Hi Yvonne,
here's your planting plan.
We walked your property and put together a plan to cool your backyard down, cover the block walls that take on the most heat, and fill your front yard with desert-adapted color. Below is the breakdown, area by area, with the proposal at the bottom.
This covers the planting itself, priced out below. At the end, we've also included a few notes on where your yard is headed down the road, no cost attached, just so you can see the full picture.
Back wall, south-facing (80 ft)
AI mockup
This wall takes on serious heat most of the day. A hedge of orange jubilee down the full run will green it up, add a steady wash of orange bloom color, and give you privacy from your neighbor. We're leaving both ends open so a tree can go in on each side. Irrigation is already run along the wall, it just needs to be connected.
16× Orange jubilee, 5 gal, spaced 4 ftWall-end fruit trees
One tree goes on each end of the hedge. We're planting a citrus, variety your choice, on one end and a Florida Prince peach on the other. Worth knowing: the peach drops its leaves in winter while citrus stays evergreen, so the two ends won't mirror exactly through the cold months. If full symmetry matters to you, citrus on both ends is an easy swap, just let us know.
1× Citrus (variety TBD), 15 gal 1× Florida Prince peach, 15 galWest side of the backyard, shade tree
Your mature bottle tree on the east side already gives that end of the yard shade. We're mirroring it on the west side with a red push pistache, brought in about 10 feet from the block wall rather than the 3 feet the bottle tree sits at. One tree is enough here, it'll grow large enough to give the rest of the yard real afternoon shade. Combined with the orange jubilee covering the back wall, this is what starts cooling the whole yard down. Red push pistache does fine growing in a lawn, which matters since you'll likely keep the grass around both trees for now.
1× Red push pistache, 15 galEast side of the house, block wall (20 ft)
This wall runs off the house and faces south, so it holds heat the same way the backyard wall does. Two red bird of paradise here will cool the wall down and add color right where you see it most walking along that side of the house.
2× Red bird of paradise, 5 galFront yard, east side
This side of the front yard is wide open, with a large mesquite anchoring the other side across the dry rock creek. A blue palo verde here balances the yard out and will eventually add real shade of its own.
1× Blue palo verde, 15 galFront yard, color and ground cover fill
AI mockup
The rest of the front yard gets filled out with desert-adapted, low-maintenance color, arranged with even spacing but a natural feel rather than a rigid pattern. Ruellia goes in as a low hedge along the walkway near the house, purple fountain grass fills in under and around the mesquite, and everything else is spread through the yard for color and pollinator activity through the seasons. All of it doesn't need much water once established.
4× Trailing lantana, 5 gal 4× Lantana shrub (2 circus color, 2 accent color), 5 gal 3× Black foot daisy, 5 gal 2× Blue bell emu bush, 5 gal 1× Red emu bush, 5 gal 9× Ruellia, 5 gal 4× Purple fountain grass, 5 gal 2× Torch glow bougainvillea, 5 gal 2× Chuparosa, 5 gal 2× Desert mallow, 5 gal 2× Agave, 5 galPlanting
Fully installed pricing, plants and labor included. This covers everything outlined above.
Planting Proposal
53 plants, 5 gal · 4 trees, 15 gal
| Item | Qty | Rate | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orange jubilee | 16 | $85 | $1,360 |
| Red bird of paradise | 2 | $85 | $170 |
| Trailing lantana | 4 | $85 | $340 |
| Lantana shrub | 4 | $85 | $340 |
| Black foot daisy | 3 | $85 | $255 |
| Blue bell emu bush | 2 | $85 | $170 |
| Red emu bush | 1 | $85 | $85 |
| Ruellia | 9 | $85 | $765 |
| Purple fountain grass | 4 | $85 | $340 |
| Torch glow bougainvillea | 2 | $85 | $170 |
| Chuparosa | 2 | $85 | $170 |
| Desert mallow | 2 | $85 | $170 |
| Agave | 2 | $85 | $170 |
| Bulk discount (53 plants, 10% off planting labor) | –$291.50 | ||
| Citrus (variety TBD) | 1 | $300 | $300 |
| Florida Prince peach | 1 | $300 | $300 |
| Red push pistache | 1 | $300 | $300 |
| Blue palo verde | 1 | $300 | $300 |
Where your yard is headed
Nothing below is priced or scheduled, just context for the bigger picture as your yard fills in.
Grass conversion, both sides of the backyard
Eventually we'd curb off the grass running down the middle of the backyard and convert both side strips (mirrored, same as the hedge and shade tree) to mulch with in-ground garden beds. The approach: curb it off first, cut water to the grass on both sides, and reroute that irrigation so it's ready for the garden beds when you want them. At the same time we'd add bubblers for both wall-end trees on their own zone. The grass dies back once water is cut, then we bring in cardboard and mulch on top to finish the conversion.
Garden beds
For the in-ground garden beds themselves, Olle Gardens is a good place to get ideas on styles and layouts whenever you're ready to start picturing it.
Native seed packets
This fall would be a good time to throw down a few native seed packets in the open areas and see what comes up. Pull what you don't like, keep what you do. The goal for your yard overall is a space that's full of desert-adapted, easy, colorful, pollinator-friendly plants, and this is a low-effort way to keep discovering what you like.
Monthly landscape fertilizing
Feeding the soil across the whole yard, including the grass, is what keeps everything we're planting growing well long term.
Whole Yard Fertilizing Program
12 visits per year · organic liquid blend monthly · compost 3× per year
Let's get your yard planted
Reply to the text you received with this link and let us know which pieces you'd like to move forward on, the planting, the fertilizing program, or both. We'll take it from there.
Reply to get startedQuestions before deciding? Call or text us at (480) 253-9261, happy to talk it through.