doesn't even wake up. God I wish I was so lucky!

Well if I'm ever in zona I'm hitting you up to try that salsa you make. And some other stuff

Its that time for some.

We are looking at expanding the deck and possibly putting on a screened in porch. Partly to get out of the sun and a better view than the neighbor shed.
Hope the costs arent too bad.

Was looking for a better thread to post it. Spring is coming.

My habaneros are almost ready. Frost got a bit of the jalapeño but that thing has been in the ground 6 years and basically a small tree at this point. I’m not worried.

I'm not doing any thing this year. Last year I had a forest of Mammoth Russian Sunflowers and a pumpkin patch that got bugs real bad. The years before last I didn't get a bug problem.. I'm pretty sure I'll get sunflowers again anyways but if they grow too close to each other I'll start pulling some and thin it out.

I have a tiller to use but I don't think I'm going to do any gardening this year.

Try some bug spray and kill the beetle’s that pumpkins get.

My garden hibernated last year. I trimmed a maple tree that in the yard that was causing significant shade to the raised beds. Looking forward to that last frost.

Squash bugs are difficult to get rid of after one bad year. Pesticides don't seem to work. Actually, laying a wide board down on the ground, attracts them at night and then you can kill them the next morning.

https://www.almanac.com/pest/squash-bugs

Photo dump coming. I've got my first guava tree buds and mango tree flower ever!!! Also first inflo on in ground plumeria! Great spring so far.

Big Purple Rose

https://i.imgur.com/DoVZhoe.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/MSIhTCX.jpg

Passion Fruit Vine

https://i.imgur.com/0fIm3S6.jpg

Lime tree

https://i.imgur.com/eX0GBIT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/I6SCdII.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7SvjexB.jpg

Rainbow Plumeria

https://i.imgur.com/g01Gikx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VYxlTFQ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/pwGBDIV.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/5tmUgFg.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/a3md2Hk.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zJnpJl2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cVP2aHX.jpg

Papaya

https://i.imgur.com/pdRoCXZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HRkJSY4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/G2nNaON.jpg

10 foot tall peach Hibiscus mixed in the palms

https://i.imgur.com/4HShz4C.jpg

Inflo ready to bloom on my plumeria! First time I've planted plumeria in ground here last year and it's already paying off. It sometimes takes years for plumeria to bloom!

https://i.imgur.com/cEEwSOv.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/4xfB5Sx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vkrHv80.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Udqmszj.jpg

Tropic Pink Guava. First time with buds so I'll be getting fruit!

https://i.imgur.com/2eCi7YJ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/fQqsn5K.jpg

Wonderful Pomegranate. First buds and fruit set on this too!

https://i.imgur.com/UiFcheG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UoQMw7E.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6KJCgSY.jpg

Grow bags with Lemon tree and Mandarin tree. Coming up in between are Canna Lilly's.

https://i.imgur.com/3nDCQjm.jpg

Mango Tree

https://i.imgur.com/dmrm8HK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/n3QJOnZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NrfnRXw.jpg

Damn Lew, you've got so much going on in there I could easily see a bigfoot hiding out, picking fruit during the night.

About to plant a tree in my front yard.

I have a big space where a tree used to be, it's very soft, there's no grass. I should be good planting there, right?

Looks great Lew!!!

Link to Spring Planting Trees
 

I also thought they recommend planting in the Fall. Here is a link for Spring planting.

https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/st...he-spring.html

Just tilled the watermelon field for mu 80 yr old in-laws

https://i.imgur.com/2wcCQa8.jpg

My FIL on my tractor tilling another garden spot
https://i.imgur.com/d2IaUao.jpg

When we moved into this house, the backyard didn't have a single plant. It's been a fun 8 years making it our own!

See if this works This is my 80 Year old Father in-law on my Kioti CS2410 with a King Kutter II 48 inch roto tiller today.



<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/702637322?h=b956022b09&amp;badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen title="Kioti cs2410.mp4"></iframe>

Tomorrow is going to be a great day for yardwork. Cool and dry followed by a day or two of rain.

