Robbie

About Robbie

ISA Certified Arborist, Smartscape Trained, SLM Certified Plant Health Specialist for ELS

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April 2 2026

Check Your Drip Lines for Calcium Crust

Robbie Blog Arizona Landscape, Landscape Management

If your yard utilizes a drip irrigation system and you live in the Phoenix area, you’ve probably had problems with lines clogging over time. What’s clogging the lines, and what can you do to mitigate this problem?

There are multiple potential causes of drip line clogging, including algae buildup and dirt getting into your pipes from leaks, bad filters, or even dirty canals depending on where you are. The most common issue faced in the Phoenix area, though, is salt buildup. Most commonly, this salt is calcium carbonate, most famously known as the active ingredient in TUMS. There’s also calcium bicarbonate and magnesium bicarbonate. All of these come together to form a whitish crust called “scale” or “limescale” on surfaces. This can form on pots and pans, in pipes, or at the emitters in drip irrigation lines.

The majority of scale buildup occurs during the spring and summer, as the increasing contrast between the cold temperature of water and the warm temperature of the surface and air causes the calcifying reaction to occur quicker. This reaction can happen so quickly that the entire openings of drip emitters can be blocked off by a thick crust of calcium. You can also see evidence of this on the surface of the soil. If you see white rings of crust around your drips, then that emitter is at a higher risk of getting entirely clogged at some point during the warm season.

Does this mean you should just have your drip lines completely without emitters? No. Leaving driplines without emitters wastes water by leaving water pressure unregulated and allows more debris to get into your tubes, which can potentially cause much more severe clogs. The simplest reactive approach to calcium buildups is to go through your yard once or twice in the spring and summer with a toothpick or pin. Go to each emitter and break up the scale that may have formed at the opening. If even that doesn’t fix it, the emitter may need to be replaced.

If you want to make more efficient, proactive changes, you have to go to the source – the water itself. The water in Arizona, whether from canals or from wells, is very alkaline, meaning it contains lots of salts. Applying a fertigation injector system to your irrigation and adding tame acids to the water that goes to your plants. These can be purchased at stores as “pH buffers” by individuals, or they can be applied at an HOA-wide scale by landscaping companies using dilutions of sulfuric acid.

This isn’t a “one-and-done” situation, though. Arizona will always have salt problems, whether in the water we irrigate with or in the soil itself. Acid should be added to easily-crusted drip systems at least once a year, though this depends on the severity.

At ELS Maintenance & Construction, we add gentle acids to irrigation systems at a large scale in communities across the Valley to mitigate calcium buildup and improve plant health. If you know of a community or commercial center that needs new landscapers, email robbie@evergreenaz.com and we can get started!

February 27 2026

Why Do Arizona Turfs Need Gypsum and Sulfur?

Robbie Blog Arizona Arbor Care, Arizona Landscape, ArizonaLandscaping, CommercialLandscaping, HOA Landscaping

If you’ve lived in the Phoenix area for a while you know that it can be difficult to keep plants happy. The summers are hot, sure, but the big problem can be found in the soil itself. The soil in the Sonoran Desert is very alkaline. Essentially, that means it’s salty. As salt builds up in our clay-rich soil, it can become impermeable, hardening and preventing air and water from easily soaking in. This is bad for the roots of plants, especially if they are not native to the desert or otherwise accustomed to salty soils. There’s probably no plant where this challenge is more obvious than grass.

Turf in Arizona faces several challenges, but one of the worst is the alkaline buildup in the soil, or more specifically, the consequences of this buildup. Plants have difficulty absorbing important nutrients when the soil gets too salty. Nitrogen and Iron are especially likely to be chemically trapped in salty clay buildup. Both of these nutrients are vital to a plant that gets regularly cut down like grass, and there is very little Nitrogen found naturally in desert soil. The lack of available Nitrogen, Iron, and most other nutrients, makes grass turn pale or yellow. It can also slow its growth, change its shape, or kill the grass altogether in especially impermeable spots. How do you solve this problem?

In addition to proper turf care like aeration and dethatching, substances can be added to turf spaces to break up built-up clay and drastically improve the health of grass. Soil Sulfur is a powder or granular supplement that does wonders on this front. Sulfur is acidic, and when allowed to dissolve with water, it chemically reacts with the salts in the ground and breaks them up. This opens up the previously impermeable soil, lowers the pH level around the roots of grass, and makes Nitrogen, Iron, and the other important nutrients available to be consumed by the roots. Gypsum is also a great option. It acts in a similar manner, reacting with salts and breaking them apart, allowing water, air, and nutrients to reach the roots of turf grass. The only difference is that it is chemically much tamer and has minimal impact on the pH level of the soil as a whole. There are many other products that can be used for similar purposes, called Soil Acidifiers. These are usually liquids that can either be sprayed on turf or injected directly into built-up soil to make it healthier for growth.

