Desert Landscaping - Easy to maintain? (Phoenix, Sun City: HOA, how much, house)

[newnorth777]

We will be moving to Phoenix soon from the midwest and are trying to get our head around maintaining a yard/landscape in a desert setting. We see so many beautiful desert landscaped areas and wonder how much effort is required to keep them looking that way. I'm talking about areas with low water plants & trees with gravel inbetween. We have no interest in having turf - that makes no sense to me in the desert. I'm sure that there are leaves & tree litter to deal with in winter. I understand the concept of drip watering for plants that require that and I'm fine with doing that. Do drip systems need to be redone often or are they an install and forget about it system?
How much effort is needed to care for a landscape once it is planted? Is weed control in a yard an issue?
Are there palms that are low water use? Do cactus and other low water plants benefit from having supplimental water?
How long does it take for desert plants to become established and growing well?
Any thoughts/advice regarding desert landscaping would be great.

[AZJoeD]

The best way to explain this too you is to say look up Xeriscaping. Xeriscaping is the term used for landscaping with low water desert plants. If done right it can be very beautiful and will be no more (perhaps even less) than any other form of landscaping.

I can also recommend a book titled "Arizona Gardeners Guide" by Mary Irish. She was the Director of Public Horticulture at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. It is available on Amazon Arizona Gardeners Guide

[MrsMac]

We have xeriscaping and it's less maintenance than a traditional yard but it certainly isn't maintenance free!

Drip systems conserve water but must be properly planned so the water goes to the roots of your plants where it is needed. You do need to be careful not to damage the drip lines (you don't want children or pets digging at them, etc.), you need to watch for broken emitters (excess water where there are no plants or plants in distress are good signs there may be an issues), you need to check and clean filters once in awhile and flush out debris in the spring. If you want to extend your planting area after your system is installed it will also have to be extended.

We have lots of rock and weeds are a pain. Be sure you install a really good weed mat under the rock, make sure your drip system is only watering the roots of your plants (which should have mulch around them - it really helps cut down on weeds by the plants) and plan to weed or spray the weeds that come up in your rock as soon as they show up.

Which brings me to another point: choose your rock carefully. The front of our house was landscaped by the builder with river rock. It's beautiful but really, really hard to walk on and it can move or wash away in heavy rain. We did the landscaping in the back and the landscaper installed a rock that wasn't quite as pretty (at least to me) but it compacts much better so it is more comfortable to walk on and it stays put. Not only is taking care of the weeds much easier in the back (because we can get to them) but I won't have to add additional rock as often back there since it stays put. (Rock washes away and settles so with xeriscaping you need to add more rock in some areas every few years to keep it looking nice.)

We love xeriscaping and the lower water usage and maintenance. I don't think we could ever go back to having a traditional yard.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by newnorth777

We will be moving to Phoenix soon from the midwest and are trying to get our head around maintaining a yard/landscape in a desert setting. We see so many beautiful desert landscaped areas and wonder how much effort is required to keep them looking that way. I'm talking about areas with low water plants & trees with gravel inbetween. We have no interest in having turf - that makes no sense to me in the desert. I'm sure that there are leaves & tree litter to deal with in winter. I understand the concept of drip watering for plants that require that and I'm fine with doing that. Do drip systems need to be redone often or are they an install and forget about it system?
How much effort is needed to care for a landscape once it is planted? Is weed control in a yard an issue?
Are there palms that are low water use? Do cactus and other low water plants benefit from having supplimental water?
How long does it take for desert plants to become established and growing well?
Any thoughts/advice regarding desert landscaping would be great.

Ways to save water

[Catavenger]

The company that put mine in said "nobody" puts down plastic under the rocks. Not knowing any better I agreed and grass kept growing up through the rocks. Since it was still unser warranty I kept having them out to treat the ground with some kind of weed killer. Finally it seemed to be taken care of but even now once in awhile grass grows through the rocks.

