Desert Connection: Reclaiming a Paradise Valley View with Native Plants

Removing Walls and Non-Natives

Janet Simon and Ron McCoy’s Paradise Valley, Arizona home had a wall blocking the desert view and gardens of non-native oleanders and struggling palms. Landscape architect Christy Ten Eyck removed the wall and non-natives, added broad terraces of decomposed granite edged with steel headers, and planted grids of deer grass, rows of desert milkweed, ocotillo, and golden barrel cactus in steel-framed raised beds. The look is clean, architectural, and practical—decomposed granite is inexpensive for large areas.

Intimate Entry Courtyard

On the north side, a neighboring house pressed close. Ten Eyck enclosed the space into an intimate entry courtyard, planting more lushly to compensate for the lack of view. The north and south gardens become literal extensions of the house. “When we look out, the landscape seems to be growing up around us… like being hugged by the desert.”

Favorite Southwest Natives

• Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) – silver shrub, yellow daisies, zones 10-13.
• Deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens) – green leaves, yellow fall spikes, zones 10-13.
• Indian fig cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica) – spineless pads, yellow-orange flowers, tasty fruit, zones 12, 13.
• Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) – thorny shrub, red-orange spring flowers, zones 10-13.
• Yellow bells (Tecoma stans) – bright yellow flowers much of year, zones 12, 13.
• Baja fairy duster (Calliandra californica) – ferny foliage, red flowers, zones 10-13.
• Agave americana – cream-striped gray-green leaves, zones 10, 12, 13.
• Golden barrel cactus (Echinocactus grusonii) – yellow spines, zones 12, 13.
• Mexican honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera) – light green leaves, orange tubular flowers, zones 12, 13.