Arizona Fall Patio Planting

Okay, October.  You insisted on arriving already so let’s do this.  Time to pull on our garden gloves and taken out our freshly cleaned tools and do a little Arizona fall patio planting.

Finding the Perfect Plants

Beginning with a trip to my favorite local nursery, Summer Winds, I had a lot of friendly assistance to find the perfect selection of white trailing petunias, pink snapdragons and raspberry swirl dianthus.

Now, when I say local nursery, I mean local to Phoenix.  Not meaning close to my home.  This nursery sources all their plants from Phoenix growers so they are used to our climate and have a better success rate. 

Which is somewhat important in my yard.  If you catch my drift.  My thumb is not all that green.

The heartbreak of succumbing to a Costco or Home Depot purchase of an expensive plant raised in California and then croaking in my yard has happened too many times.  And cost too much money.

Now I know these plants will look pretty together, fill in my current pots and make it through this hot month, and then last the entire winter. 

I hope.

Gather Supplies

Since hub has already started his fall garden, I knew we have a lot of garden soil on hand.  Gathering that, the tools, gloves and MOST importantly, the bug spray, I began my work.  With my trusty assistant Roxy, of course.

The mosquitos came back out in full force this week.  When oh when will that be over?

Trim Back the Old

Trailing vinca is really a summer perennial but with a bit of pruning, it will usually last through the winter.  In fact, our current vinca is probably several years old.

The wonderful woman at the nursery also advised me that I could cut back the out-of-control Dusty Miller and try to save it for the winter.

Pot the New

The pots aren’t quite as crowded as I like them to look, but I’ll give it a couple of weeks to fill in and if something doesn’t make it or it still looks a bit scrawny, a few filler plants should do it.

Vegetable Garden

As I mentioned, hub planted a couple of weeks ago and here we are with radishes, cucumbers, lettuce and carrots.  Not quite ready for the table, but high hopes.

What I’m Reading

On audio, Feed by M.T. Anderson was my latest book.  Narrated by one of my favs, David Aaron Baker, I selected this book solely because of him.  It’s a YA and I frequently read YA, so no problem there.  In fact the characters are teens, but it doesn’t feel like it’s written for teens at all.  It feels like it’s written for people with their faces in their phones all day long.

It’s also dystopian which is not my favorite.  Because it’s pretty much the world we are living.

And it was written almost 20 years ago.  Except for the flying cars, our society is exactly where this book said we’d be.

Dang, those flying cars never come to fruition!

But the creativity in the audio production was like nothing I’ve ever heard.  It’s peppered with advertisements in the “feed” which is the cool, creative part of this audio book.  Such a good job.  Recommend.

What I’m Eating

I’ll pop back on again later this week with a recipe since this is getting kind of long.  I have spent a little time in the kitchen and want to share.

Wrap Up

Thank you, dear one, for taking time to share a part of my journey with me.  It means so much.  Blessings on you and yours for a wonderful week.