Sonoran Oasis Landscaping

Are Tombstone Roses in the Tucson Landscape Right for You?

February 13, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

When is a rose not a rose? When it’s actually a vine. Tombstone Roses or Lady Bank’s Roses (Rosa banksiae) is a sprawling vine or a wild loose shrub. It grows great in out Tucson desert weather.

If you’ve ever been down to Tombstone, you may have seen the world’s largest rose bush. This is a Tombstone rose and it covers over 9,000 square feet! Imagine that.

Watch our short video about this great desert vine.

You can also find out more information about the Tombstone Rose at Desert Tropicals.

Visit our website at Sonoran Oasis Landscaping to find out about all the services we provide!

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

Protect Your Irrigation from the Cold

February 6, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

We’ve been getting some nice warm weather in the Sonoran Desert. But, as we all know, the weather can still turn cold here. Just remember the cold snap we had this time last year. And, think about protecting your irrigation system from the cold.

Insulating your pipes with protective material and tape is simple and easy. And, if you have a larger property, consider purchasing a protective insulated bag for your back flow protector. Watch our short video to find out more.

Call us at (520) 370-5697 if we can help you with your irrigation protection or preparing your irrigation for Spring with an irrigation tune up!

Filed Under: Arizona, desert gardening, frost, garden, irrigation, landscape, landscaping, spring, Uncategorized, xeriscape, xeriscaping Tagged With: desert, garden and plant, gardening, irrigation, landscape, water, xeriscape

Do You Have the Right Gardening Tool for the Job You’re Doing?

January 30, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

How many times have you gotten started on a job around your house and realized that you didn’t have the right tool to do it? What did you do?

Did you futilely try to do it with another tool that just wasn’t quite right?
Did you give up on the job at hand?
Did you try to borrow the needed tool from your neighbor?
Did you go out and buy the right tool?

I think this has happened to all of us at some point and we’ve all tried at least one of these solutions. It’s always a pain to find out after you’ve started a project that you’re missing something. It’s sort of like baking a cake and realizing that you don’t have any eggs in the refrigerator.

With Spring right around the corner, it’s a good idea to take inventory of what gardening tools you have on hand and what condition they’re in. Before you know it, it will be time to clean up your yard and do some planting. To help you get started, here’s a list of the basic gardening tools that every homeowner should have on hand.

MOWER - If you have a lawn, check your mower to make sure it’s still working. If you left gas in it over the winter, you will need to empty it out and add new gas.
LEAF RAKE – For raking up loose leaves and light debris.
HARD RAKE – For raking out crushed rock and heavier material.
WHEELBARROW – For moving dirt, mulch, plants and other landscape items from one place to another.
HOSE - Check to make sure your hose didn’t crack during the winter.
SPADE SHOVEL – For digging holes.
SCOOP SHOVEL – For scooping up piles of debris for removal.
PRUNING SAW – For trimming larger branches off of trees.
HAND PRUNERS – For snipping off small branches.
LOPPERS – For pruning medium branches that are too big for hand pruners and too small for a pruning saw.
HEDGE SHEARS – For trimming shrubs.
PITCH FORK – For carrying thorny tree branches to be removed.
HAND TROWEL – For digging small holes for flowers.
HULA HOE – This is a handy tool for removing weeds manually from our hard soil and from crushed rock areas.
GLOVES – This is probably the most important item. A good pair of gardening gloves will save your hands from blisters and thorns. You’ll be happy that you wore them.

It’s also a good idea to have some basic irrigation parts on hand if you have an irrigation system for your plants. For drip irrigation systems, this includes a roll of polyline, spaghetti line, emitters, some different sizes of couplers, and an end cap. Keep in mind that there are different sizes of drip irrigation lines. The most common size is 1/2″ but some are different.

If you don’t consider yourself a do-it-yourself-er (my husband falls into this group), give us a call at (520) 370-5697 and we’re happy to help you with your gardening projects. And then, you don’t have to worry about having any gardening tools on hand!

