Sonoran Oasis Landscaping

Looking for a Good Desert Tree for a Small Area? You have Choices!

May 7, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

Do you have a house, patio home or town home with limited outdoor space? Most homes are getting bigger and yards are getting smaller. Homeowners don’t want the headache of caring for a large yard. And, families often want more indoor space. This combination means that you have to carefully consider the mature size of the plants and trees you add to your yard and sometimes be creative. It doesn’t mean that you have to make due with only a small variety of plant material though.

There are many plants and trees that can be used in a small area to create a stunning landscape. Follow a few simple rules and you will have a great looking yard:

Create a theme for your landscape to give it consistency. A “desert” theme would include very low water use plants such as cactus and agaves and native desert trees. You can mix in some other low-water use plants for color and interest. An “oasis” or Mediterranean type landscape would incorporate low water use plants with more color and use palms and more broad leaf plants than a desert type landscape. You can even get an oriental feel to your landscaping by using more traditional style plants that can take the heat of our summers.
Figure out how much space you have available and what the mature size of your plants will be. If you add too many plants to a small area, they will become overgrown and entangled. You can always add some temporary plants to fill in between the permanent plants and trees until they fully mature.
Talk to an expert before buying plants. Nursery workers are very knowledgeable and can make suggestions and help you choose the best plants and trees for your yard. Consider working with a landscape designer if you are starting from scratch or wanting to add some hardscape items such as an outdoor built-in grill or fountain.
Work with a professional landscaper who is licensed and will warranty their work. It can become expensive to replace plants and repair an irrigation system that you just paid to have installed.

Here are some really good small desert trees that do well with limited space. They each have their own distinct style and advantages.

It’s still not too late to plant native desert plants and trees. Just a few small additions or changes can make all the difference in the look of your yard. You don’t need a huge yard to have a beautiful outdoor space to enjoy. And, this time of year is the best time to be outdoors in Tucson!

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Filed Under: Arizona, desert gardening, desert plants, garden, landscape, landscaping, low water use plants, Planting, plants, Trees, xeriscape, xeriscaping Tagged With: acacia, desert, desert willow, garden and plant, gardening, landscape, palo verde, plants, trees, xeriscape

Using Salvia Plants in a Desert Landscape

April 16, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

I was going to call this blog post “Plant It…Don’t Smoke It.” Seems like salvia has been getting more press for being smoked than planted lately.

It’s still a great desert garden plant. Did you know that it’s the largest genus of

plants in the mint family? It comes in many colors and sizes. There’s a white variety (Salvia apiana) that does well in full sun and well drained soil.

Mexican Bush Sage (Salvia leucantha) is one of my favorite salvias. It has long light purple stalks of flowers and is taller than some other salvia plants. This salvia does go dormant during the winter and requires more trimming back in the spring than some other salvias.

There’s also a Mexican Blue Sage (Salvia chamaedryoides) and Chapparal Sage (Salvia clevelandii) which is another one of my favorite salvias.

Salvia plants attract hummingbirds and some bees. And, many of them are fragrant. They make a good container plant that can be contrasted with other container plants for an interesting look in your garden.

Watch our video about salvia to learn more.

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Filed Under: Arizona, desert gardening, desert plants, garden, landscape, landscaping, low water use plants, Planting, plants, Uncategorized, xeriscape, xeriscaping

What’s a Desert Plant that Requires Almost No Care?

April 9, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

Want a desert landscape plant that looks good and doesn’t ask much from you? This desert plant requires minimal care and just as little water. But, watch where you plant it! It can have deadly sharp leaves. So, keep it away from drives, walkways, and areas where kids or pets play. What is this great desert plant…its the Agave of course! I’m sure many of you knew I was going to say that.

Like cactus, agaves grow naturally in the Sonoran desert and are well suited to our extreme summer heat. They’ve adapted thick leaves to help hold in water for times when water is scarce. Their main defense against animals eating it is sharp, pointed leaves often with razor hooked teeth along the leaves.

A small agave with a light green leaf that gets to be 2′x2′ is the Agave parryi or Parry’s Agave. This is a slow growing agave that has sharp tips and can be used as a specimen plant.

Another small agave that I love is the Twin-Flowered Agave (Agave geminiflora). This one is dark green and does not have hooked leaves though the leaves are sharp. This agave is native to west central Mexico. It gets to about 3′x3′ and has very thin leaves. I’ve planted this agave in a pot and it does very well.

A large agave that gets it’s name from the way it looks is the Octopus Agave (Agave vilmoriniana). This large agave can get to 5′ tall and needs a space large enough to spread out. The leaves are smooth and round down to a shape that looks like octopus arms. It has a light green leaf. This agave does not grow offshoots or pups but can grow plantlets from the stalk itself.

There are over 200 varieties of agave. One of the most well-known is the Blue Agave that is used to make tequila. Agave nectar is used as a sugar substitute. And, the fibers from the agave leaves can be dried and used as rope.

This versatile desert plant has many uses and makes a great desert landscape plant. You can buy them in your local nursery or grow them yourself from the pups or plantlets. They come in a variety of shades of green and many can be found in a variegated leaf. For more detailed information about agaves check out the Desert Tropicals website. And, visit our Facebook Fan page to see what we’re up to!

