Tips on Saving Money on Landscape Maintenance in Phoenix

All homeowners today are looking for ways to reduce to cost of home maintenance, and your landscape could easily cost more to care for if things aren't done correctly. Keeping your Phoenix yard looking lovely is directly connected to the health of your shrubs, cacti, trees and perennial plants.

Even if your yard is planted with desert plants, native plants and those that easily adapt to the Arizona climate, there are certain needs that ornamental plants for landscape use need to perform well. It is far less expensive to have a landscape or garden full of plants that are in the best health and robust vigor. From the lawn on up to the tallest trees, in a weakened state or one of undernourishment, you'll have to invest a great deal of time and money to keep them alive. Understanding your landscape plants is easier than you think if we compare them with something you know all about. Plants are more like humans than most people conceive.

For instance, people with lowered immune systems from undernourishment, poor nourishment and excess stress require expensive trips to the doctor, medication and constant vigilance or they could die. A sickly plant or human is high maintenance and expensive to care for. Unlike humans, plants can't move to a shady spot, or remove layers of clothing when the temperatures soar. Your plants are stuck with the situation you planted them in. They have a hard time telling you about their issues too, unless you speak fluently the language of Plant. The only way they can communicate a problem is by looking rather pitiful or getting attacked by disease and bugs.

As time goes by, if you haven't discovered what they need to get well and stay that way, it is pretty common for unhealthy plants to just give up and die. Extra fertilizer, pesticides, fungicides, increased water and finally plant replacement can really increase the effort and cost quite a bit, even if your landscaping was planned to be low maintenance. There are ways around this situation that will save you money and decrease the amount of work you have to consistently do to keep your Phoenix landscape looking great and growing very well.

The three easiest ways to have a beautiful yard that is cheaper to maintain:

1. Only install plants in your yard that will deal with the climate and soil in your Phoenix, AZ yard. This means those that will readily adapt to type of soil they must dwell in after planted, if the soil isn't perfect you can amend it. If you don't amend it, or amend it improperly don't expect robust plant vigor. One of the most common causes of plants dying in people's yards is due to wrong light conditions and improper soil conditions.

2. Hydration is very important to ornamental plants, even those that are desert native. The difference between wild plants and those you buy from a nursery is vast. Just because it is a cactus or is found growing in the wild, means nothing at all. Plants that grow in the desert naturally are there only because conditions in that spot are perfect to support them.

Purchasing plants from a garden center or nursery means you are transplanting it from one environment to another. You can't just slap it in the ground and expect it to deal with the culture shock! How long does a heart transplant work if no one minds the progress of adaption and healing? Nursery plants are on a schedule of water and fertilization, even if they are a cactus. How long can you go without water and feel tip top? Lack of water is the number one reason homeowners have bad luck growing plants in their yard.

3. A balanced diet is necessary for anything that is alive to thrive. Every different type of plant has its own set nutrition requirements. If it is not eating right, its health will suffer and the immunity system becomes weakened. This is an open invitation to disease, pests and stress just like what happens with people or pets. Don't fertilize with cheap plant food, junk food is junk food no matter what life form is consuming it. Quality fertilizers cost more because they contain better or higher percentages of good plant nutrition.

A diet of high quality nutrition delivered on a regular schedule of small feedings will reduce your landscaping plants' need for excess water, and emergency treatments of pesticides and herbicides. This is true of every form of plant from lawn grasses to perennials, succulents to shrubs and even trees or vines. Poor nutrients and no nutrients is a top cause for homeowners having problems with plant diseases and even pest problems in their Phoenix landscaping or garden.

Even cactus needs regular light watering and nutrients if they are going to be beautiful and vigorous in your xeriscape desert landscaping. The biggest problem many Phoenix homeowners have is that they don't understand that xeriscaping needs dependable light watering. Working with the desert, instead of against the desert is what xeriscaping is designed to do. Your xeriscape plants still need regular care like fertilizer, the right amount of moisture assistance and good drainage with some moisture retention.

Drip irrigation conserves the precious resources of fresh water and fertilizer injection engineered into your automatic irrigation system makes having a beautiful, robust xeriscape yard in Phoenix a piece of cake if you've ensured that the xeriscape landscape design and soil amendment preparation was properly planned and executed to create the right conditions in the first place. These are the best ways to reduce the cost of maintaining your desert landscaping and enjoy a great deal of beauty in your yard.