My Grandfather lives in New Buffalo, MI. He hasn't been to many places in Arizona and is not familiar with our area at all. I on the other hand have lived in Arizona my entire life. I lived in the southern part of the state until I was 13. I then moved to the White Mountains of AZ which varies in terrain from high desert in Snowflake (which is where I live) to beautiful mountain/tall pines terrain in the Greer area.
I am at work a lot...generally 10 hour days and my husband works the same type of schedule. We have two young boys. So our life is pretty busy and generally by the time we get home from work there is just enough time for homework, dinner then bed which leaves little time for anything else.
I am not a landscaper by any stretch of the imagination and have never done a thing with my backyard. I haven't even planted a tree, bush, flower, grass...nothing! My backyard is used for riding 4 wheelers and setting off fireworks.
When my mother graduated with her master's degree my grandfather decided to come for the very special event. As we were sitting talking of course the sore subject came up.....my horrible back yard. As they went on and on about how awful it was my grandfather piped up. He said why don't you just plant a tree...all you have to do is buy it and put it in the ground.
I think I looked at him like he had two heads. Planting a tree in high desert terrain involves not only digging a hole and putting a plant there but constant and consistent attention until it's well rooted. Now it's not hard if you have a sprinkler system in place and it makes it though the first few winters (yes we get snow here in Arizona). But as I mentioned I don't. So try explaining why you need sprinkler systems (which are not cheap because I have a very large backyard) to somebody whose only problem growing things is that he has to mow them every other day. And quite honestly I just don't have the energy to drag a hose out every day to water it....call me lazy.
It was quite amusing to both of us learning about the differences in landscaping between his area and mine.
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