Water

Water. We take it for granted. It comes out of the tap every time we turn it on.

But in a garden etched out of semi-arid desert, water becomes a lifeline....

I could have created a desert friendly landscape if I had designed it to use the 12 inches of rain that falls each year. In retrospect, sometimes this is what I think I should have done....placing all my food producing plants in one section of the landscape. But I wasn't thinking that way when I began gardening several years ago. I was was intent on creating an oasis. I carefully placed food producing plants throughout my landscape. Now I find myself dependant on irrigation water transported over a three mile ditch from the Saphire Mountains. My oasis grows slowly in this land of short, hot, dry summers.

If I think about this too much I go a little crazy. I console myself by thinking of the many civilizations before me who transported water over land to create oasis in the desert.