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2 desert style lawn replacements and a confession about travelling online

I’ll start with the confession: I sometimes take “drives” around cities and towns on Google, using Google’s street view.  It gives me a chance to look at how people garden in places I may not have visited.  I also look for examples of lawn replacements where green grass in front yards has obviously been removed and drought tolerant plants installed instead.

Most recently I “drove” around Tucson, Arizona and El Paso, Texas and, instead of lawn replacements or dry, sun-baked lawns, I saw a lot of non-gardens in front of homes. What I consider non-gardens are front yards with a random bush or two here or there, nothing seemingly planned or cared for.  These spaces may have rock mulch, but as often as not, they don’t. And they are not native plant gardens either. Lawn replacement wasn’t even an issue in those places.

Both cities have low annual rainfall –10 inches for El Paso, 12 inches for Tucson–which puts them both clearly into a desert climate category with most of the rain coming during the summer monsoon.

With a little planning, however, non-gardens can be transformed into attractive spaces that will please the eye and increase property values.

Full disclosure: These examples below are lawn replacements.  Instead of  starting with non-gardens these homeowners removed thirsty front lawns temporarily creating “non-gardens”.

Here are two examples I particularly like. Neither require much maintenance at all after they are established. (And for 4 more landscaping ideas for hot gardens, go here.)

Lawn Replacement garden #1

decomposed granite front lawn replacement hot gardens

These homeowners stripped out the grass and planted a border of non-thirsty desert plants in a curving shape around a plot that looks like bare earth but is in fact decomposed granite. The decomposed granite protects the underlying soil from erosion during heavy rains and is excellent for weed control.

Lantana ground cover mixed colors
The low-growing Lantana (Lantana montevidensis) comes in many colors these days.

Among the plants in this border near the house are several varieties of Agaves plus Lantana with orange blooms.  Lantana flowers for months on end and needs very little water. The Agaves can survive with almost total neglect.

In the foreground are Aloe, iceplants (Delosperma) and a lone clump of Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima) in bare soil that once had wood mulch on it. The bare soil looks washed out and uneven in contrast to the decomposed granite surface.

Lawn replacement garden #2

This second garden is also drought tolerant, although it definitely needs more watering than the one above.

Drought tolerant garden in late summer hot gardens net
This garden is new within the last 3 years. Wisely, the ground is covered with organic mulch.

Despite the fact that many of the plants are desert natives, they give the impression of being abundant in an almost “English garden” style with mounds of green plants with leaves of contrasting colors and shapes. Because this photo was taken in late summer only a few blooms are left on plants.  Among the plants are the almost leafless Palo verde trees (Parkinsonia x), deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens), and the Mexican Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia mexicana) with its long-lasting orange blooms.

The garden design also includes berms, shallow “hills” created artificially, to give more privacy to the home. One good thing about creating berms is that in the process of building up the pile of earth you can add nutrients all the way through to the old bare earth below.  These berms are covered with wood mulch to provide both cover for the bare soil and food for the plants.  The homeowners have chosen a light color decomposed granite for the paths. It also comes in a variety of other colors.

Here is a second view of the home. I’m not sure what the plant in the front by the rock is, but it looks as if it is failing.

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  1. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
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  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

Success with Potatoes and how to grow them in a hot arid garden

In a recent post I whined a little bit about not being able to grow leafy green vegetables or tomatoes in a hot dry garden. I even gave examples of a couple of failures and recommended focusing more on the fruit trees that thrive in desert-like climates.

Well, this post is about Success with Potatoes.

Potato plant in pink pot Hot Gardens
This potato plant is a year and a half old and still producing potatoes regularly, even though insects have found the leaves to be tasty.

And for evidence I offer my niece’s pot garden.  She and her husband — actually he is the one who does most of the gardening–planted potatoes in a 8 gallon pink plastic pot a year and a half ago at the suggestion of an English friend.  Much to their surprise, it has been producing potatoes for them continuously.  They have never pulled the plant up; the potatoes seem to rise to the surface where they harvest them.

