Consultation Write-Up
Debbie's Yard
Thanks for having me out, Debbie. Your yard has a lot of good plants in the right spots already. Most of what we talked about is about helping them do better: watering deeper and less often, getting the soil and rock off of trunks, pulling emitters back from palms and cacti, and feeding the plants that aren't native.
Everything below follows the order we walked the yard, with photos of each spot. As a consult client, you're already in the Garden Nerd Club, so you have direct access to me there for any questions as you work through this.
Groundcover Under the Palm
Options to fill in around the base
Right now there's potato vine under this palm. Here are a few other groundcover options that will work here. Any of these will fill in around the base, shade the soil, and keep it cooler.
Keep every plant a foot or two back from the palm trunk so the base stays dry, and space them so they knit together as they spread (most of these about 3 to 4 feet apart).
Silver Ponyfoot
Low, trailing mat of round silver leaves that spills and softens everything around it. Looks great against the dark trunk of a palm.
Myoporum
Fast spreading, bright green carpet with small white flowers in spring. Fills in an area quickly and stays low.
Trailing Indigo Bush
Low, soft gray-green groundcover with small purple flowers in spring. Takes less water than groundcovers that aren't desert adapted.
Outback Sunrise Emu Bush
Low spreading groundcover with yellow flowers in winter and spring. Handles heat and reflected sun really well.
Purple Heart
Deep purple trailing leaves with small pink flowers. Great color contrast under green palm fronds.
Trailing Rosemary
Spills and spreads low, small blue flowers, smells great when you brush past it, and you can cook with it.
Honeysuckle and Skyflower Shrubs
Buried too deep, needs a dig out
A lot of the shrubs along here, including the honeysuckle and the skyflower, are buried and were planted a little too deep. Soil and rock are piled up against the trunks, which holds moisture against the bark and slowly stresses the plant. They all need a good dig out.
Pull everything back. Pull the soil and rock back away from each trunk until you find the root flare, where the trunk widens out into the roots. A strong stream of water from a hose works great to blast the dirt away without damaging anything.
Then feed and mulch. Put down a little compost around each shrub, then mulch over it, keeping the mulch a few inches back from the trunk.
Feed them monthly. If you want these to really flower and look the way you want them to, they need to be fed regularly. See the feeding section below.
This video shows why an exposed root flare matters so much, with real examples:
Can't see the video? Watch it on YouTube.
Taller Screening Shrub
Something around 6 to 7 feet tall
For this spot you want something with some real height, around 6 to 7 feet. Hopseed is a great pick, and I added a few more options below.
If you're doing a row, space hopseed and rosewood about 4 to 5 feet apart, and green feathery senna about 5 to 6 feet apart.
Hopseed
Upright, narrow evergreen that grows quickly to 8 to 12 feet and is easy to keep at 6 to 7 with a trim once or twice a year. Takes less water than shrubs that aren't desert adapted.
Arizona Rosewood
Native, dense, dark green evergreen with small white flowers in spring. Naturally gets right around 6 to 10 feet, slow and steady, very little trimming needed.
Green Feathery Senna
Fine, feathery green leaves and bright yellow flowers in late winter and spring. Around 6 feet, with a soft, airy look.
Lantana Reset
Hard cut at the end of winter
This lantana could use a good reset. It's gotten woody and leggy, which is normal after a few years, and a hard cut is the best way to bring it back.
When: the end of winter, around late February, once the frost risk is behind us. Cutting earlier leaves fresh growth exposed to a cold snap.
How: cut it back hard, 6 inches to a foot above the ground. It looks rough for a few weeks, but lantana bounces back fast and comes back fuller and more compact, with a lot more flowers.
After: spread a layer of quality compost around the base, give it a deep, slow soak, and keep feeding it monthly through the growing season.
