Desert Crest Press

There is elaborate landscaping in Glendale and the towns surrounding Phoenix, and then there is a more subtle approach to welcoming the world to your front door. While many in the area prefer that lush green lawn and many leafy flowering plants in an opposition to our desert reality, there are those homeowners who prefer a xeriscape over suggesting this house stands in the verdant Midwest. Neither of these approaches are wrong by the way, its a matter of personal taste and opinion.

One thing that does make a huge difference in the attractiveness of xeriscaping landscaping in the front yard is the choice of sidewalk material, and the shape of this major walkway. Without the heavy green expanse of lawn areas and layers of greenery found in traditional landscape designs in other regions, it gets more difficult to sneak by with the standard builder’s concrete sidewalk. Why? Imagine this Glendale landscaping without the color and textural interest of the Phoenix pavers sidewalk. It would lose a huge portion of its curb appeal.

There are very subtle accents in this landscape design that frame this lovely paver walk way and give just the right amount of leaf and color to soften the walls of the house. Granted, over time, the xeriscaping plants used in this front yard will increase in size and mass, but will never take over the space completely. The landscaping rock that is such a fantastic combination with the color of the home’s masonry will always be visible.

In deciding what pavers would work best with any color of house, most people concentrate on what they see close up in individual blocks. However, no one will ever lay down in the sidewalk to inspect the pavers this closely once they are installed. When you have a mass of the block laid out on the ground, the whole look of them changes. You see more variety in color and texture directly in front of you than you do at a short distance where these blend and take on a totally different look. Notice this in the image that accompanies today’s post? The yellow you see at the curb blends in with the brown in this selection of Phoenix pavers giving off a color that you can’t see right in front of you. It is this blend that really makes the walk way really work with the color of the house.

Many would steer completely away from yellow as the right accent color to use in their Pheonix or Glendale landscaping with a masonry color like this on the walls of the home. The first notion is to use something more like red or orange due to the warm tone of the stucco. As you can see, the yellow is excellent, very vibrant and lively, making this xeriscaping have wonderful curb appeal. The lighter value of the Phoenix pavers walk draws so much more interest out of the contrasting landscaping stone and gives the desert plants in the arrangement carry far more impact than they would with a more subtle colored walk way.

Popularity: 9% [?]

training the plant; maintaining plant health; improving the quality of flowers, fruit, foliage, or stems; and restricting growthHomeowners everywhere turn their attention to the yard when spring arrives. It seems to be an instinct humans have, the need to whip that Arizona landscaping into shape before summer arrives. For the shrubs and trees surrounding a house, it could be that your schedule and theirs won’t mesh well at all.

Not only can improper pruning ruin the future shape of your bushes and trees – pruning at the wrong time of year can cause severe damage, even death. Did you know that more landscaping plants die every year due to improper pruning and neglect than the number lost to pests and disease? Unlike someone’s hair, a bad cut will not always fill back in over time. The damage may not be apparent for several years. It can also swiftly weaken the immune system, bringing on attack by pests and disease. Well maintained plants for desert landscaping have a strong immune system and a natural shape that is easily depleted by the activities of humans.

Why we practice pruning.

If you’re assuming that clipping, trimming and thinning is just what you do to have landscaping that looks cared for and nicely groomed, you couldn’t be more wrong. There are only four reasons anyone should ever make cuts on shrubs and trees.

1. To train the plant
2. To maintain plant health
3. To  improve the quality of foliage, flowers, fruit or stems
4. To restrict plant growth

With proper planning in Arizona landscape design, heavy shearing to reduce the size of shrubs and trees isn’t necessary. The proper plant for the space should mature to the right proportions for beauty and safety. Unfortunately, this is more often not how the landscape was planted. For whatever reason, many Scottsdale and Phoenix area homes have a few to perhaps many shrubs that require constant attention to keep their height or width under control. While this may make it easier to back out of the driveway without colliding with a car already on the street or to enjoy the view out a window, harsh shearing lessens the length of any plant’s life.

In trees this practice is called ‘topping’. It is never okay to top a tree, though in cases like Crape Myrtles, this is done on an annual basis to produce bigger blooms. Not only can the tree not support the weight of these massive blooms on the young branches, but the excessive new shoots growth at the cut make for one ugly tree in the future. Left to Nature’s devices, these ornamental small trees have a very lovely shape and bloom quite nicely. Topping in other types of trees should never be done. A rule of thumb for the trees in your yard is that deciduous trees should be trimmed or thinned in winter and never by more than one third of the crown size. Evergreens should only be pruned after the new growth has hardened off in early summer.

