Desert Crest Press

While many homeowners regard lush Scottsdale, Glendale and Phoenix lawns as against water conservation, turf breeders have been busy creating grass varieties that require less water than older, more traditional varieties. It is no longer true that Arizona grass is high maintenance, has a lusty thirst or that it will not grow in shaded areas. In fact, having lawn sod in Arizona does reduce the temperature noticeably and can help to lower your energy use for cooling a home when combined with trees.

Shade is always the best relief from that desert sun and those who insist on having green lawns in their outdoor living spaces or for curb appeal are always disappointed that the stuff just refuses to grow in the shade. This too has been corrected for your Phoenix, Scottsdale and Glendale landscaping beauty. Coming available for the first time in the 2011 season is a brand new and phenomenal Bermudagrass sod in Arizona. Unlike some varieties that are introduced and cause a stir, this new turf for Phoenix lawns and those in surrounding locales, is well acclimated to our climate. In fact, TifGrand® that is coming this spring was trial grown and tested right here in Arizona throughout it’s development process.

It isn’t just having a new type of grass to work with that has savvy Scottsdale, Glendale and Phoenix landscapers excited about the introduction of TifGrand® Bermudagrass becoming available. It’s arrival brings with it an end to the age old dilemma of getting good thick grass of the same variety to do well in both sunny and shaded areas of a client’s yard. If you know anything about lawn grasses, you will instantly see just how amazing this new sod is to having long lasting beauty in your yard.

Scottsdale – Phoenix landscaping and Glendale landscaping doesn’t have to be totally desert in design to be low maintenance and only require reduced water usage. This new TifGrand® Arizona grass is an excellent solution to enjoying Phoenix lawns that will thrive just about anywhere it is installed. If the area you’re having trouble keeping your grass green and lush gets about 4 hours of sun a day, then your angst over that bald spot is over! The same lawn grass performs very well in full sun to 70 percent shade, and in some situations continues to grow we even in 90% shade cover. If no sun reaches the area that is bugging you at all, then not much will grow there – including TifGrand.

If you’ve been thinking its time to consult some landscapers in Phoenix, Glendale or Scottsdale as to how they can help you to overcome lawn damage due to mole crickets, increase the thickness of turf in shaded areas or be able to enjoy the beauty of lush green expanses without having to pour tons of fertilizer and precious water on it… now is a great time to do so. You see, this new sod in Arizona for all around Phoenix lawns is not just a rising star but so unique the seed is patented. To be granted a plant or seed patent, it must be proven beyond the shadow of doubt that there is nothing else that is the same anywhere.

TifGrand®(PP21017) will be available from Phoenix landscapers like Desert Crest for application this year in your Glendale landscaping, Scottsdale landscaping or Phoenix landscaping. So you might want to reconsider tearing out that needy lawn and replacing it with nothing but xeriscaping plantings.

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From Scottsdale to Glendale and Phoenix, landscape design for outdoor living spaces and especially pool landscaping gives us the perfect place to add water features. Many homeowners will want to conserve water usage in their yards and landscaping, so it makes a great deal of sense that in areas around Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona swimming pool fountains many times double as waterfalls.

The beauty of natural rocks used in constructing nicely designed water features like this really does a lot for enhancing the attractiveness of swimming pools and at the same time provide the focal point for your Arizona pool landscaping. With compact properties like most of us have today, fitting as many lifestyle enhancement features into a small area is one of the first challenges of getting the most out of our outdoor living spaces as possible. So, it’s rather convenient that these in demand elements and requirements all work so well together.

After all, traditional Arizona swimming pool fountains aren’t much to look at – a white piece of plastic floating around on the surface gives you no aesthetic value whatsoever. Incorporating water features as waterfalls into the pool landscaping creates an entirely new environment in your backyard, one that is soothing and visually exciting at the same time.

Whether you live right in the main Phoenix area or out in Scottsdale or Glendale, landscaping will be important to create just the right entertaining and escape place. With patios and pool decks flowing as one area today, Glendale or Phoenix landscape design requires good planning to get everything situated just right. Sometimes small, intimate outdoor living spaces can be more exciting than large ones. Take this particular waterfalls water feature’s location that doubles as a rather impressive swimming pool fountain’s recirculation system.

If you’re going to be able to have a lot of drop to your waterfalls, putting your swimming pool right at the bottom of a steep his is exactly the site you need. Otherwise, your water feature isn’t going to look natural at all, and that is important when the desired end result is simply gorgeous Scottsdale, Phoenix or Glendale landscaping.

Not that this particular homeowner had much choice as to where their swimming pool, landscaping around it or even their water feature was going other than the foot of this steep incline. It is a very small backyard, and is now wall to wall outdoor living spaces in a very compact area. It is only a few steps from the patio and built in bbq’s location to the pool, hot tub and waterfalls that doubles as the swimming pool fountains. It was a challenge to plan and install, but this unique Phoenix landscape design is the perfect setting for a wonderful place to escape in privacy and entertain small groups of friends.

ater features, outdoor living spaces, Phoenix landscape design, Glendale landscaping, Phoenix waterfalls, Glendale waterfalls, Arizona swimming pool fountains, outdoor living spaces

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Plants that work well and are easily maintained in your Phoenix, Scottsdale and Glendale landscaping, are many times desert native plants. This is because they are acclimated to our climate and our soil, and since they survive in the wide open desert, these plants will usually be great for xeriscaping landscaping. However, they will most likely need some regular light watering, if you are going to have Arizona landscaping quality plants.