Lantana and Milkweed Vine
Pull the vine before it takes over
Same deal with this lantana, but this one is also being overtaken by a native milkweed vine. It needs to come out now, before it completely takes over and smothers the lantana. Follow the vine down to the base and pull or cut it out at the ground, then pull the rest out of the lantana. It'll likely try to come back, so pull any new shoots while they're small.
Then give the lantana the same reset as the others:
When: the end of winter, around late February, once the frost risk is behind us. Cutting earlier leaves fresh growth exposed to a cold snap.
How: cut it back hard, 6 inches to a foot above the ground. It looks rough for a few weeks, but lantana bounces back fast and comes back fuller and more compact, with a lot more flowers.
After: spread a layer of quality compost around the base, give it a deep, slow soak, and keep feeding it monthly through the growing season.
Palm Drip Emitters
Pull them back from the trunk
The drip emitters on these palms are right up against the trunk. The base is staying wet, the palm is getting too much water right where it's most vulnerable, and it looks like some rot and decay are starting.
Pull the emitters back away from the trunk, about 2 feet out, and spread them around the palm rather than having them all on one side. Palm roots spread out wide, so this is actually where they want the water. With the base drying out between waterings, it should recover.
Raised Garden Beds
Great sun for vegetables
This is a great spot for raised garden beds. The sun orientation is right, and it should work really well.
For the beds themselves, check out Olle Gardens. To fill them, Arizona Worm Farm has a great raised bed mix. We're heading into our best vegetable season right now, and my Maricopa County Planting Guide breaks down exactly what to plant and when.
Bamboo fencing on the wall
I'd also put bamboo fencing up against this wall, like you have in the other part of your backyard. The block wall soaks up heat all day and radiates it back onto the beds well into the evening. Bamboo fencing breaks that up, which cools this area down and makes it a lot easier for things to grow here. The rolled panels attach right to the wall.
Front Yard Cacti
Pull the drip emitters back
These barrel cactus look fine, and the one higher up looks like it's going to recover fine too.
On all the cacti in the front yard, pull the drip emitters back. We don't want them right up against the base, because that constant moisture against the skin is what rots cactus out. Go through each one and move the emitter out about a foot or more from the base, or cap it off entirely on the established ones. Cacti need very little supplemental water once they're settled in.
Ocotillo
This spot works; go easy on the water
An ocotillo would work here. I think the reason it didn't work in the past was overwatering. Ocotillos need very little water, if any. At most, a deep soak once a month in the heat of the summer, and that's it. No emitter on a regular drip schedule.
A few ocotillo specifics: they're usually sold as bare canes, and it's normal for a new one to sit there looking dead for months before it leafs out. That's exactly when people tend to overwater, so resist it. Plant it in well-drained soil, keep it out of the drip line, and let it do its thing.
Ocotillo
Native with tall, whip-like canes that leaf out after rain and get bright red flower tips in spring. Hummingbird favorite and a true Sonoran Desert icon. Needs very little water once established.
Front Lantana
Trim back at the end of winter
The lantana up here in the front could use a good trim back too, same as we talked about in the back.
When: the end of winter, around late February, once the frost risk is behind us. Cutting earlier leaves fresh growth exposed to a cold snap.
How: cut it back hard, 6 inches to a foot above the ground. It looks rough for a few weeks, but lantana bounces back fast and comes back fuller and more compact, with a lot more flowers.
After: spread a layer of quality compost around the base, give it a deep, slow soak, and keep feeding it monthly through the growing season.
Front Plantings
Right spot, but they need help
All of these up here are in the right sun orientation, and they can and should survive here long term. But because they're not native, they're not going to want to grow great in our conditions on their own. They need some help:
- Amend the soil. Spread compost around each plant to start building the soil biology.
- Feed them monthly. Non-native plants need regular feeding to thrive here. See the feeding section below.
- Pull the rock back and mulch. Rock holds and radiates heat right onto the roots. Pull the rock back from around each plant and put mulch down in its place. That cools the roots down, holds moisture, and continuously feeds the soil as it breaks down.
