I may go into mourning.....

I may go into mourning.....or not. For the last 2 years I have struggled through the baking Az. summers, white flies, ants, general lack of knowledge, etc., while learning to garden in the desert. I have enjoyed every minute of my sometimes success and more often failures. This year everything is growing like crazy and I am just waiting for my first tomatoes to ripen. Have already picked onions and beats and have greeen beans showing.

So what is the problem? I will be heading for Indiana next week and must leave it all to my housemate to take care of . (Hopefully she won't kill it this time.)

I know I can start over up north and I'll love that part but I hate leaving my beautiful garden behind . Thanks for listening to my pity party. It just takes me a while to reorient myself when changes are in order.

Hi Janet.

You can set up a drip system fairly cheaply with a timer that connects to your hose spigot and runs off of batteries. Mine is on its second season with the same batteries. I use a 25 PSI Pressure Regulator with a Compression Fitting , 1/4 in Tubing and Micro Sprinklers . I don't have any pictures of my system but these are links to pictures from sites that sell the stuff. Maybe it will save your garden while your gone and it will just be a little over grown when you get back.

Are you moving or just going away for a while? It sucks to have to give up your garden if you are moving, especially when it is doing so well. And leaving it in the care of someone who knows nothing about it or cares sucks too.

One year, the garden was doing well and I had hired someone to come and water it while I was away. He did an awful job and it was brutally hot while we were gone. Fortunately for me, my neighbour noticed and came and rescued my poor plants. I did lose some stuff and I was choked. Last year, I hired some people from a local group home to come and look after it. They did an fantastic job. The guy and his wife who run the group home live not far from me and came over every day and watered my containers. Everything looked so wonderful when we got home.

That water timer looks like a great idea. Best of luck.

Gwynn

@JanetGouvas wrote:I know I can start over up north and I'll love that part but I hate leaving my beautiful garden behind . Thanks for listening to my pity party. It just takes me a while to reorient myself when changes are in order.

Please accept my condolences for your upcoming loss.

Hope this is a good move for you. Changes are often difficult, but perhaps this is just a new beginning.

I can feel your pain. I had the same thing happen to me last fall when we moved across town. However, the excitement of starting over with a brand new adventure was invigorating! You can now use your experiences to set things up even more efficiently than before.

And, that's what we are here for......to bounce ideas off of.

Thank you, my friends. Hoggar, very good idea. I'll ask my son to see if he will do that for me. Unfortunately, I will be gone for the whole summer and who know's for how long after that.

I am already planning my new, smaller, northern garden. Hoping to get my twin granddaughters interested in helping. And I have no doubt that I will be scanning all the posts for pointers and reminders on how it is done in the green part of the country! It's been thirty years since I left Ohio. LOL!!! I'm hoping it all just kicks in like I'de never left but I"ll be keeping an eye on all you Ohio and Indiana gardeners.

Okay, (sigh) okay. I can do this.

Sorry to see you go! At least you are getting out when it's geting hot! I hope all works out for you and if you make it back to AZ let me know and we can help each other out!
Good luck! and remeber, If there were no change, there wouldn't be any butterflies!

Hi duhh,

I'll definately be back! There is no way I can live permantly in the north again. I can't take the cold and humidity. Arthritis, etc.

Besides, my new trees are all bearing fruit. It was worth the investment in larger trees, I think. Probably would have spent the extra money on water and fertilizer alone. This way, no waiting.

I'm joining you in mourning. I just found out I'll be leaving the country mid June through late Aug. It's a paying job and I can't afford to turn it down. But I've got no neighbors willing to watch the garden. So tomorrow I'll be digging up the tomatos and peppers that I transplanted a few days ago, packing up the hanging baskets, loading the potato bin and hauling them to my son's house. I also have a bed kit and he has enough MM left to fill it. I'll harvest and eat what I can from now till June and then start a fall garden when I get back. Good thing I drive a truck.

Murphey's Law: As soon as you get your garden and flower beds planted, you get called back to work.

Kay

I'm so glad you got work. These days that's really the first consideration. At least you can rely on your son to take over instead of leaving your garden to die.

I wish I could take mine with me but at least I get to start over. I tell myself, "This isn't work, this is fun"! Every time I look at my garden and lecture my room mate on some little point I just thought of I tell myself again how much fun I'm going to have doing it all over again.