While these practices are relatively well-known for keeping grass happy, many do not know that the vast majority of landscaping plants in the desert can benefit from practices like this as well. While native plants like mesquites and cacti are accustomed to our soil type, non-native species of all sizes will likely perform better if the soil around them is amended with Gypsum, Sulfur, or other Soil Acidifiers at regular intervals. Try it on trees and shrubs that are underperforming! Consult a Certified Arborist if you are unsure whether your plants will benefit from these practices.

At ELS Maintenance & Construction, we always recommend soil amendments to turf areas at regular intervals that are best for keeping healthy grass. If you know of a community or commercial center that needs new landscapers, email contactus@evergreenaz.com and we can get started!

February 2 2026

Creating an Arizona Hummingbird Haven

Robbie Blog Arizona Landscape, HOA Landscaping

There are at least 15 species of hummingbird that call Arizona home, and luckily none of them are considered truly endangered. However, the Black-chinned, Rufous, Broad-tailed, and Calliope hummingbirds are on several ecological watchlists due to shrinking habitats. Hummingbirds are extremely important to the Sonoran Desert ecosystem, as they pollinate when they drink the nectar of flowers of all types, especially the tubular and trumpet-shaped flowers of the desert. If you want to bring more hummingbirds to your home, and thereby give them a safe place to eat, drink, and nest, it’s actually pretty easy to do so!

There are several known “hummingbird plants” that you can grow in your yard that will be sure to attract them with time. They absolutely love bushes like the Pink Fairy Duster (Calliandra eriophylla), California Fairy Duster (Calliandra californica), Chuparosa (Justicia californica), Coral Fountain Grass (Russelia equisetiformis), and any species of Penstemon (a great choice is the Penstemon eatonii). These are just a few options, as they love any bush with trumpet-shaped flowers, tubular flowers, or puffball flowers with lots of nectar.

Some trees that hummingbirds love include Desert Willows (Chilopsis linearis), Mimosa Trees (Albizia julibrissin), Bottlebrush Trees (Callistemon citrinus), and to an extent, Velvet Mesquites (Neltuma velutina). Some annual and perennial flowers are hummingbird favorites as well, such as any Lavender (Lavandula), any Salvia (Salvia), Zinnias (Zinnia), Petunias (Petunia), and Cupheas (Cuphea).

Once you have some of these plants installed in your yard, you can actually look into having your home made a Certified Hummingbird Haven! The International Hummingbird Society has a set list of criteria on their website (www.hummingbirdsociety.org), and if you qualify, you can sign up to certify your outdoor space as a hummingbird haven. The requirements include having at least 20 hummingbird-friendly plants, a source of moving water, space for sanctuary and refuge, and avoiding the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides. Funds for their nonprofit go toward research and conservation for hummingbirds and their habitats around the world.

At ELS Maintenance & Construction, many of the plants we install in our communities are hummingbird favorites, and we engage in proper pruning and maintenance practices to keep things blooming for as long as possible. If you know of a community or commercial center that needs new landscapers, email contactus@evergreenaz.com and we can get started!

January 6 2026

How To Prevent Young Flowers from “Damping Off”

Robbie Blog

Soil microbes are vital to the health and success of plants of all shapes and sizes. Some of these microbes can harm plants when something about the soil conditions creates a chemical imbalance. In particular, there are multiple fungi that are present in small amounts in Arizona soil that can quickly kill plants if they are allowed to grow out of control. The most common victims of undesired fungal imbalance are young plants recently installed in pots or planters with poor drainage. The phenomenon of young plants dying of fungal rot before they have a chance to get established is called “damping off.”

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The most important thing to look out for is what was just hinted at – drainage. The roots of plants need access to air to thrive for many reasons, from water flow to gas transfer to the shedding of waste and much more. If the soil in a pot or planter has no drainage, it can become compacted and full of waste. When no oxygen reaches organic compounds, these organics create an “anaerobic” ecosystem (anaerobic = “not aerobic,” basically “no air”). It’s the collection of waste products and anaerobic conditions that make the perfect environment for a fungal take over. If the soil in a pot has an obvious “sour” smell, it’s very likely that the drainage is poor and there’s an anaerobic environment.

The best way to improve drainage in a pot is to use soil that has a lot of porous material that lets both water and air flow more freely. Horticultural pumice, vermiculite, and perlite are all great porous substances to mix into potting soil to improve flow. Even a thin layer of sand can help significantly. Avoid using packing peanuts or other artificial substances, as they can degrade and clog drainage or release chemicals that harm roots.

