Hi Carla, I wish we could spend half the year in one place and half in the other, but our Phx home is 70's and things go wrong with it all the time. It's always water leaks inside or out in the drip systems, appliance breakdowns, AC breakdowns, etc. We go back and forth a lot. A neighbor takes care of the pool when we're away. It's a ton of travel and I'm sick of it, but the Phx place needs too much care to be able to leave it for long periods. The NM place is newer and easier to care for except for having a well system and septic system.
I don't have any raised beds in Phx, but if we did, they'd be on drippers. Everything is on automatic drippers now. That occurred when I was in the hospital and my husband had to do all the hand watering. He couldn't believe what I'd been doing!
Jalapenos do seem very hardy. I had a huge one in the greenhouse but took it out because we don't use them that much. I needed the space for things we do use.
Anyone who gets a greenhouse should get a huge one. I filled mine up in a few days, and now I constantly have to trim and cull plants.
I'm grateful the worst of the heat is over, and it will be nice in Phoenix again.
