Lot size: 800 sq. ft. front and 800 sq. ft. back gardens, 90% native
Garden Age: Garden was installed in stages, beginning in 2011
Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: New this year!
Hannah and George didn’t love the overgrown, pokey Southwestern-style garden that came with their newly purchased home. Shortly after moving in they hired Kat Weiss, of Kat Weiss Landscape Design, who designed the low-maintenance, low water-consuming garden they wanted. Hannah and George did the work themselves—removing the existing vegetation (the three blue spruce have been taken down one at a time at the end of each year and used as their Christmas tree); laying the flagstone walkway and paths; bringing in the soil to create berms; planting; and spreading wood chips. A small no-mow Idaho fescue bunchgrass lawn was installed in the back garden. In the spring cheerful orange monkeyflowers mingle with purple penstemon and the delicate pinks of rosy buckwheat under the lavender blossoms of the desert willow tree. Low-growing California fuchsia serves as a groundcover in the front garden, while prostrate coyote brush provides the same function in the back garden.
Other Garden Attractions
• The attractive raised veggie beds in the back garden were made from the former concrete walkway, which was sliced and stacked. • Bright, glazed pots scattered about the gardens contain deer grass, ‘Canyon Prince’ blue rye, and chain fern.
Gardening for Wildlife
Native bees buzz the California lilac, hummingbirds visit the tubular flowers of the monkeyflower and fuchsia, and butterflies sip nectar from the buckwheats.
