Category: garden landscapes

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

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For goodness sakes, cover up that naked wall

Okay, you removed that thirsty grass in your front yard. You’ve also planted a tree or two or three around your home, shading at least part of your yard and the house, reducing the temperature. But off to the edge of your property–if your home is like most in the U.S. Southwest–is a dreaded gray concrete block wall.

That wall, if left bare, is a heat magnet. Nakedly exposed to direct sunlight the concrete absorbs heat during the day, even on cool days. Then after sundown, the wall releases the heat into the air creating a pool of warmth surrounding your home — just when you’re trying to cool things off at days end. And as the climate changes the wall-heater effect will only grow more intense. So what’s a smart gardener to do?

4 ways to help walls keep their cool
pomegranate fruit on bush

Plant shrubs in front of the wall. In one of my gardens I planted a row of the “Wonderful” variety of pomegranates (Punica granatum). These fast growers will reach a height of 6 to 10 feet. You may want to keep them trimmed to match the wall height because they can reach twice that height. Pomegranates need very little water. A special bonus with pomegranates is, of course, the fruit you can harvest in the late summer. In Fall the leaves turn a lovely shade of yellow before they drop. If you do not harvest the fruit you will have shrubs with bright red “ornaments” on them during the holidays. To see other shrubs for hot dry gardens, go here.

pampas grass hiding a wall
The lawn by this row of Pampas grass has since been removed. Behind it is a dull gray block wall.

Plant tall grasses in front of the wall

On another wall in the same garden, a previous owner had planted Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana). After a summer’s growth Pampas grass will be 8-10 feet high plus another 5-6 feet of seed plumes. And it does all this with little need for irrigation or fertilizer. By mid-winter, this perennial should be cut back to 18 inches tall. Be sure to wear gloves and a long sleeve shirt when you cut it back because the leaf edges are rough and serrated. It will re-grow to the same height in the following summer. 

Avoid planting the variety of Pampas Grass called Cortaderia jubata which is a highly invasive weed. Given the right conditions — usually by a stream — it will self-seed and spread wildly forcing out native plants.

privet hedge deergrass skirt

If you want to avoid Pampas grass — and many people do–another choice would be Deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens) which grows to about 2 feet tall during the summer. It too grows seed plumes in Fall, but they are more modest in size than the ones of Pampas grass. While Deer grass will not cover up the entire height of your wall, it can be a base plant used with other shrubs. Unlike Pampas Grass it does not need to be trimmed back in winter. Needs very little water. To see other ornamental grasses for hot dry gardens, go here.

Install trellises along the wall

Trumpet creeper campsis radicans

Plant climbers on the trellises–like a Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans) from the eastern U.S. It is a self-attaching vine with bright yellow and orange blossoms.

This vine can grow as much 40 feet in one year! Because it is such a vigorous grower and can become invasive, it is best planted in a large container beside the trellis or arbor. It is tolerant of a variety of soil conditions and of heat and cold. Needs moderate water in summer.

To see other fast-growing climbers and vines for hot dry gardens, go here.

For the unexpected — Kool Deck your wall

Paint your concrete block wall with “Kool Deck” or another heat-reducing finish normally used on pool decks. These finishes come in a variety of colors so you can give your garden walls a custom look.

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.

Where to get free or cheap trees in L.A., Phoenix, San Diego and…

The push for increased tree planting in cities around the world swells with each disruptive weather event. Whether it is reflected in nation-drowning floods in Pakistan or wildfires sweeping mountainsides bare in California, climate change has arrived. And ordinary people are saying: “We gotta do something.”

In response to clamor from citizens to “do something”, several U.S. Southwest city mayors have begun to set goals for the number of trees that should be planted in their communities. And they have enlisted the aid of organizations–usually utility companies–to help them by offering free or discounted small trees.

Before I go into how to get free trees locally, however, I want to answer a basic question.

Why plant trees?

Tree planting in cities has gone on for decades, mostly for aesthetic reasons. People like living and walking along tree-lined streets. There are now two other reasons to plant a tree at your home.

