Native plant lists
A number of different local organizations have helpful plant lists. These lists are an excellent starting point when designing your native garden.
- Here’s a great list from the Arizona Native Plant Society.
- Here’s another plant list from Tucson Audubon.
Sample Tucson Garden Plan
Check out this free garden plan for small urban gardens. It includes information on native plants, rainwater harvesting, and many other helpful resources!
Growing Native Food Plants
An excellent guide to native food plants such as mesquite, nopal (prickly pear), palo verde, and many others is Eat Mesquite and More: A Cookbook for Sonoran Desert Living by Desert Harvesters. More than just a recipe book, this includes harvest times, planting tips and lots of other great information. If you’re interested in growing native food plants, this book is a must-have.
Helping native bees in your yard
Native bees are in trouble due to habitat loss, diseases, pesticides and other factors. Here’s a helpful article at the Arizona Daily Star discussing how to help them out.
Water Conservation Resources
In desert gardens, conserving water is critical. Here are some resources to help you plan a beautiful garden while minimizing water use:
- Greywater Green Landscape by Laura Allen. This book has great instructions and diagrams for designing a simple greywater system.
- Watershed Management Group classes. WMG is a local nonprofit that helps Tucson residents conserve water. They have helpful classes on greywater and rainwater harvesting, among others.
- Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond by Brad Lancaster. These two books are the definitive texts on designing and building rainwater harvesting systems, both active and passive. Also highly recommended are the resources on his website, harvestingrainwater.com.
- Gardening With Less Water by David A. Bainbridge. This book discusses diverse types of irrigation such as ollas, to help gardeners use less water.
- City of Tucson Reclaimed Water. If you live in the City limits, you might be able to get connected to Tucson’s reclaimed water system. Check out the City of Tucson’s Reclaimed Water web page for more information.
About the three species of mesquite trees
The Sonoran Desert’s three mesquite tree species are keystone species that provide food, shelter, breeding areas, and many other benefits to both humans and wildlife. Read more about them here.
Palo verde trees
Read about the blue palo verde and the foothills palo verde trees in this informational page from the Arizona Native Plant Society.
Tools for designing a garden
There are several tools out there to help you figure out the type of soil you have, the sun exposure in your garden, and the amount of precipitation you’re likely to get. This article in the Arizona Daily Star goes over these tools and how to use them.
Native Plant Nurseries in Tucson and Southern Arizona
These nurseries make an effort to stock native plants. Check with the staff to make sure you’re getting the plants you want.
- Spadefoot Nursery. 2831 East Broadway Boulevard. Online orders with pickup and in-person plant shopping on Fridays-Sundays from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Check out their website at www.spadefootnursery.com
- Tohono Chul Desert Corner Nursery. 7366 North Paseo del Norte Tucson, AZ 85704. Open daily 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
- B & B Cactus Farm. 11550 E Speedway Blvd, Tucson AZ 85748. Open Tues.-Sat. 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
- Desert Survivors Plant Nursery. 1020 W Starr Pass Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85713. Open Thursday-Saturday 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
- Borderlands Nursery and Seed. Periodic plants sales throughout the year. You can also order plants and have them delivered to Tucson. 42 San Antonio Road Patagonia, AZ 85624. Dates of plant sales vary, check their website.
- For native seeds, check out Native Seeds/SEARCH, a local nonprofit group. They mainly sell food plant seeds but also have wildflower and native plant seeds on their website.