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Best 9 trees to combat climate change in the Southwest

Here in the hot, dry region of the U.S. Southwest tree planting has become more urgent as year after year the days get hotter and drier. The driving idea behind the tree planting efforts is to create a green canopy, a natural, cooling umbrella over cities.

In Las Vegas, the Mayor’s goal is to have 60,000 new trees planted by 2050.

In Tucson, the mayor is more ambitous: she wants to see a million new trees planted by 2030. El Paso, too, has set a million tree goal.

And In Los Angeles, one volunteer group, City Plants, installs 20,000 trees for free along the city streets every year. (More about free or almost-free trees in Western cities in my next post.)

If you want to do your part, but on a personal, residential scale, consider planting one or more of these trees–plus one shrub, the Chaste tree. Many are as wide as they are tall. They are all drought-tolerant and cast shade to cool your home and garden. I’ve added information about how tall the tree should grow, how fast it will grow and how long the tree should live. (Hint: All but one should outlive you!)

Trees that bloom in the Spring and Summer

Sweet Acacia (Vachellia farnesiana) is a species of thorny shrub or small tree. Brilliant yellow ball-like flowers, which are used in perfume industry. Will grow to 20 feet tall x 20 wide, moderate to fast grower. Lives 20 to 30 years.

Palo Verde (Parkinsonia florida) is a native to the Sonoran desert and is recognizable by the green color of its trunk and branches. Almost leafless most of the year, so it casts only a light shade. It bursts into brilliant yellow bloom in April. Grows 2 or 3 feet a year to 15 to 30 feet tall with an umbrella-like canopy. Lives 100+ years.

Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) can be grown as a small, messy tree or multi-trunk shrub 30 feet tall. Grows 2 to 3 feet a year. Lives from 40 to over 100 years, if planted no higher than an elevation of 5,000 feet. As a desert native it needs little care but, I repeat, it is a messy tree dropping those long, brown seed pods for you to clean up.

But read about the next tree, a tidier hybrid of the Desert Willow…

Chitalpa trees (Chitalpa tashkentensis) can grow as large, multi-stemmed shrub or a single-trunk tree. Unlike its cousin the Desert Willow, Chitalpa trees were created to be sterile and do not drop those long, pointy seed pods. For that reason the chitalpa is often planted as a street tree that blooms for months on end. Loves the endless sun shine and grows very fast to 30 feet tall. And is said to live up to 150 years.

Trees that turn color in Fall

Fan Tex Rio Grande ash has leaves that turn to a brilliant gold in fall, unlike it’s cousin, the ordinary Arizona Ash (Fraxinus velutina) that lacks the golden yellow fall color. Both ash varieties are adapted for a desert climate with low water usage. It is moderately fast-growing tree that will grow to a height of 30 to 50 ft and may survive 50 years with proper care.

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Chinese Pistache (Pistacia chinensis) is a pistachio hybrid that produces no nuts. In Fall the leaves on the male tree turn from green to gold to brilliant red then loses those leaves in winter. The female tree simply turns golden — not vibrant red. Grows 12 to 15 inches per year to a mature height of 25 to 40 feet tall and as wide. Should be planted in full sun; if planted in partial shade the result will be a lopsided tree.

Trees that need little maintenance

Mesquite (Prosopis velutina) commonly known as velvet mesquite, grows 12 to 24 inches per year to a mature height of 40 feet tall. Needs almost no care. It’s advisable not to plant it in a lawn that is regularly watered. Too much water or fertilizer weakens the roots of the mesquite which may then tip over during high winds. It will live for as long as 200 years. Equally durable in a desert garden are the Honey mesquite, the messy Screwbean mesquite and Chilean mesquite which has fewer thorns.

Chinese elm (Ulmus parvifolia). Capable of adding 12 to 36 inches of height per season, the drought-tolerant Chinese elm is a very rapidly growing tree with a weeping shape and deep shade underneath. Some lose their leaves in winter and others do not and it is not clear why this happens. This tree can grow to a height of 40 to 50 feet within 15 years. Lives 50 to 100 years.

A tree that produces fruit

Fig tree (Ficus carica) The common fig tree is a deciduous tree that can also be grown as a shrub or espaliered on a trellis. Produces fruit in 3 to 5 years. Grows 12 inches a year up to 30 feet tall and in its tree form ends up much wider than taller. Its large leaves cast very dark, cooling shade and a fig tree lives 50 to 200 years. For other fruit trees for the desert go here.