Visit our Facebook page and “like” us.

Filed Under: Arizona, desert gardening, desert plants, garden, irrigation, landscape, landscaping, Planting, spring, Uncategorized, xeriscape, xeriscaping Tagged With: desert, garden and plant, gardening, landscape, plants, xeriscape

How to Use Drip Irrigation Correctly

January 23, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

If you live in a home in Tucson that was built within the last 20 years, there’s a good chance that it came with a drip irrigation system for your landscape. If you don’t think too much about your landscaping, there’s also a good chance that it could use some attention.

I grew up in Southern California and we used to hook a sprinkler up to our hose and let it run a few times a week in the spring and summer. It looked like the one to the right. It was a lot of fun to run through the sprinkler in your bathing suit in the summer and all the neighborhood kids would gather on each other’s lawns when the sprinkler was on. That was about the extent of watering where I grew up. We were lucky though. We got plenty of rain and didn’t need to water our lawns and plants often.

Arizona is another story. We live in the desert and plants depend on water from irrigation in between rains. And, drip irrigation is the most efficient way to water plants in the desert. A drip irrigation system can be manual or automatic. If it’s automatic, you may have to set your irrigation timer yourself or it may be a SMART controller that sets itself using satellites for your area.

Here are a few basics for correctly using drip irrigation to get the most out of your system.

Check and clean your filters regularly. They clog and can decrease water pressure.
Change your automatic irrigation clock based on the weather (at least once a month). Many water municipalities have good water schedules on their websites.
If you have a battery-operated irrigation clock, install good batteries and check them regularly. Your clock won’t work if your batteries are dead.
If possible, have one irrigation station and valve running your trees, one running your shrubs and another one running your lawn and groundcover. Most drip irrigation systems are set up by separate areas rather than by plant type. If you’re watering your trees properly, your shrubs are getting overwatered. If you’re watering your shrubs properly, your trees are not getting enough water.
Move your emitters out from your trees to outside where your tree canopy ends (the drip line). Emitters should not be at the trunk of your trees or under the canopy. Tree roots extend out 2x from the end of a tree canopy.

Drip irrigation systems are extremely useful to help you have a great looking landscape in the desert. Remember that the desert heat can be just as hard on your system as it is on you. Most drip irrigation parts are plastic and crack and deteriorate over time and need to be replaced. Look for water stains or puddles in your yard. They can indicate leaks.

We have Certified Rainbird Irrigation Technicians on-staff to help you with your irrigation problems. Call us at (520) 370-5697 if we can assist you with irrigation repairs or upgrades. And, Like Us on Facebook.

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

Why are Earthworms Good for Gardens?

January 15, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

It was great to get some rain on Sunday! And, it got me thinking about how nature affects just about everything but specifically gardens and landscapes. Ever notice that plants look so much healthier after a good rain as opposed to just getting irrigation water? And, considering the rain got me thinking about when I was a kid growing up in Southern California. After a good nights’ rain or early morning rain, when I walked to school there would be lots of earthworms all over the sidewalk. I’d be jumping and hopping to avoid them. I didn’t give them much thought other than wondering why they were so squirmy.

My next experience with them was in high school when I had to dissect one in biology class. I think most of you can relate to this. Can you smell the formaldehyde?

Well, now I know much more about them. They are really a gardener’s good friend. Earthworms do many marvelous things. They:

Aerate the soil to create air spaces that can hold water and give plants room to grow.
Eat organic material such as dead leaves and roots.
Their waste called “castings” helps enrich the soil.

Keep in mind that earthworms need moist soil. So, if you have hard, compacted soil, the earthworms in your yard will burrow way into the ground looking for moist dirt.

An interesting fact about earthworms is that they don’t come above ground to keep from drowning after the rain. They come up to look for a mate because they can move much better on wet ground. When I was a kid, I always thought they came up after the rains to get away from the wet soil.

