ZEROSCAPE IS A PARKING LOT or possibly a landscape that has no plants in it, just rocks. Perhaps it is a word that people have mispronounced or just made up. I looked it up in dictionary.com and wahla…(zeroscape- no dictionary results) and by the way (Wahla has-no dictionary results also). So let’s all learn to pronounce XERISCAPE correctly (zeer-i-skey-pa) This has been a pet peeve of mine and I want our followers to be well informed. Another is landscape maintenance people that trim shrubbery into shapes such as balls, squares, cylinders and cubes when we all know they should be pruned in a natural shaped trapezoid with rounded top edges…but that’s for another discussion. Let me get back to this dry subject. I find it helpful when learning a new word or plant to say it three times zeer-i-skey-pa… zeer-i-scape … Xeriscape comes from a Greek Origin: xer(ic) a word that means dry then combined with ( land) scaping.
I love the southwestern heat and the longer I live here the more I like it. If I were a plant I would be a Xerophyte (not Zerophyte) which is a plant that has altered its physical structure to adapt to our harsh desert conditions.
When clients typically think of desert landscaping often time they will say to us “We would like a true desert landscape that requires no water.” Now we’re back to zeroscape. Our desert is known for its colorful spring wildflowers and the succulent cactus that adorn our pristine Sonoran environment, but even so it requires a degree of rain for its existence. Viewed from afar it is breathtakingly beautiful but if one were to rope off a 20 foot by 50 foot area of it and try to duplicate that in front of a home it would be unsightly, sparse and repulsive. So as designers we rebalance and redistribute on paper a variety of native plants that require minimum water beginning with the largest plants first such as Saguaro cactus, Palo Verde, Ocotillo, Yucca, Mesquite, and Ironwood. We combine barrel cactus, sagebrush, saltbrush, brittlebush, cholla, bursage, burrowweed, creosote and opuntia Trying to stay within the realm of “native” we cheat a little and combine some “naturalize” (non- Indigenous) plantings in areas that may offer some shade from a house or our taller plantings. Excluding the many naturalized varieties that would require continued irrigation such as lantana, agave, aloe, grasses, hesperaloe, elephant foot, penstremon, and this list goes on. So we stick with naturalized plant varieties and place them in a micro-climate that would allows less water. Some of those plants we would include but not be limited to would be golden barrel cactus, hedgehog, cereus, desert spoon, lady slipper, lysiloma and vitex. Sprinkle in some native wildflower seed in the right areas for added color, partially bury some indigenous boulders and contour (remember that the voids are as important as the masses) and cover all the remaining soil with earth tone mixed granite. (Stay away from the dark colors as they show debris) and WAHLA you have yourself a beautiful very low maintenance, easy to care for, ZEER-I-SKEY-PA avoiding the expense of an irrigation system. Should you have any questions or praise regarding this article please feel free to contact us at horticulturalfrontiers@cox.net.
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