Category: flowers for desert gardens

Fixing that neglected side yard

It’s long. It’s narrow. And a home’s side yard is usually given little attention. Perhaps the original builder or an earlier owner spread a layer of rocky mulch on the soil and added a few stepping stones along the unused passageway from the front to the back of your home. But often it is not even considered part of the garden.

I have to confess that I ignored my current home’s side yard. A previous resident had, in fact, covered the 10 foot wide strip with reddish brown rock mulch. No stepping stones, however. There are pockets of grass where baby Mourning Doves huddle together and, in another corner, one rugged, volunteer Lantana plant survives. On one side of this passageway is a 6 ft. tall wood fence and on the other, the pale, sand-colored stucco wall for my living room. No windows — thank goodness.

Then, one day this last summer when it was once again 110 degrees fahrenheit outside here in Arizona I realized how much cooler that side of my home–the south side–would be if I planted something tall and shady there–a tree that was very drought resistant and wouldn’t die in relentless 100F+ heat.

Two drought tolerant trees for shade

My first thought was to install a Palo Verde tree in late October or November, when Fall planting season starts. I love this Arizona native’s brilliant yellow blossoms in April but once the flowers are gone, it would only provide a light screen effect with its leafless branches. Not much help countering the blasting sunlight in summer.

Then, I thought, what about another favorite of mine, the long-blooming Chitalpa (Chitalpa x tashkentsis)? Its branches would be ladened with pink flowers for months on end. And Chitalpa trees have leaves to cast more shade than the Palo Verde. Better yet, they grow fast and are so tough that in Las Vegas and Tucson they’re planted as street trees.

But I had to face reality: the passageway is only 10 feet wide and both the Palo Verde and the Chitalpa should be planted a minimum of 15 feet away from the side of a house.

So, a tall, skinny tree was called for–like an Italian Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) which I know grows in Los Angeles and the Mojave desert. I haven’t seen many of them here in Sonoran desert gardens. A friend in Vegas planted a wall of them but looking at her garden now, maybe that is not the solution–especially when I check the price for 5 or 6 trees. I’ve been told that they suffer from red mites and if not watered deeply they will die.

Thanksgiving and cooler weather arrived and I stopped thinking about shady trees for my side yard. But in that doldrum week between Christmas and New Year, I began to consider it again.

Tough shrubs are a shady solution

Shrubs, I decided. Big, leafy, drought tolerant shrubs–maybe 5,6 or 7 feet tall–planted like a wall of shade next to the house. They will never grow tall enough to shade and cool the roof, but drought tolerant shrubs could block some of the blasting sunlight heating up the stucco. (Yes, Yes, I know I wrote about shrubs to cool concrete block walls last January. I’m now following my own advice.)

lantana hedge in Pasadena

Texas rangers (Leucophyllum frutescens) and upright Lantanas (Lantana camara) immediately came to mind. Both bloom often throughout the year, usually after some rain falls.

With some strategic trimming colorful Lantanas, like the ones in a hedge in Pasadena, can be encouraged to grow to 5 feet high. The Texas Rangers, however, I plan to leave untrimmed. I hate what commercial “gardeners” do to these beautiful, loose shrubs: whacking them into a lollipop shape with most of the lovely purple flowers cut off.

I’ll plant in February when we have had more rain and the soil is beginning to warm up. Now to figure out what to do to my back yard where a neighbor’s small tree died last year. It shaded both our yards and cut off the view from two homes behind us. Maybe that’s the right place for a Palo Verde or Chitalpa. I’ll let you know.

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.

How to make wildlife happy in your garden

You’re probably happy with your gardening efforts — with good reason. After all, you…
– planted a tree on the south or west side of your home to cool it
– removed your front lawn…and perhaps kept some grass in the backyard for a children’s play area
– even added one (or more) shrubs along that concrete block wall to minimize the heat.

So congratulations!

But this post is about why you should take a second look and see your garden through the eyes of a hummingbird, lizard, butterfly, quail, ground squirrel, or other wild creature that may live in your area. (But not javelinas or bears. They are clearly not animals you want to encourage.)

You may even want to re-think your garden as a haven–a kind of “happy place”–for wild creatures in your neighborhood and, thus, deserving of being a Certified Wildlife Habitat. Complete with an official metal plaque you can order and post in your front yard.

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and the Arizona Wildlife Federation set standards for having a Certified Wildlife Habitat and the official plaques come from them. They state that in order to be Certified a garden should provide wildlife with food, water, cover from predators, shelter for raising the young, PLUS do all this sustainably.

