Perhaps when most people think of the desert, they only think of broiling hot days, cacti, and dry heat. In truth, many deserts are located in high terrain and the hottest of days can actually turn into cool nights. Many deserts also experience cold winters that can include snow, and desert landscaping often reflects this.

Desert Landscaping: The Hot And Cold

Because the desert can experience such a range of temperature changes, desert landscaping needs to be hardy enough to tolerate heat as well as cold. Evergreen shrubs and trees survive well in high terrain deserts, because they withstand the heat and tolerate cold. Many cactus plants are also cold hardy. This surprises many people, because they think of cactus as hot area plants.

If you have a home in the desert and want to do some desert landscaping around your house the best place to buy your plants is from a local nursery. Often big box garden retailers have their plants ordered by someone in their regional office. This person often doesn’t understand the complexities of desert weather and orders plants that might not do well in your yard. Ordering plants from a local nursery or choosing landscaping that is locally grown ensures that you will get plants that will thrive and grow in your desert landscaping.

Desert Landscaping: Water With Care

If you stick to plants that are native to the area in which you live, watering your yard shouldn’t be an issue. However, if you want to grow flowers, vegetables, or other plants that don’t normally grow in the desert, you need to make sure that you provide a source of water to your desert landscaping. Before you design your desert yard, check with your local authorities to make sure that there are no watering restrictions in your city or county. Once you have established how much water you want to spare on your yard each month, come up with a watering plan.

Do you want to water by hand? The easiest way to water your lawn and garden is with a timed sprinkler system. If you plant grass set your timer to go off in the early morning hours, so that the water can seep into your ground before the sun rises and causes it to evaporate. Choose a drip irrigation system to water your shrubs and ground covers and you will see minimal waste.

If you want to cut back on the amount of watering your desert landscaping requires, fill your yard with gravel or rocks instead of grass. This low maintenance alternative to grass looks attractive in a desert setting. One caveat to rocks is that light colored gravel will reflect the sun’s heat, causing your yard to seem even hotter each afternoon.

Your front yard doesn’t have to be a typical patch of grass, mailbox, and garden flag. The front yard landscaping ideas that are available for you to use are endless. With a little creative thinking and an open mind, you can have a front yard that everyone in the neighborhood will talk about.

Front Yard Landscaping Idea Number One: Create Outdoor Rooms

Many landscapers sell the idea of creating outdoor rooms in your backyard, but it is very popular to apply this landscaping idea to the front yard. Simply assess the size of your yard and look for areas that can be landscaped as a separate little sitting space. Place a bench under a tree. Fill in the surrounding area with different types of flowers and shrubs, and add a few potted plants next to your bench. Having a sitting area in your front yard creates a wonderful place to visit with neighbors, observe the daily happenings on your street or even watch your kids while they play.

Front Yard Landscaping Idea Number Two: Create Visually Pleasing Displays

Make your front yard a fun place to be by adding lots of visual stimulating objects. Adding a bird house or birdbath will attract lots of interesting wildlife to your yard. Planting shrubs and flowers that attract butterflies is a great way to bring these gorgeous insects to the area around your house. Try to partner your non plant items with compatible foliage and fauna. For example, if you place a birdbath in your yard, plant a colorful array of flowers around the base.

Containers are a fantastic way to add variety to your yard. You can place big tubs or planters of flowers on your front porch, along your driveway, or even on your lawn. The beauty of containers is that when you get tired of them in one place, they are easy to move or replant.

Front Yard Landscaping Idea Number Three: Mix Perennials And Annuals

Perennials are one of the easiest ways to landscape your yard. The bloom year after year can be propagated by division, making them an inexpensive way to add to your landscape, and they are relatively maintenance free. Perennials tend to bloom in succession, so you always have something blooming in your yard. Annuals give a continuous burst of color in your front yard, but they only last one season. They aren’t that expensive, so it isn’t hard to plant them each spring. Because they only last one season, they are wonderful for people who like to try new things each year. By having a mix of perennials and annuals in your front yard, you get the best of both worlds.

One way to keep your landscaping looking neat and uncluttered while making it appear full is through the use of landscaping stones. Available in a variety of shapes and sizes they can also be used to separate different types of plants and work for soil retention in wet climates. Many times landscaping stones can also be used as stepping stones to get through the area for weeding or other maintenance chores without slogging through the dirt and getting your shoes muddy.

Landscaping stones are available in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors enabling the homeowner to use them in many different ways, Some larger stones can be as dig as a small car and can be useful in preventing unauthorized access to your yard by motor vehicles. However, before placing any of these larger landscaping stones along the yard make sure they are not encroaching on any rights-of-way that may have been granted for underground utilities.

Many choose to use landscaping stones, such as marble chips, in lieu of mulch in flower beds. The opportunity with this decision is that any replanting may involve the need to remove all the stones before working on the flowerbeds later. White marble chips can lighten an otherwise dark area of the home’s landscaping, but before putting them in place, make sure all the flowers are in their final resting place and the appropriate steps have been taken to stop any weed growth.

Using Stones To Outline Planting Areas

One of the more popular uses for landscaping stones is for outlining flower beds either next to the house or in isolated parts of the yard. Some stones, originally meant to used as retaining wall, used in one or two layers can set off an area of the yard, isolating it from grass or a driveway. By using appropriately size stones, the bed can appear as totally separate from the remainder of the landscaping.

Depending on the color scheme of your outdoor living space, different colors are available that can either compliment or contrast with the color of the home. While some prefer the landscaping stones seem to disappear when put into place, others appreciate the contrasting colors. Using brick-colored stones adjacent to a brick house can separate the bed while still blending in with the home’s exterior.

Other designs of landscaping stones can be made to fit together like a puzzle to create a walkway around or through planted areas. Surfaces can be either smooth or rough depending on your intention of the path’s purpose. For walking on, rough surface stones can help prevent slipping in wet weather.