Search -
Carefree Surroundings: A Place in the Sonoran Desert
Carefree Surroundings A Place in the Sonoran Desert Author:Heinz Kagerer, Margit Kagerer Carefree is a small town in the Upper Sonoran Desert north of Phoenix in Arizona. What drew us after five years from my business assignment in the Boston area to this place instead of relocating back to Bavaria in Germany, where we grew up and what we called home for many, many years? It was the Sonoran Desert, "the most beautiful desert in t... more »he world": Contrary to the widely held misconception, the desert is not all sand, rock, and tumbleweed. It is home to an astonishing number and variety of plant and animal life. All indigenous plants are superbly adapted to our climatic conditions. We admire the ability of native plants to survive the 100º F days of summer and the close to freezing nights of winter, with a minimal supply of rain and none of the commercial fertilizer. They store and use water effectively. Shrubs and trees like to be left alone. No trimming is necessary, which makes garden maintenance carefree if you keep the landscape natural. This has been the major reason that the Sonoran Desert accounts for all of our one plus acre lot outside the house. It is not tidy, and we leave it that way because natural is the way it is supposed to be. The native vegetation attracts many different animals. Birds like the flowers, seeds, and insects. They share the juicy cactus fruits with squirrels, rabbits, javelinas, and deer. Bobcats and their kittens enjoy the shade of a lysiloma tree in our backyard. Coyotes hunt for rodents. Sometimes they wake us up at night with their eerie serenades. Reluctantly we even accept creepy crawlers as occasional visitors. The camera is always ready, so we can take photos of flora and fauna in our Carefree surroundings.« less