Start with food for wild creatures

For wildlife food the NWF suggests that you plant natives with colorful flowers and lots of seeds. It’s not necessary, however, to install only native plants because natives often bloom all at once. Other drought-tolerant plants that bloom and produce nectar or seeds at different months during the year can be suitable additions to your wildlife-friendly habitat. For example, you could plant South African natives Pink Trumpet Vine (Podranea ricasoliana) or Cape Honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis) for summer nectar for bees and birds. Humingbird and birdseed feeders can also be good additions to your backyard.

Then next to those vines, for example, plant a desert native Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) and Mexican Gold Poppies (Escholtzia mexicana) to produce seeds. (Click below to see images of each.)

  • Pink Trumpet Vine Podranea ricasoliana
  • Capoe Honeysuckele
  • Mexican poppies in Tucson

Daily water is a must-have

To provide water, small shallow plant saucers or bowls are your best bet. Backyard fountains look glorious, but given the water problems–and potential water rationing–in the American Southwest, fountains should be disconnected and turned into planters.

Add a few small stones to the plant saucer to help smaller creatures, such as little lizards or little birds, drink comfortably from this water source.

Hidden from danger

Like humans, wildlife wants shelter from predators and shelter to raise young. These can be identical. Trees and shrubs–from short to tall–are excellent hiding places and nesting sites for birds, as well as havens for insects and lizards. These two photos, taken at the Tucson Botanical Garden, demonstrate wildlife-friendly gardening with shrubs at various heights combined with tall trees. There are also hiding places between the pots shown in the second photo.

What you don’t see in these photos are wide stretches of rock mulch with one or two plants. In a good wildlife garden at ground level, attractive ground covers, like cacti and succulents as well as Lantana montvidensis, hide small creatures from predators. Lantana is also a good food source for bees. (In the first photo a fountain appears in the back right side, but we do not recommend adding fountains these days!)

  • lantana montevidensis yellow blooms

Now, the last requirement for Certification as a Wildlife Habitat is that the garden is sustainable. You probably already do much of this: minimize or eliminate lawns, harvest water, avoid pesticides, use natural mulch, and use only drip irrigation.

Do all this and you, too, can have a Certified Wildlife Habitat. You can take the first step here.

While this post is primarily written for gardeners in the arid U.S. Southwest, these standards for a wildlife-friendly garden apply worldwide including Australia, the U.K., Cyprus, and Middle East where many Hot Gardens subscribers live. And where many native creatures are now struggling to survive due to climate change.

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

Turn a love of gardening into extra cash

Mother Nature can be your BFF if you want to turn your love of gardening into a source of extra spending money. And it is so simple. All you need are inexpensive pots you can buy on Amazon or your local garden center, some potting soil and patience. Then, on a sunny Saturday, hold your “garden sale” on your driveway.

Here is how to start creating cash from plants

varigated pelagornium geranium

Take cuttings from special plants in your garden and plant them in small plastic pots–like the ones you see in the local garden center. Actually, the plants don’t have to be rarities, but they do have to be healthy. For example, if you have a sturdy geranium (Pelargonium) with pretty blooms or varigated or scented leaves, take a few 4″ to 6″ long cuttings for starters. Then stick the cuttings in a inexpensive plastic pot filled with good potting soil. And water frequently. If you think that your geranium seems too ordinary, keep in mind that you liked it enough to buy it, so, no doubt, other people will like it too. You could even have an example in bloom nearby during your garden sale so people can see how attractive it is. It may take six weeks for the geranium cutting to take root.

Divide to multiply

Another example of a plant to sell would be iris, which grow well in hot dry climates as well as looking beautiful. You should divide iris rhizomes every 2 to 5 years anyway, so why not keep some and offer others for sale? Be sure to cut the leaves back to 5 to 6 inches and clearly label the color and if the iris is a rebloomer.

Depending upon where you live, you may also have agapanthus in your garden and they are good candidates for dividing. Simply dig up the root ball, cut it into 2 or 3 large size pieces, replant one section in your garden and sell the others. You should probably divide the iris and the agapanthus just before your driveway garden sale. They should not dry out before replanting. It might also be helpful to your customers to have a little note to give them about planting iris and agapanthus. Each has different requirements.

Then there are seedlings–pick your favorite annual flowers and herbs–which should be started in very small pots again like at the garden center. Then water and wait.

Mother Nature should do her work within a few weeks. The cuttings will have taken root and the seeds should have sprouted to produce seedlings.