And my favorite shrub, the fragrant Chaste tree

Chaste (Vitex agnus-castus) is a hardy, fast-growing flowering shrub that produces bloom spikes of light purple, white, or blue flowers in mid-summer. If seeds and faded blooms are removed it will continue to flower. It has very fragrant leaves. Grows rapidly to a height of 20 feet — the size of a small tree–and lives for 15 to 20 years.

Our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  2. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  5. Nine trees to combat climate change
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Follow 90F degree rule for planting

Follow the 90 degree rule for planting

Fall is definitely the best time to plant in hot, dry Western gardens. It’s actually a good time to plant in much of the world, because, after all, Fall is when Mother Nature sows seeds.

But not just any Fall day will do. In the desert southwest, including parts of Texas and California, you should wait until the average daytime temperature drops under 90F before you plant.

The issue isn’t only the air temperature, but the temperature of the ground. The soil, especially native soil, is far too warm now for the roots of transplants to grow. Between the dehydrating effect of the air temperature on new leaves and the “cooking” effect of the hot earth on the roots, new transplants may not survive very long even if you water them frequently.

How to protect your transplants

Clematis in bloom
The Clematis jackmanii in my backyard.

However, if you just can’t wait to start gardening again after a summer hiatus, you may be able to protect your transplants by placing a piece of tile or broken terra cotta pot over the root zone, thus keeping it cool.

I did this with a Clematis Jackmanii, a plant not commonly found in a hot, dry garden. I planted it by a trellis in a very sheltered corner with a broken piece of pot over the root zone. It grew and bloomed then over winter it died back. The following spring it rose from the seemingly dead to climb the trellis and bloom again. To see other climbing plants for hot dry gardens, to here.


You could also add shade cloth to help reduce the temperature.

Should you avoid planting in native soil?

I have to admit that the Clematis was not planted in purely native soil. In most of the Southwest the soil is alkaline and lacking many of those tasty chemicals that hungry plants need. Realizing this, I made sure the Clematis was installed in a flower bed with super-enriched soil made mostly of organic mulch. And remulching twice a year is a must with our poor quality dirt which leeches all the good chemicals out of the mulch into the dirt within months. “Poor dirt” returns to being “poor dirt” rather quickly.

Another approach is to plant in raised beds, but those large wooden or metal boxes can become rather expensive. So, consider going to Amazon to find grow bags for a more affordable solution.

They come in small, medium and large and are good for growing almost every type of vegetable or herb. You can fill these bags with soil you buy at the garden center or mix native soil into the bag with commercial potting or top soil. And all the good, nutritious chemicals in the growing mixture end up feeding your plants — not dissolving into the surrounding soil.

Playing for Julia ebook

Prickly Pears may save us all

Well, I’m late with this, but according to a five-year study at the University of Nevada Reno, those ubiquitous prickly pear cacti (Opuntia) can become a new source of bioenergy feedstock to replace fossil fuel. This cactus also does double-duty as a land-based carbon sink removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in a sustainable manner. Just like trees do.

This is especially important because, according to a biologist at Saguaro National park as the climate in Arizona and around the world is changing prickly pear cacti are becoming more common. They really like the new weather conditions and poor quality soil is no problem for them. So add a prickly pear to your garden to help with the changing climate. And keep in mind that prickly pear jam is delicious!

Our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  2. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  5. Nine trees to combat climate change
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Follow 90F degree rule for planting

Visit my author’s site to see the books I’ve published.

Gates to hide secret gardens and courtyards

Summer heat has arrived and planting season is behind us in the Southwest. If your gardening urge is still strong, there are other additions and/or changes you can make at this time of year starting with landscape features — the walls and garden gates around your home.

In newer communities in the Southwest, grey concrete block walls on three sides of a property are pretty much standard. In Tucson, perhaps because of its long ties with Mexico and Spain, many homeowners–especially in older neighborhoods–go one step further and enclose the front yard to create a private, family courtyard. And with walls on four sides, the garden gate entry to this secluded area becomes a very important statement.

So be inspired by these photos. Some are of very expensive custom stuccoed walls with garden gates designed by artists. But there others that use standard, off-the-shelf elements and even one that falls within the do-it-yourself range. And a simple coat of paint on a gray block wall or iron fence can always bring new life to a desert garden.

