Desert Crest Press

Stunning desert lanscape design in Phoenix means having drip irrigation for robust, healthy plants.

Low maintenance xeriscape landscaping costs many homeowners in greater Phoenix far more money than it should to maintain a beautiful yard. Your plants need more than just the right soil conditions. Here in the arid climate of Arizona, landscaping needs assistance to get the necessary amount of moisture to be lush and flourish. The rock and stones in your desert landscaping are the only part of your landscape design that doesn’t require a balanced diet of the right nutrients and a small, but steady amount of water.

Plants, like people, require some source of hydration. How well do you perform if you are dying of thirst? While many plants that adapt well to the growing conditions in Arizona, to do well and be low maintenance as well as remain of ornamental quality, you must supply them with low amounts of water. Many homeowners do not water regularly or over water their desert landscaping. Both too much water and not enough water are going to raise the expense amount you are investing into your Phoenix landscaping. Over watering not only raises your water bill and wastes our precious resource of fresh water; many xeriscape plants become weakened and prone to disease or even death from too much moisture. This is especially true if your soil conditions were not amended from Arizona clay to provide better drainage.

Unlike having a lush green lawn, xeriscape landscaping plantings do not need sprinkler heads to provide overhead water. Unless you have live turf in your yard, this is the most wasteful and inappropriate way to provide irrigation to Phoenix landscaping, as well as all other areas of the country. Sprinkler systems are meant to be assistance to rain. A large portion of the water applied from spray or mist heads is lost to evaporation and surface run off. Drip irrigation is far more effective in reducing your water bill and subsequently the cost of maintaining your landscaping.

The combination of properly amended soil that allows both good moisture retention while providing adequate drainage and drip irrigation that periodically waters the root zones of each member of your desert landscaping is the perfect situation. Desert landscaping or xeriscape, doesn’t mean it needs no water at all unless the rain provides it. Automatic drip irrigation when properly engineered and set to run uses very little water, yet keeps your landscape absolutely at it’s best at all times. Having a professional installed drip irrigation put in your yard by a licensed Phoenix landscaper can be the smartest landscape investment you will make. It will save you a great deal of time, frustration and money over many years of landscape maintenance.

The next step in saving money on landscape maintenance for your Phoenix home, involves providing the right nutrients for the best plant vigor. In the next post from Desert Crest Press, you’ll learn all about Step #4 in reducing your landscape expenses, the easy way.

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Low maintenance beauty in Arizona landscapes and gardens starts with plant health.

All plants have certain requirements, that if met allows the shrubs, trees, flowering vines and lawn grasses to be of the very best health and vigor. When your Phoenix landscaping and garden plants are at their best, not only are they more beautiful and lush, but you will save money on maintaining your Arizona yard.

If plants could communicate verbally, you would have a far easier time understanding what they need. Since they can’t converse, most people fail to understand what their actual requirements are. The truth is that stressed out plants and those suffering from malnutrition are a large part of unnecessary landscape maintenance expenses.

You can actually save money by making sure that you have allowed your Arizona landscaping the ability to remain in picture perfect health. Just as a sickly person needs medicine or increased health care to remain alive, a plant in a state of reduced vigor will have far more requirements than one that is in good health.

Just because you have desert landscaping or xeriscape in your yard, doesn’t mean you can just stick in a few cacti and ornamental grasses and nature will take care of them just fine. There are three things that beautiful landscaping must have in order to be low maintenance and save you money.

• Proper soil conditions.
• Adequate moisture.
• A well balanced diet of nutrients.

Even when you have a professional landscape design done, if the soil conditions aren’t right where you install any plant known to do well in Arizona, it isn’t going to reward you with beauty. Sandy soil and clay soil exist in different areas; you can have varying soil conditions all over your yard in Phoenix. Xeriscape design will only thrive in a spot that is sandy, you must amend the soil to retain moisture for the plants you will place there. If you want desert plants to look lovely where there is clay soil, the soil must be amended to promote drainage. The same is true when you have tropical landscaping in your yard.

You will waste a great deal of money on water when you desert landscaping planted in sandy soil and keep it looking good. Planting desert plants in clay will most likely cause you to have to replace plants after some heavy rains or from watering more often trying to battle the sandy spots that are drying out too fast. Plants that adapt well to Phoenix climate conditions need good drainage, or the roots will begin to rot.

