It's June

[lovenshire]

Well, it seems like our beautiful spring is fast passing and June is here. I do not look forward to the heat and humidity but...I do look forward to all those beautiful tomatoes! So far the squirrels are staying away from the cleanser trail...:dance2: Hubby sprinkles it around the outside of the boxes we plant in and I guess they really don't like it! Here's hoping they leave my tomatoes alone!!!

[LadyEva]

It is definitely summer here in the desert region of Arizona. We will pretty much have 100+ temps now until the end of September. We don't have the humidity with it until the monsoon season which is basically starts around July 15 and runs through September 15. Then we will go from single digit humidity to maybe 50% humidity. We will water plants now every other day and deep water trees once a week. I don't have a garden of any kind. If I wanted one it would have to be planted in February and would have been gone by now. I do miss the gardens I use to have when we lived in the midwest but can't take the weather and humidity. Happy summer to those of us who live in the northern hemisphere and happy winter to those who live in the southern hemisphere.

[lovenshire]

I spent my life in the desert of California...We had wonderful gardens but had to fight for any of the produce! I always went outside at 6:00am to work in the gardens and came in by 10:00am. We had wonderful shade trees all around our property and our home was well insulated. The saving grace was how cool it got at night. We would open all the windows at night and close them up early in the am so it would stay cool until about 3:30. I would turn the air conditioner on about 4:00. I can not get used to the fact that it does not cool down at night here in Missouri. It can be 90 in the day and 89 at night...AND...the 90 feels like 115 because of the humidity! Right now the humidity is running in the mid 80's.

[elize]

Oh yes it is winter in South Africa. :Snowman: It seldom snows where I stay (I just like the snowman).

I can not imagine living in a desert area but must admit when I visited the Namib desert 2 years ago I loved it. We had the most amazing tour guide that took us into the desert and showed us areas where there were rivers long ago with all kinds of animal and children tracks in the rocks.

I'll definitely go back to Namibia one day.

[LadyEva]

Most people think of the desert is all sand. We do not have any sand whee we are at. Our soil is a very hard clay with lots and lots of rocks in it. To even plant any thing first you water the soil and then take a heavy pick axe to it to break it up. Then you add bags of garden soil from the nursery. We have trees but not much grass. Most people's lawns are rocks which are called eco-friendly lawns because they don't require water. We only get 6 or 8 inches of rain a year most of it coming in Jan/Feb and then again in Aug/Sept. We have to be very careful how much water is used.

Right now we are still having cool nights but that will end soon. Within the next couple of weeks the temps will not go below 90 at night and will be 100 to 120 during the day. Not much is done outside during our summer months.

[lovenshire]

Our soil was mostly dg...we had to add lots of mulch to plant anything...There were no natural trees but we had lots planted. We also had an orange orchard that we had to put a drip system on. Best oranges I've ever eaten! We pulled the big rocks and used them for planter borders...very pretty. Sometime in August our nights started staying hot but by the middle of September it usually started to cool at night. I guess it is what you get used to and we were used to the dry heat.

[LadyEva]

I truly love the dry heat. We moved from Indiana to Arizona in 1974. The doctors had told me to get out of the humid damp weather or I would be in a wheelchair so we had friends who lived in Arizona so we came. Our kids were all school aged then but as they grew up they decided they didn't like the heat so they all live in different parts of the country. Well seeing I am still walking, I guess the heat is where I will continue to live.

[lovenshire]

I understand Eva! My doctor said that with my heart condition the humidity will kill me...

[elize]

I have a question for you, I do have lots of ants in my house and when it is dry they seem to flood my kitchen looking for water. Do you have lots of ants seeing that you stay in the desert?

[LadyEva]

We do have ants here but usually only get them in the house once a year. They are tiny little red ants and when they bite it stings and itches.

[lovenshire]

Oh boy...when we lived on the desert we had every kind of ant you could think of I believe. The only time they came in the house was during very hot dry weather. They were looking for water...little black fellows. Once I went to get a glass of water out of our urn and it came out black with ants. We had a company come and spray and that seemed to keep them outside. We also had fire ants...once I was so mad that I poured gasoline down one of their nests and set it on fire. It burned all day and I had to put it out before hubby came home from work. The next morning there were thousands of dead ants all around the hole but the nest was still fine and active!

[elize]

I have seen a program on TV about fire ants and am so glad we do not have them where I stay.

I started putting rosemary oil all over my kitchen where these little black ants walk that that seems to keep them away.

Seems you get ants all over the world. :confused2:

[lovenshire]

My daughter was outside playing when she was three and just started crying...I asked her what was wrong and she said "I don't know!" I ran out the door only to see her standing on a red ant hill. They were all over her little legs. Poor little one. I gave her a warm bath with epson salt and that seemed to help a lot. I got med's from the doc to rub on them too.