Fearless color and custom gates

One would expect a Spanish Revival home behind this wall and custom garden gate, but actually the house looks more like a Craftsman home that has been painted dark chocolate brown with orange trim. The gate with its sunburst is clearly Arizonan, but not a visual barrier. Definitely no fear here–well, except for that coiled snake on the left.

Another orange/terra cotta wall, but with a far less elaborate–and less expensive–gate. It is an ordinary door, painted deep blue. The sugar skull design appears to have been routed out of a thin panel of wood, but using paint for the face would create a similar look. The lights on either side of the door have pierced clay covers. Privacy is clearly important to these homeowners. But where is the door bell? I’m not sure.

Three doors that are almost medieval. All three appear to be handcrafted with found or repurposed wood. And each says “Stay Out”. The small sign on the brown wood door with a lion knocker states that the person standing there is under video surveillance. I guess some people are friendlier than others.

Gates across your driveway

  • garden gate with giraffe

Driveway gates with decoration added. The teddy bear parade gives passers-by laugh, especially with the giraffe, far right, peaking over the wall. In the second photos, the actual gate to the house is quite open. And in the third image at another home, the trickster Kokopelli playing his flute guards the drive.

Less expensive and very Arizonan

An ocotillo branch fence — a tradition that goes back thousands of years. The indigenous people used ocotillo for fencing, as well as for “roofs” on their ramadas long before any Europeans showed up. You may be able to collect ocotillo branches yourself, or they are available for purchase at a few stores I found online.

Another use of ocotillo on a gate. This one, however, seems to be a hybrid of the medieval fortress gates and ones using natural materials.

Rustic and charming

This is a charmingly rustic, do-it-yourself sunburst garden gate. It appears someone dismantled an ordinary gate and inserted painted metal elements representing the Arizona environment: cacti, mountains and a sunburst. The wall has been artificially “aged” by incomplete exposure of the brick. Fun!

Painting a iron gate and fence purple gives a customized look to what is probably an off-the-shelf addition to this Spanish Revival cottage and garden.

True confession: I love this gate and wall. 100% found and repurposed materials aging naturally in the Arizona sun. And who knows what lies behind; it’s on the edge of a light industrial area. In the second image, it is apparent that the red door was once something else that looks as if it is from India. Repurposed on an entirely different continent!

One last comment: if your homeowners association bans front yard walls or if you prefer not to add one, see the 6 distinctively different desert landscape designs on this website. They range from woodland to dry creek bed. All are open to the street.

Our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  2. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  5. Nine trees to combat climate change
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Follow 90F degree rule for planting

Visit my author’s site to see the books I’ve published.

Oh so yellow, gravel gardens and no mow rewilding

When April comes in Tucson and the temperature reaches to the high 80s F (30C) the Arizona native Palo Verde (Parkinsonia florida) trees burst into dazzling bloom. Street after street are lined with them and, were gas prices lower, I might be tempted to spend a hour or two every day driving around the city taking photos of them.

The Palo Verde is a good basis for a two-color garden–green + one other color–and yellow is a good color to pick because so many plants for hot, dry gardens bloom in yellow.

Plants for a yellow green garden

So here are a few plants to use in a green and yellow garden with almost no extra watering is required.

Two Palo Verde trees across the street from my home. Look closely and you’ll see others further on down the street. The only water this garden receives is rainfall of about 14 inches (35 cm) a year, most of that during the summer monsoon. In Spanish Palo Verde means green stick — the trunk and branches stay green year ’round. The leaves are tiny and, overall, the Palo Verde is not great as a shade tree –but awesome in April!

Going native with yellow flowering plants

yellow flowers on purple prickly pear cactus

Prickly pear cacti (Opuntia) in bloom. The variety on the right, the Santa Rita, has the bonus of bringing purple to your garden after the flowers fade. Another bonus with prickly pear: the fruit is edible and especially good as jam.

If you want a garden like an Arizona native, plant a Brittle Bush (Encelia farinosa) with its daisy-shaped yellow blooms. Actually, they grow well with little attention in both the Mojave and Sonoran deserts–that means in Las Vegas and Phoenix.

yellow lantana in bloom

If you don’t care about native v. non-native a golden yellow Lantana (Lantana montevidensis) fits right in a yellow-green garden theme. Whoever planted this South American native slipped in a couple of small purple Lantanas, but they are not as long-blooming or hardy was the golden yellow ones.

Of course, you can always add an annual like the Sunflower — Ukraine’s national flower–or Rudbeckia, a low-growing perennial with sunflower-shaped blooms. And your local plant nursery may have other suggestions.

