What about xeriscaping?

[doctork]

I had "always" known the term "xeriscaping" - meaning landscaping for dry areas, particularly in a desert or near-desert landscape environment. Then I realized that the term was coined by the Denver Water Department in the 1980's. And guess who lived in Denver in the 1980s and had a brown lawn because you could water only every 3rd day, and she was on call every third day?

So we have this sizeable back yard and it is a big red-brown clay square of dirt. It's a rental property so I don't want to spend a bundle, plus I am definitely not a gardener. But garden xeriscape photos look to be fairly low maintenance (that is the point), and it might be possible for a black thumb person like me to create/maintain such a yard.

It was about 75 and sunny today with an incredibly blue blue sky. It could be quite pleasant to read the paper out in the backyard on a day like today, if it were other than brown dirt.

Do y'all have any ideas?

[Nomad-wino]

Doc,

How much would a truck load of gravel and a few rocks cost? You could make a zen-like Japanese rock garden.





Turn your plot of red clay into your special place to meditate or read the paper and drink coffee. All you have to do is get some fine gravel, a few small boulders and a rake to create some soothing patterns with the gravel.

Mike

[doctork]

That's exactly the sort of thing I had in mind, Mike, though I was thinking kind of "southwest." But zen is much more up my alley, and definitely low maintenance!

I will investigate the gravel and boulders cost. A friend offered to loan me her truck, but I bet those places also deliver.

Thanks for the great idea!

[BoatBabe]

I'd be going with natural Arizona plantings, if I were you.



www.aznps.com/nativegardening.html



It doesn't have to cost a bunch of money. You can go out in the desert and transplant native species.



Make the patio area, pathways and stones anywhere you like them. Rake in some zen drag line areas.



All that landscaping down there is pretty stark, and the native plants survive without care.

[BoatBabe]

Granted, this is not Arizona, but it talks well about the xeriscaping theory of low cost, low maintenance, native plants and using the space you have.

[doctork]

Thanks for the websites and youtube, BB. The website I can see is great, though I will need to adapt for northern AZ, as even in Winslow, we are at 5,000 feet and hardly any cactus.

The YouTube I will have to laboriously download (as always, but worse on DSL) and then I can watch it. Patience is a virtue my mom always said!