The Big Picture: Water Deep, Less Often
Yard-wide
Overall, the biggest change for the whole yard is watering more deeply and less frequently. Right now you're watering three times a week, and you don't need to. Short, frequent watering keeps roots shallow near the surface, where they cook in the summer. Longer, less frequent watering pushes roots deep, where the soil stays cooler and holds moisture longer. You'll use less water overall and get healthier plants.
Pair that with three other yard-wide habits we talked about: feed anything that isn't native on a regular basis, pull the rock back from around plants, and put mulch down in its place.
A starting point for your watering schedule
Run each watering long enough to soak trees about 2 to 3 feet deep and shrubs about 1 to 2 feet deep. Check it by pushing a long screwdriver or soil probe into the ground a few hours after watering; it slides in easily where the soil is wet.
| Season | Trees | Shrubs |
|---|---|---|
| Fall (now) | Every 10 to 14 days | Every 7 to 10 days |
| Winter | Every 2 to 3 weeks | Every 10 to 14 days |
| Spring | Every 10 to 14 days | Every 7 to 10 days |
| Summer | Every 7 to 10 days | Every 3 to 5 days |
Native and desert-adapted plants can go longer between waterings than this. Cacti and the ocotillo stay off the regular schedule entirely.
How to plant
Planting the Right Way
- Dig wide, not deep. Make the hole two to three times as wide as the root ball and only as deep as the root ball, so the plant sits right at grade, never buried.
- Backfill with native soil. Use the soil you dug out with just a tiny bit of compost mixed in.
- Compost on top. Lay compost on top of the soil around the plant. Don't work it in; let the soil life pull it down.
- Mulch over the compost. Cover the compost with mulch, keeping it pulled back from trunks.
- Water deep. Soak it in well right after planting and keep the root ball from drying out over the first couple months.
Soil and feeding
Feeding Your Plants
Feeding came up all over the yard: the lantanas, the honeysuckle and skyflower, and the non-native plants out front. Here's exactly how to do it yourself.
- Compost, generously. Spread compost around the drip line of trees (out where the canopy ends, where the feeder roots are) and closer in around shrubs. Arizona Worm Farm has the best compost around.
- Worm castings every quarter. A light layer around each plant every three months feeds the soil life and helps the roots take up nutrients.
- Organic fertilizer high in fulvic acid, monthly. I use and recommend the Catalyst line below. Find them at Catalyst Product Group (click Products, then Home and Garden).
Catalyst Jenner 8
Organic liquid fertilizer loaded with fulvic acid and biology. Feeds the soil food web so the plants can feed themselves.
Catalyst Organic Nitro Jen
Organic nitrogen source for strong, green growth without the salt burn of synthetic fertilizers.
Catalyst Kelp
Kelp fertilizer packed with trace minerals and natural growth hormones. Helps plants handle heat and stress.
Or let us handle it
Monthly Fertilizing
$120/month
- Monthly organic liquid feeding across the whole yard
- Compost applied three times a year
- A recap video after every visit so you know exactly what we did
Quick reference
Where to Go for What
Compost, mulch, worm castings, raised bed mix
Raised garden beds
What to plant and when
Shrubs, groundcovers, ocotillo
A&P Nursery
Organic fertilizer
Irrigation (moving emitters, schedule changes)
Call Garrett at 480-678-9121
Why root flares matter
Next steps
Where to Go From Here
Most of this is work you can do yourself, and everything you need is in this write-up. As a consult client, you're already in the Garden Nerd Club, so you have direct access to me there anytime questions come up.
If you'd rather have us handle the planting (the new groundcover, the taller shrubs, or the ocotillo), The Garden Nerd does planting. Let me know which plants you're leaning toward and I'll put together a planting proposal whenever you're ready.
For moving drip emitters or reworking the watering schedule, call Garrett at 480-678-9121. We don't do irrigation, but he's who I trust.
Thanks again for having me out, Debbie.