Gravel gardens — a new trend?

While it may not be apparent in these photos, none of these gardens have lawn. The one near my home, has–as you can see in the photo–simple Arizona dirt underlies the garden. The Lantana was planted in fine pebbly mulch in a Southern California garden.

So I read with some amusement of the “new” trend toward gravel gardens in the U.K. and in the U.S. northeast. Basically, they are what we call desert gardens with rock mulch. In the northeast and U.K., however, the aesthetic choice seems to be grey gravel instead of golden or red sandstone colors. But planted lawns that have to be mowed, watered and intensively cared for — they’re out!

Rewilding roadsides may be dangerous

Another trend out of the U.K. is the rewilding of roadsides. It seems to have taken hold as more and more towns across England simply let the verge alongside roads become home to native plants and grasses instead of mowing them. Traditionally, May is the mowing month. But no longer.

In truth, many of these roadside gardens are not purely native: they receive a little boost with seeds of wildflowers scattered among the volunteer plants. While I like the rewilding idea, just letting plants and grasses grow along roadsides can create added wildfire danger here in the American West.

So while I can cheer the trend toward no lawn “gravel gardens”, I have problems supporting letting native grasses and plants grow uncontrolled along the Western roads and highways.

Our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  2. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  5. Nine trees to combat climate change
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Follow 90F degree rule for planting

Visit my author’s site to see the books I’ve published.

5 fragrant plants for your hot garden

Summer is coming and with it, warm evenings to enjoy outside on a patio beneath stars and moon — and all of Elon Musk’s orbiting satellites.

While star-watching and satellite-watching may appeal to the eyes, fragrant plants in your garden create appealing scents that makes being outdoors after dark an even better experience.

So here are 5 very fragrant trees, shrubs, and vines that do well in hot, dry climates. Note that not all are drought tolerant. Some will need watering as the days heat up. And some bloom and release their fragrance during the day, too.


Fast growing and fragrant

Butterfly Bush or Summer Lilac (Buddleja davidii). This rangy shrub, above, grows fast and produces fragrant, lilac-like blooms in mid-summer. In cold winter areas it may freeze to the ground, but will regrow and bloom the same year. In fact, if you plant one now, you may have a good-size shrub with blooms this summer in your desert garden. One interesting variety is the ‘Harlequin” with dark magenta flowers and white-edged leaves. Another popular variety also created by Monrovia Nursery is the “Black Knight,” pictured above.

A show-stopper in your front yard

Flowering Crabapple. (Malus ionsis ‘Klehms’) Cars will come to a screeching halt on the street outside your home if you plant a flowering crabapple in your front yard. When this tree blooms, it is covered with glorious, fragrant double-pink flowers. The blooming period is short and the resulting fruit is best in jellies or pickled. In the fall the leaves turn a brilliant rusty orange giving you a second season of color.

Like most crabapple trees, it is rounded and low-growing to about 15 or 20 feet and definitely needs regular irrigation during hot summer months. Because some varieties are susceptible to regional diseases, ask your local nursery which one is best for your area. But try to find a fragrant, double-flowering one!

Imitating orange blossoms

Pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira) is also called ‘Mock Orange’ because its fragrance can envelope a garden in an unforgettable scent similar to a true orange. Over the years pittosporum has become quite popular with commercial landscapers because two dwarf varieties are definitely drought tolerant: ‘Wheeler’s Dwarf” or “Turner’s Variegated Dwarf’. They are almost indestructible.

But neither of these dwarf hybrids produce the incredible fragrant flower clusters that the non-dwarf Pittosporum tobira does. It can be used as a hedge shrub or small tree and grows from 6 to 15 feet tall with very dense shade beneath.

Another member of this family is the Cape Pittosporum (P. viridiflorum) which grows to 25 feet high, has small, very fragrant flowers, but–alas–may not be suitable for all hot gardens. It does better in more humid, tropical climates. Again, ask your local nursery.

A true night bloomer

It’s commonly called “night-blooming jasmine”. It is, however, not a true jasmine at all, but is a jessamine plant (Cestrum nocturnum), a member of the nightshade family along with tomatoes and peppers. Whatever its name it is noted for releasing its fragrance after dark in hot, dry gardens.