During this time the potato plant grew big and healthy in its pot in a semi-shady location. Then under the scorching 110+ degree (F)  (43 Celcius) heat earlier this year,  the plant faded back only to revive when the heat cooled back down into the 90s.  Of course, it was tucked back into full shade when the weather really heated up. And they have 2 water monitors in the shape of butterflies in the pot. I suggested they might want to double pot to help control water evaporation.

Potato plant in pot with water measurement Hot Gardens
In addition to the potato plant they grow peppers. The red leafed plant at the lower left is a seasonal addition to the patio. It will not survive hot weather.

When I wrote about the green vegetable failures I mentioned that hydroponic systems were so expensive that they seemed impractical for growing vegetables in desert-like conditions. But for potatoes and other root vegetables, like carrots, there are some very affordable systems, among them a grow bag I found on Amazon. Some have little doors near the bottom to allow you to harvest the potatoes while leaving the plant undisturbed. That seems to confirm my niece’s experience of the perpetually producing potato plant.

So here’s to potato salad year ’round from your shady patio garden!

BLUE UPDATE
In the previous post about the blue bottle garden I asked readers what they thought about the garden. The responses were not positive which was my initial reaction, too. But different people have differing ideas of beauty. I will post some more attractive lawn replacement gardens soon.

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  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

Lawn replacement gone wild with blue bottle ornaments

This astonishing landscape design was developed by the homeowner in an upscale neighborhood that is under strict watering limitations. She told me she had no art training so I think of her as a self-taught landscape designer, sort of a “Grandma Moses of garden planning”.

Blue Bottle lawn replacement Hot Gardens net
Encouraged by the water department, this homeowner replaced her lawn with drought tolerant plants and dozens upon dozens of garden ornaments. To one side there is a long row of ornamental  grasses.
Circular Flower Bed in Blue Bottle garden Hot Gardens net
Circles within circles seems to be her main design motif. At night lights surround these plant beds. See below.

Instead of planting an ordinary selection of cactus and succulents, she let her imagination take flight by adding blue bottles, wind spinners and, at night, lights encircling the plant beds. And, from the empty pots and bags of mulch still stacked around the garden it appears she isn’t done yet.

She inspired me to check out garden ornaments on Amazon and I found this attractive wind spinner and some interesting solar lighted lilies.

What do you think of this garden?

Garden ornaments for lawn replacement Hot Gardens net
The homeowner’s love of wind spinners is quite obvious.
Plumeria tree Hot Gardens net
Among all the cactus and succulents is this tropical plumeria tree. It requires more water than most of the other plants. All the plants in this garden appear very healthy.
Blue Bottles fan ornament in Pasadena Hot Gardens net
While the blue bottles are the most conspicuous visually, there are actually many more wind spinners in the garden.
When the homeowner/designer said she had added lights to the garden and invited me to come back after dark to see it, this is what I saw. It is a quite subtle light display.

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  2. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
  3. Cover up that naked wall
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  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

The dirty truth about yellowing leaves when Fall hasn’t even arrived

chlorosis shrub leaves

It is a subtle change but one day you notice that the leaves on one of your shrubs (or maybe a tree) are turning yellowish and as far as you know yellow leaves are not natural to this plant–even in Fall. You look closer and see that the veins in the leaves are still green as you can see in this photo.

Well, what you are looking at is chlorosis, a kind of iron-deficiency in plants that inhibits the development of chlorophyll, the stuff that makes green plants green and keeps them alive and growing.  It is most common in plants grown in alkaline soils with high pH.

The problem begins in the dirt, the soil in your garden.  Even in hot dry desert-like gardens there is ample iron in the soil, but unfortunately plants can’t access it. The technical causes for the iron/soil problems read like a chemistry textbook so I will skip it, but advise you to take steps to reverse the condition before it gets worse. After all, you don’t want to lose an expensive plant or tree, especially to a plant problem that is curable.

