Living in a desert climate can bring its own rewards. Mild winters are common for Nevada and Arizona residents who may see snow only once or twice in a decade. Of course, there is a trade off. The summer months tend to be quite hot and maintaining a beautiful yard can be not only costly but time consuming. However, you can have a beautiful yard that is water friendly fairly easy.
Preparation
The first thing to do is plan out your yard. Certain areas will get more sunlight than others, so you'll want to take that into account when deciding on the number and type of plants. If you are planning on having some grass incorporated into the yard, you'll also want to install a regular sprinkler system. Most sprinkler heads will tell you their optimum coverage area, so plan accordingly. Ornamental grasses, shrubs and trees can use a more efficient drip watering system.
Planning the layout
Before selecting any plants, you should plan out your yard on a piece of paper. Decide what other elements you want to incorporate, like a flagstone path, decorative stones, statuary or some outdoor decorative lights. Once you have your ideas down on paper, its time to visit your local plant nursery.
Plant Selection
After the watering system has been installed, for areas that are going to have decorative rock, flowers or shrubs, you'll want to lay down some weed block. This will prevent most weeds from invading your yard and if you are putting in a xeriscape yard, it is one of the requirements. Your local nursery should have a great selection of native grasses and shrubs that florish in the desert. An advantage to native desert plants is that they can survive on very little water. If you are planning on a lawn, bluegrass or red fescue are good choices because they are low water grasses.
Flower choices are somewhat limited. There are some desert varieties of primrose, marigold and others that thrive in the desert sun. Roses are a good overall choice as well. Your local nursery should be able to give you a few more recommendations.
Watering
Most desert cities have watering restrictions in place during the summer months, if not all year long. The best time to water is in the late night or very early morning hours when the temperature outside is at its coolest. Quite often your local water district will have their recommendations for a watering schedule. It is better to set your sprinklers to come on twice a night for a short period of time than to run them once longer. Letting the ground soak up the water and then watering again a few hours later is a more effective method. It will save you water and give you a nice yard.
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