Xeriscape

Easy to Grow Native Zinnia

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Gardening With Soule

Say Zinnia

Say “zinnia” and most people think of the garden flowers. A pleasant annual for the summer garden, available in shades of oranges and purple. A bit old-fashioned perhaps, although the plant breeders keep trying to entice us with exotic new hybrids.

Having grown up in the Sonoran Desert, to me “zinnia” means Zinnia acerosa, a low growing native shrubby perennial occasionally encountered on hikes. Only later, when I interned in Philadelphia, did I encounter the colored, non-shrubby garden varieties.

Landscape with Desert Zinnias

Here in the Southwest, desert zinnia are occasionally planted in the low water landscape to help “fill in” spaces, since it is a diminutive plant reaching about a foot tall when it gets ample water. It’s under-utilization in the landscape is a shame because it deserves ample space in every wildlife garden. Desert zinnia is excellent for attracting many of the smaller native butterflies.

Planting Desert Zinnias

You can purchase desert zinnia in pots from nurseries, plant them in well drained soil, and water to help them become established. If you are thrifty, nice way to get desert zinnia established in your yard is to plant them as seed. If desert zinnia live near you (and they are distributed in the desert areas of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas), simply collect a handful of the paper flowers and scatter them in the landscape.

Ideally scrape a shallow hole around a quarter inch deep, sprinkle the seed in, and cover with soil. This is to hide it from the voracious seed eating birds. Add water once a week, and soon you will have a number of plants. It’s ease of establishment and hardiness from USDA Zone 10 to Zone 6 have lead to Zinnia acerosa being included in revegatation mixes.

Prairie Zinnia
Consider the prairie zinnia, Zinnia grandiflora. Found in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, as well as Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas, it grows on plains in the foothills and other dry habitat. Like it’s desert cousin, the flowers are a nectar source for butterflies, and the plant a low-water user. I haven’t tried growing it from seed but it should just as easily establish from seed as it’s desert cousin.

If you live in Southeastern Arizona, please come to one of my lectures. Look for me at your local Pima County Library branch, Steam Pump Ranch, Tubac Presidio, Tucson Festival of Books and more. After each event I will be signing copies of my books, including the latest, “Southwest Fruit and Vegetable Gardening,” written for Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico (Cool Springs Press, $23).

All photos (except where noted) and all text are copyright © 2016, Jacqueline A. Soule. All rights reserved. I receive many requests to reprint my work. My policy is that you may use a short excerpt but you must give proper credit to the author, and must include a link back to the original post on our site. Photos may not be used.

Categories: Flowers, Landscaping, Native Plant, Xeriscape, You Can Grow That | Tags: butterfly plant, Sonoran native, Zinnia acerosa | Leave a comment

You Can Grow Luscious Lavender

Posted on March 5, 2016 by Gardening With Soule

Whether you want to grow and use your own herbs, or if you simply desire an attractive plant for the landscape, you can’t beat lavender. Cultivated for centuries, this charming perennial sub-shrub has wonderfully fragrant flowers and leaves.

The name of the plant is derived from the Latin “lavare,” meaning to wash. Leaves and flowers have been used for several millennia to do just that – wash. Fragrant baths, hair rinses, to cleanse and treat skin ailments, and, in the past, to help eliminate lice and bedbugs from the household. Lavender essential oil is popular in aromatherapy. Tea made from leaves and flowers has been used to treat sleeplessness, restlessness, headache, flatulence, and nervous stomach. At this time, Commission E, a German-based group which scientifically studied herbal medicines, recommends using lavender for insomnia and circulatory and gastrointestinal disorders.

Lavender is easy to grow in our area. There are four to choose from (plus a number of cultivars).

* English lavender (Lavendula angustifolia) tend to be stressed by our summers, and needs ample water – but well-drained soils. It will do best in a garden that gets only morning sun in USDA Zones 10-8.

* Spanish lavender (Lavendula stoechas) tends to be better adaptable to our summers than the English, but needs afternoon shade to survive in USDA Zones 10-8.