Filed Under: agave, Arizona, desert gardening, desert plants, garden, landscape, landscaping, low water use plants, Planting, plants, Uncategorized, xeriscape, xeriscaping Tagged With: desert, garden and plant, gardening, landscape, plants, xeriscape

April is Water Awareness Month

April 2, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

April is a great month. Spring has come to the desert and plants are starting to bloom. Your landscape should be looking good! Hopefully, you’ve already performed a Spring inspection of your irrigation system. That’s the best way to get your plants ready for the hot desert summer ahead of us. It’s also the perfect month for Water Awareness Month. It became a state recognized proclamation in 2008 by the Governor meant to bring awareness to the precious resource of water in the desert.

Running Water

There are a lot of easy things you can do to participate in Water Awareness Month.

Make sure that you watch your garden hose when hand watering your plants. A garden hose can put out up to 291 gallons of water per hour. Before you know it, you could have a flood in your yard.

Check your spigots, valves, connectors and hoses for leaks and repair them.

Plant hardy low water use desert plants and trees. They do better in our desert environment than non-native plants. They use less water and can tolerate our scorching summers better than other plants.

Use a hose nozzle with an automatic shut-off valve to minimize water usage when watering your plants. This helps to keep excess water from watering your dirt.

If you notice that your water usage listed on your water bill jumps from the previous month’s usage, track your water usage on your meter and water bill and check for leaks. Repair irrigation leaks quickly and adjust your irrigation controller for monthly weather differences. Minor adjustments can make an impact on your overall water usage.

Did you know that watering in the early morning hours helps to reduce evaporation? Don’t water your plants in the heat of the day. That’s when evaporation is at its greatest.

You can help to keep rainwater from running off your yard by creating river rock swales to direct water to your plants and trees. Berms or raised areas on slopes slow down rainwater runoff.

Add a rain sensor to your automatic irrigation controller to automatically shut off your irrigation system when it rains. You don’t want to water when it’s raining. It automatically turns your system back on when the rain stops.

Contact us at (520) 370-5697 if you’d like to implement some of these ideas into your landscape and irrigation but don’t want to do it yourself. We can help you be more water smart!

Filed Under: Arizona, desert gardening, desert plants, erosion, garden, irrigation, landscape, low water use plants, Planting, plants, runoff, spring, Uncategorized, water, xeriscape, xeriscaping Tagged With: desert, garden and plant, gardening, landscape, plants, water, xeriscape

Texas Mountain Laurel Plants for Arizona Landscapes – I Smell Grapes!

March 26, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

Who likes the smell of grapes? That’s what you get when you have a Texas Mountain Laurel plant and it’s blooming. The big purple cluster flowers have a very distinct deep grape smell. It’s just one of the good things about this small tree/large shrub.

It’s also evergreen so the leaves stay on during the winter. And, since it’s small, it has a small root system and it can be planted by walkways or walls. They also attract hummingbirds.

Watch our short video to find out more about this native to Texas and the Chihuahuan Desert.

You can often find this plant at your local nursery in a 10-gallon container. Even when small, they bloom their purple clustered flowers. It’s a great patio tree.

Do you have questions about your Spring planting? Give us a call at (520) 370-5697. We’re happy to answer them.

Filed Under: Arizona, desert gardening, desert plants, garden, landscape, low water use plants, Planting, plants, Uncategorized, xeriscape, xeriscaping Tagged With: desert, garden and plant, gardening, landscape, plants, trees, xeriscape

Don’t Want to Use Chemicals? Organic Material for Weed Maintenance

March 19, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

We’re all concerned about what we’re using to clean our our homes and to keep pests and weeds out of our yards. We are even understanding now that some of our food may contain antibiotics and other additives that we may not want to be ingesting.

You have choices. You can purchase organic produce and meats. And, there are organic materials that you can use to help reduce weeds in your yard. Did you know that if you have a basin or wash, traditional weed control chemicals cannot be sprayed in them? They can leach into the groundwater.

Organic materials are a more earth friendly way to help with your weed control efforts. Corn gluten is an organic material that works to help keep weed seeds from germinating. And, there is a citrus-oil based product that works to kill weeds that are already growing. Watch our short video to find out more.

Contact us at (520) 370-5697 or through this blog post if you have questions about organic weed control materials. They are a viable alternative to other weed control methods.

Filed Under: Arizona, desert gardening, garden, landscape, weeds, xeriscape Tagged With: desert, garden and plant, gardening, xeriscape

Pruning Back Plants in Desert Landscapes

March 12, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

March is here and we’re getting warmer weather in Tucson. Do you have plants that were damaged this winter and have a lot of dead leaves and branches on them? Or, do you have older shrubs that have gotten woody and scraggly? Then, now is the time to do some hard-pruning.

You might be wondering what exactly is “hard-pruning.” Sort of sounds like using a big rock to prune your shrubs. Not exactly something you would want to do to your desert landscaping plants! Hard-pruning involves pruning back a shrub to about 1″ to 6″ above ground level. This helps to rejuvenate an older shrub or get a winter cold weather damaged shrub ready for spring.

