Maricopa County Extension

Ok here is the plug of the day. As you all know, one of the biggest frustrations I had when I first moved here, was knowing what I could grow, and when to grow it. After living in zone 7, in Eagar, I was completely lost on how to garden here. If I had known and utilized the Maricopa Extension Office when I first moved here, it would have eliminated many wasted hours and money I spent in planting the wrong things at the wrong times. The Maricopa Extension Office/Horticulture department is a wonderful resource that is available to home gardeners. This program is ran as an extension of the University of Arizona. Sandy and I are trainees in their Master Gardener Program and am just amazed at all of the free help that is offered through this program. The people that work and volunteer there are a wealth of valuable information. They have a staff of long-time horticulturist, entomologist, and retired professionals that regularly meet to discuss and test for various diseases, pests, and other ailments that affect our home gardens. They also have volunteer Certified Master Gardeners that man the phones to answer any question you have about gardening here in Arizona. The number for the main office is 602-470-8086 I had the opportunity to sit in on their buzz session last Friday, and had so much fun watching this group ooo, awe, and discuss the pictures, bugs and samples sent in by people and formulate solutions to help them. The Office also has a website that I have included under Helpful Garden Sites in the right hand column. The site has various educational material for you to do your own research. There is everything from care of your Citrus to Watering to Composting. I highly recommend you take advantage of this service and take time to browse throught their site. I also want to mention that at the actual Extension Office site they have test gardens for you to look and see physically what will work here. They are located close to us and their address is:
341 East Broadway Road in Phoenix, which is only about 15 minutes away from most of us. When you arrive you will find a plethora of plants that are in all stages of growth. There are full grown banana trees, a vegetable garden, and herb garden not to mention many, many trees to observe at full height, (handy if you aren't sure if a plant or tree will fit or work in a specific place in your own yard). They even have various lawn species to test patches to walk on and see what will work in your own yard. In fact I am planning a "field trip" there this fall for our group. I will get more information to you within the next couple of weeks. They are a great group of people and are anxious to help.