Landscape design and techniques are utilized throughout my acre lot to create wildlife habitats, reintroduce native plants and showase artwork. Connected by a network of defined trails, the side and rear yards offer shade, privacy, a nursery and cactus garden, potting shed, ramada and special seating areas. The enclosed back yard, slightly higher in water use, offers flower beds, sculpture gardens, potting areas and desert tortoise habitat.

My yard won first place (homeowner's category) and the best design to attract wildlife in the 2003 Tohono Chul Park/Arizona Dept of Water Resources Xeriscape contest. Come visit during one of my open studios to see how art, landscaping and wildlife come together in harmony and beauty.

Click here for a look at the phases the yard has gone through and those still planned.
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Above: The front yard features a mix of prickly pear, saguaro, mesquite and palo verde trees, with accents of juniper and red bird-of-paradise.

Right: The east yard trail, with palo verde trees in full bloom. This trail leads to the cactus garden and bistro area (below right)

Above, left and right:
Octopus agave and prickly pears in pots, plus an assortment of other cacti lend texture and color to an area beneath a large palo verde tree.

Above: Javelina sculptures "graze" next to the east trail, while wood columns showcase pottery pieces.

Below: Quail sculptures rest on the top rail of the Yordani potting shed.

The Yordani Potting Shed. The shed was formerly a children's playhouse.

Above: The Rabbit Ramada is in the southeast corner of
the yard. A palo verde tree provides additional shade during the heat of the day.

Above and below, right: Sculpted rabbits play among the lavendar stalks of Mexican sage, while clay "rock columns" provide a foil to the organic nature of low water use flowering plants inside the fenced in portion of the back yard.

Inside the fenced back yard, a garden of cast clay torsos is set off by plantings of catclaw, honeysuckle and flowering sages (above, left),
while grouchy clay "sand crabs" guard an area near the swimming pool.

The program from the Awards Ceremony for the 2003 Xeriscape Contest, sponsored by the Arizona Department of Water Resources and Tohono Chul Park, with assistance from Tucson Water, Harlow Gardens, Tucson Home magazine, RainBird, Ewing Irrigation, AZT, Mountain States Wholesale Nursery, Desert Trees Nursery, Kelly Green Trees, Civano Nursery, The Home Depot, Tucson Botannical Gardens, Native Seeds Search, Farmers Water Company, Pottery Blow Out, Fountain Center and the City of Tucson Parks and Recreations Department.