Advertise your private garden sale

Then hold a “garden sale” on your driveway on a Saturday morning. Post signs around your neighborhood. List your garden sale online on Craigs List or Next Door. Post notices about it on community bulletin boards. 

Before the sale begins do some research about pricing. As you probably know, iris rhizomes are expensive and agapanthus, too, so price yours accordingly. But geraniums are priced lower and herb seedlings even lower at garden centers and yours should be, too. And at the end of the garden sale day, you pocket the money you made and move any unsold pots into your back yard to continue growing until you hold your next garden sale.

Selling unusual plants for microclimates

Hot gardens plumeria blossoms
Plumeria blossoms are exceptionally fragrant and the plant–a small tree–can grow indoors.

Not long ago we spoke with a man at a California farmer’s market who had trimmed an old tropical Plumeria tree in his back garden and put the 2 foot long ends of the trimmed branches into big plastic pots filled with rich potting soil.  Several months later, when he was confident the cuttings had taken root, he held a garden sale on his driveway based on one ad on Craigs List. And he earned over two thousand dollars over two weekends.

A few weeks later he showed up at a farmers’ market with the few remaining potted Plumeria and proceeded to sell them in another couple of weekends. His goal for his garden sale was to raise money for his daughter’s college education.

One of the reasons he was so successful was that Plumeria trees had just begun making a comeback in popularity after 50 years of being pretty much ignored.  His Plumeria was also of a rare color, which made it all the more desirable and allowed him to charge higher prices.

It’s important to note that Plumerias need a sheltered microclimate in a Southwest desert garden; their leaves will burn when subject to intense, all day sunlight. (Sorry, Phoenix, no plumeria trees for you.) On the other hand, they do well in Mediterranean climates where the temperature doesn’t rise over 90-95F very often.

Cacti and condos – meant for each other

A retired couple we know sell succulents and cacti in small, colorful pots at a local open air market for extra retiree income. Cacti and succulents are often the plants of choice with apartment and condo owners because they grow very slowly and can be ignored for weeks without whithering and dying. Of course, cacti and succulents are the mainstay of many desert gardens so homeowners are also potential buyers.

And as with the other garden sale ideas in this post, Mother Nature does most of the work in producing the products you sell. And you harvest the profits.

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.

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.

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.

Plant white this fall for nighttime viewing next summer

Fall is the best time to plant in hot dry gardens. The soil has now cooled enough that the roots of new, young plants won’t die from being enveloped by hot summer dirt. And summer dirt can be really hot: up to 140 degrees F (60 degrees celsius!) in direct sunlight. At that temperature the roots “cook” and if the roots get cooked, the plant dies. So do your planting now. Over winter, the roots will have plenty of time to toughen up and spread deep into the earth before the heat comes back next year.

Now I have a few suggestions for what to plant this Fall for a White Garden for nighttime enjoyment next summer.

A famous garden reinvented for the Southwest

First a little background: the White Garden was “invented” by author Vita-Sackville West when she designed a garden room at Sissinghurst Castle in the U.K. with plants that only produced white flowers. It was a radical idea for that time, the mid-20th Century. In fact, the White Garden vaulted her into fame as a garden designer and horticultural columnist for the London Observer. (She was already famous–maybe infamous–for her personal scandals and novels!)

So borrowing her idea–although not the plants she used in cool, damp Kent in southern England–here is a slide show with a few plants to use in a White Garden in the American Southwest.

  • White roses
  • White crape myrtle
  • White yarrow
  • Japanese Privet
  • Pittosporum- very fragrant

In addition to these white flowering plants you could also include dwarf White Oleander, White Jasmine Vine, white Iris, or Texas Wild Olive. Be careful with the Texas Wild Olive, Cordia Broissiere, because the seeds are slightly toxic to humans. Birds, however, love them. Also take care with the Oleander, all parts of it are poisonous.

Plants with variegated or silver leaves can also add luminousness and be reflective in a nighttime garden.

  • Variegated Turf Lily
  • Artemesia Powis Castle

Even if you are not interested in a white garden room, adding white blooming plants to an otherwise color-filled or all-green garden brings a spark of interest and contrast to the other plants.

Full Disclosure: I have visited Sissinghurst Castle to see Vita Sackville-West’s garden rooms. The book she wrote about her gardening ideas, “Sissinghurst” is available on Amazon. Someone, not VSW who passed away in 1962, is posting on Twitter using the handle @thegardenvsw . The tweets, taken from her writings and accompanied by photos, are always very interesting.