Some shrubs respond better to hard-pruning than others. Oleanders and Texas Rangers do very well when pruned back to just above ground level. Hopbush plants respond fairly well too. You want to make sure to do this type of trimming at the beginning of spring. If you wait until later, it is too hot in Tucson to do it. Your plants have the tendency to burn and die if you do this in the summer. They can freeze and die if you perform this type of trimming in the fall or winter. Cassia shrubs don’t always recover from hard-pruning. When they do, they often take a lot longer to recover from the pruning. You may not see much new growth until the second year after they have been pruned.

Some plants such as lantana plants need to be severely pruned back in the early spring to remove winter damage on branches and leaves. This time of year you will notice new growth on the bottom of lantana plants under the dead branches. Trim your lantana back to the new growth for the best results. Lantana will look as if it is dead at the end of the winter but it’s still alive. The top branches protect the roots and lower branches during the cold weather of the winter months.

Salvia plants are not as frost-tender as lantana but may need to have some dead branches removed in the early spring. Salvia plants are typically winter survivors and do not go dormant but often get brown dead branches in the winter.

If you’re looking for a spring cleanup with hard-pruning or want to add some plants but don’t want to do it yourself, we would love to help you. We can do a small planting job or a full landscaping cleanup. Call us at (520) 370-5697 to get a free estimate.

Filed Under: Arizona, desert gardening, desert plants, frost, garden, landscape, Planting, plants, spring, Uncategorized, xeriscape, xeriscaping Tagged With: desert, gardening, landscape, plants, Pruning, xeriscape

Want a Little Luck? Try a Shamrock Plant

March 5, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

I think we can all use a little extra luck. And, March is a good month to get some with St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner. Shamrock plants are the indoor plants of this Irish holiday. Did you know that one superstition holds that if an unmarried woman finds a four-leaf clover and eats it, she will soon meet her future husband? I’m not sure that this is the best way to meet the man of your dreams. But, I’m all for having good luck and adding green to my environment in the Tucson desert.

St. Patrick's Day plant

Shamrock plants (Oxalis species) are tender leafed plants that are grown from bulbs. They grow to approximately 8″ high and 8 – 12″ wide. They should be kept indoors if you want them to do well. Don’t plant them outside in your desert landscaping. They come in different colors of leaves and not just green. They like moist soil but don’t keep it soggy.

The Shamrock plant needs a rest period a few times year. You’ll notice that the leaves start going yellow and drooping when it’s time to let it rest. Place your Shamrock plant in a low light area. Reduce your watering and remove the wilted leaves and your plant will recover nicely.

You can transplant your Shamrock plant every few years to make sure the roots are doing well and giving your plant a boost with new soil. Your plant should give you many years of joy and hopefully some good luck too!

Another interesting Irish fact…over 40% of American Presidents had Irish ancestors.

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Filed Under: garden, landscape, landscaping, Planting, plants Tagged With: garden and plant, gardening, landscape, plants

Tucson Gardening – Using Desert Spoon as an Accent Plant

February 27, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

Have you heard of the Desert Spoon plant? What does it make you think of? A wooden spoon made out of cactus maybe? Actually, it’s a great plant to use in a Tucson landscape.

Desert Spoon is also known as Sotol and it’s scientific name is Dasylirion wheeleri. Use it as an accent plant in an open area away from play areas, walkways and driveways. It gets the name Desert Spoon because the area where the leaves meet the trunk forms a wooden spoon. Pretty interesting! It gets a stalk in June where it’s flowers are formed and it’s fruits mature in August. Unlike agaves, the Desert Spoon does not die after it’s stalk blooms.

Watch our short video to see what the Desert Spoon looks like and how to use it.

Sonoran Oasis Landscaping is dedicated to the use of desert plants and water-saving irrigation. Visit our website to find out more about us. Or call us at (520) 370-5697 if we can help you with any of your landscaping needs.

Filed Under: Arizona, desert gardening, desert plants, garden, landscape, landscaping, low water use plants, Planting, plants, xeriscape, xeriscaping Tagged With: desert, garden and plant, gardening, landscape, plants, xeriscape

Desert Landscapes & Gardening: Are Your Rocks Working for You?

February 20, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

How often do you think of rocks? Usually only when you’re adding them to an area. And, why do you add rocks to an area? To use as a ground cover. To make swales in your landscape and garden. To keep people from running over your plants (using boulders).

There is another reason to use rocks (specifically Catalina rock). You use it to help keep a sloped area from eroding. And, when you have a wash area that you want to stabilize. Sometimes you don’t realize you need to add rock until you have a problem.

Our short video shows an example of Catalina rock being used to stabilize a wash that had a lot of runoff when it was just dirt.

Most rip rap type rock such as Catalina rock comes in the size of 4″ – 8″. This size of rock covers approximately a 40 square foot area and equals about one ton. Just measure out your area and you can easily figure out how much rock you’ll need to cover your area.

And, of course, if you don’t want to go through all the trouble to do it yourself give Sonoran Oasis Landscaping a call at (520) 370-5697 to help you with your rock project. We’d love to do it for you!