Garden Gal

Flavorful herbs are some of the easiest garden plants to grow, but you want to pay attention to your herb garden. Once in the ground, herbs are quickly ready for harvesting, unlike most other vegetables, which need time to ripen and mature.

The key to keeping herbs growing is to harvest often, even if you don’t need more. Herbal leaves are popular in cooking. Cutting them back throughout the growing season encourages healthy new growth and an attractive shape and keeps them producing.

Arizona is famous for its weather, which facilitates myriad outdoor activities. When all this activity brings the party to your deck, patio, or pool’s edge, the fragrance of the garden should be positive and uplifting to the friends who gather. Forget the candles and citronella. This is the perfect place to add sweetly scented plants for ambiance. The right plants remind us of why the mountains of Arizona are meant to be enjoyed outdoors.

In the past, a person needed a lot of land to grow fruit trees. Things have changed. Dwarf and semi-dwarf fruit trees have made it possible to grow crops in just about any yard. Most standard-sized fruit trees mature at a height and width of between 18 and 25 feet, requiring a big chunk of space and also proving difficult to prune and spray without using a ladder.

Still, even with smaller trees, growing fruit is a long-term investment. Trees can take anywhere from two to 10 years to bear fruit. If you plan to be harvesting for years to come, it pays to do some upfront planning.