Even potting soil that typically has good drainage can become compacted by heavy rains and flooding. After heavy rains, if your potting soil feels hardened and compacted, it can be helpful to manually break up the soil to allow air back in. Worms are also a great natural source of soil aeration.

Newly-installed flowers and fresh seedlings are most often killed by fungus in anaerobic situations, but how can you tell if fungus in a pot is helpful, like mycorrhizae, or harmful, like Texas Root Rot? If leaf debris on the surface has some mold growing through it, this is generally not a problem. If there is obvious mold growing around the stalks or sprouts of plants, then there is a cause for concern. Emergency fungal solutions include applications of copper fungicide, diluted hydrogen peroxide, or even cinnamon.

At ELS Maintenance & Construction, we do our best to improve and maintain the quality of soil so plants of all sizes can truly thrive. If you know of a community or commercial center that needs new landscapers, email contactus@evergreenaz.com and we can get started!

December 2 2025

The Importance of Mycorrhizae

Robbie Blog AZ Landscape, HOA Landscaping

Did you know that nearly all soil contains fungus? Often we think of fungus as a problem in landscaping and gardening, but this is only a small part of the picture. There are many harmful fungi that can take advantage of poor drainage, weakened immune systems in plants, and many other variables. However, the majority of fungus species present in soil are either neutral or beneficial to the health of plants. These beneficial fungi interact with bacteria and the compounds in the soil itself to make nutrients easier for plants to absorb! There’s actually a name for the part of the soil that contains these vital fungi: the “the Mycorrhizal Network.”

These networks of fungus and roots are the most robust in wetter regions, especially in forests, but mycorrhiza is vital to life in the Sonoran Desert as well. In our ecosystem, mycorrhizae live amongst, and connect the root systems of shrubs, trees, and cacti in a fascinating balancing act of mutual relationships. Legumes, such as Palo Verdes, Mesquites, and Ironwoods, have special “nodules” in their roots that contain colonies of Nitrogen-producing bacteria that provide much-needed nutrition for both the plants and fungi in their rootspans. Fungi break down dead organic material, converting it into nutrients for plants to consume. Trees, shrubs, and cacti then grow and create more shade, preserving moisture and lowering the temperature in the ground. All of this creates a self-sustaining cycle that can carry organisms through the difficult summers in the Sonoran Desert.

A common problem in Arizona landscaping, thus, is the elimination of the mycorrhizal network. Construction, followed by the separation of individual landscaped spaces from the wider ecosystem by roads, houses, and pipes, can sometimes lead to the death of most microorganisms in yards and streetscapes. If you’re having difficulty establishing plants in an otherwise empty gravel yard, this is likely one of the reasons why. The best solutions to this include installing multiple plants of varying heights (tree, shrub, groundcover) at around the same time, buying healthy plants that haven’t been in their pots too long, and treating the soil.

Luckily, there are many easy ways to introduce beneficial microbes to the soil. Most organic fertilizers come with mycorrhizae (including fungus and bacteria), and need to be used shortly after purchasing so that the microbes don’t die off. Additionally, breaking up soil with high salt buildup is a great way to improve the quality of your yard’s mycorrhizal network. Gypsum, Sulfur, and Humic Acid are great soil amendments to improve root growth and mycorrhizal health. Adding organic mulch to the topsoil is also a great way to support beneficial fungi. Overall, improving your soil is one of the best ways to ensure that your plants, trees, and cacti can truly thrive, even in a new yard!

December 2 2025

What To Plant If You Want Winter Blooms

Robbie Blog ArizonaLandscaping, AZ Landscape

In many other regions in the United States, there is no expectation for flowers to be blooming during the coldest months of the year. The Sonoran Desert, however, has a fall growing season that leads to certain plants flowering even during the winter!

As for flowers, there are many options that you can plant right now which will continue blooming through the winter if you keep them healthy. Petunias, Snapdragons, Pansies, Violas, Alyssum, Calendulas, and even some varieties of Geraniums can keep flowering through the coldest times of the year in the Sonoran Desert. Most of these can even handle mild frosts without issue, though it may still be smart to cover them during freezing nights.

