Design, Build and Bloom

By Dawn Layna Fried

Design, Build, and Bloom: A Desert Garden Guide was written to educate newcomers and longtime residents in the southwest about how to design their own magnificent, cost-effective landscapes for home or business. The easy-to-read book with hundreds of colorful photos provides detailed information on urban horticulture. One half of a beautiful landscape is the plantings; the other half is how well the garden is maintained. Learn how to successfully plant an exquisite landscape and watch it bloom year-round; how to prepare the soil for planting, along with a guide on how to stake newly planted trees; install and troubleshoot drip irrigation systems; plant vegetable gardens, roses, citrus, hybrid turf; and create a wildflower garden and accent with container gardening. Design, Build and Bloom: A Desert Garden Guide also explains how to correctly prune trees and shrubs to maintain their health and beauty and provides information on plant diseases, how to correctly fertilize landscapes, and when to apply herbicides and insecticides for weed and insect control.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781684093076

Book preview

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A Desert Gardener’s Guide on How to Create

the Perfect Southwest Landscape

Build and Bloom

Dawn Fried

Landscape designer, photographer and Arizona horticulturist

Copyright © 2017 Dawn Fried

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2017

ISBN 978-1-68409-306-9 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68409-307-6 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

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Introduction

Gardening is a work of a lifetime; you never finish.

—Oscar de la Renta

I have been a landscape contractor and gardener in Tucson, Arizona, for more than thirty years and vice president of Horticulture Unlimited, Inc., which is a landscape company in Tucson. One of my favorite passions is designing and creating charming outdoor living areas using a variety of captivating greenery. During my workweek, I am running my company, meeting with new clients, working with my team of talented employees, designing and then installing beautiful, award winning landscapes. Most weekends, I can be found transplanting, repotting, or installing plants with delightful colors and textures in my gardens. It is a lot of hard, satisfying work to keep my plants healthy year round.

Gardens are magical places—in them, we witness the soothing and inspirational process that plants go through as they mature and bloom. As the seasons change, so do the plants in the garden. Some will flower during the warm season; others bloom during the colder months. Leaves change color in the fall and drop from trees in the winter months, leaving silhouettes of bare but dormant branches. The rebirth of the garden begins again in the spring. Small buds form and sprout as night and day temperatures rise. During our hotter months in the desert, before the summer monsoon arrives, leaves start to dry up and become water stressed. Then before we know it, the clouds build and the monsoons begin. The summer rains bring instantaneous growth and new life to plants. The hot, dry desert is lush once again. It seems miraculous.

In this book, I hope to educate and test your creative mind and help you plan and design your own successful and beautiful spaces. My goal is to provide you with the knowledge to design and build your own garden and give you tools to maintain and manage your landscape. One-half of a beautiful yard is the plantings; the other half is how well the garden is maintained.

Enjoy!

The Southwest desert is a harsh environment. Our annual rainfall is less than eleven inches per year. Winters produce many cold nights with below-freezing temperatures. Our summer temperatures average hot, dry days with extreme temperatures well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. These drastic weather conditions create an interesting environment for plants to grow. Fortunately, there are many challenging and adaptive plant species to use in a desert landscape.

As a practicing landscape designer and horticulturalist, I have developed an extensive palette of plant species to use in any desert environment. There are so many varieties of plants that work well in Southwest gardens. Plant choices include hardy, exotic, colorful, and accent vegetation. There are plants for low-maintenance and water gardens; plants to use around pools, ponds, fountains, and water features; plants for small spaces; vegetation that attracts birds, butterflies, and wildlife; plants for screening. There are succulents, exotic plants, desert accent plant materials, and my favorite, plants that work well in containers.

Creating your own special garden is easy. It begins with understanding what kinds of plant species do best in certain environments. If your garden space is small, then the plant choices should include vegetation that will not outgrow the area in one to three years. If you have a lot of property and plenty of space, then choices might include plants that grow large and take up vast areas. Plant choices should be well thought out. When designing a garden environment, think about what the plant will look like at maturity. Will it grow too large and too fast in a few years, overpowering its space?

When designing landscapes, always take into consideration what the ultimate goal is. Are you looking for a low-maintenance or a minimal-water-use garden? What color palette do you want to create? How easy or hard will the landscape be to maintain? What type of irrigation system should be included? Do you want accent lighting? Is there a pool in the landscape? Is the landscape going to be designed around small children? Do you want a pet-friendly environment? Are you trying to screen out a building or a neighboring house? Do you want to include hardscaped areas such as barbeques, patios, and seating walls? These are just a few of the questions you will need to ask yourself before starting your landscape design. The ultimate goal is to create a space that you and your family will enjoy for years to come. Think about making an extension of your house by using porches, pool areas, patios, decks, and gardens—they can transform your yard into a living space that serves the same functions as an indoor room.

