Compliment your architecture with southwest-landscaping-ideas

Some southwest-landscape-ideas that create a contrast in an otherwise bleak environment are the use of colorful plants against a backdrop of different colored boulders and rock, or the use of contouring to create a natural looking dry river bed. What we are doing is creating a desert picture that compliments your home and its southwest architecture.

The southwest-landscaping-ideas concept is also about conserving water but may have a small amount of lawn. The desert plants are usually varieties that can stand alone in a landscape and look great. Most of the time the key plant elements in desert landscaping are cactus plants or , yucca trees however, the desert has landscape trees that help achieve this look, some examples of these are the palo verde , chitalpa , mesquite , desert willow and mondel pine.

retention walls

You will find that the leaves on the deciduous desert trees are small, this is natures way of preventing them from burning in the hot desert wind and sun. The overall look is open and spacious. You will also find that all of these trees produce flowers too. The use of these trees adds variety in a desert scene from month to month. Other trees common in a southwest style landscape are desert pine trees , or evergreen trees like the wilson olive or the arizona rosewood.

Plants used in desert landscaping have very colorful flowers in the springtime. Beautiful lavenders, bright reds, pinks, and yellows are common. Some of the varieties also flower in the fall as the temperatures cool. It's nice to have some of these, like the texas ranger, in the mix to let us know when the hot weather is finally over.

These same ideas work in colder climates also. The home shown here is at 5000 foot elevation, where they get snow and lots of wind and cold temperatures. Do you like how the blue spruce tree stands out against the browns of the home. The landscape stone is really doing a great job at creating curb appeal here. The dry river bed theme is a popular one when installing a desert scene like this one. The key is to use contouring and mounding to create a look that would occur naturally in the desert.

Flower Gardens

In the southwest, rock mulch as ground cover is a popular look. Boulders and dry river beds are used to create contrast of texture and color. One type of crushed rock uses the fines of the crushing process. This rock product is called chat. Depending on the type of rock, sometimes this chat rock mulch will harden after being watered down. This is a favorable trait in a rock, because it prevents weeds from growing in the landscaping.
All of the elements used in southwest-landscaping-ideas would occur naturally in nature. So ( natural looking landscaping ) is really what it is.

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