Desert landscaping

Many parts of the world lend themselves naturally to desert landscapes. The southern USA, southern Europe, South Africa and much of Australia are good places to live if you want to practice this type of gardening. In more temperate climates it can be difficult to emulate the right conditions, and in any case the desert garden looks a little unnatural unless it is bathed in bright sunshine.

So why bother? Well the architectural lines of a desert garden can be magnificent, if correctly thought out, and maintenance should be minimal since the desert garden will tend to have just a few specimen plants.

The environment and setting is the key to success - the desert garden won't be very convincing if the plants are growing out of a weedy border! Typically the part of the garden that is not planted will be in gravel, laid on plastic sheeting to prevent 'non-desert' plants from emerging and to help keep the soil dry.

Assuming you live in an environment that is already suited, then your problems are not great. The problem is in trying to replicate the same conditions where they don't naturally occur. Typical desert plants need a great deal of heat and sunshine, very little water, and often grow very slowly.

The soil conditions needed are also different for desert plants - soil conditions need to be poor, and over fertilising or over rich soil can be damaging to the plants.

In practice, desert gardens in cooler climates is usually reserved for garden shows, although a particularly sheltered, sunny spot in your garden may lend itself to a little experimentation.