My plan is to mow, followed by plug aeration.

The pro I follow says no fertilizer until late May. Let the grass roots develop a deep structure, then fertilize.

Was there a home improvement thread. I cannot find it.
Want to show pics of our deck improvement.

Closest thread I could come up with for home improvement,

https://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/show...84830&page=169

that was a BIG help

There used to be a handyman thread. Maybe that's what you were thinking about.

that may be it. More searching.

On the front page

Again, not true landscaping, but we are adding on to the deck. Construction may start Monday. Existing deck will be a screened in porch, then add deck to the back of the garage. It is shaded.

Add steps and a door to the back of the garage.
Still have to look at dumbass's shed but hoping the city codes him when they come out to inspect my build.

If you remember the other thread about him, most of the trees he planted are dead. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c354a0cba5.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...34f63baecb.jpg

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

I waited two years for this to bloom. This is a photo with no filter effects. It literally looks like this! Smells lightly like cinnamon.

Plumeria

https://i.imgur.com/mf6mt0S.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/kbq0edU.jpg

With an abundance of field stone I took delivery of 25 Ton of rock. I have an elevated drive in need of a retaining wall. It’s max 3ft tall and runs for 75 ft.
I had some quotes for 17K and I can’t stomach that price.
My guy brought the rock delivery in a side dump trailer and it’s pretty spread out with some stones weighing 700 plus.
My neighbor brought over his mini-backhoe and we got a great start. He is a contractor and proficient as can be with this machine. After about 4 hours of work, and half done, we took a break. He then told me “You go ahead and finish it up”.
Now a little background: I am hilariously bad and a novice with heavy equipment and he knows this. Regardless that’s where I’m at right now. I just got done moving a total of 5 rocks in two hours and being ridiculously slow and jerky. My wife took a video and it looks like heavy equipment rerun school.
Mad respect to those folks who can work this shit with mad precision.

And Lew your yard is gorgeous. You must be a master gardener because it looks fantastic.

Busted it today. Mowed, core aerated and put the saw tooth blade on the weed eater. That is a great tool. Bust through thick growth like butter.

Rain the next 3 days. Bring it on.

Never grew plants until I moved to Phoenix. I’m all self taught using Phoenix gardening groups to learn how to care for various plants here.

I’m running out of room but I’ll continue to cram shit in these small yards the best I can. ROFL

Any groups or links that you can share?

Our home apparently has a drip system calibrated to the right amount of water but my palms and some other shrubs are looking a bit sad. I'm on the verge of hiring someone just to get me oriented with my landscape.

Most people water very stupidly on drip. Too frequent and not enough at one time. All my plants are on “drips” but I use bubblers on the end so I can flood the root zone if needed or completely turn off on my dormant trees in winter. Most people have a 1-2 GPH dripper line running and that’s it. Running it for 15 minutes won’t do shit.

Honestly most landscapers don’t water correctly here either. I know I tell my front yard landscaper to not touch my drip system, just trim my plants bitch! I only have him to stay in HOA compliance and the backyard landscape is enough to keep me busy. Palms need a lot more water in summer here and some fertilizer.

How long are your zones running? Do you just have a single drip line to each plant? Let’s start there and we can get your plants looking better.

Facebook.

Maricopa county backyard gardeners.

Living the GreenLife. Tropical nursery here and owner is super sarcastic. He’ll ****ing call your shit out but he won’t bullshit you.

Arizona backyard fruit growers. No one waters citrus correctly either. I put about 60 gallons of water to mine in an 8 hour window once a week in the summer. Long and deep, but infrequent watering is what they need. If you only have one drip line to citrus, your prior owner didn’t know what he was doing. It’s easy enough to add lines to drip systems though. I maintain and modify mine all the time for new plants.

Easy way to tell what a drip line puts out. Put the drip in a milk carton and run the station for an hour.

I just know from the listing that the home has a drip system and have only seen a couple lines near the 2 palms in the backyard.

Any idea how I locate the system controls?*

Lol I just figured out the pool and indoor thermostat automation. The seller left me with **** all for instructions compared to me leaving all the manuals and worksheets on systems for our buyer in Chicago.

