Monsoons in May

Are you fucking serious? Monsoons in May? This global warming shit is for the birds. I bet they don't put this in the shiny brochures about PHX. They can't even say its a dry heat anymore. May, traditionally the 2nd driest month in the Valley, has had spattered rain each of the last three or four days. Help me baby Jesus!

OK, enough bitching, I'm sure no one felt bad for me when it was 70 degrees in January! On a more topic-related note, this unexpected heat and wind has had a harrowing affect on my garden. I've had to stake two tomatillo plants and a sunflower so they can survive the wind. Meanwhile, Sevilla's tree, a ruby red grapefruit tree I planted to commemorate Sevilla's birth, has gone from kicking major ass two weeks ago to looking burnt and droopy this morning. This weekend is fertilizer weekend, however, so hopefully that will help perk some of the darlings up and give them the cajones to withstand the brutal onslaught to come. Looks like we're in for a long summer.

On a positive note, I'm nearly finished with my "decorative" rock removal from the backyard. Being the impulsive idiot that I am, I put in some lava rock when I first redid the backyard for two reasons: 1) that's what you do here; 2) I thought it was the least offensive option. Oh how wrong and unintentionally lazy I was. If I had done what I knew I should have at the time, patio the whole back yard all the way to the entrance gate, I wouldn't have to remove this rock at all. The silver lining here is that I wouldn't have been able to expand my garden like I have and reap the benefits of thriving tomatillos and lemon-lime basil. If the smell of a plant could greasy the panties, it would be lemon-lime basil - pure heaven... I digress.

So now, I'm removing the rock so that I can continue my patio around my a/c unit and out to the entrance gate. After that, I will be trimming my current patio slightly in the northwest and east corners to expand my garden. I'm really excited for what she'll look like and I think the increased garden will really expand the possibility of creating a semi-sustaining garden for my brood. Plus, this will allow me to put in two additional trees, which will provide some much needed shade to the yard come summer. Not so much for the humans, we're all too pussy to go out there in the summer anyway, but for future summer crops.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I'm not yet the consummate journalist like my lovely wife. I'll be digging rocks in the morn and I'll try to remember to take some pics of the plants for a more well rounded blog post.