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Greenery. The desert is cool for a nifty vacation, but I love me some greenery. Woodlands, grasslands, wetlands etc. I love all the deciduous and coniferous trees up here in the Midwest.
Different strokes for different folks, but there is one inconsistency that I've never understood. If you live in the green eastern part of the country, the vegetation is cold-dormant (down to the gulf coast). You've got 3 to 5 months where there is virtually no greenery. In contrast, the subtropical arid and semi-arid deserts (which are far less green then the eastern areas in the growing season) are much more alive-looking in the winter-time. If greenery is so important than it seems like you wouldn't be able to stand the brown of an eastern winter. Florida or the PNW would probably be the best places for you.
That 3 to 5 months is to me just the price we have to pay to have such vivid greenery and generally temperate weather the rest of the year, much like for someone in Florida the sweltering summers and bugs are the price they have to pay to not shovel snow and not look at bare trees during the winter. I don't like looking at bare trees and gray skies for those few months but I know it's only temporary and it's also why we don't have 90+ degree weather for weeks or months on end. No place is perfect.
As a PP pointed out, the greens of the desert foliage are light and pale next to what we have here and the steady diet of brown is, to me, no more appealing than bare trees in the winter here.
Sounds like you need a halfway point, like Denver. Somewhat green, but brown for a good chunk of the year because it's not rainy. Denver is sunny, not hot, and rains a bit more than desert climates. It's plains, sure, but there's mountains nearby.
When you posted in the Arizona forum it's clear you wouldn't like it here. That's not going to change. What you want doesn't work here. Maybe Albuquerque since it's colder, but it still has the desert cons (minus the hot desert, because its cold desert).
I live in the same environment as Denver and have made the argument that it is one of the brownest places in the world. The natural (warm season) grasslands have a very small window of time in which they are actively growing (2 months in late spring/early summer). Sure people use a lot of precious water to make the cities look like they are in the east, but you can do that in Phoenix as well (except in that case the vegetation is evergreen). Just pointing out that the natural vegetation in Denver has to deal with both cold AND dryness and so is usually dormant. I wouldn't consider this area a compromise between desert and eastern forest.
The East Coast has generic looking trees. If you asked a child to draw a picture of a "tree", they would just draw an ordinary tree, which is what you find back East. Personally, I think ordinary trees are ugly. The only thing that makes them beautiful is the colors in Autumn. There are some places in the East that are so beautiful that I won't even see it as ugly. There are places in Vermont I have visited (in August) that have ordinary trees and exotic looking trees and I think all of that was beautiful.
It sounds like you prefer coniferous forests over hardwood forests, I tend to be the same way. The upper east coast was actually dominated by huge towering white pines centuries ago, but pretty much all of them were logged and then hardwoods moved in to replace them. Do a search for “old growth white pine” to see what the eastern forests originally would have looked like.
The upper elevations of the Appalachians have lots of conifers, but unfortunately the invasive alelgid are killing the hemlocks. Down here in the lower South we still have a small portion of Longleaf pine forests intact, I find it beautiful but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
Last edited by southernnaturelover; 11-19-2018 at 05:20 AM..
One thing about the desert southwest (and the plains states to some extent) is the sky and the far horizons. You can watch a storm cross the desert 60 miles off in the distance. The sky is part of the daily show. It is almost addictive...I've known of people who moved away, back east, and then had to return to the desert because they felt too closed in.
That 3 to 5 months is to me just the price we have to pay to have such vivid greenery and generally temperate weather the rest of the year, much like for someone in Florida the sweltering summers and bugs are the price they have to pay to not shovel snow and not look at bare trees during the winter. I don't like looking at bare trees and gray skies for those few months but I know it's only temporary and it's also why we don't have 90+ degree weather for weeks or months on end. No place is perfect.
As a PP pointed out, the greens of the desert foliage are light and pale next to what we have here and the steady diet of brown is, to me, no more appealing than bare trees in the winter here.
I always dreamed of living in the West, but if you've seen my username before, you've probably heard me say before that I dreamed of the western Pacific Northwest particularly. But now, something is making me excited about living in a desert. The greenery in the PNW and the West in general is gorgeous and it looks completely different than the ugly/basic looking greenery of the East. The entire West is dramatic looking in general and we are blessed to have it.
