Landscaping for Summer Survival

Hello lovelies! I hope you had a fantastic weekend. We kept it pretty low key for Father’s Day, mostly because it is ridiculously hot here right now; scorching, blistering, hotter than a jalapeno hot. Thankfully, the backyard landscaping is finally done (insert me doing a happy dance) so we were actually able to get out and enjoy it. We are super lucky to have our backyard facing East which in Arizona, is a big plus. We get the morning sun but by 2 o’clock, a soft shade embraces the courtyard and we can head out for some fresh air. Altering the outdoor temp to something lower than a setting on your oven is absolutely vital for surviving the Arizona summer. To accomplish this, we made shade, a swimming pool and a good mist system top priorities in our backyard landscaping. Here’s what we did.

This is what our backyard looked like when we moved in. I called it moonscaping and as you can see. . . not a lick of shade anywhere. In this part of Arizona it isn’t practical, affordable or environmentally friendly to put in big grass lawns so we looked for alternative materials to create a cool, inviting atmosphere.

The back of our house forms a U shape which we thought was perfect for creating a courtyard. Shade being one of our primary goals, we invested in a large Ironwood tree for the center of the patio area. Ironwood’s are native to the Sonoran Desert and have a beautiful silvery bark and tiny purple flowers in the spring. They grow incredibly slow though so if you want to enjoy some shade in your lifetime, you have to bring in a mature tree. To offset the cost of craning in the Ironwood, we used smaller sizes of fast growing trees (like Mesquite and Palo Verde) throughout the rest of the yard.

We chose a Belgard paver for the patio stone, Lafitt Grana Slab in the Sierra color. I love the slightly worn yet modern look it brought to the project. Be warned though, these pavers get HOT! Flip flops are an absolute necessity traveling to and from the pool. A popular alternative is travertine tile which is much cooler to walk on but for the quantity we needed, it wasn’t in the budget. We did use travertine for the pool coping, the fountain top and the top of the Ironwood’s raised planter.

We decided to add a little patch of artificial turf on the opposite side of the the pool just for a touch of ‘green’ and softness. The modern-day artificial turf products look amazingly real and no watering or mowing! Plus, there’s a 15 year warranty! The bunnies are very disappointed though.

The south end of the pool is where we are putting lounge chairs so we knew additional shade would be key to enjoying this area. Arizona’s dry heat is brutal on real wood so we went with a pergola made of an aluminum material, embossed with a cedar texture to resemble wood. No warping, splintering or painting; basically maintenance free which is music to my ears. We did a 2″ spacing on the lattice top which gives us optimal shading while adhering to our HOA’s ban on solid roof covers. Eventually, I will make some grommet topped curtains for the pergola, giving us additional privacy and shade…hmmm, sounds like a future blog post.

With the major infrastructure of the yard complete, we moved on to the mist system. Mist systems work best in hot, dry climates so they are perfect for Arizona. They can reduce the outdoor temperature by 15 – 30 degrees, depending on how close you are to the mist line. That turns a 110 degree scorcher into an enjoyable 80 degree afternoon. I have three words for this… SO WORTH IT! If you want all the nitty gritty, click (link coming soon) for the full story on installing our mist system.

Well there you have it – the finished project. Of course a future blog post with all the fun stuff is in the near future (patio decor, making our tables, potted plants…umbrellas and trellises oh my). For now though, I believe it is time for a swim….wait a minute! The critters beat us to it.

Thanks for tuning in and have a fantastic week.

♥JoElle

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