*keep in mind that I'm still gimping around on crutches for another 3 weeks minimum.

Irrigation systems are run by control boxes somewhere on the outside of the house, usually in the front yard. Mine is on the right side of my house near the garage. It's a control box that can look like anything but is probably rainbird. Just an example below.

https://mobileimages.lowes.com/produ...pg?size=pdhism

anyone got a hack for keeping bugs away from infrared security cameras? they keep tripping the motion sensor.

i'm pondering putting a bug zapper bulb about 15 feet away - not sure if it's far enough away though

bugs love infrared, have the same problem here

This week, I am going to start my war on yard fungus. I have purchased fungicide. But thinking hitting the yard about every three weeks and watering less this year. If the fungus takes over, my yard is done. Then I will have to replace the grass and the fungus is still in the soil.

Anyone every had this and done this?
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...d277852b7b.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...fe18813105.jpg

Got myself an early Father's Day present this weekend. More plumeria for the pool area! I plunge them in their pot first to see if they acclimate to that spot for their first Phoenix summer. If they do well, I plant them directly in the ground in that spot in late summer. If they do poorly in that spot, it's as simple as digging up the pot and moving the plumeria to a more shaded location. This was raised locally, so I am hoping it's acclimated to the Phoenix heat as this is full sun ALL DAY by the pool!

I had quite the helper this morning too.



https://i.imgur.com/Jg3sP2f.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ln1EVAG.jpg

That yellow torso squatty thing looks like it will be growing like a weed as well.

Lew - should I cut the yellow flowers off my palm trees?

I don't mind the look but would rather they not end up in the pool if they're just going to fall off on their own.

No kidding. Dude is currently on a bulking phase. Ate about 10 mini corn dogs yesterday!

Yeah, just cut them off. They do nothing and are just messy.

Update on porch and deck. Hopefully done early next weekhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3240851216.jpg

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

I've found my system control box!

Hunter, set to water for 35 mins/day. Going to download the app to run it.

Best I've been able to identify thus far is:

3 queen palms
2 Mediterranean fan palms
1 pineapple palm
1 navel orange tree
1 mini orange tree
2 agaves
1 blue hibiscus
Handful of hopseeds
Couple I've yet to identify

My understanding is that queen palms aren't native to AZ and are susceptible to disease/mites and don't really do well here. Seems like an odd choice by the previous owner. I haven't seen any others around me in the neighborhood.

I'm definitely lacking in color and would like to add some cactus as well.

Correct on the Queen Palms but many have them, especially people with pools. I love the look but they are expensive and can die suddenly. Tons in my neighborhood but the brutal heat last summer took out many. They need to be fertilized quite a bit and most people do not provide them enough water in the summer. They need a lot of water to flush the salts here.

Color can be easily had by red Hibiscus and they are pretty forgiving. Pinks are harder to maintain and yellow just isn't worth it for the yard. They have prettier foliage than blue hibiscus too but I'm impressed you have a blue. Not many have them here but they are pretty forgiving too.

https://i.imgur.com/5rQeLZs.jpg

Desert yellow bells or orange jubilee are super easy and bloom in the heat. Don't put them by the pool though as they can be messy. Mine are on the opposite side of the yard from the pool.

Not sure how you'd get color from cactus unless you're looking at sticks of fire (succulent) or a purple prickly pear which is really awesome looking?

At some point when you're more able, you'll still need to see how much water is being put to the plants depending on the dripper amount. Under 105 I water every other day for about 30 minutes but many of my plants are getting more water to them than most, as I ran my own line and put bubblers on the drip lines so I can control the volume of water whenever I want. Most yards are set to 1-2 GPH on little drippers and SO MANY plants do poorly on these when people run them for 15-30 minutes a day. The water doesn't penetrate deep enough and the plants roots cook in the summer. Not important for cactus though and actually most all cactus doesn't need to be watered at all, especially agave except for maybe once a month from May-July if we don't get rain. If we get rain, don't water agave for an entire month!