A street lined with Palo Verde trees that bloom brilliant yellow in April.
  1. As I wrote in the previous post, trees can become green canopies, natural umbrellas to cool hot city streets, sidewalks and other hardscape. It is a simple mechanical process: tree leaves blocking, reflecting or minimizing sunlight means cooler air and a cooler landscape underneath.
  2. There is also a chemical process that occurs when a new tree is planted. As they grow, trees absorb carbon dioxide, a gas that is a major contributor to climate change. Trees are carbon capturing plants that remove CO2 from the air and keep it stored in their leaves, trunk and branches. Less CO2 slows climate change. And the oxygen plants emit is the breath of life for people like you and me.

Trees planted for both these reasons make the world a pleasanter place for humans.

Ok. Now for those free trees

In Los Angeles, the Green New Deal identifies a goal of planting 90,000 trees. To reach that goal an organization called City Plants will deliver up to 7 free trees to your door. You have to plant them yourself but they provide instructions.

Crape myrtle

Don’t have space for another tree? They will also plant a street tree in front of your home or business, including obtaining the proper city permits.

City Plants also offers many “Adopt a tree” events for same day pick up of one fruit or shade tree. Check their website for details.

So who is picking up the tab for all this? The LA Dept. of Water and Power.

In Phoenix the goal is to plant 5,000 trees every year to increase the citywide tree canopy to 25%. It’s currently around 10%. Working in conjunction with Salt River Power and Trees Matter, Phoenix residents can take home 2 free desert native trees — mesquites, palos verdes, desert willows–after attending a Zoom meeting about planting and caring for trees. This program is underway for 2023.

San Diego is going in a different direction: homeowners receive a $35 rebate from San Diego Gas and Electric for each tree purchased up to a total of 5 annually. And–happy news for renters and condo owners–you don’t have to plant the tree in the ground. Put your 1 or 5 gallon starter tree in a big pot on your balcony or patio and you qualify for the rebate.

Chines pistache tree hot gardens

In Tucson, the goal is an ambitious Million Trees planted by 2030. Trees for Tucson, a part of the environmental organization, Tucson Clean and Beautiful, is selling locally grown trees for $30 each. You will have to plant the tree yourself.

A better tree deal comes from Tucson Electic Power. You can order up to 3 starter trees through their website for $5 each. They will send you an email about where and when to pick up your tree to take home and plant.

Like San Diego, Albuquerque uses a rebate program to help homeowners plant new trees. The ABQ Tree-Bate plan will pay a homeowner 25% of tree planting costs up to $100 as a rebate on the water bill. Better yet, the rebate can cover tree maintenance expenses and irrigation installation as well as the tree you plant from the city’s authorized list. Be sure to check the website before you rush out to buy a new tree.

And San Antonio, which really isn’t in a desert but I’m including it anyway, gives away free fruit trees at various special events around the city. (If you want more info about growing fruit trees in the desert go here.)

Big goals but not involving homeowners

El Paso also has a goal of a Million Trees planted, but is working through a non-profit organization which solicits cash donations and does the planting itself. I couldn’t find anything about free or almost free trees for homeowners.

Another example of a non-profit soliticiting donations and doing the planting is Las Vegas where the mayor wants the city to plant more than 60,000 street trees by 2050 to provide shade and bring temperatures down in areas most impacted by the urban heat island effect. Nothing on the website about tree planting assistance for homeowners.

Now about those huge national and international tree planting organisations

I am suspicious of some of the organizations who will for a dollar or two or more promise to plant a tree on your behalf somewhere around the country or around the world. You may not be helping who you think you are. Some are commercial tree growers who plan to harvest the “tree you paid to have planted” in 15 to 30 years. “Your tree” may well become a roll of bathroom tissue! These people are not restoring permanent forests!

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.

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.

Winterproofing palms to survive climate change

You have probably already seen one: a tall palm tree wrapped in strips of burlap which the owners hope will protect the tree during winter cold. In truth, this burlap bandage going from the ground to where the fronds begin is unlikely to have any impact at all.

There is, however, a proven way to “weatherproof” and protect palm trees in areas where winter temperatures sometimes fall below freezing–places like Palm Springs, Tucson, Las Vegas and London. That’s right–palm trees are now being planted and thriving in London in the U.K., a city that is further north than Seattle.

Climate change is definitely having an impact on gardens worldwide and on which plants will thrive where. While we think of palms as warm climate trees, they are now being planted in areas where cold, freezing winters are normal. And future changes in weather conditions are becoming more unpredictable, except that it looks like extremes of hot and cold will become normal.

