The Garden NerdYour consultation write-up
Thanks for having me out. Everything we talked about is below, in the order we walked the yard. The main theme for your yard is heat: a lot of rock, concrete, and wall surface reflecting it back. Every plant you add starts cooling things down.
For the order of work: pull rock and lay mulch first, then plant trees, then cover the walls, then everything else.
Covering the south facing fence
This fence takes sun all day and throws that heat back into the yard. The goal is to put something living in front of it. Firestick, the pencil cactus you already have in the pot, is a great fit here. It grows upright into a tall, dense screen, handles full sun and reflected heat, and takes less water than plants that aren't desert adapted.
Plant them about 3 feet apart along the fence. The sap is irritating to skin and eyes, so wear gloves when you handle or prune them, and keep them back from walkways where people brush past.
Firestick
Upright pencil like stems that turn orange and red in the cooler months. Easy to start from cuttings off the one you already have.
Keep the lemongrass going
The lemongrass loves this spot. Keep extending it down the fence as far as you want along the wall. It fills in fast, softens the wall, and you can harvest it for cooking.
The easiest way to spread it is to divide the clump you have. Dig up a section with roots attached and replant it a few feet down the wall. Cut it back hard in late winter and it comes back fresh in spring.
Lemongrass
Fast growing clumping grass with edible stalks. Divides easily to cover more of the wall.
A shade tree for afternoon sun
An ash tree will work well here for blocking the afternoon sun. Here are a couple of other good options so you can compare. All three give real shade within a few years.
Plant it at least 10 to 15 feet from the house and the wall so the canopy has room to spread.
Arizona Ash
Fast, dense summer shade and drops its leaves in winter to let the sun back in. A solid choice for blocking afternoon sun. Keep the root flare exposed and water deeply so it stays healthy long term.
Red Push Pistache
Clean, well shaped canopy with red new growth in spring and great fall color. A little slower than ash, but longer lived and less maintenance.
Chinese Elm
Fast, wide shade and only bare for a short stretch in winter. Handles heat and reflected light well.
A second shade tree to match
This spot is good for another large shade tree. Using the same tree you pick for the spot above will make the two look intentional and give you a matching canopy across the back of the yard, with more afternoon shade.
Arizona Ash
Fast, dense summer shade and drops its leaves in winter to let the sun back in. A solid choice for blocking afternoon sun. Keep the root flare exposed and water deeply so it stays healthy long term.
Red Push Pistache
Clean, well shaped canopy with red new growth in spring and great fall color. A little slower than ash, but longer lived and less maintenance.
Chinese Elm
Fast, wide shade and only bare for a short stretch in winter. Handles heat and reflected light well.
Overseeding the Bermuda with winter rye
To keep this grass green through winter, you overseed the Bermuda with winter ryegrass in October, once nighttime temperatures stay in the 60s.
Stop feeding the Bermuda a few weeks before. Then mow it down low, about half an inch, and rake out the dead thatch so the seed can reach the soil. Spread perennial ryegrass seed at about 10 to 15 pounds per 1,000 square feet, then top it with a thin layer of compost to hold moisture around the seed.
Water lightly three or four times a day for the first 7 to 10 days until it sprouts, then cut back to deeper, less frequent watering. Do the first mow once it reaches about 2 and a half inches.
Newly planted trees: rock, wells, and stakes
This goes for this tree and every newly planted tree in the yard. Pull the rock back from around each one. Build the water well out to the drip line, which is the outer edge of the canopy. Lay about an inch of compost right on top of the soil, then an inch or two of mulch over that, and keep both about a foot back from the trunk. Deep water by filling the well.
Move the stakes too. Right now the stake is tight against the trunk. Set two stakes, one on either side a foot or so out from the tree, with loose ties. The tree needs room to move in the wind, because that movement is what builds a strong trunk. Take the stakes out completely after a year.
Compost for the rose
This rose needs lots of compost. Spread a good 2 to 3 inches on top of the soil around it, pull the rock back even further than it is now, and put mulch down over the compost. Roses in Phoenix do their best when the soil stays cool and rich, and rock does the opposite.
Rose
Feed it with compost a few times a year and give it a light cleanup prune in late January or early February.
Living groundcover around the yard
Plant these here and there around the yard to get living groundcover going. Every patch you plant covers rock, cools the soil, and cuts down on the reflected heat. Plant at the spacing listed and they will fill in over the next year or two.
You won't fit all of these. Pick your favorites and mix at least three or four so something is blooming in every season.
Yellow Dot
Also called wedelia. Low, bright green, and covered in small yellow daisies. Fills in quickly.
Blackfoot Daisy
Native, with white daisies most of the year. Tuck it between larger plants.
Lantana
Trailing lantana covers a lot of ground fast with purple, yellow, or white flowers most of the year.
Trailing Rosemary
Evergreen and fragrant, with blue flowers in winter and spring. Bees love it.
Trailing Indigo Bush
Silver gray native with purple spring flowers. Covers the most ground per plant.
Damianita
Fine green foliage and bright yellow flowers in spring and fall. Great along edges.
Angelita Daisy
Tight mounds of yellow daisies nearly all year.
