Heatwave or Snowstorm?

I know I have talked about the weather here in the Desert Southwest a time or two. Last week we were still hovering around the ninety’s. Nothing new for October since we only have two seasons here. Ungodly hot and normal hot. Ninety degree temperatures in October are not unusual.

Normally it cools down a little around Halloween just in time for parents to start looking for jackets so the little ghost and goblins will be warm for a night of treats. I remember my kids would want to pick a costume like a fairy princess or some other outfit that I knew they would end up getting cold by wearing.

So I turned on the news last night and wouldn't you know it. The weather person says there is a cold front coming. Now we are not talking any cold front. Oh no. We are talking near freezing temperatures by Wednesday morning with a high somewhere in the fifties and a possibility of mountain snow. The high temperature for today is supposed to be 86 degrees. I am wondering does this happen anywhere else in the country? Then on Halloween the temperature should be back up to seventy degrees.

So, today is shorts tomorrow may be heavy sweaters and back to shorts by the weekend.

Ahh, so is life in the Desert Southwest.

Planting Our Fall Garden

After a scorching summer, our garden has finally rebounded and we were able to harvest a few peppers, one lone cucumber, and a giant radish. Corvette and I have concluded that planting early spring and late fall is probably our best bet for having a more productive garden.


I decided to do a little research to see what vegetables do the best in the fall months. I came up with a list for fall planting. Snap peas and snow peas, broccoli, cabbage, collards, carrots, parships, beets, onions, lettuce, mesclun, spinach, turnips & chard to name a few. Now some of these need to be planted no later than August in order to get a good harvest. However, since I live in the Desert Southwest we do not get many hard freezes and I am hoping that if we do get cooler temperatures I can just cover the garden. Just as this summer was a learning experience with the garden, winter will be too.

I hope that by next year I will have a real good idea what to plant during warm weather and cooler weather. Now if I can just get Corvette to stop picking the vegetables before they are mature I might actually have eatable veggies! Seriously, we had green leaf lettuce that even though it was taking a bit of a beating from the heat he thought if he picked it early he would save it. Wrong. I tasted it and it had a horrible sour taste. Please Vette baby, let the garden grow!