The Proven Way to Protect Palms

So here is how to look at the situation: The best way–the proven way–to winterproof palm trees, which thrive in warm to hot weather, is to start off right and plant one of the palms that are also hardy–one that has built-in DNA resistance to winter chill. And you may be surprised at how many palm trees fit this requirement.

Mediterranean Fan palm for identification purposes
This Mediterranean Fan Palm (Chamerops humilis) in Las Vegas is shrub-like – not tall and stately.

Let’s start with my London friend’s palm tree which she was told by her local garden center was a “New Zealand palm”. I recognized immediately that New Zealand had nothing to do with it. Her palm was and is a sturdy, hardy multi-trunk Mediterranean Fan Palm (Chamerops humilis).

Ideal for small gardens, this short shrub-like palm has survived brief cold spells down to zero F. (-18 C.) And “brief” is the important factor; their survival depends on daytime warming after a night of chill. It has been 14 years since she planted it in a sheltered corner and, growing slowly, it still survives, and recently has even bloomed and produced fruit.

The next on this list of chilly-weather survivors is the Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera), a native of the Middle East. It’s the tree you probably think of when someone says “palm tree”. Tall with long pinnate (rather than fan-like) fronds, this 75 foot high giant is very hardy. It has been known to survive and regrow after experiencing temperatures down to 5 F. (-16C.) Dates are, obviously, edible and the difficult-to-find Bahri dates are the very best. Unlike the chewy Medjool dates you buy in a store, Bahri dates are soft, delicious and taste like caramel.

Next is the Date Palm’s cousin, the Canary Island Palm, (Phoenix canariensis). While a few of these palms have reached a mature height of over 130 feet, that is uncommon. But they still are among the tallest palms. It will withstand temperatures to 20 F. (-7 C.) at least for a short time.  After a cold snap the fronds will turn brown and may very slowly regrow.

Tall palm trees native to the West

More common in gardens here in the West are two fan palm trees. The California and Mexican Fan Palms, (Washingtonia filifera and W. robusta), natives of Southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, are also rugged, surviving cold weather as low as 18 F. (-8 C.)

Trimming the “hula skirt” of dead fronds off these trees may make them look a bit more tidy but that “skirt” offers the palms some protection, some insulation from severe weather. The downside of not removing dead fronds is that Mother Nature may do it for you during our fierce Spring and Fall windstorms. And falling palm fronds are very dangerous. The thorns on these fan fronds are also hazardous.

Like the date palms, the Washingtonias can reach heights of 60 to 100 feet, making them not particularly suitable for residential gardens although we see them planted around homes everywhere. After a few years’ growth they are more like architectural columns in a yard than trees.

Shorter palms for home gardens

A native of Mexico’s rocky Guadalupe Island, the Guadalupe Fan Palm (Brajea edulis) is a distinctive palm with a smooth grayish-brown trunk and silvery fronds. It grows about a foot a year to a mature height of only 25 feet tall, ideal for a residential garden. It flowers in summer from long drooping stems and the blooms are fragrant. Because it is a native to a small island with variable weather conditions, it tolerates heat, wind and drought, and it is one of the hardier palms, to 18 degrees F. (-7.7 C)

Pindo Palm (Butia capitata) , a native of dry South American savannahs, is another short palm, growing only to 20 feet. In Florida where it is popular in home gardens, it is known as the Jelly palm because people make jelly with its fruit. It tolerates temps as low as 5°F (-15 C) In this photo a very young Pindo palm was planted at the same time as the Washingtonia behind it. They have very different growth rates.

Originally found in high altitudes in China, Japan, Myanmar and India, the Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) is a semi-dwarf palm with windmill-shaped fronds. Slow-growing to 15 feet tall, this tree loves our summer heat but will withstand winter temperatures of -10F (-23C).

My favorite fails the chill test

My favorite is the graceful Queen Palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana) a native of South America commonly planted in Southern California. It does not do well at all in cold weather. While I’ve seen it planted in hot dry Palm Springs, but with the weather uncertainty stemming from climate change, it may not survive there at all, except in a local micro-climate. Nearer the California coast, it grows beautifully and is ideal for home gardens.

And finally…

If a freeze comes and your palm tree ends up with browned fronds, do NOT remove it right away. Give it a few weeks or even a month or two of Springtime weather and it may very well produce green fronds again. And if you have to replace it in the end, choose one of the palms on this list.

