Garden Landscaping and Design
FOOD PLANTS
Culinary Herbs
Fruit, Berries, Nuts
Peppers, Chilies
Strawberries
Tomatoes
Vegetable Calendar Zone 9
ORNAMENTALS
Grasses
Ground Cover
Perennials
Shrubs
Succulents
Trees and Palms
Vines
SPECIALTY GARDENS
Butterfly Garden
Erosion Control
Fragrance Garden
Hedges, Barriers, Screens
Hummingbird Garden
Long Blooming
Winter-Blooming
GARDENING TIPS
Dealing with Critters
Digging Holes for Plants
Fruit: Selection, Cultivation
Garden Bed: Sterilizing
Landscaping
Microclimates
Parasitic Plants
Plant Placement
Selecting Plants
Soil Prep for Vegetables
USDA Hardiness Zones
Planting, Watering, Shrubs, Trees
NURSERIES / SUPPLIES
Online
Phoenix
Tucson
MEETINGS
Phoenix Meetings
Tucson Meetings
Planning
Identify the purpose of your landscape design. Are you designing an entire property
landscape that will show off your home to best advantage?
Are you creating an enclosed garden, possibly to grow food crops or
tropical fruit trees in the desert?
Or do you want to maximize the environment for a new tree, shrub or flower bed that you intend
to plant?
Reducing water usage by getting rid of the lawn to is very important in the western United States. Instead of grass, consider pavers or gravel paths meandering by garden beds containing drought and heat tolerant plants. Low water, low maintenance landscaping can provide a pleasing, care-free area surrounding your residence. Vegetation that supports native wildlife year round can provide additional interest at little or no cost.
Landscape architecture includes walls used to create shade, divert wind, and provide privacy; raised garden beds that provide soil drainage and keep rabbits away, walkways and steps to direct traffic and make climbing easier; and rock or masonry channels that divert water and prevent erosion.
Designing an Entire Property Landscape
Start your garden design with a list of plants to be used, and their needs.
Group plants according to their water requirements. This allows for efficient
watering by group, and takes less time. Also group plants into those that can
handle full sun and those that need part shade, especially western shade.
On paper, position trees and shrubs spaced according to their mature width. Do not be fooled by the appearance of a tree when young. It will outgrow its 3-5' (1-1.5m) width and become, depending on species, a 15-30' (4.5-9m) wide tree. Trees that will be 30' (9m) wide need to be 35' (10.7m) apart from each other and from houses. Trees with aggressive side roots need to be 35' (10.7m) apart to avoid competition.
In your garden design, create microclimates by careful placement of 4-8' (1.2-2.4m) high walls, raised garden beds and low areas carved into the ground for water collection. Keep the sun's path both winter and summer in mind while doing this. Also plan arrangements of tall shrubs and trees that can provide shade for other plants. The mature size of trees should be proportionate to the total area covered by the walls if you have an enclosed garden. Smaller walled enclosures need smaller trees or large shrubs instead.
Selecting Plants
If you can, select plant species that are adapted to the climate of the southwest desert -
hot, dry, infrequent rain, periodic drought and alkaline soil and water.
Just because a garden is in a dry landscape, though, does not mean it has to be cactus and
sharp thorns.
Many thornless and leafy plants are adapted to heat and dry conditions.
Select young trees to plant that come in 5 gallon (20 liter) containers rather than very large ones. They are more adaptable, less likely to fail, and will grow to the same size as trees in larger pots. Avoid large, water-hogging trees such as Western Cottonwood, Sycamore, Aspen, or ornamental fruit trees that will rob water from other plants.
Wildlife
Many water-wise plants attract butterflies and
hummingbirds.
Others produce berries that tempt birds at different seasons.
Plan to have a variety of plants blooming and fruiting throughout the year and your landscape
will be a perpetual motion of interest.
Shade
Many plants need part shade in the hottest parts of the year.
Walls and the shade of trees or large shrubs can help.
Know which trees are inhospitable to other nearby plants (allelopathic) because of chemicals
released by their roots.
Well-Drained Soil
Most desert plants need well-drained soils and do best in raised garden beds or on top of
earthen mounds at least 12-18" (30-45cm) above surrounding soil.
Raised garden beds formed of rock or masonry block are often used.
Avoid treated lumber because the poisons in the lumber can be picked up by any plant used for
food, such as mint, basil, tomatoes or edible flowers.
Double masonry walls can be built, a tall outside wall and a lower inside wall, about 18-24" (45-60cm) apart. Filling the space between them with soil provides a well-drained, linear space for flowering perennials or garden herbs.
Walkways
Walkways can be made of tamped earth, gravel, brick, concrete block, or even more
creatively, mosaic stone with an infinite variety of patterns.
Weed barrier cloth with gravel on top will allow rain to drain into the soil and slow the
runoff of water onto the street.
In Tucson, Phoenix, and elsewhere, monsoon rains frequently lead to erosion.
Paths on slopes should be lined on their sides with rock, brick or block.
This will reduce rainwater erosion and water flows that turn to ice sheets in winter.
Steps may have to be situated at internals along a path to reduce steepness.
Steps can be made of concrete, block or treated lumber.
Water
Provide raised soil or stone ridges to channel rainwater to low areas in the soil –
ponds with bare clay bottoms that may be dry part of the year – to collect rainwater so
that nearby plants can receive water that slowly soaks into the ground. Have an overflow
channel of rock or block so that rainwater can escape without erosion if it exceeds the depth
of the pond.
During a drought, run stored rainwater or tap water into these low areas to provide needed water. Pools for a group of plants can be flooded every two to four weeks. Individual trees can be set up with their own basins to collect rainwater and flood their roots to the drip line every one to four weeks. This is especially necessary for fruit trees.
A rainwater collection system that collects rainwater from a roof and stores it in large barrels will help provide water when rains fail.
Use mulch that is suited to each plant. Mulch reduces evaporation from the soil. Most plants benefit from organic mulch. But penstemons prefer crushed decomposed granite, which provides nutrients, or small gravel. Avoid using only rock as mulch, however, to avoid a moonscape look. Bare soil between plants in the desert is fine. Low groundcover plants for dry landscapes can also help.
The first key to building a desert garden that grows tropical fruit is to surround it on all sides with block walls 6-8' (1.8-2.4m) high. Block walls reduce wind which dries soil and blows humidity away. Block walls keep sun from heating nearby soil and baking roots. Walls also deter some animals like javelina.
The second key to a successful fruit garden in the desert is to use cultivation practices that provide the right kind and amount of nutrients (fertilizers), organic matter, mulch, and water. Some gardeners will use 2' (60cm) of straw as mulch over the root area of all their fruit trees, and even cover their entire garden this way. Every fruit tree and shrub will differ in what it needs. Group plants according to their cultivation requirements.
Finally, while fruit trees and shrubs usually need full sun, some plants may need a "roof" of tall, fast-growing shade trees. Overhead shade can protect trees and shrubs from too much sun and reduce garden temperatures. One fast-growing shade tree is Moringa. Another is Castor Bean: Ricinus communis. The combination of walls and tall trees can create a cool, moist climate where many tropical plants can thrive.
Latest update: May, 2025
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