* French or toothed lavender (Lavendula dentata) does best with some noon-time shade in summer. Perhaps the fuzziness of the leaves helps them reflect sunlight and reduce water loss better than their two cousins.

* Sonoran native desert lavender (Hyptis emoryi), a shrub often found growing along area washes. Desert lavender reaches 4 to 6 feet high and is covered with fragrant gray green leaves. Summer brings spikes of fragrant purple flowers that butterflies adore.

Soil. Like most herbs, lavenders do best in well-drained soil. Add ample sand and compost to help ameliorate clay soils.

Water. They will need irrigation on a regular basis. While the native desert lavender is winter dormant, the European species will need water year round.

Fertilize. Use half strength fertilizer once a month in any month that doesn’t freeze.

Care. Harvest and prune often. Like most herbs, lavender should be trimmed two to three times per year to control rampant growth and keep the plant producing quality blooms.

Harvest. Harvest stalks of lavender blooms just as the lower-most flowers open. This gives you buds with optimum fragrance. Dry these, like all herbs, out of direct sunlight.

No matter what species of lavender you plant, native lavender or European species, lavender adds refreshing fragrance to your living spaces, both indoors and out.

If you live in Southeastern Arizona, please come to one of my lectures. Look for me at your local Pima County Library branch, Steam Pump Ranch, Tubac Presidio, Tucson Festival of Books and other venues. After each event I will be signing copies of my books, including the latest, “Southwest Fruit and Vegetable Gardening,” written for Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico (Cool Springs Press, $23).

© All articles are copyright by Jacqueline A. Soule. All rights reserved. Republishing an entire blog post or article is prohibited without permission. I receive many requests to reprint my work. My policy is that you may use a short excerpt but you must give proper credit to the author, and must include a link back to the original post on our site. Photos may not be used.

Categories: Herbs, Kino Heritage Plants, Landscaping, Native Plant, Using, Xeriscape, You Can Grow That | Leave a comment

You Can Grow it Better – with a Garden Journal

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Gardening With Soule

There many good reasons to keep a garden journal, first and foremost is to be better at taking care of your own small corner of the universe – your yard.

The Journal
Just what is a garden journal? It is any sort of book that you (mostly) write in the (possibly) daily notes of the goings on in your garden. For this I like unlined paper, some folks like lined. Some folks like bound journal books, some prefer unbound. Some like a new one every year, some like the five year type. In some cases now, journals are electronic. All you need to do is make entries as often as possible. There are five specific things to note.

Calendula seeds can be planted now if covered with dark soil to warm them and encourage them to germinate.

Plant
What did you plant and when? Some of you reading this can plant vegetables and herbs right now in January. Write down when planted, how long to germination, and how the plants fared. You will know for next year if maybe you jumped the gun on growing in your area.

Pruned lightly in summer, this rosemary is doing better than the unpruned ones!

Care
Write down when you pruned the rose bush and notice if it produced better for you after the pruning. It today’s age of telephones that are cameras – take pictures, take a before and after photo. This will help you tell if you did too much or too little pruning. Write down fertilizers too.

Fairy duster is in the legume or pea family and never needs fertilizing. Flowers can be any day now.

Pests
A garden journal can help deal with pests. For example, if you note that tent caterpillars decimated a Texas mountain laurel on May third of one year, you will be reminded to get them first in subsequent years. You can also note when baby bunnies start to squeeze under the gate, and put fixing it on the honey-do list before that time.

Egg case from a mantis. When will they emerge?

Cycles
Wonder when the mesquites will re-leaf? It depends on a number of factors, including species, age of the tree, and how protected your yard is. With a garden journal, you write it down each year, and then you know when your tree will re-leaf.

When does monsoon season start? It is getting later every year if you average the last 40 years. Record keeping helps keep track.

Weather
I keep tabs on what the overall month weather plus the whole year is like. While it is happening, and even one or two years later you will remember that frost happened on November 3rd., but as we age and our brain gets more cluttered with details, remembering how early frost does show up fades from memory. In the past ten years it has been as early as November 3, and as late as December 10.