Emu Bush
Low growing varieties like Outback Sunrise make a thick carpet and handle full sun and heat.
Root flares on the ficus
On all of the ficus, the soil needs to be pulled back so the root flare is exposed. That's where the trunk widens into the main roots, and when it's buried it holds moisture against the bark and invites rot. The video below shows how to do it.
Once the flares are exposed, make the water wells bigger, out to the drip line. Add an inch of compost on top of the soil, then an inch or two of mulch, kept a foot back from the trunk. For compost, Arizona Worm Farm is where I send everyone. It's rich in the soil biology these trees need.
Video not loading? Watch it on YouTube.
Helping the lime tree recover
This lime tree is struggling, but it can come back through the winter with some help. Pull the rock back, build a good water well, add compost, and add mulch, same as the other trees.
Keep the water steady this winter. Citrus roots stay active in the cool months, so a deep watering every week or two, by filling the well, gives it what it needs to push new growth in spring. Hold off on pruning until it starts to leaf out again.
The sugarcane
Keep watering the sugarcane. Pull the rock back more around it and give it more compost. It's a heavy feeder and loves rich soil.
I'll bring you more sugarcane when I have it.
Covering the walls
This is the big one for your yard. There's a lot of reflected heat here from the rock, the concrete, and the walls, and the fastest way to cool everything down is to start covering those surfaces with plants.
Along this wall, or any wall in the yard, any of these will work. Space them 4 to 5 feet apart so they grow into a continuous screen. They all handle full sun and heat off the block.
Hopseed
Fast, dense, and handles full sun. The quickest way to cover a wall.
Arizona Rosewood
Native and dense, with evergreen leaves. Can be kept trimmed or left to grow tall for height.
Orange Jubilee
Orange trumpet flowers spring through fall. Hummingbirds love it. Cut it back hard in late winter to keep it full.
Screening the pool equipment
Desert shrubs here will screen the pool equipment and bring color around the pool. Keep them about 3 feet from the equipment so there's room to get in for service.
Red Bird of Paradise
Red and orange flowers all summer. Cut it back to about a foot tall in late winter and it comes back full.
Yellow Bells
Big clusters of yellow trumpet flowers spring through fall.
Texas Sage
Silver foliage with purple flowers that pop after summer rain.
Baja Fairy Duster
Red puffball flowers most of the year. A hummingbird favorite.
A smaller ornamental tree
This spot calls for a smaller tree that looks good and still gives some shade. Desert willow and Texas olive are both great here. Vitex and cascalote are two more good ones.
Desert Willow
Orchid like flowers from spring into fall. Loses its leaves in winter.
Texas Olive
White flowers on and off most of the year. Stays tidy and compact.
Vitex
Purple flower spikes all summer that bees swarm.
Cascalote
Bright yellow flower spikes through winter when little else is blooming. Handles full sun and heat.
Groundcover to cover the rock
Same idea here. Groundcover over the rock cools the soil and cuts down on the heat bouncing around the patio.
You won't fit all of these. Pick your favorites and mix at least three or four so something is blooming in every season.
Yellow Dot
Also called wedelia. Low, bright green, and covered in small yellow daisies. Fills in quickly.
Blackfoot Daisy
Native, with white daisies most of the year. Tuck it between larger plants.
Lantana
Trailing lantana covers a lot of ground fast with purple, yellow, or white flowers most of the year.
Trailing Rosemary
Evergreen and fragrant, with blue flowers in winter and spring. Bees love it.
Trailing Indigo Bush
Silver gray native with purple spring flowers. Covers the most ground per plant.
Damianita
Fine green foliage and bright yellow flowers in spring and fall. Great along edges.
Angelita Daisy
Tight mounds of yellow daisies nearly all year.
Emu Bush
Low growing varieties like Outback Sunrise make a thick carpet and handle full sun and heat.
Bamboo as a wall option
Bamboo is another way to cover the walls, and it grows fast. Only plant clumping bamboo, never running bamboo. Running types spread underground and will take over the yard and your neighbor's. Clumping types stay where you put them.
Bamboo likes consistent water, so put it along a wall where it will be on regular irrigation, and a few feet away from the pool so the leaves don't end up in the water. A spot that gets some afternoon shade will keep it looking its best, but it handles full sun with enough water.
Oldhamii is the one I recommend. It's a clumping giant timber bamboo that forms a tall, dense screen fast. Space plants about 6 to 8 feet apart, since each clump widens over time.
Oldhamii Bamboo
Clumping giant timber bamboo with thick green canes. Fast, upright, and dense enough to fully screen a wall.
Feeding the soil, not just the plants
Almost every note above comes back to the same thing: pull back the rock, add compost, add mulch. Compost on top of the soil feeds the fungi and bacteria that make nutrients available to your plants, holds water longer, and keeps roots cooler. Arizona Worm Farm is my go to for compost.
Where to go for what
Next steps
You can plant any of this yourself using the notes above. As a consult client, you're already in the Garden Nerd Club, so you have direct access to me there if questions come up along the way.
If you'd rather have us do the planting, let me know which areas you want to start with and I'll put together a proposal. For anything with irrigation or turf, call Garrett at 480-678-9121.