One Year Later in Arizona

It's been a year since I last wrote a post for this blog. I've spent the year learning more about the area where I live and creating living and gardening spaces at my new home. My husband and I are learning to garden in an area that's 7200 feet above sea level and that has an annual rainfall of 10-12 inches, quite a change from our home in Louisiana, which was 35 feet above sea level and had an average annual rainfall of 60 inches. Over the past year, we have built a chicken house, taken down a fence that divided our backyard, built a greenhouse out of the framework of an old chicken house, picked up trash and debris left by former owners, weeded and re-worked long-neglected flower beds, and got our new house in order. We've also hiked many trails in the area, with plans to hike even more. Below are a few photos that illustrate some of the outdoor work of the past year.

July 2015--The yard was full of weeds, the fruit trees
and an old garden area neglected.

July 2015--The old chicken house and yard were ramshackle and dirty.

old hen house and yard

August 2015--new chicken house and yard--Tom built the chicken house and yard; I painted it.

The previous owners cross-fenced the backyard for their several dogs. I removed
the cross-fence to allow unimpeded traffic from the back yard to the fenced-in garden.

Tom built a greenhouse on the frame of the old chicken house.

I don't have a photo of the garden area before I cleaned it up
(lots of trash and weeds), but this is the area in Sept. 2015, after I had spaded it up.

And by June of this year, our Arizona garden was full of leaf lettuce, radishes,
tomatoes, potatoes, corn, beet plants, cucumber sprouts, basil sprouts, etc.

We are settling into our Arizona home.