Desert Landscaping – A New Challenge In Landscaping
To save water while growing low-maintenance plants, it
is worth considering to bring desert landscaping practices into your
home garden. Forget about your Wily E. Coyote image of the desert: all
flat, brown, and barren except for a few foreboding cacti. Like any
other landscape, the desert hosts perfectly adapted plants and flowers.
You do not need to turn your whole yard into Arizona, but you will
certainly enjoy at least one xeriscaped bed.
What Is Xeriscape?
Xeriscape is another term for desert landscaping. It is the art of
growing plants that need very little water.
Desert landscaping is first a very responsible environmental choice.
Plenty of places have an overall wet climate but experience stretches of
drought. When all the neighbors are scrambling to water between watering
bans, you will be enjoying your xeriscaped yard without using water by
practicing desert landscaping. The water that the county has been
treated for drinking by humans can be saved for humans.
In a dry climate, plants grow very slowly. While this means your desert
landscaping may need some filler for the first few years, after a while
it will fill your spot very well. Some xeriscapers even mulch with
pebbles or lava rocks rather than mulch. The plants do not need humus,
and the rocks last pretty much forever. Patterns of different colored
rocks become part of the decoration for desert landscaping.
Recommended Plants For Desert Landscaping
Cacti are what we most associate with desert landscaping. They come in
sizes from giant saguaro to tiny plants that look like spiky pebbles on
the ground. All cacti produce flowers, but some do so only rarely. One
species, native to the United States, produces lots of large, delicate
yellow blooms in summer. Called the prickly pear for the pear-shaped
fruits that form after flowering, this plant can grow two or three feet
tall with a similar size spread and it is ideal for desert landscaping.
There are also plenty of non-cactus plants that do well in a xeriscaped
bed for desert landscaping. Periwinkles and heather grow large and lush
in dry places. Lantana is not quite a desert plant, but it needs so
little water that it can go with the cacti. Visit your local botanical
garden to see what grows well in their xeriscaping section. You will
probably see aloes, yuccas, and plenty of other plants that are suited
well for your desert landscaping.
Unless you live near an actual desert, it may be difficult to buy desert
landscaping plants locally. Check the internet and plant catalogs for
species to grow.
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