You don’t need to be a good gardener, or even a good writer to keep a garden journal. All you need to be is consistent. Now there is a New Year’s Resolution to go for!

mulch on rain lily JAS 0800986 (c) JA Soule one time use only to CSP

Mulch helped this rain lily survive the heat of summer better than the unmulched clump.

If you live in Southeastern Arizona, please come to one of my lectures. Look for me at Tumacacori Mission (Feb 4, 2016 at 12:30) and at your local Pima County Library branch, Steam Pump Ranch, Tubac Presidio, Tucson Festival of Books and other venues. After each event I will be signing copies of my books, including the latest, “Southwest Fruit and Vegetable Gardening,” written for Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico (Cool Springs Press, $23).
© All articles are copyright by Jacqueline A. Soule. All rights reserved. Republishing an entire blog post or article is prohibited without permission. I receive many requests to reprint my work. My policy is that you may use a short excerpt but you must give proper credit to the author, and must include a link back to the original post on our site. Photos may not be used.

Categories: Herbs, Landscaping, Native Plant, Seasonal Gardening, Vegetable Gardening, Vegetables, Xeriscape, You Can Grow That | Leave a comment

You Can Grow Living Christmas Trees In Your Yard

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Gardening With Soule

Korean stone pine could make a nice living holiday tree, plus a nice tree for your yard.

In my role as one of the “Savor Sisters” I wrote about pine last week. I discussed its use as a herb in the our blog “Savor the Southwest.” Hopefully I got folks thinking about a living holiday tree (rather than a cut one) for their homes. Many species of pine grow well in the Southwest.

Living holiday tree two years later, this Aleppo pine is heading for 12 feet tall.

Do consider a living holiday tree – be it a Chanukah bush or Christmas tree – for your home this year. Once you are done with them indoors, they can be planted in the yard. Pines make a lovely landscape plant. They provide housing for wildlife, especially hawks and owls, plus shade your home helping reduce energy consumption for cooling. The needles can be used as a wonderful mulch for plants around your yard or garden. Once established, most pines will need water once a month in the hot dry months.

Over time the Aleppo pines get quite large and can shelter a vast array of birds.

Living holiday trees can make a nice addition to the yard. Growing up, we had three in succession, one per year – one for each kid. Within a few years in the ground they made a lovely small grove of climbable trees – and our own secret spot under their boughs.

Pinyon pine growing on the hills above Parker Canyon Lake.

Southwestern nurseries commonly offer Afghan or eldarica pine (Pinus eldarica) from Afghanistan or the Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) from the area around Aleppo in the Middle East.

The two-needled pinyon pine growing in the wild.

But if you are going to plant it, water it, and take care of it – how about some food from it? Pine nuts are tasty. Four species of Southwestern pinyon pines do well here, as well as two species of nut pine, the source of most commercial pine nuts.

All species of pine has two seeds per pine cone scale. In the pinyon pines they are large and tasty seeds.

Species to Select From

These species can currently be found in the nursery trade and are known to survive in the Southwest.
Pinyon pines:

Pinus cembroides – Mexican pinyon
Pinus remota – Texas pinyon or papershell pinyon
Pinus edulis – Two-needle pinyon or Colorado pinyon
Pinus monophylla – Single-leaf pinyon

Old World nut pines:
Pinus pinea – Italian stone pine
Pinus koraiensis – Korean pine

Pinyon pine nuts are a tasty addition to a number of dishes. Plus how fun to get them from your own tree!

Enjoy your living holiday tree, what ever the species. But do avoid over-watering it while it is in its winter dormancy. Also, avoid taking it from a toasty warm house directly out into a freezing yard. Some time in a transition zone, like on a sheltered patio, will help increase it’s survival chances.

More about growing these living holiday trees in your yard in my next post.

If you live in Southeastern Arizona, please come to one of my lectures. Look for me at your local Pima County Library branch, Steam Pump Ranch, Tubac Presidio, Tucson Festival of Books and other venues. After each event I will be signing copies of my books, including the latest, “Southwest Fruit and Vegetable Gardening,” written for Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico (Cool Springs Press, $23).

