Glendale, Arizona · Zone 9b

Grow foodin theDesert.

I’m Anna—Arizona Zen Garden. I share practical gardening tips: square-foot gardening with a twist, seed starting, seed saving, and propagating everything. I grow all of it in the Arizona desert, with nine cats supervising.

200k+ gardeners follow along on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook.

Seeds. Dirt. Today. That’s the whole plan.

Start with the seasonsShop my low-desert planting calendar
A lush Arizona raised-bed garden filled with kale, cabbage and leafy greens Anna tending plants in her Arizona garden
Kale and leafy greens growing in Anna’s low-desert garden

Plan your garden month by month.

Start with my free beginner’s guide, then keep planting on time with the $10 low-desert calendar for vegetables, herbs, flowers, and fruit in zones 9 and 10.

Planting Calendar · $10

Garden guides

Two free, two are $10.

Low-desert planting calendar

Know what to plant each month in zones 9 and 10.

Get the calendar
Free

Salsa garden guide

Grow tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, and herbs for homemade salsa.

Get the free guide
Free

Vego Garden guide

Tour my raised beds, trellises, fill method, and favorite setup tips.

Get the free guide

How to Grow Roselle

Grow, harvest, and use roselle—with a free seed packet included.

Get the guide + seeds

Never miss what to plant — get my monthly low-desert planting reminder by email.

About me Rooted in the low desert. Square-foot gardening with a twist, seed saving, propagating—and nine cats supervising. Read my story Close story

On Instagram and TikTok, I teach practical low-desert gardening—from preparing soil and creating shade to setting up irrigation, saving seeds, and knowing what to plant each month. My goal is to help gardeners work with the desert climate and turn arid spaces into productive vegetable gardens.

Before I pursued gardening as my passion, I spent 25 years as a banker. That chapter taught me patience, planning, and the value of small choices made consistently—lessons I now bring to every garden bed.

As a wife, mom, and grandmother, I believe a garden can bring generations together. Growing food is practical, but it can also be mindful and therapeutic: a place to slow down, learn, and care for something living.

25 yearsin banking before following my gardening passion
Low-desert know-howsoil, shade, irrigation, seeds, and seasonal planting
Family-centeredgardening that connects generations
Azzengarden Desert Gardening logo with a flower-covered elephant, established 2017
Anna in her garden wearing a black It's not hoarding if it's seeds T-shirt Seed Hoarder tee ↗ I propagate everything shirt design with basil, mint and rosemary cuttings rooting in a jar Propagate tee ↗ My flowers bring all the bees to the yard shirt artwork with flowers and bees Bees to the Yard tee ↗

Garden merch for plant people.

Fun garden shirts inspired by seed hoarding, desert growing, and the beautifully organized chaos of a garden in full swing.

The Azzengarden merch store is live—shop all three tees now.

Come grow
with me.

Follow the real garden—experiments, wins, messes, harvests, and practical tips for warmer climates.

Instagram@azzengarden · reels, garden tours & tips TikTok@azzengarden · quick garden lessons YouTube@azzengarden · longer garden videos FacebookAzzengardengage · garden community Soil Diva on Instagram@soil_diva · soil health & real results

Shop my garden partners.

These are places I turn to for garden tools, project supplies, and healthier soil. Some links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Azzengarden Amazon storefront banner showing Anna holding sunflowers above the words Organic Backyard Gardener Amazon Storefront Browse my garden favorites, tools, and everyday growing supplies. Shop my storefront Anna wearing a sun hat among flowers in her garden Lowe’s Shop garden and outdoor project supplies for your growing space. Shop Lowe’s Soil Diva Ready-to-Spray and concentrate bottles beside a Refill and Save sign Soil Diva Explore Soil Diva and Reclaim for healthier soil and stronger plants. Use code Ann10 · Save 10% Shop Soil Diva

Let’s work together

Business inquiries

For partnerships, collaborations, and garden projects, email me directly.

Let’s Grow Your Garden Together

$200 · one hour · Phoenix area

  • What to plant each season
  • Garden space setup with Vego beds
  • Vacation and snowbird care
  • Virtual garden call
Book your garden visit
Anna standing beneath a vine-covered metal arch trellis between her Vego Garden raised beds
Anna standing among tall sunflowers beside her U-shaped Vego Garden raised bed
Flowers and herbs growing together in Anna’s green Vego Garden raised bed

Raised beds from my garden

Grow with Vego Garden.

I use raised beds to make warm-climate gardening easier to tend, organize, and fill with the vegetables, herbs, and flowers I love. The metal arch trellis shown between my beds gives climbing plants room to grow upward and turns the pathway into a green garden tunnel.

Save 5% sitewide AZZENGARDEN5
Save $30 on orders over $400 AZZENGARDEN30OFF
Shop Vego Garden

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Azzengarden roselle seed packet label featuring a roselle bloom and planting notes First release · Roselle

Roselle mini-course

How to Grow Roselle.$10 download.

A free packet of roselle seeds is included.

Get the mini-course

From my
garden.

Food and flowers growing together—broccoli beside blooms, herbs tucked into every open space, and a garden that never worries about perfect rows.

A hand showing the scale of a large homegrown broccoli crown
Fresh okra and roselle harvested from the garden
A pale yellow roselle flower with a deep red center
A mature bok choy plant in a raised garden bed
A black and white cat sitting among the garden beds
“The desert doesn’t ask for perfection. It asks you to learn its rhythm.”

Anna · Arizona Zen Garden

A diamond-shaped floral arch glowing among colorful flowers and sparkling garden stakes

Sparkling adventures in dirt, dreams, and blooms.

Blog / Journal

Notes from the garden—what I worked on, what I planted, and the little things worth remembering along the way. Newest entries will appear first.

September 15, 2026 Leafhoppers, my first zinnia, and a big website day.

Today I woke up extra early to beat the heat. It’s expected to be 103°. During my usual morning walk around the garden, I found leafhoppers spraying on the roselle, so I created a reel.

Watch the leafhopper reel on Instagram ↗

My grapevine in the Naples area of the garden was dropping leaves, but I found no pests. I’ll check again tomorrow. My first zinnia bloomed—I planted it late in August. I’m hoping for rain this evening, fingers crossed. I asked my mom to feed the cats.

I’ve been busy all day with my friend Athena creating Azzengarden.com. I’m grateful for her guidance. She helped me create a roselle cover for my seed packets so I can sell them, created the cat shirt and a soil shirt, and added all my affiliates to the website. Perfect, perfect, perfect! Oh, and a free downloadable guide for my followers.

September 15, 2026 Documenting my expensive hobby…

Documenting my expensive hobby of buying plants, killing them, and immediately buying more.