Perfect AZ climate? (Phoenix, Tucson, Tempe: houses, live in, price)

[ccritter]

My husband and I are looking at a job opportunity in Arizona, and I'm looking around to see if we want to stay there long term or not. Specifically, I'm wondering if there is anywhere in Arizona that has a long growing season for a garden (minimum 5 months, longer would be better), and yet isn't too stinking hot (under 100). The more water the better, either a body of water or a lot of rain. And preferably not too expensive-- we'd eventually be looking for 5 acres of land, and we'd probably want to build our own home on it. Thank you very much!

[AzDreamer]

The "Western Garden Book" by Sunset has good climate zone maps of Arizona and descriptions of what the growing seasons are. If you are in a western state you can find this book at any library and old copies are usually at thrift stores.

Here's a link to an online climate zone map.
Map of Arizona Plant Climate Zones (http://cals.arizona.edu/gardening/climate/azonemap.html - broken link)

Here's a link to some temperature and rainfall maps.
Arizona Climate | Picture of Arizona Climate Map | World Book Encyclopedia (http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?content_spotlight/climates/north_american_climate_arizona - broken link)

[LordBalfor]

Sure - as I've mentioned many times, SE Arizona has an almost perfect climate (unlike SW Arizona - which is a furnace). We own land just off I-10 40 minutes SE of Tucson and our typical highs for June, July & August are 93, 91 & 88 (and we average just 3 days/year of 100 or more - and those are typically just barely 100). Winter high/lows for Dec, Jan, Feb are 60/37, 60/38 and 64/40. These numbers are based on 5 years of averages from the following online weather station: Weather Station History : Weather Underground
That weather station is no longer collecting data, but before it was disconnected (on April 12th of this year) it gathered 5 years worth of info (still available online by simply selecting the date range in question). It has an almost compete selection of data with a fresh snapshot taken every 5 minutes. Note that there was a glitch on Aug 3rd of 2008 when an erroneous temp reading of 149 shows up on the monthly/yearly data but does not show up when you look at that particular day's moment by moment detail as the high for the day shows up as 88.1 at 4:02 PM.

While we are closer to Benson and Tucson, because of the nature of the elevation in the area our climate is more like that of Sierra Vista (we're at 4,200 feet (similar to Sierra Vista) while Tucson is at around 2,400 feet and Benson at around 3,500 feet). The rain maps have already been posted so you can see roughly the amount of rainfall we receive. In general areas like ours are what you could call arid grassland (with some mesquite trees) rather than full on desert.

Aside from some of the well-known (and very pricey) areas of SoCal so famous for their climate I think SE Arizona has the best overall climate in the entire continental US.

Check it out. Here's Sierra Vista's climate for example:
Average Weather for Sierra Vista, AZ - Temperature and Precipitation

The thing to keep in mind is ELEVATION is the key. The higher the elevation the milder the climate. This is why SW Arizona is a furnace (Yuma is at around 200 feet) Phoenix at 1,000 feet still very very hot, Tucson at 2,400 is a bit cooler, Benson cooler yet, Sierra Vista cooler still, and Bisbee even cooler. In general as you travel from west to east in Southern Arizona the land rises - and affects the climate accordingly. For every 250-300 feet in elevation gain you can assume a temperature drop of a degree for your daytime high (3 - 4 degrees for every 1,000 feet).

Hope this helps.
Any other questions feel free to ask.

Ken

[drb85650]

We've only a small yard here in Sierra Vista. Currently our tomatos are producing daily, cherry and bigboy(?)I think they're called. Pumpkins are about the size of basket balls, we trimmed back the vines when they reached about 25' in length. Flowers....zinnias, roses, chrysanthimum(sp?)gazinias,some others...wife is the flower grower, thus my poor knowledge and spelling. Cantaloupe is a new one this year, nothing yet but alot of runners and blooms. Potato plant is getting good sized...will see...it was a lark9as in hey this one has alot of eyes...wonder if....).......sunflowers are blooming like mad, regular yellows, rust, orange and mammoths. We mostly grow them for the birds...yellow finch, red house finch, desert cardinal, even a bright red cardinal family...escapees from somewhere back east I imagine....cowbirds, thrush, woodpeckers, orioles,warblers, something that's bright purple and bright blue, barn swallows, and yeah, the infamous roadrunners...who I run off especially after one of them reached through the cage and beheaded my beloved canary.
Our grass is luscious green, once a year fertilizing helps along with regular watering.
Water bill........we're on a private company, bill runs about 40 a month during summer. This includes the swamp cooler running(constant flow thru a 1/4" line).
sounds good eh......but the problem you may have with acreage is whether you're on a private well, or water company and the location of your land. There are several truck farms in Palominas that specialize in veggies, not certain what their water situation is. But anything is possible. Look at google maps/earth....check out Sonoita to the north west a tad of SV....large vineyards there, farming, meadows. Look east...towards Tombstone and douglas....pretty brown other than around Bisbee.
Nice thing about this area....with enough labor and desire...anything is possible. We planted in April, had one freeze that damaged our grapes a little(forgot to mention the bunches about 12-14" long of purple seeded grapes), we'll not trim anything back until well into October, if not November. And all ours is on a patch about 30'x40', including the grass lawn.
Did I mention the pomegranites?

