Gardenig in state Arizona. Tips & Guides

Arizona’s landscape ranges from deserts to tall mountains and is home to several bushes that thrive in these unique climatic conditions that range from USDA Zones 5-10.

While Hallmark star Alison Sweeney was born and raised in Los Angeles, she’s recently made the move to Arizona with her husband and teenage children. The move has been more amazing than they could have ever dreamed, Sweeney says, partly due to the lush rose garden that came with the home, which has sparked a new gardening hobby for her.

The winding peaks and troughs of Arizona’s Verde Valley, weaving through jagged ochre mountains, dreamy cactus-clad deserts and deep volcanic canyons, make up some of the most iconic images of the American West. For thousands of years, the valley has been home to both the Verde River, one of Arizona’s only perennial wild rivers, and to Indigenous communities from the ancient Sinagua and Hohokam peoples to present-day tribes including the Yavapai, Hopi, Apache and Zuni. It is also home to 270 species of birds, 94 species of mammals and 76 species of native amphibians and reptiles. All this makes the Verde River key to the history, culture and ecosystem of central Arizona. 

Hello, Gardeners of the Galaxy! It’s time for a new episode, and our Mission Specialist for this one is Patrick Grubbs, who recently completed a Professional Science Master’s degree in Controlled Environment Agriculture at the University of Arizona. Patrick is one of the people behind the Space Ecology Workshop, an annual virtual symposium on bioregenerative life support, space agriculture, closed ecological systems, and more. He also co-founded The Spring Institute for Forests on the Moon, an international non-profit research organization developing closed ecological life support technology and working to democratize space access in underrepresented countries. The Spring Institute is working on some really exciting astrobotany projects, and Patrick is here to tell us about… some of them!

Being the third largest state of the United States in size, it has diverse climate, this is why this list includes drought tolerant, sun loving, cold hardy, tropical, and temperate trees for the “Golden State.”

Yelp

When it comes to sculptural form in the garden, it’s hard to compete with a well-grown agave (Agave spp. and cvs., Zones 7b–11). With sizes ranging from 6-inch rosettes to hulking 12-foot giants, there really is a perfect plant for every garden or container. Most are striking enough in their natural tones of green to blue, but some have raised the bar a bit higher, adding highlights of white and gold to the palette.

On the first day of August 2006, my botanizing companion and I were making only our third trip to a barrens on a farm owned by friends in Kentucky. We already knew that this spot never looked the same twice, so we had few expectations as to what we might see. Our delight on arrival can hardly be described. As far as the eye could see was a sea of shades of purple, pink, and white. My designer brain immediately kicked in—if only I could replicate this in someone’s garden!

The Rocky Mountain Region is stretched over 10,000 feet in elevation change and nearly over the full longitude of the Continental United States. Within this massive spread fit more than six biomes, ranging from the grasslands and prairie edges of northern New Mexico to the alpine of Montana. Despite the impressive diversity in soil and climate, many people in the area garden on our region’s namesake: rocks.

Can we grow food on the Moon or Mars? That was the question that started Dr Wieger Wamelink, ecologist and exobiologist at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, on a research quest in 2013.

I haven’t been feeling well this week, so in lieu of eating food, I have been reading about it. A while ago, whilst I was pondering what a resilient UK garden would look like, blog reader Audrey asked me if I had read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which is somewhat of a classic in the local good genre. I hadn’t, so I bought a secondhand copy and started reading.

Last weekend, as the temperatures soared, I found a certain amount of solace in learning more about how plants are being grown in Antarctica – the coldest place on Earth. 

Emma the Space Gardener is back with a round-up of recent space gardening news. Exciting stuff has been happening on the ISS, where green-fingered space gardener Mike Hopkins has been pricking out seedlings and harvesting crops from Veggie.

By Sam Humphrey

Discover the vibrant beauty of the Arizona State Flower and how to grow it with ease. Delve into the unique characteristics of the Saguaro cactus as we share essential tips to help you create a stunning desert landscape in your own backyard.

It’s well known that the housing market is so competitive right now, but prospective home buyers aren’t the only ones hurting—renters are, too. According to personal finance website WalletHub, inflation has impacted rental prices, and 2022 saw the second-highest price growth in decades with a 6.2% year-over-year increase. 

For those who are looking to buy a home for the first time, the feat can seem like quite the hurdle. With housing prices and interest rates still high, and a competitive market, it’s tough out there! And the number of first-time home buyers are dropping, too, because of those high prices—according to personal finance site WalletHub, 26% off home purchases were made by first-time home buyers in 2022, down from 34% the previous year.

Experience the charm of Cactus with Arms, where nature takes on an unexpected twist. These captivating plants bring you the rugged beauty of cacti with arms, showcasing nature’s creativity at its finest.