Pros of living in greenery:
1. Great for growing plants, crops, etc.
2. Less lack of water.
3. One thing I love about having greenery is the amount of trees. You can hike in trees and hide in the woods.
4. The greenery of the PNW is absolutely wonderful, but there are some parts that may look a bit East Coasty.
Cons of living in greenery:
1. Obviously you need humidity to cause greenery to even grow. Pacific Northwest is damp, cloudy, and rainy, which is why it is green. I thought I would love this kind of weather, but I am kind of tired of the gloomy winter days we have here on the East (NJ), and something is making me excited about living in the desert with the beautiful sunshine. Here in NJ, we do get a lot of sunny days in the winter, and I like days like that.
2. Too much lawn work. Grass grows constantly, which means constantly have to mow a lawn. Not a big fan having a huge green lawn and having to keep it neat. Green lawns are overrated in my opinion
Pros of living in deserts:
1. Less lawn work. Grass may not grow as fast, or you may not have grass at all. You can own a big piece of land do less to it.
2. Less dampness/humidity is better!
3. Something about the desert sounds like the scenery could be more dramatic!
4. Colorfulness in the scenery
5. More sunshine
6. Less chances of precipitation like snow, but it still does snow badly in some desert climates.
Cons of living in deserts:
1. Can't grow plants and crops!
2. Hot desert climates are dangerous and brutal.
3. Too Perfect desert climates like suburban parts of AZ (Sedona, Prescott, etc) attract too many retirees.
4. Sandstorms.
5. Lack of water.
6. Less woodsy areas to "hide" in.
In the West, is a desert better than the greenery? Deserts are making me excited and I am watching driving timelapse videos on the internet and I seem to gravitate towards deserts.
Greenery for me is preferred if we are talking about the Sierra Nevada mountains (specifically eastern foothills). This is a very diverse array of trees (Ponderosa Pines, Douglas Firs, Lodgepole pines, Sequoia) but in general, being a former resident of New Jersey, I will take the brown desert southwest as a means of avoiding winter.
The East is nice to visit, but I don't like the humidity in the long run. I prefer the west in general. If you hit the sweet spot elevation wise you can have a low humidity area with plenty of trees and dramatic landscapes.
Any desert environment can be green with just a little bit of water. I think people who don’t live in desert environments or those who haven’t been to the desert have this idea that there are hundreds of miles of just treeless, brown landscape. Many desert locations in the West are interspersed with mountains that receive considerably more rain, and, in some cases, snow, than the desert floor. Also, areas along rivers can support large, leafy trees like cottonwoods. If a person is ever sick of the lack of natural greenery in a particular spot, it doesn’t usually take that much travel time to get to a place that’s much greener.
Our water situation here in AZ is dire. As others have said, the desert was never meant to support 7 million people.
The intensity of the sunlight is extreme regardless of the time of year. Sure, pictures of sunny Phoenix make many jealous, especially during the winter. However, what you can’t see is how the sun can be so intense that it’s not uncommon to break out in a sweat, even this time of year. The difference in apparent temperature between shady areas and areas that are in direct sunlight is enormous. The moment the sun sets, especially during the cooler months, it can feel as though the temperature has dropped 10-20 degrees over the course of an hour.
The Sonoran Desert is home to a much greater number of venomous wildlife species. We do have spiders (black widows and brown recluses), snakes (rattlesnakes), scorpions, javelina, Africanized bees, and wasps that can all cause serious issues if a person is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most of our native trees, bushes and cacti have thorns that can very easily cause a person to bleed if they are touched.
The lack of humidity and precipitation helps to prevent many things from developing rust. In Phoenix, it’s not uncommon to see 30+ year old cars on the road that are completely free of rust. I see cars from the 60s and 70s almost daily on my commute.
The dry air can be irritating. Some people find the lack of humidity to be comfortable. However, it can easily dry out skin and cause chapped lips. I slather on lotion and lip balm several times a day to avoid feeling itchy and like my skin is cracking.
Traveling to a location with dense vegetation can be claustrophobia inducing after having lived in the desert. I can see mountains that are almost 80 miles away from my house daily from my living room. To leave that environment to one that’s boxed in by trees and vines can be unsettling.
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