If you’re looking for larger, more permanent plants in your yard’s landscaping that offer some color during the cold of the winter, there are a few choices for you as well. The Valentine Emu (Eremophila maculata) is a super strong Australian shrub that gets covered in reddish-pink flowers in the winter, most notably around Valentine’s Day. Lantanas (Lantana), Yellow Bells (Tecoma), Roses (Rosa), and Cape Honeysuckles (Tecomaria) all have the capacity to bloom in waves throughout the winter, though they are much more liable to be damaged during cold snaps. If the winter is warmer than average, some Penstemons and Desert Marigolds (Baileya multiradiata) can bloom as early as January. Aloes such as the Aloe Vera (Aloe vera), Blue Elf Aloe (Aloe ‘Blue Elf’), and Tiger Aloe (Gonialoe variegata) are very cold-hardy and bloom between December and March.

It’s harder to find trees that bloom in the winter, but there are still a few good examples. The Sweet Acacia (Vachellia farnesiana) bursts forth with huge quantities of yellow puffball-shaped flowers from January through March. The Hong Kong Orchid Tree (Bauhinia x blakeana) flowers from the late fall through the early winter. Finally, the Mexican Redbud (Cercis canadensis var. mexicana) is dormant for much of the winter, but becomes absolutely covered in red-pink flowers in late February or early March, before leaves grow in for the spring.

Now is the best time to install plants if you want showy growth for the fall and stable blooms for the winter!

At ELS Maintenance & Construction, we install vibrant palettes of smart landscaping plants in communities throughout the Phoenix metro area. If you know of a community or commercial center that needs new landscapers, email contactus@evergreenaz.com and we can get started!

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December 2 2025

Arizona’s Fall Growing Season

Robbie Blog Arizona Landscape, AZ Landscape

Despite the brutality of Arizona’s summers, a huge benefit our region has over others is the rare phenomenon of having TWO growing seasons. Once the temperature has descended consistently below the 100-degree mark and nighttime temperatures creep into the low 70s to mid 60s, we’ve reached the Sonoran Desert’s fall growing season.

This is perhaps the best time of year to install new trees and shrubs, on par with the springtime. Landscape companies throughout the valley will be adding fresh vegetation to communities and homes for the next few months until we approach the cold of winter. The responsible period of fall planting lasts until around Thanksgiving, after which a plant’s acclimation period may overlap with the first frosts of the winter. Deciduous trees have a wider planting window, since they will already be dormant and thus not be damaged by mild frosts in the early winter.

If you’re looking to do some fall gardening, some great crop choices include peas, beans, carrots, spinach, kale, garlic, radishes, and more. Planting these right now is a great way to guarantee that by the time the weather is too cold for them to thrive, you’ll have hopefully made some decent harvests. Of course, the animals are just as happy that the weather’s cooled off as you are, so be sure to protect these crops from uninvited guests.

The cooler weather also invites a change in annual flowers from the summer survivors to plants that thrive in the cooler temperature. Some summer flowers can keep going through the fall, such as vincas, portulacas, and dwarf snapdragons. Some fresh fall flowers include marigolds, petunias, lobelias, society garlic, rocket snapdragons, and many more.

For plants of all sizes, it’s important to keep irrigation in mind. While the duration and frequency of watering may decrease once the temperature has dropped, new installs often need extra water while they’re getting established in the ground. This is a great time to shift irrigation drips further away from the trunks of more established trees and shrubs to inspire them to grow more robust root systems and mitigate storm damage.

The fall is also a great time to fertilize plants of all types, treat root systems with soil injections and soil acidifiers, and add fresh mulch. All of these things will contribute to a healthier yard in the long term.

At ELS Maintenance & Construction, we install new trees and shrubs and complete much-needed biannual work both during the spring and fall planting seasons throughout the Valley. If you know of a community or commercial center that needs new landscapers, email contactus@evergreenaz.com and we can get started!

December 2 2025

Preventing Javelina Damage in Arizona Yards

Robbie Blog AZ Landscape

The Arizona summer presents many challenges due to the weather. The heat can kill plants, or at the very least, weaken their immune systems. When plants are weakened and the weather is hot and dry, desert animals such as rabbits, kangaroo rats, and javelinas come in to eat them up. Javelinas are known for causing some of the most notorious damage if you live in a neighborhood where they are present. They can eat young shrubs, weak bushes, and even entire cacti if they are experiencing drought conditions. Sometimes they can even throw around gravel and knock over trash cans, creating huge messes. While we shouldn’t be mad at the javelinas themselves (it’s a hot summer and they’re just trying to survive like all of us), there are some things we can do to make them less likely to mess with landscape plants in the first place.