Categories: Landscaping, Native Plant, Uncategorized, Xeriscape, You Can Grow That | Tags: christmas tree, edible landscape, nut, pinyon pine, witer dormant | Leave a comment

Fall Flowers in Southern Arizona A, B, C

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Gardening With Soule

I love fall in Arizona! The heat of summer is over, and yet the soils are still warm for growing. If we had a decent monsoon season, summer plants are still blooming and the autumn bloomers are starting.

Listed below are some of the fall blooming plants found in southeastern Arizona. Note we do have mountains, so some of these are only found on the tops of the Sky Islands, or on the slopes, like the ceanothus.

For me it is time for a field trip to capture some of these beauties on digital media, plus see if there are seed available to scatter in my yard for up close enjoyment next year. I will also be collecting some seed for the Desert Legume Program (DELEP). Note that all of these do grow well from seed in our alkaline soils, just plant them twice as deep as they are large (1/2 inch seed goes 1 inch deep).

Since the entire list is three pages long, and I do not wish to boor the gentle reader to death, we will look at A, B, and C to start with.

Abutilon abutiloides – shrubby Indian mallow

Abutilon incanum – pelotazo

Abutilon parvulum – dwarf Indian mallow

Abutilon reventum – yellowflower Indian mallow

Acacia greggii – catclaw acacia

Acacia greggii catkins are followed by reddish brown seed pods.

Acalypha phleoides – shrubby copperleaf
Agastache wrightii – Sonoran giant hyssop
Allionia choisyi – annual windmills
Allionia incarnata – trailing windmills
Almutaster pauciflorus – alkali marsh aster
Amaranthus fimbriatus – fringed amaranth
Amaranthus palmeri – carelessweed
Ambrosia confertiflora – weakleaf bur ragweed
Anaphalis margaritacea – Western pearly everlasting
Anoda abutiloides – Indian anoda
Anoda cristata – crested anoda
Argemone pleiacantha – Southwestern prickly poppy
Arida arizonica – arid tansy aster
Aristolochia watsonii – Watson’s Dutchman’s pipe

Aristolochia watsonii flower. Granted you do have to get close to see it, but the pollinators seem to find it just fine. Photo taken at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.

Asclepias linaria – pineneedle milkweed
Baccharis salicifolia – mule-fat
Baccharis sarothroides – desert broom
Bahia absinthifolia – hairyseed bahia
Baileya multiradiata – desert marigold

Please don’t pick the wild daisies! But you can collect the seed and grow them in your yard for bouquets next year. Common name is desert marigold, although it is in a different sub-family from the true Tagetes marigold.

Bidens aurea – Arizona beggarticks
Boerhavia coccinea – scarlet spiderling
Boerhavia scandens – cimbing wartclub
Bouvardia ternifolia – firecrackerbush
Brickellia coulteri – Coulter’s brickellbush
Calliandra eriophylla – desert fairyduster

The desert fairyduster may bloom more than once per year, if we get the rains for it. This photo was taken outside the Hummingbird Exhibit at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.

Calyptocarpus vialis – straggler daisy
Castilleja tenuiflora – Santa Catalina Indian paintbrush
Ceanothus fendleri – Fendler’s ceanothus
Chamaesyce setiloba – Yuma sandmat
Cirsium ochrocentrum – yellowspine thistle
Commelina dianthifolia – birdbill dayflower
Conoclinium dissectum – palmleaf thoroughwort
Convolvulus arvensis – field bindweed
Cosmos parviflorus – Southwestern cosmos
Crotalaria pumila – low rattlebox

Zinnia acerosa, the desert zinnia, grown from seed scattered in the unfenced area of the yard. Just to show you this will be an A to Z list.

All photos and all text are copyright © 2015, Jacqueline A. Soule. All rights reserved. Photos taken at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum are denoted as per 2012 agreement. I receive many requests to reprint my work. My policy is that you may use a short excerpt but you must give proper credit to the author, and must include a link back to the original post on our site. Photos may not be used.