[Zathras]

Originally Posted by newnorth777

We will be moving to Phoenix soon from the midwest and are trying to get our head around maintaining a yard/landscape in a desert setting. We see so many beautiful desert landscaped areas and wonder how much effort is required to keep them looking that way. I'm talking about areas with low water plants & trees with gravel inbetween. We have no interest in having turf - that makes no sense to me in the desert. I'm sure that there are leaves & tree litter to deal with in winter. I understand the concept of drip watering for plants that require that and I'm fine with doing that. Do drip systems need to be redone often or are they an install and forget about it system?
How much effort is needed to care for a landscape once it is planted? Is weed control in a yard an issue?
Are there palms that are low water use? Do cactus and other low water plants benefit from having supplimental water?
How long does it take for desert plants to become established and growing well?
Any thoughts/advice regarding desert landscaping would be great.

Our drip irrigation system was installed by the builder ('07) and we have lived there since '10.
It requires a bit of maintenance, although mostly of the nature of a nuisance rather than serious or costly. The one costly thing was one of the 2 main control valves going tango uniform about 2 yrs ago. That was a couple hundred bucks to have someone replace it.
The maintenance I do is replacing 8 or 10 dribbler heads per year (out of maybe 50-60 in the system). The dribbler valve gets stuck, or a rabbit or javelina chews thru the line near the head... in both cases you get a gusher and of course you may not notice it for days or weeks. They're very cheap- under a buck each in bulk so really just a pita that you can't ignore or else you waste a ton of water.

One time I noticed the section up top was barely dribbling, and when I inspected the lines I found a mainline down near the bottom of the hill had cracked, which meant when the system was running, all the water was spraying out the crack, and it was under ground so I didn't notice it right away. anyway, drip irrigation systems are nice, but have potential for a fair amount of maintenance.. ymmv.

We have 2 major types of weeds in our rockscaping.. the brittlebush, and some type of grass. brittlebush pulls out pretty easily after a rain, and if you ignore them they can get quite huge. Let em go for a few years and you end up having to use your pitchfork on em. Then you hit a buried dripline and get another gusher. #&*%$%*.

But- all things considered, it is way nicer and less work than mowing, blowing leaves, shoveling snow. So I keep it all in perspective!

[Ponderosa]

You end up blowing instead of mowing. Most people in my area have a landscape firm come by to deal with things. They come every couple weeks and blow away all the leaves and stuff that collects in the rocks, trim up bushes as needed, and check the drippers. Doing this yourself is certainly possible (we do it) and maybe will take a couple hours of your time each month. We tend to neglect it in summer. One of the problems of DIY is what to do with branches and leaves that you trim and blow. In our city, they collect this stuff once a month, but in many other places it is quarterly or less. We do our cleanup the weekend before pickup. But for others, you could end up with it piled up in the back somewhere.

[pbenjamin]

Laying down plastic sheeting (or a "weed mat") is a bad idea. It's bad for drainage, and eventually it deteriorates and you have a mess. It makes more sense to spray twice a year with a pre-emergent.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by pbenjamin

Laying down plastic sheeting (or a "weed mat") is a bad idea. It's bad for drainage, and eventually it deteriorates and you have a mess. It makes more sense to spray twice a year with a pre-emergent.

Our HOA bans it. I don't think any pros do that nowadays. As you say, inevitably it goes bad. Back in the day when the idea was popular you would see rock lawns up in Sun City with black plastic sheeting coming out and flapping in the breeze. You get the weeds anyway. They sprout up from the fines that settle in the gravel. A little Round Up takes care of them. Anyhow, weeds are pretty much just a springtime thing. Most of the year you never see much of them.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by pbenjamin

Laying down plastic sheeting (or a "weed mat") is a bad idea. It's bad for drainage, and eventually it deteriorates and you have a mess. It makes more sense to spray twice a year with a pre-emergent.

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

Our HOA bans it. I don't think any pros do that nowadays. As you say, inevitably it goes bad. Back in the day when the idea was popular you would see rock lawns up in Sun City with black plastic sheeting coming out and flapping in the breeze. You get the weeds anyway. They sprout up from the fines that settle in the gravel. A little Round Up takes care of them. Anyhow, weeds are pretty much just a springtime thing. Most of the year you never see much of them.

Agree that the plastic is a no-go. A good preeemergent a couple of times a year, and some Roundup for breakthrough weeds, will take care of it. A thick layer of gravel helps, too.

Weeds are NOT just a springtime phenomena for me. They are different weeds in the winter, but if we get enough rain, and I let them go crazy, it looks like it could be a cash crop for salad mix.