Maintaining a lush, green yard in Tucson is possible with the right amount tender loving care. If you want to grow a lawn in the desert climate, it’s important to know how to care for your grass to keep it healthy all year long. Creating a Southwestern lawn care calendar can help you maintain a healthy landscape that will enhance the exterior appeal of your home.

Spring Care
Applying pre-emergents during the spring will prevent summer weeds from taking over and affecting the health of your lawn. Once your grass starts growing, you can begin mowing your lawn. Keep grass about two inches tall for optimum health and growth. If your lawn has developed thatch—old, dead grass stems—take the time now to remove it to allow air, water, and nutrients to reach the soil during the summer.

Summer Care
The beginning of the summer season is a good time to fertilize your lawn to promote lush growth. If you’ve had past problems with grubs, you may also want to add a grub-killing product to the mix. Mow your lawn regularly to keep growth under control, but take care not to over-cut grass. You’ll need to mow less often during hot, dry periods than moist periods; wait until grass blades are about three inches tall before you pull out the mower.

Fall Care
Fall is the time to prepare your lawn for the winter ahead. Keep mowing until the grass falls dormant and stops growing. A pre-emergent herbicide will prevent weeds from taking hold over the winter months, if you do not plan to overseed with rye. Add fertilizer as well to provide your grass with the nutrients it will need in the spring. Make sure to keep your lawn clear of leaves and other debris and take care of any weeds that do spring up promptly. If you want a green lawn in the winter, you will need to overseed the lawn with rye seed in early October.

Let the experts at Santa Rita Landscaping help you care for your Tucson lawn all year long. We offer a variety of services, including landscape design, yard maintenance, and homebuilder and commercial construction. Visit us on the web or call (520) 623-0421 for more information about us.

The Sonoran Desert is a unique climate that can support many types of plants. Southwestern landscaping design often features a variety of native desert plants that lend color and texture to your yard. Creating a Southwestern-styled landscape that complements your Tucson home will bring your home and yard into harmony to greatly enhance curb appeal.

Pots and Vessels

Housing plants in pots and vessels can create a neat, tidy, and easily-maintainable Southwestern yard. clay, stone, and Mexican-styled terracotta or Talavera pots can all lend character and beauty to your landscaping. Plants ranging from small flowers or cactus to larger trees can all be placed in vessels, as long as they are sized correctly. Drip irrigation systems on their own zone make caring for plants in pots and vessels easy and convenient.

Water Features

Fountains and other water features are popular elements of Southwestern landscaping. You can incorporate a standalone fountain or create a water feature that blends seamlessly with the other elements of your landscaping. Keep in mind that because water evaporates quickly in the desert, you may need to refill your fountain frequently. Auto-fill features can minimize the effort required to keep your water feature full.

Terracing

Tucson lies nestled among mountains and much of the desert terrain itself is hilly and varied. You can represent this geographical element in your home’s landscaping by using terracing techniques that take advantage of natural variations rather than trying to create a uniform, flat yard. Multiple tiers can be made out of stone, wood, or even manmade materials such as railroad ties. When laying out your landscaping using terracing, make sure the plants that need the most water are placed at the bottom, while those that are most drought- and sun-resistant are at the top.

Are you ready to create a custom Southwestern landscape around your Tucson home? Call Santa Rita Landscaping at (520) 623-0421 to begin working with one of our experienced staff members on the perfect landscape design for your home. You can find more landscape design inspiration and ideas when you click through our online blog.

If you’re getting ready to sell your Tucson home, you’ve likely already begun cleaning and organizing the interior. However, a home’s exterior appearance can also have a large impact on the speed with which it sells. Upgrading your landscaping can give potential buyers a great first impression by increasing your curb appeal. The right landscaping can even increase your home’s overall value by up to 10 percent.

Clean It Up
Even if you don’t want to make major upgrades to your landscaping, some simple maintenance can make a big difference. A home that looks overrun or poorly cared-for on the outside doesn’t give buyers the impression you want. Buyers may even be discouraged from looking at the interior of your home if they don’t find the exterior appealing. Make sure your yard is free of debris and that all landscaping is neat and well trimmed. These simple steps can instantly make your home look more inviting.

