A Comprehensive Guide to Maintaining Your Arizona Desert Plants

It's no secret having a gorgeous, lush desert backyard takes plenty of watering, fertilization, and "tender loving care." However, keeping your backyard beautiful with the correct design elements and maintenance tips doesn't have to be complicated.

Following these steps will help to maintain the eye-catching front yard you had design or a backyard oasis your family loves to hang out in.

Step #1: Design

Before enjoying your beautiful backyard, it's essential to plan carefully to ensure you don't have "buyer's remorse" later—or worse, kill off your plants! There is this false belief throwing water on the plants and somehow, they magically stay alive, if only it was that easy. The word “maintenance” means to maintain, and some plants need more TLC than others whether more water or fertilizing at certain times of the year. Follow these tips to maintain the landscape investment you made and enjoy all year around:

Orientation

First, it's important to think about the orientation of your backyard. Which areas receive more sunlight? Which spots are shaded? Do you have drought-tolerant soil? What about differing elevation levels? Do you want to add a barbecue grill, pergola, or other hardscape elements?

Asking these questions before you begin designing your yard can be tremendously helpful. You can be confident you're placing each plant in an environment that allows it to grow successfully, saving you time, money, and hassles rearranging your landscape in the future.

Balance

Next, it's helpful for you to think of ways to add balance to your backyard. It needs to be cohesive, purposeful, and have direction. When you don't create a masterplan design, your backyard may look like something fired out of a shotgun—a Hodge podge, no connectivity and someone’s bad hair day.

Before you do anything to your backyard, it's much better to organize plants by similar needs and consider when each plant will bloom to create color coordinated look or when one plant fades another is providing color, that way it looks good—regardless of the time of year!

Color

When designing your backyard, the color of each of the plants, flowers, and landscape elements is something that deserves your careful attention.

First, it's essential to choose plants that will bloom at different times of the year (and space them accordingly) to ensure your backyard is always filled with color. Also, it's crucial to ensure all the plants you choose complement each other so there aren't any clashing color schemes when they're fully in bloom.

Space

The last important factor to consider when designing your backyard is spacing.

First, it's important to place plants where they are well-suited to grow. For example, cacti must be located on elevated mounds, not on flat or sunken areas. Some plants need to be placed where they will receive full sunlight, and others need to be placed in the shade. If you have a plant that needs lots of water, you probably shouldn't put it next to a drought-tolerant plant.

Second, you must remember that your plants likely won't stay the same size as when you plant them. Plants need to be chosen based on their size but also their growth. If you jam a five-foot plant into a three-foot corner, chances are, it won't look too good, because in order to make it fit, you will have to butcher it back.

Finally, remember to create plenty of walkways to and from your house and for doing other essential tasks, like wheeling your trash cans to the street. Also, consider hardscape items, like an outdoor kitchen, built-in barbecue grill, or fireplace you may want to incorporate before adding plants to your backyard design.

Step #2: Maintenance

Once your landscape design is completed and the plants are added to your backyard, now comes the (not so) fun part—maintenance. Backyard maintenance may not be your favorite task, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. Follow these tips for keeping your yard in great shape.

Weeds

Weeds are an inevitable element of backyard maintenance, and if you don’t remove them, these pesky sprouts can keep your plants from thriving. Though you can certainly hand-pick weeds, there are plenty of ways to get the job done quickly and more effectively.

You can use an instant weed killer, a weed barrier, or a high consitrate vinegar and salt-based solution to kill off weeds. If you don’t have kids or pets in your backyard, a weed killer spray might be the quickest, cheapest, and most effective, but if you’re looking for a family-friendly and pet-friendly option, a natural product or weed barrier is the safer, greener option.

Read More: How to Deal with Weeds in Arizona

Watering

Plants in Phoenix, Arizona, don’t get much rain, so it’s important to have them on a watering schedule to keep them hydrated without overwatering them.

Your desert plants will need different amounts of water during different seasons. For example, trees need to be watered for 2.5 hours starting at 3:00 AM every 15 days in the winter, but in the summer, they need to be watered every seven days. You can view an in-depth watering schedule for your plants, trees, and potted plants during each season in Arizona in our blog post below.

Pests

No one likes pests, but unfortunately, pests love your plants. It's essential to take a preventative approach to pests rather than a reactive approach for keeping your plants in great shape.

For example, moths and caterpillars love bougainvillea plants, but you can keep them away by spraying a biological pesticide containing bacillus thuringiensis that kills caterpillars upon ingestion. Fungus may grow on (and suffocate) your prickly pear cacti, but you can eliminate fungus with a garden hose and a dishwashing soap and water solution.

Read our blog post below for more details about keeping moths, caterpillars, spurge, rabbits, fungus, and termites away from your plants.

Fertilization

Fertilizing plants is only necessary when you are trying to make a plant from another micro climate survive in our sandy, silty and clay soil. Most localize plantings do not need amending because they are use to our desert climate. However, it's vital to ensure the timing, amount, and type of fertilizer you use is suitable for your plants.

Key note is to avoid fertilizing in seasons with harsh weather, like the summer or winter. Best to fertilize in the fall or spring when encourage grow and flowers. You should also buy a high-quality fertilizer from a local nursery where those who work there have a horticultural background (rather than a big box retailer, like Lowe's or Home Depot.)

Create the Backyard of Your Dreams with Wildflower Desert Design

We understand if you're overwhelmed with all the backyard design elements to consider, like finding the correct orientation, placement, and spacing for your plants in Arizona. That's what we're here for!

Wildflower Desert Design helps you create a beautiful backyard design and connect you with a contractor who can bring your vision to life. We do all the heavy lifting for you, so you can enjoy a gorgeous, low-maintenance backyard design you'll love. Contact us today for a free consultation!