Low-Maintenance Trees for High Desert?
devilpup
12 years ago
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Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
12 years agoToronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
12 years agoRelated Discussions
low maintenance low water landscaping - please help!
Comments (11)Pam - along the side of the house there is a 5-8 foot wide flat walkway of old bark, and next to it, covering the slope are some junipers that have been well-trimmed through the years. Since they are doing their job of erosion control, and I really don't have to look at or maintain them short of an annual trim, I will leave the ones along the side of the house (and throw in a couple arborvitae or similar to screen off the dead wood on the end) but as soon as we get into the actual yard, the bushy scary eating the yard ones will come out. Thanks for your input karinl. I am becoming more keen on including conifers in the landscape. That has been something that I'm getting more and more used to. When I first moved it, I was so against anything non-broadleaf evergreen it was ridiculous. We were going to go with an alaskan weeping cedar (and still may) but at Flower World, we ran into something called a dwarf sequoia, which was SO interesting, and we will almost certainly be using it in the landscape. I've been unable to find anything online about them. It had a similar growth pattern in that it kind of looked Dr. Seuss-y, the branches hung almost straight down, but it was gorgeous. We have 5 HUGE fir trees, one on each corner of our yard, and they ALL belong to neighbors. The people across the street from us are hoping to open up their view a bit and have spoken about wanting to go in on taking down the one uphill of us, but the people that just bought that house are like the Seattle suburb wannabes of Jersey Shore so I do not expect that they will have any interest in spending any money on landscaping. I caught them thinning out a photinia that provided privacy screening between our back yards with a sawzall (.25" thick branches). The people downhill from us are renters and based on the state of various "wear items" around their house, like the fence, I have a feeling the landlord is uninterested in investing any money in the property that they don't have to. Cliffs: It's unlikely either of those huge fir trees are going anywhere. Thanks for the kind words on the back yard. I've spend the last 2.5 years trying to whip it into shape. We have put a huge deck between the 2 decks on either side, the raised veggie beds, defined garden beds around the decks and elsewhere have gone in, I've taken out about 1/2 of the lawn, we put in a fire pit and gravel "patio" in front of the other deck to address the ongoing lawn moss and crappiness issues, and torn out about 1000 sq feet of vinca minor and 3 overgrown rhododendrons. It has been quite a project, and I feel that I've gotten far enough with it that I'm ready to start tackling the front so it doesn't look like meth addicts live here. I'm not particularly tied to nandinas, and after spending $50 today on ONE dwarf variety for vignette #1, I have been seriously rethinking my position. I have a couple more plants to move from the back yard to the front tomorrow morning, but I will post photos tomorrow once I get everything "completed." It looks FANTASTIC....See MoreLow Maintenance Tree for 7b/6a, New Jersey
Comments (10)Dumb question... What sort of fellow is your friend? Is he a "Grow stuff" sort of fellow - or not? In general - If your friend likes the idea of fruit but has never grown fruit, and you don't really know what he likes... and you REALLY want to get a fruit tree of some sort... Get him a Blueberry... Nearly zero maintenance, they don't get huge, don't make a giant mess, and the odds of getting good fruit are pretty high. On to the rest of my opinion... One thing to think about maintenance wise is dumping piles of junk on the ground that your buddy will have to attend to... Your friend may well end up cursing you each fall as they have to go pick up a ton of spiny, bug filled, staining, or stinky debris off the yard.... ESPECIALLY SO with Chestnuts - as a mature tree will dump THOUSANDS of spiny witches eggs on the ground... These are extraordinarily painful to touch - much less if you happen to step on one... Picking them up off the ground requires gloves! Personally... My opinion - don't gift a Chestnut unless your friend really wants a Chestnut and knows what he is in for... Walnuts produce BASEBALLS with THICK husks that drop all over the place - and their husks produce a ton of black, stinky, permanent staining goo that gets all over everything... Black walnuts are especially bad in this regard... Their leaves also stain EVERYTHING! In this regard - I would consider a Pecan before a walnut.. Mess wise - many "Large fruit" trees can make a big mess if you aren't committed to cleaning up after them.... Think of all he old Apple and Pear trees that folks cut down because they shower the yard annually with apple and pear slime.... More so with Mulberries and their Purple Stain! Thanks...See MoreHigh desert lawn in need of suggestions...
Comments (11)Ok. Idaho. Similar to my conditions. I usually water 3 times a year: early July, late July and mid August. Most of my neighbors water every day. I originally wanted to use a strictly native lawn, but over time, I decided to include "naturalized" turf options (note that I didn't limit it to grasses). First a few comments about the Intermountain West. Most (almost all) of our precipitation comes as snow. What rain we get is usually mixed with snow. We get about 2-3 inches of precipitation during the summer. Here are the options for a low maintenance lawn (note that all of these lawns should be mowed high and should get little or no fertilizer): Warm season natives. Buffalo grass and blue grama. Buffalo grass should be grown from sod or plugs (seed is available, but seeded varieties aren't as good). Blue Grama can be bought as plugs, but it's a bunch grass, so it won't spread well. Blue grama and buffalo grass are often planted together. The advantages of these two grasses are that they'll stay green in the hottest part of the summer with little or no input. The disadvantage is that they'll probably be dormant from early October until mid May. Cool season grasses: Western wheatgrass, Streambank wheatgrass, crested wheatgrass, sheep fescue. Western wheatgrass is a cool season grass, but it likes conditions a little warmer than most other cool season grasses. It's sort of a grey-green, but looks pretty nice I think. It's harder to establish than the other options. Streambank wheatgrass (thickspike wheatgrass if you have sandy soil) will green up faster than western wheatgrass. It seems to go dormant faster than Western wheatgrass, but snaps out of it faster). Crested Wheatgrass was introduced from Siberia. Most varieties are bunch grasses, but newer varieties will spread to some extent. Sheep fescue can get by on the least amount of water, but it tends to go dormant in the heat. If you make your own mix, use Covar. Other than grass: clover, either Dutch white or strawberry. Dutch white is better adapted to drought, but strawberry is better with high pH. I chose Palestine strawberry clover). My recommendation would be to get the Cabin mix from Utah seeds and augment it with strawberry clover. Mow it at 3-4 inches. If you do no maintenance at all, it will live, but it will be dormant during the summer. If you water it once or twice a month, it will stay green all year....See Morelow maintenance low water landscaping - please help!
Comments (19)Your yard looks great! I realize its been a year but I would love to see current pictures:) I am facing a very similar situation and was wondering what you ended up planting on the berm? Also curious to know if you had the rest of the juniper removed? We have a large one in our yard that has kind of taken over and are thinking about having it taken out and replaced with something more manageable as far as size and trimming needs, but hopefully as drought resistant since it is a difficult area to water....See Morescotjute Z8
12 years agodevilpup
12 years agorlv4
12 years agomackel_in_dfw
12 years agodevilpup
12 years agoDan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
12 years agodevilpup
12 years agomackel_in_dfw
12 years agomackel_in_dfw
12 years agoscotjute Z8
12 years agomackel_in_dfw
12 years agoDan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
12 years agomackel_in_dfw
12 years agoDan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
12 years agomackel_in_dfw
12 years agomackel_in_dfw
12 years agomackel_in_dfw
12 years ago
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