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  1. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
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  4. Five fragrant plants for your garden
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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

What NOT to plant for fire season

I have always loved what I call the “Tucson Gardening Style“. No broad swathes of grassy lawn browning in the sunshine. No water-guzzling attempts at English flower garden borders limp in the heat. Just native plants left where they were growing before any house was built: prickly pear cacti squeezed side-by-side with creosote bushes and saguaros and agaves and chollas and mesquites. And most of the time these Sonoran desert natives grow right up to the side of the house.

But on June 5th, after the Bighorn wildfire burst into life north of Tucson, this native plant gardening style suddenly seemed less charming and more threatening.

At first the Bighorn fire was just billowing smoke high up in the Santa Catalina Mountains. By June 9 when I drove around northern Tucson to to take photos for another blog, I began to realize an inferno would result if this fire reached down into the upscale Catalina Foothills neighborhood which had only hours before been designated as a threatened evacuation zone.

As I took a few pictures I also realized that in California, where I used to live, the “Tucson Gardening Style” would bring the fire service knocking at the door armed with chain saws and big fines. The law in California is that there must be a 100 foot cleared open space around a home and it is aggressively enforced.

There is, however, such a live-and-let-live “Nobody’s going to tell me what to do” outlook by many Arizonans that it is unlikely that type of regulation would ever be passed here.

Okay, while I live in Arizona now I’m going to ignore local attitudes regarding plants because wildfires happen here and throughout the Western United States. Here are some recommendations about garden plantings to help prevent your home turning into an pile of burnt rubble from an urban or wild fire.

First, clear plants away from the sides of your home and other buildings. Don’t let any shrubs or trees touch or almost touch a building. If the plants catch fire — even if ignited by sparks from a neighbor’s BBQ instead of a wildfire–your home could burst into flames before you even notice it.

While many trees suitable for hot dry climates have oily leaves, the Australian-native Eucalyptus trees are among the worst. Sure, they smell so good, but they are 50 foot high torches just waiting for a little spark to light them. As much as they seem to be great trees for hot dry climates (fast growth, low water usage, lovely dappled shade), they are not. As witness: the massive fires racing through the Eucalyptus forests of Australia in recent years.

I have also seen palm trees burning as 50 foot high torches in Los Angeles during an urban fire, but while embers fell from the palms, they did not seems as potentially dangerous as a flaming eucalyptus with its branches whipping in the wind casting sparks all over the area.

For very a different reason don’t plant a Cottonwood, a major water-sucking plant. Again, it is a fast grower, but will guzzle every drop of water in the ground around it and deprive other plants of water, leaving them tinder-dry. Cottonwood roots will also invade your plumbing and septic systems.

One grass is on the Do Not Plant list:

Buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris L., or Pennisetum ciliare L.) is often called white fountain grass. An African native, it grows and blooms quickly, then dies back to leave dry, quick-burning fields waiting for a lightning strike to start burning. This grass, a threat to native plants including Arizona’s famous Saguaro cactus, has been mentioned as a key factor in the origin of the Bighorn fire. You can view a new webinar on the topic of buffelgrass damage to the Saguaro National Park .

Red Fountain grass does not spread wildly like White Fountain Grass. And it looks lovely when the wind blows.

Instead of Buffelgrass, consider Red fountain grass (Cordyline) which is less invasive and stays where it is planted. The much larger South American-native Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana) will also stay where it is planted in a desert climate, but not if there is a pond or stream nearby. In that case it becomes invasive forcing out native plants.

Now onto something more positive. While the evidence is anecdotal, a few homeowners have sworn that their huge water-logged agaves saved their homes during a wildfire. I’ve seen the photos and the agaves encircling the homes look as if they have melted, but the houses were spared. It’s important to note that there was a cleared space between the house and the agaves and beyond the agaves, too.

As for planting any trees or agaves, wait until fall. It is too hot now and there is a great risk that anything you plant will die of heat at this time of year no matter how much you water it. Don’t let the landscape guy tell you otherwise!

The Bighorn fire is still burning on June 19th, but because of a wind shift, it is moving northeast, away from Tucson proper. A photo of it taken yesterday is at the top of this post. According to reports over 3,000 Saguaros have already been destroyed, but–happy news–most of the wild animals in the fire path, including baby mountain goats, have escaped. And there has been no loss of homes or human life so far.

