Timothy Hazelton

This ficus is done. I wouldn't put any money into trying to bring it back. Have it cut down and leave the stump. It doesn't need to be ground out; just plant the new tree right beside it.

I do want a tree to stay in this spot. It's blocking afternoon sun on the house, and losing that shade will make the house and this side of the yard noticeably hotter. Go with a 15 gallon tree. Smaller trees root in faster and end up healthier long term than a big boxed tree.

Red push pistache, like you already have in other spots, is a great option. It's deciduous, so it gives you summer shade and lets winter sun through. If you'd rather have shade year round, here are some evergreen options. Since this spot sits between the house and the wall, look at the mature width and keep the tree as far off the foundation as the space allows.

Red Push Pistache

Fast growing shade tree with red new growth in spring and great fall color. It drops its leaves in winter, so you get summer shade and winter sun on the house. Plant this fall as a 15 gallon.

Willow Acacia

Evergreen with long, weeping, willow-like leaves and a narrow upright form. The best fit for a tighter spot between a house and a wall because it grows up more than out.

Texas Ebony

Evergreen with small dark leaves and an upright, dense shape. Slow to moderate growth, very tough in reflected heat, and it has thorns, so keep it off walkways.

Mulga Acacia

Smaller evergreen tree from Australia with silvery needle-like leaves and yellow spring flowers. Stays compact (15 to 20 feet), handles heat well, and keeps a tidy shape without much pruning.

Desert Ironwood

Native Sonoran evergreen with gray green leaves and lavender flowers in spring. Slow growing but extremely long lived, and it feeds a lot of local wildlife. Takes less water than trees that aren't desert adapted.

Chinese Elm

Semi-evergreen (holds most of its leaves through a mild winter), fast growing, with a graceful rounded canopy and attractive peeling bark. A strong choice when you want shade quickly.

The boxwood on the right is completely dead, and that's not surprising here. Boxwood doesn't handle the reflected heat coming off the rock and pavers. The Little John bottlebrush in this bed are hanging on, but they're struggling for the same reason. If any of them keep declining, pull them and use the options below.

Everything here handles reflected heat, looks good most of the year, and needs very little from you once it's established. Leave about 2 feet between the pavers and the plant so it can grow without getting cut back constantly.

Red Bird of Paradise

Big orange and red flower clusters from late spring through fall. Loves full sun and reflected heat. Cut it back once in late winter and let it grow natural the rest of the year.

Texas Sage

Silvery leaves and purple blooms after summer humidity. One of the toughest shrubs in reflected heat. Never shear it; let it keep its loose natural shape and it will flower much more.

Baja Fairy Duster

Bright red puffball flowers most of the year and a hummingbird magnet. Medium sized, open shape, and it handles heat off rock and pavers very well.

Globe Mallow

Native perennial with apricot orange cup flowers in spring. Fast to fill a gap, takes heat with no problem, and reseeds a little on its own.

Turpentine Bush

Native, compact, bright green year round with a flush of yellow flowers in fall. Low maintenance and handles reflected heat well.

Firecracker Plant

Upright stems with bright red tubular flowers that hummingbirds love. Takes full sun and heat, and gives you a different texture from the rounded shrubs.

Damianita

Low mound of fine, bright green leaves covered in yellow daisies in spring and fall. Stays under 2 feet, perfect along edges and in front of bigger shrubs.

Yellow Emu Bush (Outback Sunrise)

Low spreading ground cover with gray green leaves and yellow flowers in late winter and spring. One of my favorites for the hottest spots in the yard.

San Marcos Hibiscus

Low, mounding shrub with lavender pink flowers most of the year. Takes heat well and stays small enough for a walkway edge.

You can't fit all of these. Pick 3 or 4 favorites and repeat them through the space so it looks planned and full.

The young tree in this bed should get a water well too.

The ficus along this wall are dead, and that's not a bad thing. Ficus roots that close to the pool would have caused problems with the pool shell and plumbing over time. You can cut them low and leave the stumps.