Like jasmine, jessamine plants can be shrubs or vines. Night-blooming jessamine is a tropical, evergreen shrub, native to the West Indies that grows 8-10 feet (2.5-3 m.) tall and 3 feet (91.5 cm.) wide. It is evergreen and tall so it makes night-blooming jasmine an excellent candidate for privacy hedges and screens. It bears clusters of small, white-green flowers from spring through late summer. When the flowers fade, white berries form and attract a variety of birds to the garden. These berries are toxic. Do not eat them.


Decades of graceful purple blooms

The lovely Wisteria (sinensis) is a surprisingly tough vine suitable for growing in hot dry climates. Better yet, it does well in poor soil so, if you plant one, do not fertilize it. Wisteria requires patience because it may take up to 5 years for the first flowers to bloom if you have planted one grown from cuttings. Wisteria grown from seed may take 20 years to bloom. Then it is non-stop! After that it could continue to put forth fragrant flowers for decades. In Sierra Madre California the annual Wisteria Festival celebrates one plant that is documented to be over 100 years old. And still blooming!

I had considered adding Hall’s Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica ‘Halliana’) to this list because it is so very fragrant, but even in hot dry climates is is highly invasive.  Like Cat’s Claw (Macfadyena unguis-cati) it will take over wherever it’s planted.


If you want to add white, night-blooming plants to enjoy during hot evenings, visit our June newsletter for suggestions about what to plant this Spring.

Our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  2. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  5. Nine trees to combat climate change
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Follow 90F degree rule for planting

Visit my author’s site to see the books I’ve published.

Birds and cactus on the move

On Christmas Day the Audubon Society turned out thousands of its members for the 122nd annual bird count.

The goal of the bird count is not only to calculate how many of which birds are where, but if there are any changes. Changes like non-appearance of certain birds which could mean that a bird species has moved to a new area or, in the worst case, become extinct.

While the results and post-count analyses of the 2021 Christmas Bird Count have not yet been finalized, results of previous years’ counts have.

And what past bird counts tell us is that almost all North American birds are under pressure by the changing climate to move northward. For example, in California the ranges of many bird species are now 200 miles north of their traditional habitats.

NOTE: There is a new international bird count in the works called the Great Backyard Bird Count. It will be held on February 18-21, 2022.

What does this have to do with hot gardens?

Yellow finch on Sunflower

Depending upon how severe the changes are in your area, birds that formerly ate pesky or damaging insects may be long gone. New species may arrive in your neighborhood from further south, but they may have different diet needs. It may be that the newcomer birds are seed eaters or leaf-lovers like the Yellow Finch in this photo, rather than bug eaters.

For other birds the impact is more complex. As an example, take the Cactus Wren which makes its home in saguaros. In the Saguaro National Park, the saguaros are now “moving uphill”–growing at higher elevations on the hillsides. According to a SNP naturalist the saguaros will only grow within a specific elevation range and no higher. They are close to that maximum elevation now and their range has become much narrower. So as the older cactus die out at lower levels that means fewer homes for Cactus Wrens and less food for saguaro pollinators like the white wing dove and the long-tongued Mexican bat.

So what’s a hot gardener to do?

Well, I’m not going to recommend that you build a bat-house in your back yard. (And–yes–there is such a thing as a bat-house as you can see in the photo on the left taken at the Tucson Mission Garden.)

New Year’s Resolution No. 1: feeding the birds

But hanging a bird feeder, especially if you live in a winter-snow part of the desert, and keeping it stocked can help birds in your area. Mourning doves, like the ones shown at the top of this post, have moved northward and definitely need food help surviving over winter.

Resolution No. 2: plant a large shrub or two

While almost every environmental group is recommending planting large trees to shade the earth, I think water-wise shrubs--large ones like Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) in its shrub form or a fast-growing Photinia (Photinia x fraseri)–provide better nest habitat and shelter from predators for birds as well as adding cooling shade to your hot dry garden.

For whatever it is worth, Mourning Doves have made a home in a Mexican yellow oleander (Cascabela thevetia) in my back yard for years as you can see in the photo at the top of this post. I don’t recommend planting a Thevetia, however, because it is highly toxic to humans, but the Mourning Doves don’t seem to mind. And I love to wake up in the morning to their calls.

So make planting a bird-friendly shrub one of your New Year’s Resolutions.

Resolution No. 3: keep tabs on what’s happening

Set up a free gardening blog/journal online and post something daily to keep track of how your garden is changing as the climate changes.

