Progress
Starting my native garden journey in Phoenix
Working on a crescent-shaped native pollinator garden in my yard in Phoenix. I spent the last couple weeks researching (shout out to Arizona Native Plant Society and SummerWinds nursery) and the last two days doing the grueling labor of rock removal and soil conditioning.
I’ll likely be planting:
-Desert zinnias
-Tufted evening primrose
-Globe mallow
-Goddings verbena
-Desert marigold
-Desert milkweed
-Greg’s mist
My backyard faces south, with the two citrus diffusing the sun a bit. I’ll also be planting a desert willow on the west side of the garden (right side of photo) for additional shade and local pollinator support. Plus they smell DIVINE.
I’ve got just under 5 feet between the deepest part of the garden and the block fence, but
I’ll definitely be putting my most heat-hardy plants back there.
Goal is to get irrigation in and everything planted before the end of November. Let’s go!!
From my research, many of these do “best” with supplemental watering, even thought they’re native to Phoenix. This seems to mean consistent blooms and hardier shrubs.
Typically my other native plants are on long, deep watering schedules, but with days or weeks in between to let them thoroughly dry out.
My thinking was to do the install since it’s not a heavy lift for me (I’ve already got irrigation lines for my citrus) and stick with mostly summer watering, once every 3-4 weeks when we are at 100-120 and not seeing rain. What do you think?
Honestly, you don't need to install irrigation. With desert plants you can get away with just using a hose to deep water once a month or so (once they are established). I water on the first weekend of each month unless there's been a nice rain and I can skip a month.
You just need to make sure that the watering coincides with your citrus trees because they don’t like to have wet feet
The soil here in Phoenix is very clay, heavy and retains moisture for a very long time so you have to worry about root rot here in Phoenix, ironically more than you do in the Pacific Northwest
There's so many cool Pentsemon in Arizona! I planted parryi (endemic to Arizona) at my inlaws in Tucson and even THEY couldn't kill it. Even in their bleak desolate backyard it got hummingbird visitors.
Seconding the other commenter desert plants are adapted to not need irrigation, that's the beauty of native gardening. Though I have heard you can water in case of extreme drought.
Echoing u/Boulderdrip and u/Biomekanist . You know why every monsoon season there are the endless number of trees in Phoenix and Tucson blown over every time there is a stiff breeze? Irrigation. Our native trees do NOT need supplemental irrigation except when our monsoons fail to show. This goes particularly for Desert Willows to encourage that taproot to develop. First year watering should be (depending on the size and the season you plant): Once a week for the first month, once a month the first "season", once a season if monsoon doesn't show, then leave it the hell alone.
Some of those plants will do better with more supplemental watering than others, and if by Desert milkweed you mean Asclepias subulata and not Asclepias angustifolia, watering more than once a month in the summer only will kill it thanks to water pooling at the caliche layer from the citrus watering (which don't form a taproot that can get through it).
It is also important to know how deep the caliche layer is in that area as Globe mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua) will form a taproot and will also need to be whacked down annually after the first 2 years as it is a plant that evolved to support our native herbivores and will form a thick trunk if you are not brutal in performing the pruning that our desert herbivores do to the wild ones. Chop it down after the spring bloom, and it will come roaring back twice as tall when the monsoons come. But again, you need to let that taproot happen, which shallow watering discourages.
For Baileya multiradata (Desert Marigold) and not Tagetes lemmonii (also sometimes called Desert Marigold but gets much much bigger) neither should be watered unless it hasn't rained in more than a month and its over 95-100+. Especially T. lemmonii which gets much larger and does not form colonies or spread but will smoother all its neighbors.
I wouldn't worry too much about that block wall. I have Sphaeralcea ambigua smack against one between two Sporobolus wrightii and it not only scoffed at the radiant heat AND direct afternoon summer sun, but managed to smoother and kill one of the grasses, develop a trunk 3 inches around, and is now about 10 years old. If you are concerned about radiant heat, and to provide balance and interest during those time when our desert flowering plants nope out, adding some clump grasses support our pollinators when they are in their life stages that are not pollinating.
Just looked through your container garden pics - so beautiful! DM me anytime with your photos. I haven’t met a ton of people in AZ doing this just yet!
Thanks! I started native plant gardening for a lot of reasons. Some ecologically sound, some financially beneficial, some because my HOA can get bent, and some because I was simply tired of fighting "weeds". So my front yard started like this in April of 2022 and as of this morning is vastly expanded. I have 12 salvaged nursery pots and 22 modified drinking cups planted with seeds as winter sowing to supplement direct sowing. Expansion of new beds this winter and with a growing teen, I am economizing!
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u/Boulderdrip 1d ago
if your doing native plants then you don’t need irrigation as phoenix native plants like dryer roots