The first major preventative measure that can be taken against javelina damage is to install plants that they won’t eat. Some have unpleasant tastes, and some are actively poisonous when consumed, so ask a professional about your planting choices if you have a pet that likes to chew on random things. Any plant in the Euphorbia Genus is too poisonous for javelinas to eat; including Firesticks (Euphorbia tirucalli), Candelilla (Euphorbia antisyphilitica), and many more. Flowers in the daisy family are usually left alone as well, with some being poisonous and others just unpleasant-tasting. Blackfoot Daisies (Melampodium leucanthum), Damianitas (Chrysactinia mexicana), and Euryops Daisies (Euryops pectinatus) are some classics that are typically left alone. Sonoran Desert native shrubs such as Creosote (Larrea tridentata), Triangle Bursage (Ambrosia deltoidea), Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis), and Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) are usually left alone as well. Flowers like Vincas and most types of Lavender are generally considered javelina-proof too. The list goes on!

If you have plants already installed that are frequently tormented by hungry javelinas, another strategy is to sprinkle natural substances. Javelinas’ main sense is smell, so a strong smell can keep them away. Spices such as cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder will keep javelinas repulsed until the next rainstorm comes, but after that these will need to be re-applied immediately for best results. If you don’t want to waste your spices, you can also buy containers of granular Coyote Urine at most nurseries. The smell of predators will keep most javelinas away for up to a month, or until some good rainstorms wash away the scent.

None of these strategies are 100% guaranteed to keep the javelinas away, especially if the summer is particularly hot and dry. If they get particularly desperate, they may still uproot a poisonous plant just to double-check if anything under the soil is worth eating. Javelinas are a part of the Sonoran Desert ecosystem, and it’s best to leave them alone and let them live their lives. Some people even create javelina gardens, spaces with large bushes full of things that javelinas like to eat to keep them from having to resort to messing with the more precious landscape items. Most yards don’t have enough open space for that, though.

At ELS Maintenance & Construction, we identify pest damage and work to mitigate or prevent it wherever it is spotted. If you know of a community or commercial center that needs new landscapers, email contactus@evergreenaz.com and we can get started!

December 1 2025

How to Water Trees for the Arizona Summer

Robbie Blog Arizona Landscape, AZ Landscape, HOAMaintenance, Landscape Management

The Sonoran Desert summer is known for the powerful “dry heat” interrupted by occasional monsoon storms during its latter half. This heat causes stress to plants of all shapes and sizes, from the most robust cactus to the smallest groundcover shrub. Native plants have evolved to handle this stress in the wild, but in manmade landscape environments even they can fall victim to heat damage if not cared for properly.

Most yards in the Phoenix area use drip irrigation systems. By properly utilizing drip irrigation, you can help the trees and shrubs in your yard establish strong, healthy root systems that will help them withstand the summer heat and resist wind damage in the long term. The duration and frequency of watering is vital to the creation of a strong plant. This article focuses on trees, but the same principle applies for shrubs.

The best strategy to help a tree survive the summer in the long term is to do deep, infrequent watering once the tree is established. Let’s say you have a drip irrigation system that supplies water to many trees and shrubs in your yard. You can keep everything on a regular irrigation cycle, but this cycle should emphasize duration over frequency, especially if your plants are already established for at least a year. Instead of watering trees twice a day for 20 minutes each, water them for, as an example, once a week for three hours. These numbers aren’t exact, as every yard is in a different situation with its soil, sunlight, and slopes, and every tree species has different needs. This idea applies universally, though.

In Arizona’s alkaline, high-clay soil, it takes a high water volume to soak deep into the ground. If you water your trees in a way more similar to the “twice a day, 20 minutes each” style, it’s very likely that the water doesn’t soak into the ground as much as it just moves around. In the long term, that method leads to weaker roots and more wasted money due to evaporation. It may seem overkill, but letting your irrigation run for a long duration, less often, leads to more water soaking into the ground and providing a more consistent water supply for your trees and all nearby plants. This is healthier for the plants and saves money in the long term. Once a tree is established, you can water it manually by leaving a hose trickling for several hours once every week (or even less frequently, depending on the species), and it won’t even need to have drips anymore.

The average nighttime temperatures in the valley have been increasing due to the many heat sources in the city (roads, roofs, parking lots, etc) creating a worsening “heat bubble” around the city. This makes survival more difficult for plants of all types. Thus, creating shade is absolutely vital for the future of the Phoenix area. If you want to create long-lasting, healthy shade trees that won’t fall over in a windstorm, this strategy of long but infrequent watering is pretty much a requirement. It will create healthy trees with robust root systems, which will save you money and improve the health of every plant provided with healthy shade thanks to your efforts.

At ELS Maintenance & Construction, we install trees and shrubs the right way, improving the likelihood of long-term survival and creating the shade that we need so badly. If you know of a community or commercial center that needs new landscapers, email contactus@evergreenaz.com and we can get started!