Instead, I recommend a hedge that covers the wall and stops the reflected heat bouncing back toward the pool and patio. Pick one plant and run it the full length of the wall so it reads as one clean hedge. All three of these drop very little, which keeps your pool cleaner. I'd skip yellow bells and orange jubilee right here because their flowers and leaves end up in the water.

Spacing: hopseed 4 to 5 feet apart, Arizona rosewood 5 to 6 feet, twisted myrtle about 4 feet.

Hopseed

Fast growing evergreen hedge with narrow bright green leaves. Grows tall and full enough to cover a block wall, and it drops very little, which matters next to a pool.

Arizona Rosewood

Native evergreen hedge with dark green leaves. Dense, handles full sun and reflected heat, and makes a solid screen. Takes less water than plants that aren't desert adapted.

Twisted Myrtle

Evergreen with small glossy leaves that have a slight twist, and fragrant white flowers. Stays a little more compact and refined looking than hopseed or rosewood.

Same story in this corner: the Little John bottlebrush isn't doing great. Two walls meeting in a corner trap and reflect a lot of heat, so this spot needs plants built for it. Any of these will do better here and still look good.

Red Bird of Paradise

Big orange and red flower clusters from late spring through fall. Loves full sun and reflected heat. Cut it back once in late winter and let it grow natural the rest of the year.

Texas Sage

Silvery leaves and purple blooms after summer humidity. One of the toughest shrubs in reflected heat. Never shear it; let it keep its loose natural shape and it will flower much more.

Baja Fairy Duster

Bright red puffball flowers most of the year and a hummingbird magnet. Medium sized, open shape, and it handles heat off rock and pavers very well.

Chuparosa

Native shrub with green stems and red tubular flowers in winter and spring that hummingbirds go crazy for. Loves heat.

Desert Honeysuckle

Native shrub with orange tubular flowers from summer into fall. Easy, takes heat well, and brings in hummingbirds.

Globe Mallow

Native perennial with apricot orange cup flowers in spring. Fast to fill a gap, takes heat with no problem, and reseeds a little on its own.

Turpentine Bush

Native, compact, bright green year round with a flush of yellow flowers in fall. Low maintenance and handles reflected heat well.

San Marcos Hibiscus

Low, mounding shrub with lavender pink flowers most of the year. Takes heat well and stays small enough for a walkway edge.

You can't fit all of these. Pick 3 or 4 favorites and repeat them through the space so it looks planned and full.

The tree in this corner should get a water well as well.

You already have a few trees and some yellow bells along this wall, and you like the yellow bells, so my suggestion is to keep going with them and fill the whole wall in. They're easy, they take the heat, they're green year round, and they flower from spring into fall.

Fill the gaps between the trees, spacing them 5 to 6 feet apart and about 3 feet off the wall. Let them grow into their natural shape instead of shearing them flat. Sheared yellow bells lose most of their flowers.

Yellow Bells

Fast growing, green year round, and covered in yellow trumpet flowers from spring to fall. Space them 5 to 6 feet apart and about 3 feet off the wall.

The trees along this wall should each get a water well too.

This pathway gets blasted. It sits in full sun next to the artificial turf, the pavers, and the rock, and all three hold and throw heat. That's why things haven't made it here before. The plants for these spots need to handle the hottest conditions in the yard.

There are four planting spots on each side of the walkway. San Marcos hibiscus is my first pick: it stays low, flowers most of the year, and takes the heat. The rest are low growing ground covers that can handle it too. Keep each plant about a foot back from the turf edge.

Timing matters here. Planting this fall gives the roots the whole cool season to get established before summer. Make sure each spot actually has a working emitter before planting. If anything looks off with the drip, Garrett can check it.

San Marcos Hibiscus

Low, mounding shrub with lavender pink flowers most of the year. Takes heat well and stays small enough for a walkway edge.

Yellow Emu Bush (Outback Sunrise)

Low spreading ground cover with gray green leaves and yellow flowers in late winter and spring. One of my favorites for the hottest spots in the yard.

