My Sonoran Desert Garden: Take A Tour! (2023)
2024 is fast approaching, which means it’s time for another garden tour. As I’ve done for the past three years, I’d like to show you what’s been happening this year. Please, come on a tour of my garden in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona!
I’ve been busy remodeling the interior for the past two years – painting done, new floor in, kitchen done, guest bathroom done, all new lighting in, windows replaced, and the laundry room done. For those of you new here, I moved into this house in late December 2020. The property had minimal landscaping so for the past two years, I’ve been focusing on different sections.
This year, I put my focus on the back garden. It has beautiful Catalina Mountain views, is private and quiet, and it’s where we spend a lot of time.
It’s best to watch the video below to get the whole picture. In the meantime, I’ll give you an abbreviated update as to what’s gone on in my garden in 2023.
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FRONT GARDEN
The front garden is pretty much done. But wait, is a gardener’s garden ever done? I think not!
It’s uber-low maintenance, survives mainly on rainwater with a few supplemental waterings, and fits in with the naturalistic landscape surrounding it. No Texas Rangers pruned and turned into balls or squares here!
I live in Tucson, Arizona, which is part of the Sonoran Desert. Water is a precious resource here, so you won’t see an inch of lawn anywhere on my property.
Here’s what I did this year:
*Added to the rock border along the other side of the driveway. The rock came from the back; more on that below.
*Added one Golden Barrel to the Saguaro Cacti grouping. I also planted two small Red Hook Barrel Cacti.
*Planted a 5′ Optunia Old Mexico near the dining room window. But wait, where is it? The javelina devoured 75% of it one evening. The remainder got moved to the back garden and planted with the other Old Mexico.
*Added more rock ground cover (from the back) to the very front of this garden near the mailbox.
DESERT GARDEN TOUR VIDEO
BACK GARDEN
All the windows along the back of the house face this space, so we look at it from almost every room. Plus, when the desert summer sun and heat are raging, the pool is the place to be!
What I did this year:
*Re-did the pool deck. The cool deck was chipping badly in some places, the color had faded, and it just plain looked bad. It was resurfaced with lightly textured concrete in mottled light brown/clay colors for a more natural look. The pool takes up a good portion of the back garden so this makes a big difference.
*The dry creek bed was taken out. Those rocks filled out the borders along the driveway and by the mailbox. The creek bed was filled in with a local loam mixture
*Expanded the drip system. The PVC pipe was installed last year, but it now runs along the entire wall and under the deck to reach the new planting along the back of the house. My back garden is on drip irrigation and runs twice a week at 4 a.m. It’s the most efficient way to water here. When we’re in a rainy period, the drip gets shut off.
*The fun part – many new plants were added! One of them is a little Meyer Lemon tree that currently has four ripe lemons on it.
*Did a planting outside my bathroom window with the Optunia Joesph’s Coat pot as the central focus.
*Created a raised rock garden in between the African Sumac and the covered patio.
*Repotted the Pencil Cactus into a ginormous pot. I bought a 30″ heavy plastic/resin pot which will be its home base for many years to come. I took a hanging pot down from the patio area which had a String Of Dolphins and String Of Bananas in it. They were getting too much summer sun and are now planted trailing over the Pencil Cactus Pot.
*Repotted the Aeonium into a larger pot. It blew over in a summer monsoon storm, so I moved it from the patio (it was starting to take up too much space anyway) and it now grows in a corner of the house where I can see it from the living room as well as the patio and pool.
*Repotted the large Aloe Vera growing on the other side of the patio. It had produced many pups and was bursting at the seams. It was repotted into a 25″ plastic/resin pot, the same style as the Pencil Cactus pot.
*Re-did the river bed and border along the African Sumac bed with rock in a new color.
*Moved the large grey boulders to the front garden and replaced them with boulders in a pinkish/gold color.
*Top off a new decorative rock ground cover. It was Wildcat Red and is now Yavapai Coral.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed this little tour of my desert garden. It not only keeps up a yearly tradition and lets you know what I’ve been up to garden-wise, but it provides a diary for me to look back on. You don’t realize how much you’ve done until you put it in writing!
We at Joy Us garden want to wish you all a joyous holiday season and all the best in 2024. Thank you so much for being a reader!
Cheers to lots of green goodness in the new year,
- About the Author
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Nell, the founder of Joy Us garden, was born into a gardening family and grew up in Connecticut’s countryside. After living in Boston, New York, San Francisco, & Santa Barbara, she now calls the Arizona desert home. She studied horticulture & garden design, working in the field all her life. Nell is a gardener, designer, blogger, Youtube creator, & author. She’s been gardening for a very long time & wants to share what she’s learned with you.
