Skippy5869's Profile

My growing zone is 7. I am best known as Skippy. I used to live in Phoenix (53 years) but it became too congested with people and brown cloud emissions from vehicles so I moved to Clifton in eastern Arizona. It is attached (somewhat) to the town of Morenci where copper is mined. The open pit is one of the largest in the US. I have lived here for 4 years and I take care of my 91 year old mother. (She had 12 children so the visitors are absolutely endless)

When I bought this half acre of land, there were 2 very unhealthy mesquite trees and a few weeds. The place had stood empty for 3 years. It was the old High School band room (2 story- built in 1949, although the town was established in the early 1900s). The lower level was already converted to residential living but the upper level (which cannot be accessed from inside) was gutted and just a huge empty space.

I am currently using half of the upstairs space to incorporate a 2 bedroom, self contained, apartment for all the visitors we have.

I am slowly working on "greening up" the place. I live next door to the library, located about 20-30 feet below my parcel of land. The retaining wall and fence is quite open and intriguing to my grandchildren so I planted 20 stickery "lady Banks" rose bushes to form a thorny hedge to keep all children away from this hazardous area.

Before I even watered my first plant, I notice rose bushes starting to come up along the front of the building. I began to water them and now I have these beautiful deep maroon "wild rose-like" flowers taking over the front porch.
I had to move them during their dormant period this past winter because they were too large for the area. They are now housed among the hedge of lady banks roses to add color and texture.

Okay, enough about me for now. I have many other plants but they are too numerous to mention at this time.

Thanks for having such a terrific site.

Skippy