Categories: Landscaping, Native Plant, Xeriscape | Tags: native wildflowers, sky islands, southern Arizona, Tagetes, wildflowers, Zinnia acerosa | 1 Comment

Pruning in Summer – or NOT!

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Gardening With Soule

Ample monsoon rain in the yard. Some of you may note the irrigation box is above the ground – repairs are under way.

Lots of monsoonal rain in my yard recently, and plants are responding with a burst of new growth. The rosemary I received to test-grow several years ago decided it was time to take off and grow in a major way. This is a new cultivar of rosemary – Chef’s Choice rosemary, part of the Sunset Western Garden Collection, and also the Southern Living Collection. With all the rain it began bloom, for a second time this year, with tiny, delicate blue blooms. Lovely!

Chef’s Choice rosemary has gorgeous blue flowers, helping feed all manner of pollinators. Photo courtesy of Sunset Western Garden Collection.

Now here is another section of the story.

This morning, Hubby Paul and I took various selections of meat out of the freezer for him to grill at sundown tonight. Yum! I was planning on some luscious veggie kabobs to go with the meat. In summer we like to grill a selection of food one evening, then eat left-overs for several days. Any day we don’t have to cook and thus heat the kitchen hotter than it already is is a good day in my book.

Clean the grill before cooking with a wad of rosemary sprigs. We like the flavor rosemary imparts as removes the crusty stuff.

Grills do need cleaning and oiling before you put the food down, and a great way to clean a grill – plus add flavor to your food – is to take several hands-full of rosemary sprigs and scrub the grill with them. The Chef’s Choice rosemary is great for this because it is the richest flavored, most oily rosemary I have ever encountered.

Chef’s Choice rosemary grows dense and thick and is full of richly aromatic oils. Photo courtesy of Sunset Western Garden Collection.

So. Given the overgrown nature of this rosemary plant, and given the fact that the meat was defrosting, I decided it was time to prune the rosemary.

Not as green as the other pic! Rosemary is originally from the Mediterranean region and might prefer a tad more summer shade than it is getting in my garden.

I planted this rosemary back along the fence in hopes it would help keep the rabbits, ground squirrels, pack rats, and all the various other rodents – plus the things that like to eat then – out of the garden. In case you are wondering what eats the pesky, destructive rodents, the answer is – snakes.

Western diamondback snakes do live in my yard, and I know it. Here is one I came face to face with back in May.

I confess, I like snakes. Used to raise them in fact, but I don’t want to share the garden area with rattlesnakes because I am all too easily distracted when I am in the garden, and might step on one.

On my rosemary quest, up the hill I go clad in shorts and tank top (no shoes of course), my brand new Cate’s pruners in one hand (I was all ready to test them!). In my other hand I had a walking stick and used it to move and shake the overgrown shrubs I have to climb through to get to the rosemary. I was being careful. Pushing shrubbery aside, watching where I put my feet.

Monsoon rain floods burrows, and snakes may have to head for higher ground. They tend to move along under cover rather than out in the open.

Arrive at the rosemary. Cut two branches. Reaching for the next, and from somewhere under the extremely dense and thick rosemary bush comes the warning buzzing rattle. It is a distinctive sound. A heart-stopping sound. A sound that once heard, is never ever forgotten.

Don’t run they say, because it might excite the snake to strike, but whooeee! the adrenaline rush!

Truth is I did carefully back out and leave. I have decided that finishing that pruning job will have to wait for winter when the rattlesnakes are happily hibernating. Sorry Cate’s, testing the pruners will have to wait.

Two sprigs of rosemary is all I got for my efforts today.

And I think I will grow my rosemary in pots from now on. Big, tall pots.

Chef’s Choice rosemary is said to grow well in containers. I am going to try that next. Photo courtesy of the Sunset Western Garden Collection.