What you need to do at this time of year is apply a foliar spray of iron chelate (pronounced “key-late”) to the leaves of your plant. It is available online and probably at a local big box gardening or hardware store for less than $15. It may take repeated applications of the spray to green up your shrub again.

But even a foliar spray is a temporary solution, effective for two or three months.

The next steps are to

  • Test the pH of the soil around the plant with chlorosis using an inexpensive pH testing kit which you can easily find online.  You may want to test other parts of your garden too.  (In fact, you may want to check the pH every year!)
  • Add chelated-iron fertilizer to the soil around the plant or tree IN SPRINGTIME (not Fall).  This is a longer term solution than the foliar leaf spray.
  • Dig in extra amounts of organic materials in the Fall and the Spring to balance the soil in your plant beds to a neutral 7 pH.  If you can get it to 6.5, all the better. Plants love 6.5 pH!  Keeping a high level of organic materials in and around the plants is a long term solution to chlorosis.
Rio Grande Fax Tex Ash autumn

BTW, if you have a Fan Tex Ash tree the leaves on it will naturally turn yellow in Fall. It is one of the very few trees for hot dry gardens that has lovely Fall color. (Of course, there are the aspen trees that grow in the mountains around the deserts and also become golden in Fall.)

CLIMATE CHANGE UPDATE

In an abrupt about-face the Australians tossed out their Prime Minister who announced last week that keeping fuel prices low was more important than meeting Paris Accord climate change limits. Among the first things the new PM stated was that climate change came first–particularly in light of the severe drought that is impacting ranchers in New South Wales, outside of Sydney.

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  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

Are you suffering from homegrown vegetable envy?

For a few weeks now I have been seeing images of luscious vegetables on my Twitter feed.  Big juicy-looking red tomatoes, golden orange carrots with lively green leaves, a basket of potatoes with earth still on them, and, of course, deep green heads of lettuce and more lettuce. Interestingly enough no one has posted brag-photos of kale, the worst so-called vegetable on the planet. Maybe the kale insanity is passing.

Red and Yellow cherry tomatoes Hot Gardens
These organic red  and yellow grape tomatoes were delicious in a fresh lettuce salad. Simple to make and very healthy too.

The truth–a sad truth–is that trying to grow vegetables of any kind in a hot dry garden is a next to impossible unless you are willing to invest a lot of money and water into the effort. The two people I know who tried it several years ago in Las Vegas–one was particularly interested in growing her own tomatoes–used shadecloth as a tent to shield the plants from direct sunlight. The plants were in raised beds and pots, not in the native soil. And I’m not even going to guess what their water bills were. For both these gardeners the results were not satisfying.  Neither repeated the effort the following year.

There is, however, a commercial tomato grower in Las Vegas, but the plants are grown hydroponically in an absolutely controlled environment for his primary customers, the casinos’ kitchens.

Eggplant Montrose Farmers Market Hot Gardens
Ratatouille anyone?  There were also tomatoes, onions, peppers, zucchini, and garlic in this market booth.

In hopes of being able to suggest an alternate to (not) growing vegetables outdoors in a hot dry garden, earlier today I checked out equipment for hydroponic gardens. It turns out that it’s very expensive and would not be a very practical or economical way to grow veggies for a family.

As the upsurge in organic farming continues and the distribution of organic vegetables increases into every big box grocery store in the U.S., a better choice than growing one’s own fresh vegetables is to buy organic ones.  Even better, buy them at a farmers’ market so you are as close to the earth as you can get without getting your hands dirty.

(The photos in this post were taken yesterday at a farmer’s market where each farmer had to certify that they grew the vegetables themselves.)

And keep in mind that fruit trees–apricots, peaches, plums and nectarines–will grow beautifully in hot dry gardens.  Grapes, pomegranates, and figs will also thrive. So instead of a vegetable plate from your own garden, plan to make a fruit salad!

Note:  It’s too early and too hot to plant a fruit tree in your hot dry garden.  Wait until it cools down.

