Designing a sustainable landscape for your home can help you get more enjoyment out of your outdoor space without adding to your energy costs or having a negative impact on the local ecosystem. Sustainable landscapes are those that use less water and make efficient use of local resources to protect and preserve natural habitats for local wildlife. At Horticulture Unlimited, we love working with Tucson homeowners to design and install beautiful, sustainable landscapes that embrace the natural beauty of the Sonoran Desert. If your goal in 2025 is to create a more sustainable landscape in your backyard, contact our team to discuss the following strategies.
Choose More Native Plants
There are tons of beautiful plants that are native to the Sonoran Desert, and choosing more of these plants to incorporate into your landscape design will help you support the local ecosystem and reduce water usage. Native plants are already acclimated to Arizona’s hot, dry climate, and you’ll have plenty of colors and textures to choose from.
Skip the Lawn
If you want to reduce your water usage and landscape maintenance needs, skip the grass lawn and choose other types of ground cover plants like trailing acacia, desert marigold, blanket flower, or golden fleece. If you are set on having a lawn where your pets or children can play, choose drought tolerant grasses like Bermuda grass or St. Augustine grass.
Add a Rain Garden
While Tucson does not see much rainfall throughout the year, monsoon storms can bring heavy rainfall and flash floods during the late summer. Designing your backyard with a rain garden to collect rainwater runoff will prevent flooding and reduce erosion risks.
Plan for Growth
When you’re installing a new landscape, it’s important to remember that plants will continue to grow. Therefore, you should leave them plenty of space to spread their roots and grow larger. This will prevent you from overcrowding the landscape, which can cause plants to die off and increase the water usage of your landscape.
Include Edible Plants
Growing more of your own food can help you reduce your carbon footprint and enjoy the freshest produce possible. You might consider adding garden beds to your landscape design to grow tomatoes, leafy greens, peppers, and fresh herbs, but you can also incorporate native edible plants throughout your landscape design. Banana yucca, prickly pear, wolfberry, and hackberry are all great edible plants to add to your Tucson backyard.
Are you ready to transform your Tucson backyard? Horticulture Unlimited can help you complete a beautiful landscape renovation with an emphasis on sustainability. Contact us today at (520) 321-4678 or fill out our online contact form to request a quote from our Tucson landscaping experts.