Note: This is a summary of the 5-minute presentation that I just made to the Tucson WordPress Meetup Group. Introduction Thank you for coming to the Meetup! My name is Martha Retallick and I’ve been a full-time freelancer since 1994. Along the way, I’ve worked as a web designer and photographer. These days, I focus…
Summertime in Sizzling Tucson, Arizona! And I’m not kidding about the “sizzling” part. Recent daytime highs have exceeded 110 degrees. What do people do when it’s that hot outside? Stay inside! If our to-do lists include outdoor activities, we handle them early in the morning (before 6:30 a.m. is ideal) or after sunset. Which brings…
Why do clients hire copywriters? Because they’re busy! They don’t have time to create content for their websites, brochures, newsletters, case studies, white papers, and other marketing materials. I help clients get these must-do tasks into the “done” column. They also like how I make complex, technical subjects accessible to a lay audience. Here are…
Back to Tucson’s South Side for another exciting finish to El Tour de Tucson. I also shot the 2012 race from the South Side. The winner, Philip Tintsman, broke away late in the 104-mile race and finished miles ahead of everyone else. View my 2014 Tour de Tucson photo gallery…
Cyclovia Tucson used to be one of those annual events. And then it became popular. Very popular. The spring 2014 edition attracted 20,000 people to Tucson’s South Side. The first-ever fall Cyclovia Tucson featured the central part of the city. I have a confession to make: I didn’t ride. Not one single pedal stroke. The…
Before this summer’s monsoon season, I lost an entire barrel of spaghetti squash plants. Borers got to them. So, I re-planted the barrel with O’odham Vayo beans. I watered them. And watered. And watered. It was getting to the point of being ridiculous. Was this impressive growth of Vayo bean vines ever going to produce…
The remnants of Tropical Storm Simon love Southern Arizona. To the tune of 1.40″ in my rain gauge since yesterday afternoon. And it’s starting to rain again. Simon, how can we miss you if you won’t go away? Here’s my front yard, shortly after Simon said, “Rain on Tucson!”
Tucson’s long, hot summer of 2014 almost made me give up on container gardening. Take, for example, my hot pepper pots. I watered and watered and watered them. (Why am I doing this?) The pepper flowers kept drying up and falling off. Result: No summertime peppers for my omelettes. Then came fall. And guess what’s…
It’s official: Tropical Depression Odile was a No-Deal. After spending several hours weeping over Tucson, she decided that we weren’t supportive enough. So, Odile headed east and dumped her sorrows all over New Mexico and West Texas. While Odile was still trying to gain our sympathies, she left scenes like this. Baja Fairy Duster in…
Yes, it’s still summer. And, yes, it’s still hot as blazes. But September is just a few days away. Which means that it’s time to get the early fall garden planted. What’s in mine? I’m starting lettuce and greens in the big pot. Still-producing lemon basil plants surround it… What’s in this basin? Carrot seeds…
Mid-afternoon thunderstorm rolls in, ruining my plans to take a nap. Outside, there’s the sound of raindrops soaking the hardscape. Like the brick edging around one of my garden basins… And the front walk. It’s getting the rain-hammer! Uh-oh! More thunder outside. Here comes the rain — again.
So much for trash-talking the clouds. One of them took umbrage and thundered at me. That cloud invited its friends over for a party, and rain it did! Half an inch in less than an hour. After checking the rain gauge total, I trained my camera on the side-yard garden. Chiltepin pepper plants with prickly…
Our monsoon season was off to such a promising start. Then it took a one-month holiday. Here in drought-stricken Tucson, we were beginning to wonder what we said that so greatly offended the summer rains. And then they came back. Sunny skies haven’t stopped the storms. Here’s the closeup view from my studio window… There’s…
This past Tuesday, we had one inch of rain in less than an hour. What does such a big downpour look like? Well, it looks like this in my rain gauge… Now, let’s tour the earthworks that were installed during my Watershed Management Group workshops. East side of front yard… West side of front yard……
Late June in Tucson. When the cicadas raise a mighty ruckus. And the hot-dry times seem like they’ll never end. My okra basin? Filled with drama queens that swoon in the midday sun. Time to build those oh-so-delicate plants a found-object shade cloth structure… I diligently seeded this basin throughout April. (Too cold for the…
A couple of posts ago, I talked about the need to have my mesquite tree trimmed. This begs the question of what happened to the cut branches. Well, a couple of things happened to them. Two of the big branches are going to become walking sticks. Here’s one of them, in a still life I…
You can’t call them shrinking violets, but they are in full swoon. They’re the flowers on my spaghetti squash plants, and they don’t live long…
In the summer of 2007, I began volunteering with Tucson’s Watershed Management Group (WMG). The WMG uses a learning-by-doing approach to solve soil and water resource problems. And I was having one right here at home. After I bought this place in 2004, I started planting a xeriscape. In addition to planting low-water use plants,…
Earlier in the week, I blogged about the about-to-bud flowers in my squash barrel. Looks like they’ve taken the hint… Over in the pepper pots, it’s ripening time! If memory serves correctly, these peppers are pretty hot. Looks like it’s time to brush up on my salsa-making skills.
Nearly two months ago, I seeded my squash barrel. Then it was waiting time. Would any of the seeds sprout? Did they ever! The spaghetti squash plants are growing like crazy, and now they’re flowering. One flower so far, and a bunch of buds that should open in the next few days… Over on the…
One of the most nerve-wracking aspects of gardening is the waiting that comes after seeding. You water, water, and water the bare ground and wonder if anything will sprout. And then it does. The basil was a little sluggish, but here it is, at long last… Okra is also taking its sweet old time about…