Rainwater-Fed, Native Sonoran Desert Landscape in Tempe

Tyler P. | Tempe, Arizona

A residential front yard with desert landscaping, including a red maple tree, cactus, and various plants. Labels identify trees such as Desert Ironwood, Velvet Mesquite, Foothills Palo Verde, and plants like Chupa Rosa, Angelita Daisy, Globe Mallow, Prickly Pear, Blackfoot Daisy, Organ Pipe Cactus, Baja Red Fairy Duster, and Pary's Penstemon. Features include a driveway, a water main, and a basin overflow to the street.

Tyler first approached Galaxy Gardens about 2 years ago, and our partner designer Nancy Blakley produced a beautiful & functional design of Sonoran Desert worthiness.

When Tyler reached back out this year with funds ready to execute, we decided to expand the design’s shade canopy and rainwater harvesting potential given his increased budget!

A desert landscape garden with various plants, labeled to show types and water flow points, including basins, cacti, and flowering shrubs, with a house and sky in the background.

We designed a two-tier rocked basin system to maximize the rainwater harvesting potential given the space in the front yard. Both basins are surrounded by native Sonoran Desert nitrogen-fixing trees like the Velvet mesquite (Prosopis velutina) and Desert Ironwood (Olneya tesota), as well as perennial flowering shrubs that help re-wild Arizona’s suburban areas and bring pollinators to Tyler’s home.

Note: the Desert Ironwood leaves in these designs are not accurately portrayed by our design software, which has its limitations!

A landscape design plan featuring various trees, shrubs, and plants with labels, a driveway, and water drainage features, including a Mexican Bird of Paradise Tree, velvet mesquite, foothills palo verde, creosote, agave, aloe verda, and a rock-ed arroyo, with labeled downspout convey and overflow to street.

The east strip of driveway also presented a narrow but promising opportunity to slow, spread, and sink some rainwater coming off his garage flat roof with a rocked arroyo snaking through some smaller, but still shady, Sonoran Desert trees like the Foothill Palo Verde (Parkinsonia microphylla) and Mexican Bird of Paradise tree (Caesalpinia Mexicana) and companion desert plants.

An aerial view of a backyard with labeled features including a house with a red tile roof, a seating area with outdoor furniture, a tree with pink leaves, and various utility labels for plumbing and water main details.

We also removed a large slab of concrete from their front porch to build the soil there while they prepare more funds to re-pave the patio with beautiful ceramic pavers. From the roofline, two aluminum downspouts convey over 1,000 square feet of rainwater catchment into our two-tier rocked basin system, shaded by our Desert Ironwood and Velvet mesquite.

Landscaping plan showing multiple trees labeled as Mexican Bird of Paradise Tree, Foothills Palo Verde, Velvet Mesquite, Desert Ironwood, and Water Main, with labels for downspout conveyance and water usage details.

Tyler’s overall system will collect around 1,000 gallons of rainwater for every 1" of rain and over 6,000 gallons per year. It will also create seasonal fireworks of native wildflowers like desert milkweed, chupa rosa, globe mallow, Angelita daisy, Baja red fairy duster, and Gregg’s mistflower, and the diverse native pollinators they attract and feed.

It is, we believe, a powerful testament to how the balance, grace, and quiet beauty of the Sonoran Desert can function even in more modestly sized suburban front yards here in the Phoenix area.