Arizona "native" back yard

[EdinAZ]

Ross, I hope you see this thread. I too am a big fan of a “naturalized” yard. I used to live in Chicago, and for a time also had a home in Beverly Shores, Indiana (50 miles from Chicago, on Lake Michigan). Similar climates, and I recognize all the plants in your pictures. For decades now, I’ve been landscaping with native and “near-native” plants. If I had a house with grass, it got torn out immediately (sorry grass-lovers).

In Tucson AZ now, for the last 10 years, and here is how I “went native” with my yard there. Mostly Sonoran Desert native plants, with some from Chihuahuan desert. With cactus I ranged further afield, and in addition to many native varieties, there are many from around the world, and various hybrids also. Everything is at least desert vegetation, and very low (or NO) water demands outside of normal precipitation.

Here are pictures of the yard itself, and I’ll post some cactus bloom pictures in a separate post. The last 2 pictures . . . yes it sometimes snows in southern Arizona. The last one is taken from the front of my house. As you can see it is a pretty “average” neighborhood (well . . . the mountains are nice, otherwise nothing extraordinary), but I HAVE tried to make my back yard unique. By the way, this is a HEAVY snow for Tucson.

Ed