When in doubt – don’t prune or shear. If you’re unsure of how or when to do any trimming for the best results, it would be wise to call in the experts. Scottsdale and Phoenix landscapers that have been in business for a decade or more will have the experience to know when its the right time to prune any tree or shrub that thrives in our climate and how to properly make the cuts for vigor and beauty to be maintained.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Your home in the Scottsdale – Phoenix area may be new or older and built on either the traditional or contemporary architectural lines of Southwestern house styles, and still be perfectly lovely with a more naturalistic looking Arizona landscape design. Here in the desert, xeriscaping landscaping doesn’t automatically mean that your yard will be without great style or attractiveness. Sometimes, our preconceived notions are a barrier to our ability not only to imagine just how lovely true desert landscaping can be, but also how attractive it can make a home look from the curb.

Most homeowners seeking Glendale, Cave Creek and Paradise Valley landscaping, don’t readily look for a more naturalized form of xeriscape in their Arizona landscape design. While where in the yard such a style of landscaping is used will be important, with the right plant selection and soil preparation, you can definitely expect it always to be interesting and attractive. You can achieve a great deal of curb appeal without using desert plants that require a lot of fuss. Do count on supplying them with a drip irrigation system though, even though xeriscaping landscaping plants suited for our climate and soil are water conservative, they will need the proper amount of moisture to look great, flower abundantly at the proper time and create value for your property.

Looking natural doesn’t necessarily mean au naturale. The ability for your Arizona landscape design to look like it belongs here has a great deal to do with the knowledge of your landscape designer. For Paradise Valley landscaping, and other locales around Phoenix and Scottsdale, plants like Turpentine Bush can be quite lovely when laid out in the right manner, along with providing bright yellow blasts of color in the fall. It serves as a fine textured groundcover type of shrub for your landscaping that can be highly effective planted en masse.

Cane Cholla cactus is an excellent water conservation selection with architectural presence that xeriscape needs when used for Phoenix, Scottsdale and Paradise Valley landscaping.  It has gorgeous flowers that are borne in spring from late April to mid May. Known as a tree cactus, It can add height without weight to many a xeriscaping planting. While it is definitely not going to provide the full presence of the average shrub, when used in combination with leafier plants, it can be striking and very beautiful.

Getting the right combination and layout of xeriscaping plants to suit your Arizona home does offer you many choices, despite what you might instantly assume. Whether you’re in need of Glendale, Phoenix or Paradise Valley landscaping – matching the plants, the layout and your outdoor living spaces needs versus your curb appeal does call for artistic balance. Use plants that require more care in the surrounding plantings for your courtyard, patio and pool landscaping as opposed to those viewed from the street to enrich your experience of home and beautiful spaces to live your life. This allows you to make the most of precious fresh water, take advantage of the myriad of possibilities that xeriscape can give your Arizona landscape design.

Popularity: 11% [?]

In many areas of the country, it would be all wrong to add permanent brilliant color to residential patio designs. Things are different here in Arizona where Southwestern architecture with it’s Spanish and South of the Border influence is predominate. When adding a new patio to your Scottsdale landscaping, where it is located may have a great deal to do with whether the color comes from plants or not. Take this particular featured patio as an example.

Yes, there are plants, but very few and the most colorful ones are potted and placed in the focal point between the eye catching stair case and the outdoor water fountain. Other than that, only a narrow bed between the stone pavers and the safety rail allows space for permanent plants. Of course, this patio is more unique than most as it is not on the ground level, which makes space at a premium for entertaining and seating. There isn’t any room to expand the landscape planting as you would have with ground level patio designs. Since this photo was taken when the installation was completed, it is highly likely that the homeowner has added more potted plants for a livelier outdoor living space.

Naturally the bold primary colored tiles that are part of the house on the risers of the stairs leading to the upper story really stand out against the stark white stucco walls. On the more popular earth tone stuccoes most homes are done in today, though vivid, these colored tiles would not be as noticeable. By picking up the more restful blue and repeating it in solid expanses in the tile seat top and the water feature’s face, two things are accomplished that may not be noticeable.

1. Any potted plants that are added to the space whether flowering or just foliage will not blend into the permanent structures. There will never be a ‘wrong’ color of bloom or leaf to use here, allowing the homeowner to change accent colors at will in the areas away from the stairs.
2. The stone paver’s warmer tones aren’t made more pronounced, allowing the outdoor living space’s flooring to remain very neutral.

We have had other clients who have added brilliant color to their Scottsdale landscaping on the permanent elements rather than with large plants due to the space being very limited. Having a bright purple retainer wall may not be on the average homeowner’s wish list for their Arizona landscape design, yet when seen used properly, they love the creative use of color and the vibrancy it adds to a small space. One tip for anyone who is getting ready to add outdoor living spaces to their Scottsdale or Phoenix area yard. The color of the walls of your home will influence the choice of bright accent used. The purple mentioned above would be too much with this white house, yet it was perfect with the darker stucco walls. You can see that something more outstanding than blue was called for on this Patio Designs post from 2009.

Popularity: 12% [?]