Best Vegas Landscaping Ideas: Creating a Four-Season Desert Backyard
It’s a common myth that Nevada only has one season, summer, and then a few days of rain sometime after September that pass for autumn, winter, and spring. However, Vegas landscaping professionals know that you can create a multi-seasonal backyard wonderland with a little imagination and focus. Before you embark on your adventure of landscaping in Las Vegas, here are a few tips that will help you create colorful residential vistas all year.
Nevada Seasons and How They Can Work With Your Landscaping Ideas
Vegas landscaping isn’t all about cacti and rock gardens. Sure, these are staples of desert flora and local landscape architecture, and they look great arranged around your backyard. But springtime brings with it cascades of wildflowers in a rainbow of colors, and our fall foliage can rival some states in New England.
Even more traditional winter blooms and ideas can be reflected in your garden design, although that usually doesn’t include snowscapes.
However, a lack of regular snowfall can actually benefit your landscape in Las Vegas because there are fewer worries about winterizing your backyard foliage.
Debunking Common Myths About Nevada Seasons
Although not as extreme or noticeable as in some other areas of the country, Nevada does indeed have four distinct seasons and cold weather. The state enjoys a dry, arid or semi-arid climate for most of the year. But winters can become brutally cold with highs in the upper 50s and lows as low as -50F (-46C), especially in the winter months and at night.
Snow is even a possibility, though it rarely reaches below the mountain peaks in Las Vegas, which is located in the southern part of the state.
This means that your landscape design should include plants that are drought-resistant through most of the year, but take into consideration wide temperature variations at night and between December and February.
Xeriscaping Your Back Yard
An alternative landscaping trend that’s big in Las Vegas is xeriscaping. This is the art of planning your backyard garden so that it will still thrive on Nevada’s annual rainfall alone.
One of the keys to xeriscaping is a practice known as “hydrozoning.” This goes slightly beyond grouping plants with similar watering requirements together to include:
• Using mulch and other organic matter to retain soil moisture
• Installing drip irrigation systems with rain sensors where permitted
• Swapping turf grasses for drought-resistant greenery
• Rounding out your landscape design with pavers and hardscaping
Hardscaping doesn’t just mean pouring concrete patios and the like. You could also incorporate large, decorative boulders, pergolas, decks, and firepits into the mix.
Your options are only limited by your imagination, budget, and the creativity of your landscapers in Las Vegas,
Vegas Landscaping Includes More Variety Than You Think
When planning your Vegas landscaping design, remember to include a mix of annuals and perennials in a range of colors, heights, and textures. Annuals can be planted as they’re wanted, for example around certain holidays. Perennials are the gift that keeps on giving.
Good bets for pops of color in various places include fragrant, flowering vines like wisteria and honeysuckle and a range of native flower species, such as:
• Mexican primrose
• Iris
• Russian sage
• Daylily
• California fuschia
• Veronica
• Coneflower
• Yarrow
• Blue flax
These are all perennial flowers that bloom year after year. Given the range of shapes, heights, and colors, you can coordinate plantings to mirror the colors of the seasons.
For example, use bright peonies or red yucca to ring in the yuletide or New Year. Perhaps you can select a plant called “Snow in Summer” and enjoy the illusion without the plowing. This short-lived bloom thrives in full sun and can act as a ground cover.
Wishing that you could watch the leaves change in fall? Add a few deciduous trees that do well in Nevada climates. One or two well-placed fruit trees provide shady areas in an otherwise sun-drenched space, and the leaves will turn in cooler weather.
Consider the violet color of autumn ashes. Maple trees that you’ll see around the Vegas area include Autumn Blaze and Hot Wing. Apple trees grow surprisingly well in Nevada as do apricot, plum, and pear.
The colorful butterfly bush, or rugosa Rose, is great for spring and summer color. Autumn sage is a surprisingly nice choice for spring and fall foliage as well. The clusters of blooms range from pink and violet to red, and the leaves are evergreen year-round.
Yellow columbine is a traditional and elegant desert bloom. Like autumn sage, it attracts bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.
Your landscaper in Las Vegas will have plenty of other ideas and a deeper knowledge of flora that can stand up to temperature extremes without losing their beauty.
Grass or No Grass? That Is the Question
The question of whether to incorporate grass into your backyard landscape design depends upon several factors. First, it’s important to note that turf grasses and other “nonfunctional” grasses are now prohibited in the Las Vegas area due to water conservation efforts.
That limits the options for a green lawn or even a small patch of sod, but that’s OK. Grass in Las Vegas backyards doesn’t necessarily need to be of the traditional fescue or Bermuda variety. There are plenty of alternatives from among soft, fast-growing ornamental grasses that grow in clumps and love full sun.
You can break up the patches of green and flowering plants with rock, gravel, and wood chips. These lawn alternatives work well in borders, on trails, and as a ground cover when cultivating grass isn’t an option.
Nevada can be a hospitable environment for such species as Chinese silver grass or little bluestem. These are hardy, dramatic-looking plants that make beautiful accents but can spread into larger areas if left to grow on their own.
If you’re looking for a low-maintenance, green ground cover that needs no mowing and very little water, consider creeping thyme. It can stand up to the sun and won’t be damaged by heavy foot traffic or kids wrestling on the lawn. In fact, you can pretty much plant it and leave it to fend for itself.
Clover aerates the soil and suppresses weeds. It also needs no mowing and little water. Propagate green varieties in patches, or add red and yellow clover as a ground cover that incorporates the colors of fall.
Pops of green are also possible with the right shrubbery, and of course, a few cacti. Mock orange is a stately and elegant choice.
If you’re looking for a combination of greenery and colorful flowers, consider the cistena plum or Siberian peashrub. Despite its artic name, this hardy bush is actually an edible legume that has pale yellow, tubular flowers and acts as an effective windbreak. It grows best in Northern Nevada, but don’t hesitate to add a few to your backyard landscape.
Enjoy the Beauty of Year-Round Landscaping Without the Hassle
The key to all-seasons Vegas landscaping is to combine local plants and current design trends but incorporate ideas that bring the beauty of the seasons into your backyard.
Your Las Vegas landscape begins with an intelligent design that’s as easy on the upkeep as it is on the eyes.
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