One such plant is Arizona Yellow Bells or Tecoma stans which will bring brilliant colored blooms to your yard from late March through November. This makes them an excellent selection for interesting Scottsdale, Glendale and Phoenix landscape design where large shrubs are needed to form privacy borders and screening.

It is best to use some consideration in the placement of Yellow Bells in your xeriscaping landscaping. Although when the planting any Arizona landscaping is new, those small plants with the fabulous yellow trumpet blooms all over them will one day reach up to 15 or even 20 feet tall. The Tecoma stans is often sheared into submission after several years in any Scottsdale, Glendale or Phoenix landscape design.

The good news is that there is a much shorter variety of Yellow Bells available that is more suitable to today’s smaller residential properties. If you want the large, vase shaped form, by all means, go for it. It is quite a sight covered with clusters of trumpet shaped flowers that are individually up to 2 inches across. But, choose an appropriate spot in your xeriscape plan to allow it to grow into itself with all the natural beauty these desert native plants possess.

For those who prefer the smaller version, you’ll want to make sure that Tecoma stans var. angustata is what you’re getting ready to have planted in your Arizona landscaping. This one only grows to 4-10 feet tall with a spread of 3-8 foot across. Why such a wide variation in the mature size? Depending on the winter low temperatures, Arizona Yellow Bells can experience tip damage at 28 degrees, or die back to the ground if we experience 20 degree cold spells.

Its a great choice for adding tropical flair to xeriscaping landscaping with those big flower that hummingbirds adore and if you select the var. angustata type, the narrow leaves are bright green with a heavy sheen – far more showy the the large leaf, full sized version in our smaller yards today. These flowers are followed by long, narrow seedpods.

The larger version of Arizona Yellow Bells is a native of Mexico and Central America and the smaller shrub sized variety is a native of Texas and New Mexico. This is part of what makes them easy keepers in your xeriscaping landscaping. Their natural habitat is alkaline desert soil, however, do be sure to water the root zone lightly every week or deep root drip irrigation very well every other week.

These relatives of the Jacaranda Tree and Trumpet Vine will need good drainage and full sun to light shade in your Glendale, Scottsdale or Phoenix landscape design. Full sun is best for more abundant blooming, but requires more frequent moisture restoration to keep them at their very best vigor and beauty in your Arizona landscaping.

Images courtesy of Eustaquio Santimano (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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Outdoor living spaces evolved from BBQs, not just here in Arizona, but nationwide. Once upon a time, patio designs weren’t much more than a mud-free place to enjoy your lounge chair and grill up some burgers, the occasional steak and provide your children with their beloved hot dogs.

Things have come a long way since the days of accepting the poured concrete patio as the place to relax. That charcoal grill has long been replaced by built in gas grills designed to accent and embellish Phoenix patio designs. Kicking back and enjoying spare time somehow became synonymous with everything that embodies backyard living and now encompasses all outdoor home activities from entertainment to mid-week dinner for the family.

There aren’t many complaints about this change in expected uses of a yard or the application of features in Phoenix landscape design that draw the variety of uses we find in our backyards into a cohesive whole. Granted, Phoenix pavers for patios have done a great deal in making full featured outdoor living spaces a much more feasible goal for even the average homeowner. And then there is that BBQ, where magic in cuisine  happens on a daily basis for anyone, on every level of society.

And who could blame us for suddenly needing built in gas grills? There’s plank cooked meats, secret marinade recipes for every style of cuisine from Bangkok to Buenos Aries to Baltimore and beyond. From simple hotdogs and hamburgers or flame seared steaks and on into full blown gourmet meals, our outdoor BBQs have unleashed a whole new way of embracing patio designs as an important part of Phoenix landscape designs for Arizona living.

One may say it is smaller properties that has driven us to create outdoor living spaces that encompass both patio designs and pool landscaping into a place known as outdoor living spaces. Truthfully, we have only compacted all the finer points of the world we own beyond the back door to enrich and enhance our daily lives, as well as our homes.

Rather than simply settling for the latest and short lived model  of outdoor Phoenix BBQs offered by long standing barbeque manufacturers, we can now create one with masonry and a variety of simple to incorporate built in gas grills that allow us to cook up just about any dish under the sun.

Patio designs today for Phoenix landscape design commonly incorporate pool landscaping as part of the overall outdoor living space’s allure, hot tub spas included. Compact backyards allow us to put together a handy assortment of features that are easily accessed, somehow separated and yet create a wonderful unit known outdoor living spaces in Arizona landscaping. It doesn’t stop with built in gas grills and homeowners can now create destination escapes right outside their back door with the right design and installation company as their contractor.

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