So, give your earthworms a good place to live and they’ll help you have lovely happy plants!

Sonoran Oasis Landscaping is committed to helping clients have healthy water savings gardens in the desert environment. Please call us at (520) 370-5697 if we can answer any of your gardening questions or help you with your landscape needs!

Filed Under: Arizona, desert gardening, desert plants, landscape, Planting, plants, Uncategorized, xeriscape, xeriscaping Tagged With: desert, earthworm, garden and plant, gardening, plants, xeriscape

Five Tips to Winter Tree Trimming

January 9, 2012 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

Are you sitting back inside your house all warm and comfy? Are you not giving one thought to your landscaping? Nothing is really growing and you know that now is not the time to prune your shrubs and plants. Well, there is one landscape task that can be done in January. It’s actually a good time to do this too. What is this task? It’s desert tree trimming.

The winter is a good time to trim desert trees. Most of them have lost their leaves by now. So, you can see the branching structure of the tree. You can easily pick out mistletoe and broken branches too.

Here are my five tips to doing a great job with your winter trimming:

Look for and remove mistletoe. Mistletoe looks like dark green clumps in your branches.
Remove broken branches. They can be a hazard if left in the tree (especially when you get a strong wind).
Cut out crossing branches. These are branches that rub against each other. And, definitely don’t let a crossing branch get as large as the one shown here. Remove them when they’re small.
Remove tree stakes as soon as your tree can support itself. Often new trees come from the nursery with tree stakes attached to them. Or, you may need to add one or two stakes to your new tree to help support it when you plant it. Remove the stakes as soon as your tree no longer needs them. Leaving them on too long can cause your tree to become dependent on the stakes. I’ve seen mature trees with nursery stakes still attached and the tree trunk growing around the stake.
And, most importantly…don’t overprune your trees! Less is always better when trimming. You can always go back later and do more trimming. Overpruning trees can interfere with photosynthesis and cause sunburn to the branches that had previously been shaded.

Trees are an asset to your property and help to reduce your utility bills by cooling your home in the summer. Take care of them and they’ll last a long time.

Contact us at (520) 370-5697 if we can answer any of your tree care questions or assist you with your tree trimming. We have an on-staff certified arborist to help you with your tree needs!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Happy Holidays!

December 19, 2011 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

Happy Holidays!

Filed Under: Arizona, Uncategorized Tagged With: Happy Holidays!

Make Hanging Christmas Lights on Outdoor Plants a Breeze!

December 12, 2011 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

Who enjoys hanging outdoor holiday lights on plants and trees? Not many people.

Make it easy and do it right.

Find your power source.
Have an extension cord handy.
Make a pole with a hook out of a coat hanger, a broomstick and duct tape. (Easy!)
For added ease, use an outlet that has a timer on it. This way you don’t have to go outside to turn the lights on and off.
Have the right amount of light strands and make sure your lights are working before you hang them. VERY IMPORTANT!
Hang your lights on your shrubs, trees and cactus. Make sure to wrap them a little loose. If they’re too tight or you leave them on your plants for an extended period of time, they will start to squeeze and damage your plants.
Use the pole with a hook that you made to drape lights on your large shrubs and trees.
Remember to carefully remove the lights after the holiday carefully so as not to break branches.

Listen to our audio of how to make adding outdoor holidays easy.

Christmas lights by Deborah Munoz-Chacon

Enjoy your holiday season and visit our website to see all the services we can help you with!

Filed Under: Arizona, cactus, Christmas lights, desert gardening, desert plants, Holiday plants, Uncategorized Tagged With: desert, gardening, landscape, plants, trees

Three Steps to Having the Perfect Christmas Tree

December 5, 2011 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

What brings more holiday cheer than a real Christmas tree? Not much! I remember listening to Christmas carols while I decorated our Christmas tree with my mom and sister. I loved adding the ornaments that we had collected over the years.

