Get helpful tips and tricks for your desert garden from a professional landscape interior decorator .
Utah landscape designer Rod Rasmussen packed in an regalia of blossom , texture , and form in the desert landscape ideas for this garden . In the foreground , a blooming steeple shoots up from ared yucca(Hesperaloe parviflora ) amid brusk blooms bring about by redautumn sage(Salvia greggii ) . This low - growing evergreen plant bush tolerates a piece of spectre . ruby-red yucca repeats throughout the border to carry the centre down the track .
Purple - floweringTexas ranger(Leucophyllum’Heavenly Cloud ' ) , anevergreen shrubwith grey - green foliage , is a repeat flub that produces flowers for several week up to four times a year . A banana tree yucca ( Yucca baccata ) is a popular desert landscape gardening idea that expands stake on the right side of the path . " When design desert gardens , you always involve a couple of yucca , " says Rasmussen . " They bring character reference , structure , and stand as a sculpture when plant alone or amid plants with softer leaf . "
A honey mesquite tree ( Prosopis glandulosa ) offers a rest from the heat . It get anatomical structure to coloured bed framing a pathway fashioned from chat , lilliputian stones left over from screened crushed rock . schmooze stays compacted , simulates the look of flaxen soil , celebrate down weeds and dust , and works well with desert flora figure .
Provide a Stage
send big - money plants where they ’ll be visualize most often for an impressive desert landscaping mind . Rasmussen always uses large plant and striking combination to mark ahome ’s entryway . He incorporates industrial plant that offer multi - time of year interest whenever possible , like the patch ofprickly pear cacti(Opuntia ) that acquire yellow blooms through spring . The prime give way to reddish fruits ; the boat paddle shade purpleness in wintertime . A pink - flower Mexican Origanum vulgare shrub ( Lavender SpicePoliomintha ) provides fragrance , flowers , and waxy evergreen foliage . Apalm tree - like beaked yucca ( Yucca rostrata ) supplies a dramatic crowning touch .
Get Inspired by Your Home
Take your cue from yourhome ’s architectureand the surroundings for desert landscaping mind . This domicile was built atop a lava - careen theatre of operations , so Rasmussen incorporate black lava rocks in the border pace up the slopes and framing thewide steps . He placed plants so their forms would delineate the eye toward the front door but enough off from the steps so they would n’t irrupt on the upward panorama — or bruise guests .
On the unexpended side of the steps , a rocky item chalk plant ( Malephora lutea ) andsilvermound artemesiasoften the Qaeda of the garden , while a gray desert spoon andpurple - flower verbenaadd interest to the midground . boo of paradise trees ( Caesalpinia gilliesii ) , which grow 10 foot tall , frame the top of the steps . In later spring , they bear yellowish blooming that attract hummingbirds . At the very top on the rightfulness , Rasmussen set a giant sword blossom ( Hesperaloe funifera ) , a yucca - like plant that producesstalks of snowy flowers .
Use Appropriate Desert Landscaping Ideas
Tired ofhauling out the hosiery ? Combine drouth - tolerant works motley that can go foresightful stretch without watering . Here , ego - sustaining plants mirror the arched shape of a nearby stucco paries . Honey mesquit branches soften the foreground , while grey-haired desert spoonful ( Dasylirion wheeleri ) provides a contrasting erect form and colour behind the shrubbier spirit of turpentine bush ( Ericameria laricifolia ) and creosote bush ( Larrea tridentata ) . Like many desert plants , the two shrubs hold tiny leaf , which help works hold wet .
If these plant wo n’t grow where you populate , get a desert smell by incorporate belittled - foliage shrubs , such as potentillaorcaryopteris , pair with plants with steel - like leafage , such as Adam ’s needle(Yucca filamentosa ) .
Add Architectural Interest
Stucco - walledraised beds show how desert plant can be combined to create moretraditional gardens . " The idea here was to use plants to visually shorten the marvellous walls , " Rasmussen says . " So we plantedtrailing rosemaryto spill over the upper walls and then planted erect yucca in the beds below to fill up out the lower wall . " Red - flowering yucca , a pink - blossom Mexican oregano bush , and smoky - blue spires of Russian salvia ( Perovskia atriplicifolia ) wreak in concert to lighten up the upper tier . soda water of crimson emanate fromdwarf oleanders(Nerium oleander ) , a mounding bush with large clusters of blooms from spring into fall . Uprightmyrtle spurge(Euphorbia rigida ) , yellow - blooming composition flower ( Psilostrophe tagetina ) , and weed of agave and yucca keystone the terraces .
If you live in areas where there ’s copious rain and high humidity , you’re able to still include desert landscape gardening idea using plants suited to your region . Jeff Clark , a horticulturist at High Country Gardens in Santa Fe , recommends a Dominicus - fire up web site withquick - draining soil . You ’ll find microclimates suitable toxeriscape plantsbordering west- and in the south - facing foundations , stone path , rock wall , and in the " inferno airstrip " between pavement and street . Lighten ground with compost and coarse guts or crushed crushed rock . A good grow mix for xeric plants is 2 parts coarse George Sand to 1 part organic matter or dirt pinch with agravel mulch .
Skip the Lawn
Instead of awater - hogging lawn , plant a desert garden suit to natural weather . Rasmussen used this desert landscape musical theme across a client ’s front yard . He used a seam of chat and strategically scattered lava rocks to tie the plantings to the adjoining landscape painting .
promptly - growing clumps of Russian sage fill out the background , supply ask height and long - lasting colour . Parry ’s one C plant ( Agave parryi ) and yellow barrel cactus mixing in diverge forms and texture . xanthous - bloomingdesert marigolds(Baileya multiradiata ) impart sunny color amid the cacti and sage . They ’ll readily reseed themselves and naturalise among their familiar plants .
Landscaping Tips
