This project took place in Las Vegas with the primary task being to replace a water-loving lawn with a native xeriscape garden. The project began with a trip to the local botanical garden to educate the client on what native vegetation looks like and to gauge the client’s likes and dislikes. It turned out the client loved the native vegetation and wanted to learn all the plants that we put in the garden so I made wooden plant labels on a laser cutter that had the name of each plant in the garden.
Before
After
the planting plans created for the client included several pictures of the actual plants so they could understand and visualize better what the overall garden would look like
The garden was meant to mimic the surrounding landscape. Many mounds were created that spoke to the surrounding mountains while the main flat part of the backyard evoked a canyon. Plants were then chosen based on their location in the garden to tie to their endemic sites in the wild. For example, horsetails, a plant found near water was put at the bottom of the “canyon” in the backyard.
Gabion baskets (wire baskets filled with rock) were utilized as a retaining wall material that helped keep the desert aesthetic. One gabion wall was topped with redwood to make a seatwall for the patio.
Linear dry-stack stone walls in the front create a rhythm but also create a backdrop to some of the special plants like Queen Victoria Agave, Golden Barrel Cactus, and Red Yucca.
Because the garden was meant to evoke a desert landscape, many types of native stone was selected as the main groundcover. Rounded river rock was chosen for the bottom of the canyon while angular rock was chosen for the mountains and desert portions.
