Local gardens will be on display this weekend at Tour de Birds 2013. This self-guided tour of birds and gardens will feature nine habitats located around the East Valley. The tour will take place on Nov. 9th from 9am to 4pm and will feature a variety of native plants to suit all gardens.
Planting native plants can provide many other functions in your landscape. Would you like to attract butterflies to your yard? Perhaps you are looking for year-round color, a living fence or a cool, shady retreat? Whether you are looking to completely make-over your landscape or just add a new focal point, there are hundreds of desert plants available for just about any function in your landscape
Plant Selection Tips
Desert plants have special characteristics that help them tolerate our tough desert conditions including dryness, heat, alkaline soils and even winter frost. By selecting plants that are well adapted to our desert climate you’ll be saving water, have less maintenance, and more time and money to fully enjoy a more attractive landscape. And, Water – Use It Wisely has a lot of advice to offer on selecting your desert plants:
- Choosing and Planting Low Water-Use Plants offers planting guidelines, selection, design ideas and more!
- Water – Use It Wisely Latest News includes many helpful articles and resources for more information like how to plant native species.
- Water – Use It Wisely Calendar of Events lists all of our partner landscape and gardening workshops taking place in the Valley.
- Outdoor Water Saving Tips offer all kinds of landscape tricks, like this one: “Water-Saving Tip #77: Next time you add or replace a flower or shrub, choose a low-water-use plant and save up to 550 gallons each year..”
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Donna DiFrancesco is a Conservation Specialist and Samantha Booher is a Sustainability Intern with the City of Mesa, AZ. The City of Mesa is one of fifteen Water – Use It Wisely partners to offer water-saving advice and programs. Photo by Jeff Lee.