![]() I do not have any right now, since I'm 28 and just starting my first real garden after moving around a bunch the past few years - cross-country and back, then around town three times. I have very fond childhood garden memories linked to dahlias. PS: I lost about 30% of my original plants through my own ignorance your landscape will take time and patience. bluebells, African toad flax), then a corner of my small Mediterranean garden (this is also where I grow all my culinary herbs), and lastly my porch with a half-dozen or so inappropriate tropical plants, my own 'must have' water guzzlers. First the rock garden, then some spring wildflowers (native s.w. Here are some pictures from my garden in the scorching Sonoran desert. Okay, that is all too much info, but gives you ideas to think about. Water twice a week until two or three inches high, then soak once a week or every ten days. Don't forget to sow and rake in desert wildflowers in the autumn. Brazil contributes the unexpectedly drought-tolerant bougainvillea and lantana. Australia and south western Africa have some great desert plants to contribute to the selection. For ease in manipulation of irrigation, I've done my front garden entirely with mediterranean plants (very loosely defined as everything from cold arid mountains of Afghanistan to Morocco and Spain to the Canary Islands, plus a few that get 'honorary citizenship' for centuries of cultivation in the Mediterranean countries), and I put all my desert plants in the back garden. You can use richer soil, glazed pots, and hand watering for a few 'must have' high-water plants, and keep these in the shade of a porch or against the north side of the house. If you must, line them with bubble wrap first. Never place glazed pots in the sun, as they will get hot enough to burn your hands and kill the plants. Pots (always large pots in a climate like yours, as small ones dry out too fast for you to keep up with watering), can be used with bagged palm-and-cactus soil in terra cotta pots for all desert and Mediterranean plants. (except for cacti and palms, which prefer to go into warm soil). The long cooler season will give their roots a chance to get established before summer returns. ![]() Those fountains with water flowing down the outside of an urn are gorgeous but have appallingly high evaporative water loss. Find something you can tolerate with a very small trickle and a very deep tank (so it won't grow to annoy you, water loss through splashing will be minimal, and the tank won't go dry and burn out the motor). A couple of boulders can ease the flat monotony. Mix bushy plants in with sculptural form plants, alternate silvery with darker plants. Work outward from there with smaller plants and shrubs to soak up the glare, and go for taller ones again at the perimeter. They are slow growing, so spend the money on the biggest specimens you can afford. If you want a darker shade on the patio, the new favorite is mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus) from the hottest and driest part of the Mediterranean. In back, I'd recommend a quartet of desert-adapted trees that will form a natural pergola, around a square or round or octagonal paved area. If you happen not to like cacti, there are hundreds and hundreds of other choices. Many prairie plants will also survive your conditions, and Mediterranean plants too. Then search the deserts of the world for a vast array of options. I'd start with a couple of trees in front, as almost all desert plants prefer dappled shade (counterintuitive, but true), and will thrive underneath them. It won't be the nonstop riot of color you think of, but you can get intermittent splashes of color most of the year. Believe me, I survived a move from Maine to Arizona! There is, in fact, no reason you can't do a lush British-style perennial border with xeriscape plants, unorthodox as that is. ![]() You likely will have to give up your favorite flowers, but don't worry, xeriscape offers many beauties that can become your new favorites. Aran, You've chosen a very northeastern-looking house in what seems to be a stucco neighborhood, and it does indeed call out for a lush and colorful landscape that runs against your climate and local watering restrictions.
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