"Saguaro Cactus at Camelback Mountain," Photo by laszlo-photo. From the Flickr Creative Commons.
This month at Ruly we have been discussing strategies to organize your lawn and garden. Ruly Ruth has left several comments on the posts this month complaining that she currently lives in the desert where traditional plants don’t grow or require a lot of water.
There are many people in Ruly Ruth’s situation. In recent years, a huge number of people have relocated to the “Sun Belt” regions of the United States, taxing already scarce water resources.
So, for this month’s Ruly Ruth post, I asked her to discuss her experience transitioning from an eastern state with higher than average rainfall to the desert.
The joke here in the middle of the Mojave Desert is that there is grass……the housing areas have grass, which when you have kids is a wonderful quality of life!
Our version of evergreens would be sagebrush (not sure I really am up to mass cultivating of that!) And when these sagebrushes dry out, they become tumbleweeds. And if you have seasonal allergies–the dust and dirt and sage parts becomes unbearable during the really windy times which lasts half of fall and almost all of spring….even today is insanely windy here!
The parks we have in this town of 25K–the closest “major” town to Death Valley–are like oases in the desert clime. We flock to them with our kiddos–and the soccer and baseball fields during sports seasons. They are a welcome reprieve for all of us. And an opportunity to burn energy in a positive manner for our kids. Love that!
But we also have rock climbing relatively nearby in the Alabama Hills. There is a weekly B Mountain climb–which is a small mountain on China Lake military base. And as my Facebook profile pic shows–Land Sailing! It’s a 3-wheeled dune buggy driven by a large sail. We got up to a little less than 30 mph on a slightly windy day. Apparently records up to 60 mph have been recorded–I don’t know if I’m up for record-setting, but it’s a lot of fun–and something we can use our local dry lake beds for as they are in pristine condition.
The local museums and environmental advocates are pushing for water conservation. Go figure–with California pulling such massive amounts of water in general, and in an area where water is naturally scarce, it makes sense. So the Maturango Museum in town has desert landscape surrounding it, with a sign saying “Landscaped by Earth”. Presentations on natural landscaping are made almost quarterly with experts telling which plants are best for the desert.
People do have gardens here, with a lot of up-front work, that do quite well to my surprise. A good fertilizer base is crucial, and I’ve heard you actually get two growing seasons here. One from about March to June, and then the heat of summer dries everything out, with plants coming back about Sept-Nov.
We do not have deer, nor raccoons, but loads of rabbits and coyotes, mountain lions and bobcats. My son once saw a “dog” without a collar, ran inside to tell us he wants it as a pet….not happening to his dismay! Rattlesnakes are abundant, with local missiles being named after them. The sidewinder missile is named after that type of rattlesnake. Desert tortoises are unique to the area, and numerous types of lizards. Wild donkeys, aka burrows, are also around Death Valley. Sand spiders and scorpions as well as a variety of common spiders are our local insects, with ants as well. It’s a wild adventure out here!
Unique birds include roadrunners, hummingbirds, quail, desert owls that live in burrows in the ground, and ravens and vultures, as every cartoon shows.
Ruly Ruth "Land Sailing"
It’s a wild, wild west even today! I can’t imagine living here 100 years ago with no air conditioning in summer. We are so spoiled in that respect. It takes some getting used to, but taking advantage of the outdoor activities in the surrounding area, which there are loads, really helps you to appreciate the environment in which you live. And that goes for any environment and climate! It’s summer time—go ride those bikes, hike, run/walk….whatever your mode of transportation, it’s time to GO OUTSIDE! Enjoy!! And in the meantime, I’m going to appeal to our city council to create a Japanese Rock Garden. Wish us luck!
In preparation for this post, I looked around at desert landscaping choices. There are so many gorgeous and beautiful desert plants, I have a hard time understanding why people don’t look into them for their landscaping choices. The selection is much broader than just cactus and sand but even if cactus and sand were all that were available, I would love to have cacti in my yard! Cacti are very sculptural and elegant and I imagine low maintenance!
Why do some people insist on growing lawns in the desert? Based on the Frequently Asked Questions from synthetic lawn companies, below is my list of the top 10 reasons people insist on growing grass in the desert.
Having grass and greenery helps me feel more at home since it recreates the environment where I just came from.
I want grass for my kids to play on, just like I had as a kid.
I am not familiar with how to plant or take care of anything other than grass, shrubs and other traditional plants and I don’t want to take the time to learn.
I am worried my property value will decline if I don’t have grass because everyone expects grass in a yard.
Grass helps to lower the temperature and natural grass is cooler than synthetic.
Lawns help prevent erosion and provide a “sponge” to soak up water.
Green plants, including lawns, soak up carbon dioxide and provide oxygen.
I just like the way it looks.
When you review this list, you see that there is almost no logical justification for having a lawn in the desert. If you need a lawn for kids or pets, you can use synthetic grass. If you are concerned about oxygen production or soaking up runoff water, there are a ton of other plant choices that will also do the job. If you just want a lawn because you like greenery, there are many other types of drought-tolerant plants that might do the job better. It is hard to replace the smell of fresh-cut lawn but if you experiment with native plants perhaps there is a native scent to your area that you prefer.
A lot of desert gardening is not really about lawns and aesthetics but rather about the psychological adjustment of living in a new place. (The AZ Plant Lady has a great post called “What Planet Have I Landed On?” discussing her transition from California to Arizona and her new passion for desert landscaping.) Every place on earth has its benefits and its drawbacks. In our “have-it-all” society, nobody wants to admit that their home has any deficiencies. Grass and lawns have become part of the American ideal. Giving up grass is a step toward being different and out of the mainstream but also part of creating a new (and perhaps even better) reality for yourself. But to get to that new and better place, you have to be ready to embrace change. For many people, that is the toughest part.
How attached are you to your lawn? Would you be willing to give it up for native plants? How have you adjusted to a change in your natural environment? Please share in the comments.
