New Desert Garden Respects Tucson Tradition

Landscape designer Debra Huffman wanted her new Tucson garden to blend into its older neighborhood, so she used traditional plants and hardscape materials evoking the area's roots.

For street privacy, she installed an old-fashioned ocotillo fence: 6-foot Fouquieria splendens stems woven with wire, sunk 6 inches into sand-mixed soil, lashed to steel crossbars. Weekly spraying encouraged most to root, sprouting leaves and red-orange blossoms. Forged steel gates and trellises by Tucson sculptors Dan Lehman and Daniel Ptasnik add authenticity.

Focal points: a relocated date palm and sculptural gray-green Agave weberi, both regional icons. Recent Southwest introductions woven in: Acacia berlandieri (lacey shrub with fernlike foliage, creamy spring puffballs) and Bulbine frutescens (low South African native with succulent leaves, yellow fall-through-spring flowers). Pink penstemon and red-and-blue bat-faced cuphea dot the garden. Unthirsty plants and efficient drip irrigation keep the monthly water bill at $30–$40 — far below the neighborhood average.