A Soggy Desert Summer

My Back Yard



To say we aren’t experiencing crazy weather all over the country would be an understatement.  This is the wettest summer ever since moving to the desert eight years ago.  Today we have very dark skies again, but at least maybe we’ll save on the A/C bill this month.  Desert living is very dry and even in winter we get little rain, but we expect it in January and February.

The first winter we were here, we had floods because there was so much rain, not our house, but the street turned into a red river and you almost needed a boat to get around.  About 25 homes fell into the Santa Clara River that January.  That was terrible.  After the water receded, people lined up on the sides of the nearest street to look over the situation.

 The Floods of January 2005

Usually it is hard to keep any plants alive in the desert except cactus and sagebrush.  Through trial and error, we finally have some plants in the yard that are still alive.  This isn’t the best climate with its extremes.  There is almost a 100-degree difference between summer and winter temperatures.  Actually, when you think about this, it is a wonder that anything at all will grow because of the extreme hot and cold, most things grow very slow.  It was a shock after living in southern California where you can grow anything.

My Front Yard in Summer

This year the neighbor’s garden is like a mini jungle, enjoying all this rain and rare humidity.  We have a break from the triple digits, at least for now, although I’m sure we haven’t come out totally unscathed.  I’m confident we’ll see that yet as we still have a month and a half of summer coming to us.

My Neighbor's Garden

I haven’t been to the farmer’s market this year at all, but usually there isn’t much there.  Unless you have a greenhouse where you can control the atmosphere, it is very tough.  I’m enjoying tomatoes, beets, squash, and onions from the neighbor’s garden though.  She was afraid of planting too much because she had no idea how it would go and this is her first garden.  She planted some sweet peas too and those were great but didn’t last long.  I guess it’s still a bit hot for them.

Veggies from the Garden

Weather conditions all over are crazy this year with the draught in the Midwest.  Dallas and places in Oklahoma have been in the low 100’s, some days even hotter than Las Vegas or Phoenix, which is a bit of a shocker.  I even talked to a gal in northern California the other day and she said it was 110 there.  Now that was hard to believe!

I imagine we had all better get ready for rising prices in the grocery stores again.  Wheat and corn, which is a product in so many foods, is burning up in the draught.

This is a sign of global warming according to an article I read the other day.  Of course, that is only the opinion of some folks.  Personally, I don’t believe in that nonsense and think this is only a normal cycle.  I think the Earth has gone through periodic cycles since the beginning of time.  You can research this back through history.  What are your thoughts on this?