What to post? To make it easy, keep it short. So how about…
– a single flower photo
– a sentence or two about what is new in your garden
– notes of dates you installed plants or planted seeds
– a picture of your Little Free Plant Stand
– a photo of children playing in the garden or
– snow covering everything

If posting daily is too much for you, post weekly.

You will have to pick a name for your online journal/blog and I’d recommend that you include your location in that name. For example: CatherinesLasVegasGarden or SamGardensinSydney.

And keep this in mind: this online gardening blog/journal is primarily for yourself to help keep track of changes caused by climate change, so don’t be concerned about having or building followers. That can end up taking all your gardening time and then some! Interested people will eventually find what you are posting and enjoy it. Free blogs are available at WordPress.com and other sites.

Our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  2. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  5. Nine trees to combat climate change
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Follow 90F degree rule for planting

Visit my author’s site to see the books I’ve published.

3 trees for Fall color in desert, but beware

With the limited color range in gardens in hot, dry desert climates–usually shades of brown and muted greens–having a tree outside your window that blazes with reds, yellows and oranges in Fall is a happy choice.

(I have a warning for you about leaves turning yellow at other times of year…but more about that later.)

First, let’s look at 2 big, beautiful, drought-tolerant trees and a small one that signal the change of seasons with their leaves.

These drought-tolerant Chinese Pistache (Pistacia chinensis) trees are still young. When mature, they are excellent shade trees at 40 feet tall and about 30 feet wide. Every Fall their leaves on the male trees turn from summer green to yellow to gold to blazing red–often with all those colors on the tree at one time as you can see in the photo at the top of this post. The female trees simply turn golden yellow. Strictly ornamental trees, they produce small non-edible red berries.

  • Rio Grande Variety of Fan Tex ash tree

The ‘Rio Grande’ cultivar of Fan-Tex ash (Fraxinus velutina) in this photo is about 14 years old. Not only is it a fast grower, it can be ideal for summer shade and winter warmth, after the leaves fall and the sun shines in. Once established, it is drought tolerant. While there are other ash trees that grow well in hot arid gardens — for example, the very fast growing ‘Modesto’ ash–only the ‘Rio Grande’ Fan-Tex ash leaves turn gorgeous gold in Fall. Click on photo to see it in summer.

And a colorful Fall and Spring tree for smaller gardens

If you do not have space for a very large tree, consider planting a crabapple (Malus) tree in your garden. They grow to about 15 feet wide and 15 feet tall. While needing regular watering, the crabapple flowers beautifully in Spring and the leaves turn a lovely orange/red in Fall. See second photo for spring blooms. If you should decide to buy one be sure to ask what the Springtime blooms look like. Some bloom white, some pink, some almost red and some are single blooms, others doubles. And the fruit is edible as a jam or pickle when cooked properly.

Beware of some yellow leaves

You may notice that the leaves on one of your shrubs are turning yellow — but the veins stay green–and it isn’t even Fall. This is an indication of plant chlorosis due to problems with soil conditions, specifically iron deficiency. There are commercial treatments you can use, like Kerex or other iron chelates and other spray-on treatments. They work short term. But improving the overall condition and chemical balance in the soil should be your next step after spraying for longer term results.

Listen to Mother Nature

Mother Nature plants in Fall and so should you. By planting at this time of year when the soil temperature has cooled off, the shrubs and trees have the opportunity to develop deep roots over winter and are, thus, stronger plants when they start to grow above-ground next Spring.

Our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  2. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  5. Nine trees to combat climate change
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Follow 90F degree rule for planting

Visit my author’s site to see the books I’ve published.

A one color garden–no, make that two

Gardening writer Vita Sackville-West’s ‘White Garden’ at Sissinghurst Castle in the U.K. was revolutionary in 1950. And inspiring to this day.

Instead of a garden filled with billowing rows of mixed-color flowering plants–a style that had dominated English gardens for generations–Sackville-West installed only plants that bloomed in one color: white. According to her weekly gardening column she decided that the plants themselves must have either green or gray leaves. No yellowish or reddish leaves for this garden.

In fact, despite what she said, it was mostly a green garden because the white flowers bloomed only once a year for a brief time. The green color leaves endured year round.

While a garden as lush as seen, above, in this recent photo of Sissinghurst, would be challenging and an utterly wasteful use of water in a hot dry climate, the idea of a one or two color garden continues to appeal to garden designers.

One color and water wise in Las Vegas

Back in the early 2000s a one flower color, water-wise garden took root in Las Vegas. Garden designer Victoria Morgan told me that her primary goal was to create a water-wise green garden. Even back then, the water level in the Colorado River which supplies Las Vegas was falling so drought tolerance was a must, she said.