If you live in Southeastern Arizona, please come to one of my lectures. Look for me at your local Pima County Library branch, Steam Pump Ranch, Tubac Presidio, and other venues. After each event I will be signing copies of my books, including the latest, “Southwest Fruit and Vegetable Gardening,” written for Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico (Cool Springs Press, $23).

All photos (except where noted) and all text are copyright © 2015, Jacqueline A. Soule. All rights reserved. I receive many requests to reprint my work. My policy is that you may use a short excerpt but you must give proper credit to the author, and must include a link back to the original post on our site. Photos may not be used.

Categories: Herbs, Landscaping, Seasonal Gardening, Using, Xeriscape | Tags: Chef's Choice, pack rat, rattlesnake, rosemary, snake | 1 Comment

You Can Grow Low-Water Jojoba

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Gardening With Soule

I’ll bet you didn’t know you knew at least one word of O’odham! The word “jojoba” comes to us directly from the O’odham name for that plant. The spelling comes to us through Spanish, and is pronounced “ho-ho-ba.”

With knobby gray branches packed with wax-coated leathery silvery green evergreen leaves, this plant is built to withstand our climate.

There are a number of common names for jojoba, including goat nut, deer nut, pignut, wild hazel, quinine nut, coffeeberry, and gray box bush. Although there are references to jojoba as nuts, they are, botanically speaking, a seed. The seeds are economically valuable (as discussed in my book Father Kino’s Herbs: Growing and Using Them Today.)

Even growing in the wild with rainfall alone, jojoba forms a dense shrub.

Why should you consider growing jojoba? Jojoba is an attractive silver-gray bush, native to the Sonoran and Mojave deserts of Arizona, Southern California, and Mexico. Places that get as little as five inches of rain per year.

Along with requiring very little water, jojoba works well in the landscape where you want a screen. It has unusually dense foliage for a desert shrub. It looks good in mass plantings, and can be trimmed into a hedge form, although it will need extra water if trimmed often. While it can be trimmed, jojoba is a wonderful no-maintenance plant. You can plant it and forget about it as long as it gets five inches of rain a year.

Planting and Care.

Water

While jojoba can survive on five inches of rain a year, it will thrive and reach its mature size more quickly with extra water.

Desert plants like jojoba will grow more quickly when given some extra water.

Light

Jojoba can tolerate reflected light, so it does well in hot south and west situations, and by pools. That said, it also grows just fine in the shady filtered light under mesquite trees.

Jojoba has separate male and female plants. This is a male plant with male flowers.

Soil

Jojoba will require soil with good drainage (not clay), but does fine in rocky soils.

Temperature

Jojoba plants are cold-hardy to around 15^oF.

If you want seeds, be sure you have a female plant in your yard. This photo was taken in March. The seeds will ripen in time for the winter rains.

Enjoy

There can be no doubt that water use is an issue in the Southwest. Yet we all want a nice landscape around our homes. Planting native plants that are used to living on marginal rainfall is one good option. Yes there are some puny, scraggly, un-appealing native plants, but there are also some truly lovely ones to select from, like jojoba.

The leaves are around an inch long, and oval, sometimes almost trapezoidal in shape. Arranged opposite each other on the branches, the leaves are held pointing skyward.

All photos and all text are copyright © 2015, Jacqueline A. Soule. All rights reserved. I receive many requests to reprint my work. My policy is that you may use a short excerpt but you must give proper credit to the author, and must include a link back to the original post on our site. Photos may not be used.

Categories: Kino Heritage Plants, Landscaping, Native Plant, Xeriscape, You Can Grow That | Tags: hedge, nut, oil, seed, Sonoran native, water | Leave a comment

Security With Your Landscape

Posted on July 11, 2015 by Gardening With Soule

Your landscape can add to your home security.

As I drive around town, I notice home landscapes. Sometimes I see beautiful plants, sometimes I see lovely landscapes, and sometimes I see things that make me shake my head and wonder what they were thinking. (All this noticing might be why my Honey prefers to be the driver, not the drivee.)

One of the “shake my head” moments was a home that was an ocean of grey gravel with a few huge, very spiny, agaves. The whole feeling was that of a stark, barren, forbidding, place, almost like a prison ground. But the real kicker was that those giant agaves were right up against the side of the home, under each (barred) window. What were they thinking?!