More recently there was one year when it was just me and my son. I decided not to buy a Christmas tree. That year we had the “Christmas chair” that we piled our Christmas present on. It just wasn’t the same as having a real Christmas tree with presents under it.

Most people want the look and smell of a real Christmas tree. A survey conducted by the National Christmas Tree Association 2010 poll results show that consumers in the U.S. purchased 27 million farm-grown Christmas trees and 8.2 million artificial trees. Real Trees outsell fake trees by a greater than 3 to 1 margin. With that in mind, how do you choose, set up, and decorate your Christmas tree to get the best out of it?

Choose the right Christmas tree

Decide where to place it.
Measure your space before shopping.
Take a tape measure to measure trees.
Choose a tree stand.
Trees with shorter needles are easier to decorate. These include Fraser and Noble Fir.
Select a fresh tree with shiny green needles. The needles should not come off when you tug on the branches.
Lay your tree flat to drive it home if possible. If carrying it on your car roof, make sure that it is secure.

What to do when you get your Christmas tree home

Cut 1/4″ off the bottom of your Christmas tree’s trunk.
Cut more off the bottom if your tree is too tall, to bring the height down.
Trim off any straggling branches.
Put your Christmas tree in the tree stand and add plain tap water to your tree stand covering 1″ above the bottom of the trunk.
Keep tree watered! Very important.
Let your Christmas tree stand undecorated for one day to allow the branches to spread out.

Decorating your Christmas tree…The fun part!

Add your Christmas lights first. Start from the base of your Christmas tree and work your way up.
Add Christmas tree garland next. Start at the top and work your way down. You will need approximately two garlands for every vertical foot of tree.
Add your ornaments. Start by adding your favorite ornaments in the best positions on the tree. Next add the large ornaments evenly around the tree. Then, add medium to small ornaments to fill in your tree.
The finishing touch is the tree topper ornament.

Now your Christmas tree is finished and ready to enjoy. You’ve done a great job and your Christmas tree looks fantastic! Have a cup of egg nog or hot chocolate while listening to Christmas music to celebrate the season!

We at Sonoran Oasis Landscaping wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas! We can be found on Twitter at SonoranOasis. Follow us on Twitter. And, we’re at Sonoran Oasis Landscaping on Facebook. Like our Facebook Fan page.

Filed Under: Arizona, Christmas tree, Holiday plants, plants, Trees, Uncategorized Tagged With: Christmas tree, plants, trees, water

4 Dangerous “Unfriendly” Dog Holiday Plants

November 29, 2011 By Sonoran Oasis Leave a Comment

The holidays are a time for enjoyment and fun for everyone. Help your dogs to enjoy the holiday season too by keeping them safe from dangerous holiday plants.

What plant do you think of when you think of Christmas? Is it holly? Poinsettias? Mistletoe? Christmas cactus? Did you know that all these holiday plants can make your dog sick? It’s true. And, anyone who has a dog knows how curious they are, especially when there is something new added to their environment. My dog once ate a full container of heart worm “treats” that my cat knocked onto the floor from the kitchen counter. Somehow, I don’t think this was an accident on the part of my cat.

Here’s what might happen if your dog gets a hold of your Christmas plants:

Christmas cactus – If your dog eats enough of it, it can cause vomiting and diarrhea. Not quite the cleanup work you want to be doing when preparing for guests to arrive.
Holly – Also causes vomiting and diarrhea.
Mistletoe – Vomiting and diarrhea. See a common theme here?? It can also cause difficulty breathing and slowed heart rate.
Poinsettia – Mouth irritation, stomach irritation and sometimes vomiting.

Think prevention! It’s much better than dealing with the after effects of a dog eating something they shouldn’t have. When my dog ate the heart worm medicine, she had to have her stomach pumped at the vet’s office. Neither of us were very happy about this.