Here is what happens to an SUV when the Forest Service makes a Phos-Chek drop. It’s that red stuff fixed wing airplanes drop on the edges of fires.

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

Light and shine for your holiday garden

luminaria

Even if you decide not to deck out your home with strings of lights and other festive decorations this year, consider using luminaria on your porch, in windows or along a walkway during the holidays. To my eyes, homes with luminarias are so much more attractive than ones with dancing elves and soaring Santas. (Although children love the elf-and-santa version of decorations!)

Many garden stores now have ceramic or metal luminarias but they are easy to make at home:

1) fold down the tops of brown paper lunch bags you can buy at the grocery store as if making a cuff and
2) fill in the bottom of the now-shorter bag with a handful of sand or garden soil to anchor it, then
3) set a tea-light in the bottom center of your handmade luminaria and
4) light the tea-light. Voila–you’re done!

Garden Gifts

If you have a gardening friend and are looking around for a holiday gift idea, consider giving them a garden ornament. These three are definitely for the friend who has everything. The two glass ornaments are in the garden behind the Sonoran Glass School in Tucson and are available for sale. The desert tortoise is not for sale and permanently at home in the Arlington Garden in Pasadena.

turtle garden ornament

But these three can be inspiration. If you like the idea of glass in the garden but would like something more affordable, consider buying a tempered glass wind chime at your local holiday faire. And almost every good garden shop has animal ornaments for reasonable prices.

Winter Flower Blooms Again

amaryllis bloom

Looking ahead: when the amaryllis blooming in your home during the holiday season fades, plant the bulb outside in a very sheltered place and in about 14-16 months, the amaryllis will bloom again…and every year after that. I had one in my Mojave garden that bloomed and produced offset bulbs for over a decade! The offset bulbs, which I separated from the original bulb and replanted, in turn bloomed in Springtime, too. It was definitely a gift that kept on giving! Happy holidays to you!

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

Look to South Africa for unusual off-season flowers

Our mild Autumn weather is almost a second Springtime, especially for gardeners who live at lower elevations in the desert with warm winters.  Plant pretty annuals like carpets in empty flower beds to replace any perennials that have died back. Take care not to disturb the roots of the perennials because they will be back next year.

Or fill pots on your patio to overflowing. At higher, cold-winter elevations it may be too late as the first winter storms have blanketed mountains with snow.

Should you dig up the flower bulbs?

While some people, particularly in the U.K. and New England, dig up their bulbs in Fall, in most of the U.S. southwest it is not necessary. But if you want to add flowers from bulbs, rhizomes and corms to your garden, now is the time to plant to assure yourself of Springtime flowers.

purple and white iris

Freesia and Iris are two of our favorites. Both require little water and no attention. The exception, however, are those re-blooming iris that flower in spring and fall which need heavy watering.

The incredibly fragrant Freesia dies back to the ground after blooming; the Iris keeps its leaves and provides an upright structural element in a garden border.

If you already have Iris, split and replant the rhizomes now for double the flowers next year. Do not plant them deep. Simply place them in a shallow trench and cover lightly–deep enough to protect from a freeze if you live in an area with occasional light freezes in winter.

About tulips: yes, you can plant the bulbs, but they really love a damper, milder climate — like the Netherlands or Seattle.

Flowers from South Africa

Gladiolus dalenii

You may be much better off planting bulbs native to South Africa, such as the freesia-like Tritonia or the Watsonia borbonica, which looks like a miniature gladiolus. The low-growing Babiana is a Sub-Sahara native also worth considering as an edging plant. It looks somewhat like a crocus and does well in a desert garden.

The Gladiolus (Gladiolus dalenii), above, a South African native, is a delicate variation on the large, sturdy upright “glads” of late summer. These bloom in Spring.

Salvia leucantha sage

One plant that is a joy for so many gardeners in California and the Southwest is the Mexican Bush Sage, Salvia leucantha ‘Midnight’ that blooms twice a year. Unlike re-blooming Iris, the Mexican Bush Sage is not a water guzzler. It naturally blooms in Spring and late Fall.  It is a super-tough plant with tall spires of purple or purple and white flowers that stay in bloom through December! One year I even clipped the flower stems and used them to decorate my Christmas tree. Tip: Cut it back to about 8 inches high in January and it will re-grow and bloom again in March.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

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