My "Girlfriend" :) lives over in Williamson Valley on the far north end. She visits me in Texas and I visit the ranch a few times a year. She's an avid gardener, but travels too much these days to maintain a good garden. Her daughter is there all the time, but too busy with the ranch to care for a garden much. We run over to the winery in Chino Valley every so often. I have found Watters nursery a great place to shop for the garden, A bit pricey, but excellent quality and selection. I'm a long time horticulturalist and am quite familiar with your climate. It can be a tough zone.

Hey somebody does garden near me......LOL! I live near Paulden/WV..it's just around the corner from us. Yeah, you are right.. this is a tough area to garden in...certainly not for the beginner. I love Watters too...they are pricey but they usually have what I'm looking for. Hubby and I bought this place 2 years ago and have worked hard improving parts of the landscaping into beautiful flower gardens. We have to go over to the winery soon...we keep saying we'll go. Do you find that Houston weather and this area is similar? Humidity and heat, I mean. It makes it so much more fun to work in, "if" you like it that is. I am impatiently waiting for fall, myself.

Howdy beca.
The humidity here is oppressive to say the least. I'm a displaced San Diegan. My sweetie's place is on the rail line, south edge of 4K Ranch, on WV Wash (creek). I think good sprinkler systems are important as well as plant selection. I still haven't figured how to deal with hard freezes. Last winter busted lots of lines. We have a mix of deep runs, insulation and line drains but still crack em. The winery has good art sales with jazz etc. Fun, relaxing afternoon.
Cheers, Patrick

Hi beca-
I live in Young- elevation 5200 ft.
We have a great group here that love to garden. We do garden tours and trade plants- mostly in Young since we are so remote.
Payson is the nearest town and we also go to Globe for Master Gardener meetings- we have 13 MGs here in Young. Gila County has quite a variety of elevations and lots of active friendly gardeners.
I am mostly interested in flowers, trees and herbs that attract bees, butterflies and birds but I also have a large vegetable garden. I also just finished a pond with a waterfall and the birds and insects are going crazy over it!
We get about 18-20 inches of rain a year and over a few months in the winter- about 3 feet of snow. It usually melts within a day or two. We stay 15-20 degrees cooler in the summer than the Phoenix area- yea! Our nights are in the 50's right now- lovin it!
Lauren

Patrick..WOW that must have been a shock weather wise for you to move from SD to Houston, Tx. I used to live in s. orange county, ca...left ca in 2005. Hubby used to live in San Diego too (Clairemont)...interesting, huh? Anyway...we live at the top of 5 n. near yuma...near the hills. We have drip lines on an automated timers here that do okay...had to cut off the drip ends because they got clogged over & over..was just easier to do that then go through every drip end cleaning every so often (we'd never get done)...I have three big planter beds plus two raised vegetable beds in the back. Have almost an acre to play with. One garden in front of the house is a cottage garden...I just started on a new planter bed between the house and rd. 5 north...it needed some color...I can only stand so much beige. LOL. That will be mainly native drought tolerant plants. I can't wait for spring to see how it will look! I bought a few more plants from high country garden website to add in there...
So far we've been okay in the winter time here-no hard freezes. It does freeze up here but we've been lucky.

Hi Lauren! Nice to meet another gardener from az. I looked up Young..thanks for the Payson help to find it. A friend of ours told us about the town of Snowflake before we bought over here. CV is around 4950 ele. It sounds like we have the same weather except we get maybe 3-6 inches of snow vs 3 feet. I am jealous of your group of gardeners! I am sure your place is greener then mine since your in the Tonto National forest. I have given some thought into becoming a master gardener through the Prescott program but I hated school...probably sounds dumb, huh? But heck, I can always change my mind. I would love to see photos of your pond :) I know the wildlife loves it. We have a birdbath that the birds go crazy in..feel free to send them to my e-mail addy...beca

Hey Becca, My family lived in Clairmont for about 25 years. Near Balboa & Gennesse. Drip tubes really need highly filtered water to keep from clogging. My brother uses them but he's an expert at irrigation. I'll probably be on the other side of Sullian Buttes over the holidays.

Hi Pat

I swear there are so many people from CA. that live here. I am originally from Torrance, Ca...then moved to south orange county.

Yes the hubs and I have discovered all about the irrigation/ dealing with drip lines/ends...we have our own well so we encountered those problems awhile ago. Always fun keeping on top of them too.
Right now I am getting ready for winter...pulling annual plants out,etc..getting ready to fertilize one last time for the year too. I got some perennials from high country garden.com and will plant them as soon as this little heatwave is over. Sheesh...where is fall?
I need to write down some things I want to do this winter too. Have a birdbath that needs moving and I want to get a heater for it as well this year. That will help me keeping it from freezing,etc..The birds love that thing. I want to finish that new planting bed also. Got some small boulders and river rocks to put around it. Also have to finish the walkway that goes through it. Just a few thousand things to do...nothing new.
My vege garden is just about finished growing. What a fantastic year we had. Still getting cucumbers...last year I couldn't grow one plant. This year we grew 3-4 and have tons of cukes. I think they like being in a raised bed. I got marigolds growing out there too to help w/bugs...that "were" supposed to be 8" tall...well, they grew to be almost 3 feet high!!
Did you mean Sullivan Buttes? I tried looking it up on the map..looks like you'll be nearby here from what I could read.