Creating beauty in the desert one garden at a time
Gardening Guides
Free articles that give you the know-how to be your own gardener. New articles added often. Some of these gardening and design tips can apply to any location. Bookmark this page and visit it frequently.
Just click on the name of an article to download the full content.
Four weeks to a New Garden
Not sure when and what to plant? Download a free Phoenix planting calendar at the Phoenix Permaculture Guild's website.
Here's a week-by-week plan that even novice gardeners
can follow to get their gardens ready to plant:
Design your Garden with Permaculture Principles
It seems there are two big reasons people are reluctant to do more with their yards: money and time. But you can save a lot of both if you take a little time to consider how your yard fits into the environment around it-and you can let Mother Nature do some of your gardening for you.
The fancy word for thinking about and organizing intelligent ecological design is "permaculture," coined in the late 1970s. It was first intended as an alternative to destructive industrial agriculture, but its principles make absolute sense for the home gardener as well.
Three Sisters Gardens should be ready by monsoon rains. The three sisters - corn beans and squash - were the survival foods of the native peoples of Sonora. By early July, your three sisters garden pits should be dug and filled with good compost, seeds should be in the ground waiting for the rains, and you should have straw ready to cover the soil once the seeds have sprouted.
Lawn and Garden Care From Your Kitchen
Our winter rains brought lots of beautiful wild flowers, blooming cactus and Palo Verde trees and the wicked weeds. While some people may be tempted by the seemingly simple solution, herbicides, their environmental effects outweigh any benefit. Herbicides are chemicals used to kill weeds in agriculture as well as household gardens. Herbicides are toxic to most mammals (that means you, me, your dog, and your kids) as well as to the beneficial insects that you want to encourage in your garden to keep away harmful pests.
Pets and Poisonous Plants, Fruits and Veggies
Many of these plants are in households now or will be sometime in the future. Just because they are in this list doesn’t mean you should get rid of them. Most of these plants must be ingested to cause problems, but as we all know – our pets’ behavior can be unpredictable. Whether you actually remove these plants from your home and yard are up to you, but watch your pets around them. Be especially diligent about cleaning up any plant debris like fallen leaves, flowers or trimmings.
Proper Watering
We all need to make sure we are watering our plants, trees and vegetables properly and responsibly. I venture to say that some of you water too often and at the wrong time of day. So here are the basic watering rules. Water for longer periods with a slower flow (water seeps in deeper) and less frequently. But you didn’t think it would be that simple did you?
Just click on the name of an article to download the full content.
Four weeks to a New Garden
Not sure when and what to plant? Download a free Phoenix planting calendar at the Phoenix Permaculture Guild's website.
Here's a week-by-week plan that even novice gardeners can follow to get their gardens ready to plant:
Design your Garden with Permaculture Principles
It seems there are two big reasons people are reluctant to do more with their yards: money and time. But you can save a lot of both if you take a little time to consider how your yard fits into the environment around it-and you can let Mother Nature do some of your gardening for you.
The fancy word for thinking about and organizing intelligent ecological design is "permaculture," coined in the late 1970s. It was first intended as an alternative to destructive industrial agriculture, but its principles make absolute sense for the home gardener as well.
Three Sisters Gardens should be ready by monsoon rains. The three sisters - corn beans and squash - were the survival foods of the native peoples of Sonora. By early July, your three sisters garden pits should be dug and filled with good compost, seeds should be in the ground waiting for the rains, and you should have straw ready to cover the soil once the seeds have sprouted.
Lawn and Garden Care From Your Kitchen
Our winter rains brought lots of beautiful wild flowers, blooming cactus and Palo Verde trees and the wicked weeds. While some people may be tempted by the seemingly simple solution, herbicides, their environmental effects outweigh any benefit. Herbicides are chemicals used to kill weeds in agriculture as well as household gardens. Herbicides are toxic to most mammals (that means you, me, your dog, and your kids) as well as to the beneficial insects that you want to encourage in your garden to keep away harmful pests.
Pets and Poisonous Plants, Fruits and Veggies
Many of these plants are in households now or will be sometime in the future. Just because they are in this list doesn’t mean you should get rid of them. Most of these plants must be ingested to cause problems, but as we all know – our pets’ behavior can be unpredictable. Whether you actually remove these plants from your home and yard are up to you, but watch your pets around them. Be especially diligent about cleaning up any plant debris like fallen leaves, flowers or trimmings.
Proper Watering
We all need to make sure we are watering our plants, trees and vegetables properly and responsibly. I venture to say that some of you water too often and at the wrong time of day. So here are the basic watering rules. Water for longer periods with a slower flow (water seeps in deeper) and less frequently. But you didn’t think it would be that simple did you?
“Doreen knows her stuff when it comes to innovative ways with gardens and landscaping. She gives great advice on how to design and manage a landscape - for a great look, as well as to preserve natural resources in the tough desert environment of the Phoenix valley. Doreen is friendly and knowledgeable, and is willing to research the right solution and come up with creative recommendations and the right professional team to get a project done within budget.”
James Burgin 10/07
“Doreen is a wonderfully creative garden goddess and garden designer who has the unique ability to assess a client's needs and make recommendations based on what the client wants. I highly recommend her services to anyone designing a garden or needing advice regarding plants and garden layout.”
Suzanne M. 11/08