Freshen Up the Decorative Gravel
Older gravel tends to look faded and worn, making the rest of your yard appear faded as well. Replacing old gravel with fresh product can instantly spruce up your home’s exterior by giving your yard a refreshed look. When buyers see that you’ve made the effort to keep your yard looking fresh and new, they’ll also be more likely to want to see more of your home.

Add Color
A bland, colorless yard doesn’t stand out among the many other homes for sale in Tucson. Adding color through landscaping elements will instantly draw attention to your home. Depending on the season, add plants that are currently blooming for an instant pop of color. If you don’t want to add plants permanently, place them in vessels or pots to achieve the same effect.

Santa Rita Landscaping can help you sell your home with landscape design and maintenance services in Tucson. Whether you’re looking to upgrade your landscaping or simply clean up your yard, call us at (520) 623-0421 to schedule a visit. You can also reach us by clicking on our web contact form.

Although grass is not commonly found in the natural desert landscape, incorporating it into your yard is a great way to add depth and texture to the space. If you want to add grass to your exterior design, consider the following species.

Tifgreen 328

Tifgreen 328 is a beautiful, dark green, versatile hybrid Bermuda grass. It features a wide range of mowing heights and has a fine texture. It is best suited for landscapes, golf courses, parks, and more. One great feature of this grass is that it produces few seed heads, which results in you having to mow less frequently.

Bobsod

If you’ve ever been to a Diamondbacks game, you’ve seen Bobsod before. It’s the grass used in Chase Field’s outfield. Bobsod is a tough, blue-green colored Bermuda grass that also has great shade tolerance. It is best suited for lawns, sports fields, golf courses, schools, residential developments, parks, and more.

E-Z Turf

Just like it’s name suggests, E-Z Turf is easy to care for, easy to mow, and easy to water. It is deep green in color and is remarkably disease-resistant. This grass is best suited for a busy person who is not interested in doing a lot of yard maintenance. Although it has poor shade tolerance, it recovers quickly from injury and overseeds well.

Tifway 419

Tifway 419 is one of the most durable grasses available, which makes it bets suited for sports fields and other areas that experience heavy traffic. It recovers quickly from injury and is highly disease-resistant. However, it requires full sun and is not shade tolerant.

Overhaul your current landscape design with the help of Santa Rita Landscaping, Inc. We can plant grass, bushes, trees, and flowers that open up the design possibilities of your outdoor area. We also offer landscape maintenance services that allow you to maintain your new exterior design. Our company values focus on accountability, professionalism, quality, teamwork, integrity, and consistent improvement to bring you the best services. Call (520) 623-0421 to learn more.

The desert climate and landscape is unlike any other. If you are new to the area and want to develop a thriving garden in Tucson, this guide will help you understand the unique characteristics of plants, trees, and bushes of the desert.

You Have a Huge Array of Options

You might not realize it, but desert gardens can actually support a wide variety of plant life, which means you have a wide range of choices for your own landscape design. From cactus to tropical plants, the mild winters and excessive sunshine create the ideal environment for many different types of plants. You might want to consider incorporating a few different species into your yard to create an interesting aesthetic for your garden. A landscape expert can assure you that the selected plants get planted in the correct location of your yard, which assures that they take advantage of the correct micro-climate of the yard.

You Can Plant Year Round

In most climates, the spring is the best time to plant. But in the desert, you can plant most species year-round. Generally, frost-sensitive plants are better planted closer to the Spring so they have time to grow roots that will be able to get them through the cool winter. Native cacti as well as hardier shrubs and trees can generally be planted anytime. Your landscape professional can help guide you through your options.

You Should Know Your Rain

Summer rain in the desert is very different from winter rain. During the winter, a rainy day usually lasts for a few hours and gives the soil a premium opportunity to soak up plenty of water to nourish the plants. A monsoon during the summer, however, brings torrential downpours that lead to massive water runoff that prevents the soil from absorbing enough water. These summer storms might actually damage your plant life, especially if you decrease your irrigation efforts because you think the rain will keep them watered. You generally need to continue watering during the monsoon season.

If you are new to the area, Santa Rita Landscaping, Inc. can show you the best kinds of plants to include in your desert yard. As one of Tucson’s top landscaping design firms, we know how to incorporate a variety of plant species to build your dream exterior design. To learn more about our design and maintenance services, visit us online or call (520) 623-0421.