Walking into Sandra Love’s garden is a jaw drop moment. She lives in an HOA monitored neighborhood and her front yard is quite unassuming. You walk down a little side yard and suddenly it all opens up. It is clear she is trying to create a tropical paradise. I was immediately drawn to the side of her yard with her raised veggie beds. They are lush with huge tomato plants, peppers, melons, squashes, herbs, and more. The okras are gigantic. Passion fruit vine covers a wall and provides some shade to eggplants and chilies. A trellis arch is covered with grapes, squashes, and melons. The vines are heavy with fruit. Strawberries grow happily in the shade of this vine covered arch. There is a variety of fruit trees, mostly tropical. An apple tree is covered in ripening apples. Citrus dot the property and there are also pomegranate and mulberry trees. Guava, jujube, bananas, calmondin, mangoes, and Vietnamese Cherimoya are strategically placed around the property in the best areas conducive to their growth. Some provide shade for younger trees and veggies, others need the shade of the larger trees. Sandra’s non-food passion is growing Plumeria. The other side of her yard houses many, many varieties of plumeria, and she keeps adding to this collection.
Sandra does have a mini garden helper. He recently got his own little planting box and he relishes harvesting food every day with Sandra. He enjoys snacking on peas, carrots, tomatoes. and fruit that he picks as he wants. He is a proud little gardener and eager to give visitors a tour of the garden.
What is gardening to you?
Gardening to me is many things. It’s being able to provide my family with fresh food grown with hard work and love, on top of the ability to control what it is that goes into our produce (therefore our bodies). Gardening is tranquility, where I go to relax and feel peacefulness, where I can feel in harmony with Mother Earth. I’m extremely fascinated with biology and all things life, and gardening allows me to surround myself with exactly that.
How did your garden adventure begin?
When I was growing up both my parents gardened. Later when I was raising my kids it was fun to garden with them, to pull up radishes from the garden for example. I do garden more now since they are grown.
What changes have you made that have been really impactful?
Compost. Being as I’m from California, gardening was quite easy for me. Anything grew, we didn’t have to give all the extra care as we do here in Arizona. In recent years since moving here, I’ve added compost and compost tea to my fertilizing schedule and it has helped me combat a lot of problems I see others having here due to our very difficult climate.
What do you enjoy growing?
Whatever grows. If it feeds me, even better. I’m especially big on vegetable growing. I cook a lot, so anything that helps me in the kitchen, it’s in the garden. Since buying a home with a fairly large lot, I’ve been adding more and more variety to the garden. What started out as mainly tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and okra in very few varieties, has expanded to a plethora of different varieties of those along with my ability and space now to grow summer and winter squash, cucumbers, melons and fruit trees. I also enjoy growing things that others don’t have. Different varieties, rare fruit, something not commonly seen in your regular landscape, I’m all for it.
What do you want other gardeners to know about your garden?
You can do it too. I’m often told by others how amazing my garden is, yet I feel no more special than anyone else with a hobby. People receive from things what they put into it. I don’t believe it’s a hard hobby. Challenging yes, but with any challenge comes the need to put forth an effort to learn. I just love to learn. You can’t be good at something if you already know it all and are unwilling to learn from others or put in a little footwork. If you want to learn to garden, you WILL be able to garden.
What are your biggest gardening challenges?
Most in Arizona would say the sun and its relentless need to try to kill us in the summer. But I say the winter cold snaps. Aside from vegetables, tropical fruit is another one of my needs in the garden. Being from the tropics, I miss the landscape. Being surrounded by banana trees, guavas, cherimoyas… I’m also a big Plumeria collector and our cold climate is just not friendly to this hobby. That’s what I’m trying to replicate in a portion of my yard is a tropical climate, and it has definitely been one of the biggest challenges.
What are your biggest successes?
Going by what others have told me and what I see others having difficulty with, I would have to say bananas. I see so many people having issues with growing bananas and mine are just shooting up and popping up pups everywhere. If you were to ask me what my secret is, I would have to say the same thing as I say with any other plant in my yard. Location, water and feed your soil.
Any tips to share with others?
Planting location is my #1 tip to any gardener in Arizona. Yes, soil, water, and fertilizer matter, but those are things that can be fixed if done incorrectly. Location can’t. The first thing I looked at when buying our home was the backyard exposure and possible placement of planters, raised beds and trees. My garden was planned in my head before our home was purchased. My bananas thrive because of where I put them, but 10 feet over, they would suffer. My garden beds also thrive because of where I placed them. Placement matters very much in the desert. Heat intolerant plants must go to the east of a structure such as your home, wall or tree to keep them healthy throughout our brutal summers. For those who don’t have this option, shade cloth is a must. This is the starting basis of a successful garden. You can change your watering and fertilizing schedule, you can amend your soil… but if you put your avocado tree dead center in the middle of your yard with no sun protection, there is nothing you can do to amend this without having to relocate your tree. The same would apply if you put a garden bed against your south wall and realize your plants do not have any sun in December. So yes, start everything with placement.
Follow SANDRA:
@LovesAZDesertGarden
Shade Trees for the Desert Garden