Arizona is a second home to me, and my yard is a garden paradise. We have fruit trees that are full of lemons, oranges, and limes that grow amazing fruits when you are not dealing with citrus greening. The herbs in the garden grow aggressively, with rosemary, oregano, and mint as the primary herbs that grow year round.
Phoenix has brutal summer temperatures that many plants can’t survive, so if you live in Arizona and you have considered growing fruits or vegetables, you need to take into consideration the extreme temperatures and understand how to grow and manage crops in the desert. Arizona is also home to many plant-eating insects, and fruit-eating birds.
The birds can destroy your fruits, I lost my entire harvest of pomegranate to birds, and my peach tree was invaded by them as well. The problem with birds is that they will peck at a peach or pomegranate, and then move on to the next fruit. These leaves you with an entire tree of fruits that cannot be harvested for human consumption. There are plenty of ways to deal with these birds, and depending on how much land you have there may be some alternate methods we won’t discuss here. Setting up reflective surfaces, chimes, scarecrows, and statues of predatory birds like owls may work for a bit. If you don’t change things up though, the birds will eventually figure things out.
So refresh your strategies, create reflective objects that move in the wind, and noise generators, and maybe even add netting to the top of some trees if needed. The netting can become a problem though if animals get stuck, you may end up trapping something you don’t want to get rid of. Arizona has some great natural predators for mites. There are ladybugs, and praying mantis that thrive here naturally and can help maintain the mite and unwanted insect population in your garden.
Depending on the size of your garden, you may want to call in a pest control company like Green Home Pest to treat your garden either naturally or with legitimate pest control agents that will eliminate your insect issues. They also offer rodent removal, and other pest control services that may be required to truly rid your garden of troublesome wildlife. The Arizona summers can be very dry, in addition to proper pest control, you will want to set up a drip system to keep your soil moist for your plants to grow healthy during the summer months.
Irrigations systems can be installed to disperse water throughout the property evenly and regularly, water sources can be scarce in the desert, this also may attract unwanted rodents and birds on to the property looking for a drink. Just be cautious of that as you plant your garden, you can place things strategically so that they are protected by other pots and plants in the garden. You can also run your water underground if the surface channels are attracting too many animals to the drink. Keeping your soil well fertilized and moist will give you the best opportunity for growing healthy plant life in Phoenix Arizona.