Can’t travel right now to see the Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona? Come for a visit to the South Carolina Botanical Garden to see selection of the interesting native plants at the Chihuahuan Desert Garden Display.

Native Seeds/SEARCH (NS/S) is a different kind of seed catalog. It’s a non-profit seed bank focused on conservation, and offers many things you won’t see anywhere else–some of them varieties that have been cultivated for thousands of years by America’s native peoples. Through its traveling seed school and other efforts, NS/S serves as a model for other organizations that want to do seed stewardship.And in a shifting climate, its collection of Desert Southwest varieties are proving to have a common trait–drought-tolerance–that looks increasingly appealing as the planet changes rapidly.“There will be larger areas where these crops will be adapted to growing,” said Bill during our recent conversation on my radio show, which is highlighted below.the q&a with bill mcdormanQ. Let’s start with a brief background, Bill—and also can you explain the acronym SEARCH that’s part of Native Seeds

Weil is a keen cook, and it shows in the not-hippie, not-boring, not-weird cuisine that he created with Sam Fox, the founder of the partner restaurant corporation, and Michael Stebner, the executive chef of their now-six-and-counting restaurants. Their approach, whether serving patrons or cookbook readers: “globally inspired cuisine,” and also “delicious food that is also good for you.”As I have been since my 20s, Weil became a lacto-vegetarian in 1970, at age 28, but by the mid-1980s he added fish into his diet, which continued to evolve over the years. “True Food” (book or restaurant) features poultry and bison recipes as well, so non-vegetarians need not panic about coming away hungry. On that topic: I especially love the section called “The Problem of Proper Portions,” in which Weil writes about what’s “just enough.” In Italy, he says, a “serving” of pasta would fit into a teacup. Food for thought.Nothing has the life cooked out of it, and the flavors sound positively vivid. I’m drawn in by such intensely colorful dishes as Fettucine with K

You can read that article, or see the current state of the season depicted in two interactive maps: one (above) particularly showing how this spring’s arrival stacks up against other years, and another (below) that tracks the progress of spring onset as it occurs up the nation. (You can also access both clickable maps, with explanations of what they reveal.)Called “nature’s clock,” or “nature’s calendar,” phenology is the study of recurring life-cycle stages among plants and animals, and of their timing and relationships with weather and climate. (I’ve written about it before, in this interview with a Cary Institute scientist.) Using observations from amateur and professional n

Its author, Rick Wright, has long delved deep into the world of birds, and he has a rich academic background, too, in languages, philosophy, life sciences, and even medieval studies. Through it all he kept on birding and is a leader for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours, and the author of state-specific American Birding Association guides, for Arizona and for his home state of New Jersey.We talked about learning to identify sparrows; about the sparrows that don’t look like sparrows at all–the juncos and towhees–about how particular birds are built for migration (or not), and more. And I’ve included a book giveaway: enter to win by commenting at the very bottom of the page.Read along as you listen to the April 8, 2019 ed

Raspberry fruitworms, also known as raspberry beetles (or raspberry fruit worms), are members of a small family of beetles known as the Butyridae.The damage caused by these beetle

When it comes to enjoyable South African exports, the cape marigold comes to mind.Dimorphotheca sinuata is a self-seeding daisy-like annual in th

As succulent topiaries are in the craze, the San Diego Botanic Garden illustrates the plant people or more clearly the succulent people. These life-like sculpture are so amazing to look at. Pat Hammer, the Director of Operations of the San Diego Botanical Garden, is responsible for this topiary idea. Initially, those topiaries were covered with the ivy, but as the trend changed, they decided to try with succulents.

Our planet is rich from a wide variety of plants. Every geographical area has its own characteristics that make it special. Similarly, the US states of California and Arizona are the home of the largest cactus in America called Saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea). Let’s have a look at some interesting Saguaro Cactus Facts, which is also the World’s biggest cactus!

Across the West, apocalyptic-like hordes of Mormon crickets are swarming towns—causing traffic hazards, emitting a horrible stench, and making people's skin crawl. According to reporting by the Associated Press, tens of thousands of Mormon cricket eggs began to hatch in late May and early June, and for weeks, they have been intensely invading northern Nevada—and bringing mayhem with them.

Stacy Zarin Goldberg

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Warm weather has finally arrived! Here’s what to do in your garden now.

Grant Almquist lives in a landmark. His bungalow is part of a compound known as Casa Blanca, which was built by the Kellogg family in the ’30s in Paradise Valley, Arizona, and later turned into a resort in 1958. It just so happens that Almquist’s casita was once the pool cabana, while neighbors live in the former library, restaurant, and gift shop.

We all know ginger – a tasty culinary herb (or, more accurately, a spice) that you can buy practically anywhere.Whether you’re using the whole root, paste, or powdered form, it’