It's been quite awhile since I've featured one of the black and white plant photos from my extensive collection (thanks to my husband Andrew, who enjoys hunting them down). Some of the photos are so mysterious that I thought maybe I'd try writing a short (back)story to go along with them—sounds like fun don't you think? While I work on that, here's a stereograph card that comes with it's own story...
"Where the desert has been made to blossom like a rose—Salt River Valley, Arizona"
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Desert wastes? But scanty and dwarfed vegetation?! (with a photo of a tall saguaro dwarfing the man standing next to it) Yep, all that the desert needs to make it beautiful is water (sarcasm). Thank god we've (I hope) turned the corner from this way of thinking. A little research about the company behind this stereograph turns up this website (here), which places this one as having been produced between the years of 1900-1910. The Salt River Valley is in central Arizona and contains the Phoenix metropolitan area.
"From the back of the card: "Within a comparatively few years vast stretches of land in the southwestern United States have been transformed by irrigation from desert wastes into beautiful and productive fields and gardens. Without irrigation these acres spread before us would yield but scanty and dwarfed vegetation, limited almost entirely to sagebrush and cacti..."
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Weather Diary, Feb 24: Hi 48, Low 34/ Precip 0
All material © 2009-2021 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.