Climate Change Update

Not good news.  It is bad enough that Trump pulled out of the Paris Accords, but today, August 20, 2018, Australia pulled out of the limits set up in that agreement. The government spokesman said that keeping the price of fuel low took priority over meeting the temperature limits in the Accord.  This is a surprising decision considering the horrible drought that is afflicting ranching and cattle growers in New South Wales

UPDATE:  That Prime Minister lost his job and the new PM has declared that environmental issues are more important than fuel costs.

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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

Before and After: A surprising drought tolerant succulent garden

Just after I earned my Master Gardener certification I saw a low water usage succulent garden while visiting Long Beach, California.  It really stood out because most of the gardens in the area, less than 3 blocks from the edge of the Pacific Ocean, showed a strong tropical plant influence. Well, tropicals with roses.

Naples Island garden
Many gardens near the ocean in Long Beach used to be filled with tropical plants and roses. A small patch of grass as a “front lawn”was common. 

Back then there were no significant water restrictions and most homes had small lawns in front. Long Beach today has some of the most rigorous water restrictions in Southern California and it shows in the changed gardens.

A couple of weeks ago I was back in the same neighborhood and saw that drought-tolerant succulent/cactus garden again and took a photo thinking that I would show the change and maturation of the plants over the years. At home on my computer I looked closer and recognized that many plants in the garden now are almost entirely different from the ones back in 2003.

I realized that I had always thought of drought tolerant succulent gardens as being “eternal”–requiring almost zero upkeep and lasting forever. Not true–as this garden in its 2 incarnations shows:

Succulent garden BEFORE 2003:

Long Beach drought tolerant garden 2003

This garden in 2003 had the tropical giant bird-of-paradise (Strelitzia nicolai), on the left, but most of the other plants are drought tolerant succulents and cacti. The reason I never published this photo on Hot Gardens is because of the many New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax) plants. These upright grass-like plants seem to simply die in hot, desert-like conditions which is too bad because they come in many sizes and great colors ranging from red to green to black and some nifty striped ones. Agave plants make up another important upright feature in this garden.

 SUCCULENT GARDEN AFTER 2018:
Low water usage garden Long Beach (

The giant bird-of-paradise plants are still in the garden, but now they have tall trunks leading up to the leaves at the top. Gone are the blue-green iceplants (Delosperma) that lined the sidewalk as are the New Zealand Flax plants. The Agaves have survived. And there are some tall tree-like plants in the parking strip that appear to be new. (Sorry I don’t know the names of them.)  It is, in a way, the same garden only different. And to be honest, I really like the 2003 version of this garden much better.

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  2. Six distinctively different landscapes to replace a lawn
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  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

How much should you feed and water your garden in scorching summer heat?

For months now in 2018 the daily high air temperature has been above 90 degrees (F)  (32C) which means that plants in hot dry gardens in the Northern Hemisphere have gone into summer dormancy. Even drought-tolerant plants and natives just hunker down and try to survive until Fall when the air and earth cool down. (One of the few summer bloomers is the Crape Myrtle tree, shown above.)

As your garden’s best friend and caretaker, you should water the plants regularly, but do not fertilize the plants in your arid garden in an attempt to make them bloom or grow. They are thirsty at this time of year but not hungry now so deep irrigation is best. They do not want to grow. They do not want to produce seeds. And only a few bloom during summer dormancy phase.

Blooming color in summer

Crape myrtle white and pink
Crape Myrtle blooms in hot pink and white, both shown here. They also have paler shades of pink and even one with lavender blossoms. Best of all they love the heat!

My absolute favorite of the summer bloomers is the hot pink Crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica), a native of India and China that thrives all across the southern U.S. in both dry and damp climates.  By nature the Crape Myrtle prefers acidic soil, not the alkaline soils of the American West.  In the South where the soil is acidic and it rains in summer, the Crape myrtle grows to 20+ feet tall. In the very dry hot Southwest, the trees bloom beautifully but rarely reach that height.

