Forget about your Wily E. Coyote image of the desert: all flat, brown, and barren except for a few foreboding cacti. Like any other landscape, the desert hosts perfectly adapted plants and flowers. And to save water while growing low-maintenance plants, it is worth considering bring desert landscaping practices into your home garden. You do not need to turn your whole yard into Arizona, but you will certainly enjoy at least one xeriscaped bed.

Xeriscape What?

Desert landscaping is also known as xeriscape: the art of growing plants that need very little water.

Desert landscaping is first a very responsible environmental choice. Plenty of places have an overall wet climate but experience stretches of drought. When all the neighbors are scrambling to water between watering bans, you will be enjoying your xeriscaped yard without using water. The water that the county has been treated for drinking by humans can be saved for humans.

In a dry climate, plants grow very slowly. While this means your desert landscaping may need some filler for the first few years, after a while it will fill your spot very well. Some xeriscapers even mulch with pebbles or lava rocks rather than mulch. The plants do not need humus, and the rocks last pretty much forever. Patterns of different colored rocks become part of the decoration.

Plant Recommendations

Cacti are what we most associate with desert landscaping. They come in sizes from giant saguaro to tiny plants that look like spiky pebbles on the ground. All cacti produce flowers, but some do so only rarely. One species, native to the United States, produces lots of large, delicate yellow blooms in summer. Called the prickly pear for the pear-shaped fruits that form after flowering, this plant can grow two or three feet tall with a similar size spread.

There are also plenty of non-cactus plants that do well in a xeriscaped bed. Periwinkles and heather grow large and lush in dry places. Lantana is not quite a desert plant, but it needs so little water that it can go with the cacti. Visit your local botanical garden to see what grows well in their xeriscaping section. You will probably see aloes, yuccas, and plenty of other plants that are suited well for your climate.

Unless you live near an actual desert, it may be difficult to buy desert landscaping plants locally. Check the internet and plant catalogs for species to grow.