For Phoenix, that magical day is February 15. Well, actually that’s an average. The Phoenix area has a lot of microclimates and some of them are warmer than others. Check out this interactive map: http://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-arizona-last-frost-date-map.php. I went to the Summer Winds in Mesa this morning and they said they had a low of 28 last night. They are in a cold spot relative to the surrounding area.
Anyway, the race is on to get tomatoes planted so they stand a chance of producing fruit before the hot temps shut them down. But you have to keep an eye on those tender little plants over the next month or surround them with walls of water.
There’s been a lot going on in my yard though you would not know it from my blog! Here’s the report:
Turf
We have grass. The big dirt patch is no more. Today we fertilized with an organic grass fertilizer. We used hand-held spreaders to put down about 10 lbs of it. We have almost 1500 sq feet of grass, about half of what was once there. Today we got a bunch of the in-ground sprinklers going to get the turf watered thoroughly from edge to edge. I did a bunch of reading about organic turf care and I have a multi-step plan for improving the turf. My goals are to keep watering to a minimum and to help the grass out-compete the weeds. I am not a big fan of turf so this is an experiment for me. If you like turf, I recommend trying one of the newer low maintenance, drought tolerant grasses and reduce turf areas as much as possible. There are some great native plants that give the same effect without being water hogs.
Did I mention that I have pulled thousands of weeds?
I bought a really fantastic weeding tool from Lowe’s. It’s so good, I went and bought a second one. The best part about it is that allows you to pull weeds out of turf without pulling up the turf.
I am composting my weeds. This is controversial because the seeds can live in the compost and there’s a danger of spreading weed seeds when you spread compost. But I filled my compost bin with weeds. FILLED IT. So my plan is to cook the heck out of it and mix some corn gluten meal with the compost when I use it. Because corn gluten is a natural pre-emergent weed killer. It keeps seeds from forming a root system. And as a rule, I don’t use homemade compost on food crops, just to be safe.
The flagstone we bought in December is in place. We bought five slabs and broke it into 6-10 inch pieces, about 75 total. It looks great and the landscape gravel holds it in place. We had to dig out a little dirt near the sidewalk to create a seamless path but that turned out to be fairly simple. It helps when your better half is super handy. 
The dogs like using the path, too, which is both funny and good. Remember the gravel and flagstone path was part of Operation Reduce Muddy Paws!
Speaking of pre-emergent–I wish I had known about the corn gluten when we planed plants and spread the rock. We have some really annoying weeds that have formed a mat around each plant. We spent a good deal of time yesterday digging them out and we have more to do.
Vegetable Gardening
I have tomatoes and peppers planted. Nothing special in terms of varieties: golden bells, a poblano, romas and sweet 100s. I set-up my containers weeks ago when the weather was still unpredictable so that made planting day easy! I am looking for a couple heirloom tomatoes and some eggplant to round out the garden. I’ll also plant some herbs and squash and see what happens. I was really successful with squash in Reno. Hoping for a repeat of that success! I am doing everything in containers again this year. Containers can be more work in that you have to monitor the moisture more carefully but they are also easier to control in terms of light/heat exposure because you can move them around. Containers can also provide ideal growing environments because the quality of the soil is so much better than what most people have in the ground. Just remember to go BIG. And you don’t have to be fancy. I grew some incredible plants in 20 gallon nursery pots.
Frost Damage Report
The frost got a few plants most noticeably the big tree out front (some kind of ficus, I think?), the bougainvillea and the lantanas. I also sadly lost a kalenchoe that has moved about the country with me. The aloes in pots took a beating but the aloes in the ground look fine. I have one agave that looks terrible. I am going to put it in the ground –or a bigger pot–and hope for the best. Plants are incredibly resilient. I think many desert gardeners give up on a plant too quickly. In the land of 350 days of sunshine, it’s easy to forget that winter happens here, too. It makes me appreciate the hardiness of the native plants most of which are good down to 5 or 10 degrees.
Time to Feed Citrus and Palms
It’s time to feed your citrus! February, May and September are feeding times. I have a dwarf lime tree in a pot that got it’s first feeding. It needs some ironite, too and I am also going to try an Epsom Salts treatment. (Lots of plants like Epsom Salts.) It’s also time to feed your palm trees. Starting now through September, every four to six weeks.