MOONLIGHT GARDENING

 

Summer in the Valley of the Sun ~ Phoenix, the mythological bird who rose from ashes ~ and ~ Arizona, meaning the "Arid Zone". It certainly sounds miserable, however the positives outweigh the negatives and living in this desert city just takes a little working around the hottest parts of the day in the summer heat. We have 118 degree to possible 120 degree days in our forecast for this weekend and I have some empty pots on my patio that need to be planted. While most gardeners in this climate do their gardening early in the morning, I prefer to do mine by the light of the moon. The nights are cool and the sun is not pounding down and rising, which limits the amount of time that you can spend as the morning turns into day. It heats up very quickly during all of the summer months. 

The photo above of the twinkle lights on my patio also show the neighbor's lights behind me. I think they are catching on to the late night, moonlight gardening, too! :)

I have a bag full of hollyhock seeds and I planted some along my fence, but I think that it may actually be too late to plant them. They are seeds that came off of my mom's flowers from last year. Between my mom, my sister (who recently passed away only last month~she was an avid gardener) and I, we pass around our flower seeds from the flowers of the years prior and it is so heartwarming knowing that whatever we plant, they are a part of all of our gardens. 

A friend also gave me a huge sunflower head that I have been planting off of. I love the way that this one looks like a heart.

I have had a steady flow of sunflowers along my fence this year, but none of them ever grew to the mammoth size.
As a dedication to my sister, Cheryl, I am going to plant a large garden for her. Beginning with one square foot at a time, as she always did. This is the time to get the beds ready so I can begin planting for fall in August. I am slowly working on that. I do not have nearly the kind of space that she did, but I do have a lot of large pots, so container gardens will most likely be the bulk of where the foods and herbs are grown. I planted yellow squash and okra, last night in a few of my large pots.

Not really very exciting, is it? And certainly not very impressive. I have Moroccan Parsley in half of a pot, that a friend gave to me. I love receiving cuttings from friends and family, it just makes the plant a little more lovely.

 Don't forget to put out water for the birds on hot days. I try to remember to keep our birdbath full.

This big tree was planted by the wind in a planter on my patio, many years ago. It has grown into a huge, beautiful shady blessing that I planted in my front yard. There is another one that has landed in a pot and is ready to be transplanted when the time of year is right for it. I love FREE TREES!

Waiting for the sun to go down in this hot city. And wishing you many hours of moonlight gardening.