The flower color that she chose was yellow–and not much of that: just a few Lantana montevidensis by the fountain and nearby. Some additional color came from non-plant sources: painted furniture under the arbor, tiles around the fountain and large blue pots in front of the home, as you can see in this slide show.

grape vines with colorful patio chair and table

Another requirement she set was low maintenance, so there were no flowers to dead-head or fertilize. Shrubs like the Korean boxwood were trimmed once or twice a year. And the tall, shady nut trees that took up a large part of the garden needed attention primarily during harvest. For more photos of this very soothing orchard garden, go here.

Morgan’s use of green with yellow was a natural choice for a Southwestern U.S. hot, dry garden: many native plants (or non-natives like Lantana which thrives in our climate) bloom yellow. Some cacti, of course, produce pink flowers, but yellow is the dominant flower color in the desert, especially when rain comes and sweeping fields of yellow wildflowers spring up among the cacti.

Yellow blooming plants and shrubs

Should you decide to plant a green-plus-yellow garden here are a few plants–some native, some not–you could include. In order they are:
Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa)
Mexican Gold Poppy (Escholtzia mexicana)
Desert Marigold (Baileya multiradiata)
Lantana (Lantana montevidensis)
And for larger shrubs:
Mexican bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia mexicana) and
Thevetia (Thevetia peruviana), sometimes called Yellow Oleander, it is pretty but poisonous. (I have one in my backyard; someone else planted it.)

A good tree to include in a green/yellow garden is the wildly popular native Palo Verde (Cercidium parkinsonia). Planted in home gardens, parking lots and growing naturally along dry washes, it is the Arizona State Tree. Blooming brilliant yellow in Spring, it doesn’t offer much shade, however, because its leaves are tiny.

And for yellow color in the Fall–plus shade in summer–a good choice can be the Fan-Tex Rio Grande Ash, below.

Of course, you could choose another color for your one color garden–reds, pinks, purples and magentas–but yellow seems to be a natural garden design choice for the hot dry gardens of the Southwest.

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  1. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  2. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  5. Nine trees to combat climate change
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Follow 90F degree rule for planting

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So your garden died. What’s next?

While there are two ways to combat plant death-by-dehydration, it is probably too late for many in the U.S. Southwest, especially Arizona and Nevada, after a weeklong stint of record setting heat. (For those of you outside of the SW, there were high temperatures of 110-120F (43-48 celsius) for 8 days in a row and it continues.)

If you still have hopes for some plants in your garden you can do this:
1. Deep water plants more frequently than usual.
2. Hang shade cloth over your plants.

Realistically, however, dead plants — especially vegetables that were planted not long ago–are the new normal in Southwest gardens.

So what comes next?

For starters you can add those dead plants to your compost pile, so all is not wasted! And do not regularly fertilize any plants during summer months in desert climates. Even sturdy native plants are simply hunkering down and trying to survive until cooler weather arrives. Give them water, and in late summer, a tiny taste of fertilizer–that’s all.

Replanting right away is, obviously, not a good idea. Many gardeners now seem to be considering planting only natives when they replace what they lost this summer, but wisely they are waiting until Fall.

I’m thinking about pots on my patio overflowing with non-native Lantana (L. montevidensis) which seems to be able to survive almost anything and continue to flower.

Adios tomatoes and peppers

My vegetable growing experiment of this year will not be repeated. It has become a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I can buy organic veggies and support organic farmers while I eat healthy.

While I have stopped wasting water trying to help my sunflowers, tomatoes and peppers survive, I am still trying to help birds and other wildlife stay alive. I’d suggest that you do this, too.

Set out a shallow plant saucer filled with water and refill at least once a day. It can be a lifesaver for birds, insects and other creatures suffering from the intense heat and scarcity of water.

I’m not sure which creatures drink from this water source on my patio, but at least this Mourning dove has. You could also set up a trail camera to learn which wildlife comes to visit your garden.

Turning your garden into a kind of wildlife preserve may be the best use of that space as climate change brings hotter and dryer conditions. This extreme heat may not be the last.

Our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  2. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  5. Nine trees to combat climate change
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Follow 90F degree rule for planting

Visit my author’s site to see the books I’ve published.

There outta be a social media law against lawns

*shriek!* Some postings on social media gardening sites drive me crazy!