No one is going to climb in through that window! (Or out either.)

Security plantings gone awry. Sure spiny plants will help keep intruders out, but those windows were already barred. Besides, the weakest point of any home is the door, not the windows. Most homeowners stop locking the security door after the first few months, or leave the one over the sliding patio door propped open. A butter knife can open most patio doors. Last but not least, personal security was ignored. With vicious plants under the windows, how are those homeowners going to get out in case of fire?

Most people end up leaving their security door wide open so they can easily get in and out with packages.

Good security plantings can happen – but some rational thought needs to go into the entire process. Mere plunking of spiny things is not the solution. There are three key points to consider when trying to increase your home security with landscaping.

Planted outside the wall, spiny plants like these golden barrel cacti can add a layer to home security.

Visibility. Easily visible entries and windows are more secure. Burglars want to hide from view. Tall hedges and screening plants are made to order for them. Consider yard accents like open ocotillos, slender saguaros, or tall trees with lower branches limbed up. Use short hedges, low perennials and groundcovers to complete the landscape.

The front door is the preferred entry point for most home invasions. A good security door and clear line of sight to the street are a first line of defense.

Burglars love a hidden front door. Yes there is a door there.

Remember xeriscape principles. Oasis zone is close to the home where roof runoff will water it. That said, termites love high moisture right at the foundations to your home. Plant low water foundation plants and slope land into swales in the middle of the yard. Use foundation plantings that are dense, bushy, distasteful to termites and hard for burglars to stand in or fight their way through.

The native perennial marigolds, like this Palmer’s marigold, are distasteful to termites and thus fine to plant near your foundations. They are distasteful to burglars as well, who want an easy way to get in.

For the shady north exposures, select from Mt. Lemmon marigold (Tagetes lemmoni), Palmer’s marigold (Tagetes palmeri), low junipers, or squawbush (Rhus trilobata). Use turpentine bush (Ericameria laricifolia), damianita (Chrysactinia mexicana), golden eye (Viguiera deltoidea), and hesperaloe (Hesperaloe parviflora) for higher sun locations. Keep your own safety in mind. If you have to jump out that window, we don’t want you to lose an eye.

Keep shrubs under windows low enough so you can escape if you need to.

A strong pruning back of all these shrubs would add to home security.

Xeriscape principles have the lower water using plants at the outer edges of the yard. This is where you can put the really spiny plants. In the backyard they will help keep people from coming over the walls. For trees try the graceful but aptly named cat-claw acacia tree (Acacia greggii), or the vibrant green Mexican ebony (Havardia mexicana) with ice pick thorns. For shrubs try cascalote (Caesalpinia cacalaco) with yellow flowers and huge cat-claw thorns or the white thorn acacia (Acacia constricta) with fragrant puffs of spring flowers, and thorns like slender white needles. Ocotillos, prickly pears, chollas, even barrel cacti all have lovely flowers and will also help keep someone from coming over the walls.

In general, site plants that will not need additional water near your foundations. This helps make your home less attractive to termites.

Access. Remember that you will need access to areas of your yard, if only for weeding and cleaning. Don’t block off side yards. Especially if the utility panels are back there. Spiny agaves along a blank wall are great, but keep them away from the gate.

Graythorn (Ziziphus obrusifolia) is a low water native plant with berries the birds love. Just don’t plant it in front of your fuse box!

Think things through before you plant. With proper planning, you can grow a secure landscape that also allows you to use it safely – and enjoy it.

Hesperaloe, is a very low water plant that produces hummingbird blooms and seldom needs any care at all.

Categories: Landscaping, Native Plant, Xeriscape | Tags: Acacia, agave, damianita, golden barrel, golden eye daisy, hesperaloe, Mexican ebony, Mt. Lemmon marigold, ocotillo, Palmer's marigold, security planting, squawbush, Tagetes, turpentine bush | Leave a comment

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Xeriscape

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