If you are planning to plant a Crape Myrtle tree this fall after the weather and earth cool off, be sure to add a lot of organic materials to the soil around it and water the root ball thoroughly–soak it through–before it goes into the ground to encourage good root growth.  It’s a good idea to mulch around the tree every year so it remains happy and blooming every midsummer.

Climate Change Update

During this last month in the summer of 2018, people in Spain, Japan, and countries around the world experienced record-breaking temperatures of 117 degrees (F) (47 Celsius) and higher. Off the coast of La Jolla, California, the usually cool Pacific Ocean temperature was 78 degrees which is 10 degrees above normal. At the southern end of Florida, the water temperature reached 98F (36 C) Some fish, of course, can swim away from uncomfortable temperatures, but underwater plants and slow moving and non-moving animals are stuck and may die out.

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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

The Waterless Garden Fountain: Part 2

Fountain surrounded by flowers Hot Gardens
Water once trickled out of the top of this solar-powered fountain. As water restrictions increased the fountain was turned off. Here flowers cascade around it.  To see how it looks in 2018 go here.

In Mexico, just south of Tijuana, the highways are lined with semi-improvised shops – at least they were the last time I was there several years ago.  In almost every one of these shops cast concrete garden fountains were for sale. Some were two-level; some three-level; all had elaborate decorations. But I suspect that the never-ending drought conditions across California and the U.S. Southwest have forced those garden fountain fabricators to turn to making other garden ornaments.  Benches, perhaps, or concrete angels.

Drought conditions also have forced many people who purchased a fountain in Mexico or their neighborhood garden shop to turn them off as urban water restrictions increase. So it is time to put those fountains and the shallow pools that surround them to another use as raised flower beds. Cascading flowers, obviously, replace cascading water.

The photo at the top of this page gives you one example. The solar-powered fountain has been turned off and colorful and sturdy coneflowers, daisies, California poppies, and black-eyed Susans (Echinacea) spill over the sides of the raised bed around it. This design works best when the fountain is relatively plain.

(In my last post you can see how this fountain area has changed again as the drought has continued. In the current version of the fountain at the entrance to Arlington Garden in Pasadena, the colorful flowering plants have been replaced with low water usage, mounding plants that do not bloom abundantly. The fountain still  isn’t flowing but an inch of water has been added to the basin for use by birds and small animals.)

3 level fountain succulents Hot Gardens
This fountain never has had water bubbling over the sides. It has always been used as a planter for succulents, which need regular hand watering.

Arlington Garden also has a good example of how to convert a three-level fountain into a very attractive planter. Instead of plants to spill over the sides, this one is planted with succulents some of which trail over the edges and all of them can survive in relatively shallow soil.

Plants like the Coneflowers or Lantana would not work because their roots need deeper soil than is possible in a shallow fountain basin. The succulents, of course, need to be watered to survive. They may need a daily or every-other-day splash of water. I especially like the blue-green gravel mulch around the base and in the basins.  It is suggestive of flowing water.

And my final suggestion about a waterless fountain: simply leave it in place as a garden ornament.  Most of the fountains I’ve seen are very attractive on their own.

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  8. Follow 90F degree rule for planting

Should you keep water in your garden for wildlife?

As climate change brings more drought and more water restrictions to gardens in arid climates, many gardeners have closed down their backyard garden fountains and small koi ponds.

Fountain with water Arlington garden
Years ago they turned off the water to this solar fountain in Arlington Garden, Pasadena. Now they have begun to keep some water in it because the garden has become an official wildlife habitat.

By doing this, however, wildlife such as birds, animals, and insects which have for their entire lives relied on that fountain or that little pond for their daily drinks of water are suddenly cut off. By this one change the very attractive habitat you created with your garden abruptly becomes a threat to their lives.

The birds, of course, may be able to fly to another source of water. Deer will wander away. Animals such as rabbits or gophers or mice may scurry off to another water spot or simply die out. And insects are likely to decide to join you inside your home.