Part One

Design and Build

Chapter 1

The Design Process and Planning Your Landscape

When designing a landscape, sometimes it is easier to work from a blank slate. Consider removing portions of your existing landscape to create space for something new. Also, consider whether to design and install the landscape yourself or to hire a contractor. If you decide to hire a landscape contractor, designer, or architect, the first rule is to make sure that they are properly licensed to perform the work. Check the Internet for local landscape contracting firms. Talk to a few different contractors and ask for references. Have a conversation with these references. Pick someone who is creative and with whom you feel comfortable, because he or she will be working in your yard. Don’t necessarily go with the lowest, cheapest bid. Make sure the price is competitive, but also select a credible, licensed contractor.

Before you begin the design process with a professional, or if you are creating the design yourself, develop a plan. The plan could be an easy sketch or hand drawing. If you are using a designer, it is a good idea to physically walk the landscape with that person and discuss what design you envision. It also helps to view pictures of the plants you will be installing.

Start by outlining the existing garden and any permanent or existing features of the landscape. Take correct measurements of the yard so that you can make an accurate scale drawing of the space. Draw the outline of the garden with the house in position. Add any other important plants or features. Next, draw in all the other elements in the yard that will not change. For example, add existing flowerbeds, mature trees, a possible toolshed, pool, spa, or patio into the design. Draw the new landscape components in pencil so they can be easily erased or changed. Use a compass or tool to include curves in your design.

If you prefer not to draw the design by hand, computer design programs are an option. They vary in capability and ease of use. Some are more expensive than others, and the learning curve to use them may vary. One program called SketchUp may be helpful—it is a 3-D sketching software ideal for the conceptual phase of design. You also might find paper and pencil designs just as effective in the planning of your garden. Also, the ability to physically move around in your own yard when designing it is a major advantage.

Don’t worry if your creative ability to design doesn’t come naturally. Try looking through landscape books and magazines, and mark designs and ideas that catch your eye. Go to local nurseries in your area to determine what plants appeal to you. Take photos and notes of the vegetation that you like and would want to use in your own landscape design. Start sketching lots of designs and explore many ideas. To help visualize sizes of plants and hardscaped areas, stake out the design on the ground with marking paint or string and modify the plan as needed.

Collect color pictures of the plant palette you want to use in your landscape. That way you will have a concept of your plants’ colors and textures. When designing a landscape, take into account what existing plants can be utilized. Maybe there is an old plant that has been in the yard for many years. Think about how creative pruning might rejuvenate it. For example, by pruning the lower fronds of a Mediterranean fan palm, or pruning the lower leaves of a large, mature Yucca gloriosa, you might expose a trunk that would be a great accent or focal point in the yard. Adding several tons of soil-fill to an area would create another kind of interesting focal point, and perhaps also might cover an ancient palm stump that is hard to remove. Additionally, there might be an old pond, fireplace, or grill that would benefit from a makeover.

Effective landscape design can drastically reduce your cooling and heating costs each year. For example, by installing large shade trees or plant material with dense vegetation on the west and southwest sides of your yard, during the hot summer, the leaves will block the afternoon sun and keep it from overheating your house.

Plants purchased from a nursery or garden center come in many different sizes of containers. Common sizes are one-gallon plants, five-gallon plants, fifteen-gallon plants, and twenty-four-inch or thirty-six-inch boxed plants, or larger. A good starter for a tree is a twenty-four-inch boxed specimen, because a thirty-six-inch boxed tree may require a backhoe for installation, adding expense to your plan.

When installing a landscape, always plant larger trees behind smaller plants. Install plants of a medium height next. Finally, fill in with low-growing plants. When designing on paper, draw in the biggest trees or specimen plants first, then add smaller plants and accent plants around a major focal point. Remember to use some hardy plants in the landscape. Since our cold winters cause frost damage to most tender warm-season plants, use cold-hardy plants as a focal point. This way you are guaranteed year-round impact, from those plants.

Planting possibilities are endless. Once the design and planting scheme is integrated into a conceptual drawing, you are comfortable with the design budget, and have made a decision to hire a reliable landscape contractor, or take on the landscaping project yourself—then let the planting begin!

Chapter 2

Preparation and Implementation of Your New Landscape

Before installing a new landscape, you may need to remove vegetation and haul debris from the yard to allow space for the project. Try to visualize what plants or hardscaped items need to be removed. Preparations for a big landscape renovation might take days or weeks. If you are doing this project yourself, you may need a dumpster, a truck, or some other way to haul materials from the site to the city dump or county landfill. Note that you will need to separate green waste from non-green waste materials, and if you are removing an old patio, barbeque, or bricks, you should always check with local city or county officials for