Damianita

Low mound of fine, bright green leaves covered in yellow daisies in spring and fall. Stays under 2 feet, perfect along edges and in front of bigger shrubs.

Trailing Indigo Bush

Low silvery ground cover with purple flowers in spring. Spreads wide and stays tidy. A nice soft contrast against green hedges.

Angelita Daisy

Small mound of fine leaves with little yellow daisies almost all year. Very easy and stays low.

Trailing Rosemary

Low, spreading rosemary that drapes over edges. Fragrant, evergreen, small blue flowers, and great in heat.

Desert Marigold

Native with soft gray leaves and bright yellow flowers spring through fall. Low and easy, and it reseeds a little.

You can't fit all of these. Pick 3 or 4 favorites and repeat them through the space so it looks planned and full.

Unfortunately, this ficus is a goner. Our Tree Recovery Program is an option (details in the tree work section below), but I'd rather see you spend that money on a new tree. Cut it down, leave the stump, and plant a 15 gallon beside it. In a year or two the new tree will be in better shape than this one would ever get back to.

Here are some options that do well in this kind of spot and take the heat off the wall and patio.

Red Push Pistache

Fast growing shade tree with red new growth in spring and great fall color. It drops its leaves in winter, so you get summer shade and winter sun on the house. Plant this fall as a 15 gallon.

Chinese Elm

Semi-evergreen (holds most of its leaves through a mild winter), fast growing, with a graceful rounded canopy and attractive peeling bark. A strong choice when you want shade quickly.

Texas Olive

Smaller tree with large white flowers through the warm months. Mostly evergreen here, takes heat well, and stays a manageable size for a patio corner.

Desert Willow

Native, smaller tree with orchid-like pink and purple flowers through summer. Light, airy shade and a natural shape. Drops leaves in winter.

Texas Ebony

Evergreen with small dark leaves and an upright, dense shape. Slow to moderate growth, very tough in reflected heat, and it has thorns, so keep it off walkways.

Carob

Evergreen, dense, dark green canopy that gives heavy year round shade. It gets wide over time (30 feet or more), so it only fits where it has room to spread. Takes less water than trees that aren't desert adapted.

This red push pistache is struggling a little. It isn't as full as it should be, it's planted a bit too deep, and it's covered with rock. I recommend a root flare excavation (see the video in the side yard ficus section above), and a water well.

Because it's a newer tree, I don't think it needs the full Tree Recovery Program. Exposing the flare, switching the rock for a mulch well, and keeping it fed should be enough to turn it around.

All around the front yard there are two or three empty spots, and the lantana and some of the other shrubs aren't growing well. The biggest issue I see is pruning. Ask your landscaper to stop pruning so often. Every time a shrub gets sheared, it loses the leaves it uses to make food and the buds it would flower from, and it has to spend its energy regrowing instead of rooting and filling in. Do that every few weeks and you get a slow decline, which is exactly what's happening here.

What to tell your landscaper: thin, don't shear. Take out a few longer branches back to where they meet another branch, a couple of times a year at most, and let the plants keep their natural shape. Lantana is the exception: cut it back hard once in late winter after the last frost, then leave it alone for the rest of the year.

For the empty spots, here are some options that fit the front yard and handle the sun.

Red Bird of Paradise

Big orange and red flower clusters from late spring through fall. Loves full sun and reflected heat. Cut it back once in late winter and let it grow natural the rest of the year.

Texas Sage

Silvery leaves and purple blooms after summer humidity. One of the toughest shrubs in reflected heat. Never shear it; let it keep its loose natural shape and it will flower much more.

Baja Fairy Duster

Bright red puffball flowers most of the year and a hummingbird magnet. Medium sized, open shape, and it handles heat off rock and pavers very well.

Globe Mallow

Native perennial with apricot orange cup flowers in spring. Fast to fill a gap, takes heat with no problem, and reseeds a little on its own.

Desert Ruellia

Upright shrub with white or purple flowers. Fills in fast and handles the heat.

Penstemon

Tall spikes of red, pink, or purple flowers in spring. Hummingbirds love them, and they add height between rounded shrubs.