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by drb85650

We've only a small yard here in Sierra Vista. Currently our tomatos are producing daily, cherry and bigboy(?)I think they're called. Pumpkins are about the size of basket balls, we trimmed back the vines when they reached about 25' in length. Flowers....zinnias, roses, chrysanthimum(sp?)gazinias,some others...wife is the flower grower, thus my poor knowledge and spelling. Cantaloupe is a new one this year, nothing yet but alot of runners and blooms. Potato plant is getting good sized...will see...it was a lark9as in hey this one has alot of eyes...wonder if....).......sunflowers are blooming like mad, regular yellows, rust, orange and mammoths. We mostly grow them for the birds...yellow finch, red house finch, desert cardinal, even a bright red cardinal family...escapees from somewhere back east I imagine....cowbirds, thrush, woodpeckers, orioles,warblers, something that's bright purple and bright blue, barn swallows, and yeah, the infamous roadrunners...who I run off especially after one of them reached through the cage and beheaded my beloved canary.
Our grass is luscious green, once a year fertilizing helps along with regular watering.
Water bill........we're on a private company, bill runs about 40 a month during summer. This includes the swamp cooler running(constant flow thru a 1/4" line).
sounds good eh......but the problem you may have with acreage is whether you're on a private well, or water company and the location of your land. There are several truck farms in Palominas that specialize in veggies, not certain what their water situation is. But anything is possible. Look at google maps/earth....check out Sonoita to the north west a tad of SV....large vineyards there, farming, meadows. Look east...towards Tombstone and douglas....pretty brown other than around Bisbee.
Nice thing about this area....with enough labor and desire...anything is possible. We planted in April, had one freeze that damaged our grapes a little(forgot to mention the bunches about 12-14" long of purple seeded grapes), we'll not trim anything back until well into October, if not November. And all ours is on a patch about 30'x40', including the grass lawn.
Did I mention the pomegranites?

GREAT info here - especially since much of what you are growing is what we intend to grow once we are down there.

I have a couple of questions regarding your tomatos, specifically:

1) When do you plant them?
2) How long into the summer do they continue to produce fruit?
3) Do you provide cover from the sun in the summer?

Ken

[drb85650]

I have a couple of questions regarding your tomatos, specifically:

1) When do you plant them? April, 2nd or 3rd week. But the wife just planted another cherry tomato plant, last weekend. Already have about 8 tomatos(not just blooms. got lucky on this one). Just Wally world plants, nothing special.
2) How long into the summer do they continue to produce fruit? Thinking here.....probably late August as I recall. But if you planted later, certain the weather would be good enough for well into September. I've seen some greenhouses in use during the winter here, or if you have a southern facing Arizona room(glass enclosed patio of some sort), you could have 'em year round.
3) Do you provide cover from the sun in the summer? No. We did "drape the grapes" last year just because we thought they needed it, but probably won't this year. Don't think it made a difference in production. We've less than a week of 100' days, hot days are in the 90's, usually low 90's. Nighttime temps drop to 60-70's depending if you're in town or not. Remember, once your blood acclimates to the heat here in Az(especially in the "desert" areas ie;Phoenix valley, Yuma, etc...), 70's at night will be chllingly cool. Live in Phoenix for a couple of years, you break out the sweaters at '70-75', downright freeze and look for snowflakes when it's in the 50's.
Sierra Vista has a active gardening club, lots of hidden gems in yards....even know of one banana tree that produces. Having a large amount of Army wives from other countries, you will see English gardens, Oriental gardens, and of course your always present desert scape......gravel and cactus.

[LordBalfor]

That's terrific.
Thanks.

Looking forward to moving down there.

Ken

[jwest09]

Originally Posted by ccritter

My husband and I are looking at a job opportunity in Arizona, and I'm looking around to see if we want to stay there long term or not. Specifically, I'm wondering if there is anywhere in Arizona that has a long growing season for a garden (minimum 5 months, longer would be better), and yet isn't too stinking hot (under 100). The more water the better, either a body of water or a lot of rain. And preferably not too expensive-- we'd eventually be looking for 5 acres of land, and we'd probably want to build our own home on it. Thank you very much!

Sounds like Kingman to me.

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by jwest09

Sounds like Kingman to me.

Yeah, Kingman might work too. It's a little bit warmer in the summer and a bit cooler in the winter (I think) and definitely a bit drier though. Overall very good climate though.

Ken

[drb85650]

Kingman....can you spell w i n d year round?! Any minute now the Kingman advocates will attack, but it was still nothing but wind year round to me. Wife grew up there(since '57 or so), lived there with her for 2 years......just wind and oh yea! more wind! Seems alot hotter there in the summer than SV.