I fell in love with the pistache tree; can I plant one?

QUESTION: Can you plant a pistache tree in Tucson? I rode past a home recently where I saw one, and I actually stopped to ask the homeowner what the tree was because I liked it so much. He told me that it was a nonfruit-producing pistache. Would this variety work well for me, too, in my south-facing front yard?

ANSWER: Pistache trees are becoming very popular in Southern and Central Arizona. They’re great trees with leaves that can turn a vibrant yellow, orange or red. They’re very heat tolerant and are deciduous in winter. They grow a little slowly to get started, but they’re not temperamental and they’re a very sturdy tree. The best time to plant them is in fall and winter. You can find them for sale in most garden centers. One popular variety is the red push pistache that got its name from the fact that the first leaves it pushes out in spring are red.

Now if you’re interested in growing a tree that actually produces pistachio nuts, you might have a more difficult time. In order to bear nuts, these trees need from 800 to 1,000 hours a year of chill hours — those are hours when the temperature is between 32 and 45 degrees. These trees also take from six to seven years before they produce nuts. In addition, you need to have both male and female varieties for pollination.

Q: I live in the Sabino Canyon area and have a very large outdoor barbecue area. We cook a lot outdoors. When I had my outdoor kitchen built several years ago, I put a dishwasher out there. But it was not an outdoor-rated appliance. They told me that it would not last very long because of the weather exposure, but at the time, there didn’t seem to be anything on the market that was outdoor-rated. Now the machine needs replacing. I have researched out-door-rated models now on the market, but they cost $4,000 to $5,000 before installation. Have you heard of any low-cost alternatives?

A: I suggest that you talk to an Arizona appliance wholesaler about what all the possibilities are. You might even want to call a good appliance repair service to see what they recommend that you do. It might be cheaper, though, to buy a non-outdoor-rated dishwasher and change it out every three or four years, until prices for outdoor appliances drop.

Q: Our 30-year-old concrete driveway needs resurfacing, and we’re thinking of doing some of the work ourselves. It’s about a thousand square feet of concrete and has lots and lots of cracks, some of them caused by our irrigation system. Could we fill in the cracks with a filler material recommended at our hardware store and then cover it with asphalt?

A: Before you do anything, you probably need to solve your irrigation problems first. Then when you fill in the cracks, you need to buy some industrial grade product to use as filler; shy away from any stuff they sell at a local hardware store. And yes, your driveway can be covered with asphalt, but it may be more effective to remove the damaged concrete and replace it with interlocking concrete pavers.

Q: We live in Phoenix now, but are moving to Oro Valley. Our new house has sandy soil. What will it be like to garden there?

A: Generally speaking, you’ll find that your plants will do better because the soil has better drainage. You might have to water more frequently though, and you will want to add compost to your soil and fertilize regularly.