I just read a post on a Facebook gardening group from a newbie who has planted a big green lawn next to his new home in Arizona. It was, he said, like the one he had Back East. He proudly included photos and thanked other members of the group for all the advice they gave to him. He “couldn’t have done it without them”.

What??!!?

I wonder who told him that a grassy green British lawn was a good idea in a hot, dry climate? That it was a good idea in a land where water has to be imported hundreds of miles across a desert so he can turn a faucet and spill that water on to desert soil where it soaks in an inch or two and/or evaporates almost instantly.

Blame those green lawns on the Brits

Yes. Neatly trimmed green lawns originated in the rainy, damp British Isles. They are not common around private homes in Spain or Italy or Germany or elsewhere in the E.U. or most of the world. And even in the U.K. lawns are a relatively recent innovation that had something to do with wealthy landowners raising sheep or impressing the neighbors or something. Sadly, the lawn idea took hold and jumped across the Atlantic where it spread across the continent–even into Southwest desert communities.

American home builders also are to blame for the U.S. lawn obsession because they planted lawns in massive housing developments particularly after WWII because turf grass in the front yard is easy, cheap and fast landscaping.

Serious drought…really serious

I wonder if that newbie lawn guy, and other well-meaning, but poorly informed, participants in that group, realize how serious the drought conditions are in the U.S. Southwest as the U.S. Drought Monitor shows.

And how fast water tables in towns across the Southwest are falling as local water districts–the ones not relying on Colorado River water–pump more and more local ground water to new housing developments where new homeowners are planting wasteful lawns.

And I wonder if they realize that ground water isn’t being replaced in reservoirs and rivers with rain falling from the sky. The soil just gets drier and drier. The local wells have to go deeper and deeper. And choosing to plant a lawn becomes more and more absurd.

One woman in Pasadena CA pulled out her front lawn and turned it into an astonishing and somewhat bizarre front garden complete with blue bottles and plastic ornaments. This is the strangest lawn replacement I’ve seen. But to each, her/his own!

Local government officials are trying to handle current and future water usage. Efforts to slow down and re-allocate usage of water imported from the Colorado River show up in things like golf courses closing or being converted to dry landscaping and towns passing laws to ban lawns in front yards.

But there are other choices.

Before I show you some attractive lawn-free gardens for hot dry climates I’d like to suggest that if your heart is really set on the look of a lawn consider planting Buffalo Grass (Buchloe dactyloides) an Arizona native grass that many are planting as turf. Originally known as the grass that American buffaloes (bisons) grazed on, it grows green in summer, dies back to brown in the Fall and needs no irrigation and almost no mowing after it is established. [Note: This is not the invasive Buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare), an African native that is overwhelming plants in the Sonoran Desert. ]

Beautiful replacements for grassy lawns

So here are a few examples of front yards that are lawn-free.

A front yard filled with blooming perennials including kangaroo paw, sea lavender, rosemary and flat grey dymondia groundcover. This garden is located in Pasadena which gets about 17 inches of rain each year.

A desert-style garden in Springtime when the aloes and other plants are in bloom. This garden is located in Tucson which receives about 12 inches of rainfall a year.

These homeowners added berms, small “hills”, to their previously flat front lawn and planted drought-tolerant shrubs and trees that need almost no maintenance. Goodbye lawnmower! Berms need to be carefully designed to channel rainfall away from the house foundation.

This landscaped garden includes a dry creek bed as an ornamental feature surrounded by agaves and blue-gray fescue grass and taller green deer grass. As with adding berms in a garden, adding a dry creek bed has potential problems. Dry creek beds are not always dry and should be designed so rain water flows away from a home’s foundation.

I think of this front yard with its large decomposed granite space as a Mexican Garden because it reminds me of plazas and courtyards I’ve seen in Mexico. The “bare ground” decomposed granite suppresses weeds and is surrounded by drought tolerant plants that bloom seasonally. Zero maintenance and it requires only the water from the sky.

I was also going to write about silly social media posts praising decorative backyard ponds, but I have ranted enough for today. Those weird backyard ponds are as wasteful as grassy green front lawns in hot dry climates. If you have one, convert it to a flower fountain with plants on each level.

A postscript: there are now over 6,000 Little Free Plant Stands in Arizona! Vastly more than when I wrote about them back in March.

Our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  2. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  5. Nine trees to combat climate change
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Follow 90F degree rule for planting

Visit my author’s site to see the books I’ve published.