The idea behind being firewise is simple: reduce the likelihood of your home igniting from wind-driven embers or creeping ground flames.
March 19 in Flagstaff was a day for the record books, and not in a good way. The daytime temperature reached 84 degrees, shattering the previous March record by a whopping 11 degrees. The news even made CNN, which noted that yes, this was because of a changing climate.
It’s also been a particularly dry year in Northern Arizona, with only about 27 inches of snow – less than half of the 89 inches our region averages each year. In fact, this past winter was one of the driest on record.
And while we are heading into what promises to be a wetter-than-average monsoon season, thanks to a super El Niño weather pattern, gardeners can’t rely on those brief, often intense rains to make up for years of drought.
What that means to gardeners is that it is…