So the issue of water in your garden becomes a real dilemma. Do you turn your garden into an utterly dry desert garden which is watered only infrequently and let wildlife find other solutions? Or keep your fountain running for at least part of the day?

Or perhaps you make a third choice which is to provide shallow pools of water for the animals which have made their homes in your garden. This would be my recommendation.

One example of a very shallow pool of water for birds and animals is in the photo on this page where a former fountain in a public garden has be converted to a wildlife water station with about an inch of water in it.

Today I saw another example on my Twitter feed – which I can’t find now—from a gardener in the U.K. where a ferocious drought has afflicted the eastern part of this normally damp, rainy, wet country. She had used a broad shallow dish/pot with no drainage hole in the bottom. Then added a handful of large stones in it as perches for birds. Water came next. It was less than one inch deep. While birds prefer to drink from trickling water, I’m sure this mini-pond could be a lifesaver. A variation on this is using a plastic plant saucer with rocks in it.

I’d suggest that you check the water every day when you water the plants you have in pots.  In 90+ Fahrenheit  (32+ Celsius) the water in your wildlife survivor mini-pond may evaporate by mid or late afternoon.

I’ll get back to the topic of waterless fountains in my next post.  It was after I saw what was going on at Arlington Garden, the photo above, that I decided to write about water and wildlife first.

CLIMATE CHANGE UPDATE: A bit of important trivia from the weather website: it has been 90+ Fahrenheit north of the Arctic Circle in the summer of 2018! As I update this post in 2023, the temps at the the Arctic ocean have only increased and ice is almost completely disappearing.

The Waterless Garden Fountain – Part 1

pampas grass waterless fountain
In the center of a circular driveway the homeowner planted a fountain of Pampas Grass to “rise up and fall” over the edges of the planting bed in a home in Las Vegas.

Fountains in the U.S. Southwest have almost become things of the past because of water restrictions. If however you have a yearning for that “falling and spilling over” effect you can create a simulated fountain using plants instead of cascading water.

I have two suggestions, but in this post I’ll start with the Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana) fountain, pictured at the top.  (Avoid planting the other Pampas Grass (Cortaderia jubata) which is an invasive weed. Given certain conditions–usually by a stream–it self-seeds and spreads wildly forcing out native plants.)

Here is how to make this waterless green fountain

You will need a raised garden bed for this design which you can create with stacked stones (real or artificial) or poured concrete as a containing wall. Ideally, it should be at least 8 to 10 feet long by 6 to 8 feet wide by about 1 foot high, but can, of course, be smaller. 

Now for the planting: mound good garden soil in the bed where you want your “fountain” located. The mound of soil in the center should be somewhat higher than the soil nearer the edge of the “fountain”. Plant 4 or 5 Pampas grass plants on this raised bed including one at the center. Leave a generous space between the plants. Pampas grass grows very very fast to 8 to 10 feet tall in one season and has a graceful green arching shape – as if it is green “water” rising up and spilling back down to the earth. Toward the end of summer the grass will produce tall white plumes which add another 6 to 8 feet in height to your new grassy fountain.

Rock wall with deer grass
If you want to use Deer Grass instead of Pampas Grass, here is an example of how it might look. There is a better photo of Deer Grass here.

If you don’t have the large space required for a Pampas grass fountain, try doing a smaller version with Deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens) or red Fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum). The effect with red Fountain grass will not be quite the same, however because it doesn’t naturally have the “spill over” effect. (Avoid white fountain grass, also known as Buffel Grass, a highly invasive African species.)

The care of your new waterless fountain

Pampas grass is drought tolerant in the extreme. It needs almost no water at all.  Once a year, in late Fall, Pampas grass should be cut back to 18 inches in height. The grass blade edges are very sharp so be sure to wear sturdy gloves and a heavy long sleeve shirt.

In the next post I’ll show another type of waterless fountain.

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