Poor soil conditions weaken plant’s immune systems making them susceptible to disease and even pest infestation. Low maintenance landscaping plants are far less costly to care for when the soil conditions your plant them in present the opportunity to maintain good health and pest or disease resistance. This reduces the amount of treatments for plant problems in all areas of the country, even here in the desert region of Arizona.

It is important that even drought tolerant plants not become stressed due to excessive, continual dryness. The next step in saving money on Phoenix landscape maintenance involves moisture and irrigation. In the next post here from Desert Crest, you’ll learn all about Step #3 in reducing your landscape expenses, the easy way.

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Plants in robust health are a large part of the beauty of any Arizona landscaping.

There are some very simple things that many Arizona homeowners don’t realize will reduce the amount of money needed to keep their Phoenix landscaping lush and beautiful, if done properly. It is a proven fact that plants installed in your yard can increase your annual yard maintenance costs; they can also decrease that expense. The key is to understand three basic things about plants available to homeowners in the greater Phoenix area.

One really important thing to know is that just because a plant is for sale at a garden center in your area, does not necessarily mean it will thrive in your yard. Big box store garden centers, like Home Depot and Wal-Mart, are interested in only one thing … moving merchandise in mass quantities. A strategy that is fine if you are buying flower pots, trellises and hoses. When it comes to living things, you are far better off purchasing plants for your Arizona landscaping from a small area nursery center or a licensed landscape contractor. These people are invested in the community in ways no big box store ever will be, they care about what happens after you pay for that plant.

Big box stores loose nothing if it dies, the nursery that put the plant on their shelves does. You loose your gas to and from the Wal-Mart or Home Depot for two round trips, the time and energy you invested in planting the wrong plant in your yard, the water you used trying to keep it from croaking on you and the labor expended digging it back up and lugging it back to the big box store with your receipt to demand your money back. You saved nothing buying at big discount stores, it probably cost you more in gas, vehicle wear and labor than it was all worth.

You will have far less frustration and way more beauty growing in your yard if you purchase your plants from locally owned greenhouses, garden center nurseries or have them professionally installed by licensed Phoenix landscapers. The longer you play around trying to get things growing well in your xeriscape or tropical landscaping, the longer it will take for your home to be surrounded by beautiful plants that increase your real estate’s value and curb appeal.

The next step in saving money on landscape maintenance in Phoenix area has to do with your property itself. In the next post here at Desert Crest Press, you’ll learn all about Step #2 in reducing your landscape expenses, the easy way.

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Stunning xeriscape landscape design front entry - Phoenix, AZ

Many people think that with xeriscaping there is no need for any more water than what may come with the rain. The word ‘xeri’ comes from the Greek word ‘xeric’, meaning “adjective of, pertaining to or adapted to a dry environment”. Adapting is not the same as torture and strife. No ornamental plants, even those suited for our Arizona desert plains climate will thrive and look lovely without any care at all. If they did, the desert would be stunning. Only the wild areas of undeveloped desert are suited for zero-scaping.

Plants used in Arizona xeriscaping do require some irrigation, just not huge amounts like other landscaping methods. All homeowners want a yard that looks at its best and is thriving, this is the desirable result to having the property landscaped. Professional xeriscape landscape design includes trees and shrubs well suited to the harsh climate changes of the Arizona desert. A talented xeriscape landscape designer understands that cacti and succulents are used as a natural compliment to woody landscape plants that adapt to the local conditions.

Just because this is the desert region does not mean you cannot enjoy colorful blooms, there are many, many beautiful flowers that work well in the desert. Among them are vines for scaling the courtyard walls so popular in southwestern home designs. Against stucco or stone structures, the brilliant Bougainvillea or softly yellow Lady Banks Rose is wonderful. Even here in the dry Arizona climate, colorful perennials and annual flowers thrive nicely in xeriscaping. Beautiful blooms in rich purples and reds add depth to the xeriscaped yard, while the desert plants flowering yellow or white will lighten and brighten the space. Lovely ornamental grasses known for low maintenance are also part of the well-designed Phoenix landscape.

Professional xeriscaping is designed to work with Arizona’s climate, saving you money and time when you’re not at war with nature. Many a beautiful planting can be created from the selection of plants that are hardy in the Arizona desert landscape. Skillful placement of natural rock and stone allows the xeriscaped yard a presence at one with the surrounding countryside. Your Phoenix landscape will be enjoyable, less costly to maintain and take up far less of your valuable time with xeriscaping around your home.

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