A reminder for Fall: be sure to add organic mulch around plants in your garden and, if possible, dig it in without disturbing the roots. Also avoid using mulch that has peat in it. From what I read from U.K. gardeners peat retains carbon which helps slow climate change. Better for all of us for the peat to remain buried in bogs rather than scattered around our gardens.

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

Gardens walled in by color in historic old Tucson

By midsummer most of the plants in hot, dry gardens–with the exceptions of Lantana and Mexican Bird of Paradise–are muted desert green.  Desert style gardens simply look drab and dull  at this time of year. The plants are in survival mode until Fall.

xicn Bird of ParadiseMy first plan for this post was to focus on those two plants which bloom in full force in summer. It turns out that the Mexican Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia mexicana or C. pulcherrima. ) is also known as the Pride of Barbados and Poinciana. And while it flowers in sunset colors, left, one variety has only yellow blooms. And as for Lantana, a least here in Tucson, these popular plants need some shade during the day or they will rush to bloom and make seeds.

But as I was driving around historic old Tucson neighborhoods looking for good examples of Mexican Bird of Paradise to photograph, I noticed that so many gardens were  filled with color. But not from plants.  Homeowners had taken an adventurous route with painted walls — both on their homes’ exteriors and the garden walls that surround them. The green colors of plants had almost become accents.

Yes, we all know that painting walls and homes can be quite expensive, but the colors can be inspiring. And, once painted, the colors last for decades.  No watering, no fertilizing, no replacing sick or dying plants required.

Here are a few of those colorful walls and homes.

multi color home
Why settle for one or two  when you can paint each wall a different color? Variations on this  shade of green seem to be growing in popularity. The terra cotta wall and beige are more traditonal–but not when used this way!

blue stucco garden wall
Blue garden wall with a pink painted house is a color combination I saw more than once. I wonder if the lights wrapped around the tree trunks are turned on regularly or only during the winter holiday season.

pink garden walls
There is a kind of subtle minimalism about the pale pink walls with just a few plants. The home behind the walls is a slightly darker shade of pink.

golden stucco garden wzll
The palm trees leaning over this golden garden wall are laced with bougainvilla blooms–a very clever idea while the palms are not too tall.

orange color stucco wall
Nothing shy about this chocolate brown painted home with vibrant orange trim and a matching wall. The desert plants in front of the wall seem to be accents now, but the agaves and barrel cactus will grow quite large in time.

green color house Tucson
While green is making a comeback as an exterior color, this all green home is really over the top. Maybe a subtler shade of green? Maybe tempering the green with an accent color? It is certainly non-traditional for a stucco home.

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

Summer Do’s and Don’ts and Spying on your Garden

I have to apologize for not posting on the Hot Gardens blog for a while.  As some of you already know I have been traveling for several months and blogging on the road can be a challenge.

In the U.K. many gardeners are now calling for a return to roadside and backyard natural meadows. “Stop mowing”, they say.  Not only can a meadow be beautiful it will support insects and animals that are under threat by climate change.  This is a practice that Prince Charles has advocated for decades. His castles are surrounded by native meadows not tidy mowed lawns.

superbloom flowers
Flowers in the Sonora desert outside Calexico

This wet Spring those of us who live in the Southwest had a rare glimpse of how desert meadows can look during the amazing Super Bloom that swept across the West. Yellow, orange and golden flowers everywhere!  People, birds, insects and animals loved it. The rainstorms have finally slowed down and the Super Bloom meadows have now vanished.

Even without a meadow in your backyard you can help support native insects and animals, by adding a water source somewhere on your property.  It doesn’t have to be a fountain.  Simply put a few pebbles and small rocks in the bottom of an old pie pan then add water to it daily to help sustain the life of native creatures you may never even see. The pebbles give birds and insects someplace to perch while drinking the water. Putting out a larger container of water might also attract native night visitors like deer or rabbits.

If you are eager to see which creatures are visiting your “water hole” or “desert oasis”–whatever you want to call it–install a motion activated video camera aimed at that pie tin or water bucket. Some of these cameras  are now priced below $80.

Lantana camera in fountain
Lantana overflowing a fountain that has been repurposed as a flower container.

And, finally, just a reminder that when the temperature reaches 90°F on a daily basis, you should slow down fertilizing your garden. In the extreme heat that will continue into Fall, plants hunker down to survive.  With the exception of a very few summer bloomers, in hot, dry climates plants don’t waste energy on growing or blooming during summer. Feeding them lightly perhaps monthly will help them survive.  Water your garden regularly, however.

If you would like to follow my travels around the U.S. go to Wandering Lady and become a “Fellow Traveler”. I have been on the road since March and am now in New Orleans. Happy gardening!

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