Good info, thx.

I'm thinking color in addition to cactus. Just feels weird not having any cactus. I'll probably wind up doing potted plants for color. I don't have a ton of earth space but a large patio and everything seems strategically landscaped from whenever the pool was installed.

I'm definitely going to dig into the water system more. It seems highly automated but I'd like to learn enough to have more control over the what and why instead of just letting it run as the previous own has it set up.

all done

https://scontent.ffcm1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...xA&oe=628C197F

https://scontent.ffcm1-2.fna.fbcdn.n...VA&oe=628CEDFF

https://scontent.ffcm1-2.fna.fbcdn.n...rw&oe=628C8C01

https://scontent.ffcm1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...PQ&oe=628D7D50

Looks good man

And not saying you have to redo the sprinklers. Just saying if you know they put out 1-2 GPH, then you may just run your system 60-90 minutes every other day to provide a good volume of water.

So many choices here for plants!

Looks like I have a red hibiscus, just down from the blue. Didn't pick up on the similarity of the flowers til now.

https://i.imgur.com/FLmW4Qp.jpg?1

Damn that is sweet:thumb:

Did you put in a rifle port on the side of the bad neighbor?

Not yet, but we can step on the roof from our bedroom. So who knows.

They really did a fantastic job. Over the summer, I will paint the screen trim and seal everything up. Then make lattice doors and cover up some of the open space below the deck. Decided to put my riding lawn mower under there for the summer so I do not have to pull a car out to get the mower out of the garage. I did chain it up.

We have easier access to the fire pit also, so that is good.

Anyone ever have their yard trenched? I want to bury the downspout water from two spouts and then do a popup at the edge of the property. (by the shed) that way less water on the ground and I can use the pit more.

You christen that room yet?

Nice! Great way to get color a few times a year. You can let them get big, 6+ feet, or trim them and keep them small.

Ha. No. Not for lack of trying. I want to when the neighbors are at their firepit.

No mow may-the city next to mine did it. Some of the grass is 2 feet tall. The amount of stress that people will do to their grass when they mow it at 2 inches-may just kill their grass.

Go pollinators. (which dont live in the grass)

Finally found a good hose guy for gardening. Only gets the plants occasionally but dang if he can't clean the pool deck!

https://i.imgur.com/O7TbXEL.jpg

which hose is he using?

One from Costco, 100ft. It's been ok. Doesn't kink as much as others and so far has made it through one summer just sitting out.

https://www.costco.com/rapid-flo-58-...100402185.html

At least he is not using the other hose

Oh he knows to only piss in the rocks!!!!

we have 39 palm trees in our yard. Planted by the previous owner. They are worth some serious coin. Tried to talk the wife into selling one and she acted like I advocated for selling our son.

The sidewalk outside the yard p

Try growing those water loving trees in the desert, bitch!

okay then, surely you can grow a desert rose in your neighborhood?

Damn that's awesome!

Your property is beautiful. I love palm trees and the sound they make in a light breeze. Don't you have a banana tree spot too?

Isn't upkeep on them pricey? I remember reading somewhere that they require professional pruning 1-2x per year.

we had about 6 ice cream banana trees that produced bananas. Actually tasted like ice cream.

We had a hurricane come through 3-4 years ago and they have not produced fruit since then. They multiply and produce new ones but none produce fruit.

We give up on them and just tore them down yesterday. We were thinking that maybe they got some disease in the storm. Genetic damage? We are leaving a couple of new sprouts and see if they produce fruit. If not, start over. They thrive down here and multiply like weeds in the Midwest.

Correct, that upkeep for pruning is expensive as hell. But, none of ours have to be pruned.

We didn’t plant all the palm trees, the previous owner did. All the palm trees we have the frawns automatically drop off when they die and fall to the ground. Since some of these frawns are huge now, when they fall off they can take out some of your plants and pots below.

The guy who mows the yard hauls off the frawns. The previous lawns guy didn’t take them. So we had to haul them off. New guy was the same price so we don’t have to haul off the frawns now. The pic is a couple of weeks worth of frawns.