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Winter Legumes to Refresh Your Garden

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If you have a garden in your backyard in Arizona, you know how hard it can be to keep garden crops happy throughout the seasons. There’s a helpful strategy built into many of the Sonoran Desert’s native plants, and some winter crops you can plant that operate the same way.

For a garden bed built into the ground, you can take advantage of the Sonoran Desert’s leguminous plants to add nutrients to your garden. Plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) have a special, built-in property called “Nitrogen FIxing.” A plant is Nitrogen-fixing when it has colonies of helpful bacteria in its roots that create clusters sometimes large enough to be seen with the naked eye. These clusters consume water, Oxygen, and Carbon Dioxide and release Nitrogen into the soil and into the roots of the plants. Many, if not most, of the trees and shrubs used in Sonoran Desert landscaping are Nitrogen-fixing legumes. The reason for this is thought to be the fact that Sonoran Desert soil is almost entirely devoid of naturally-occurring Nitrogen. Mesquites, Palo Verdes, Ironwoods, Mexican Birds of Paradise, Fairy Dusters, Cascalotes, and even Clovers are among the Nitrogen-fixing plants commonly used in landscaping out here that can help fertilize your garden.

When a Mesquite or Ironwood tree loses its leaves in the winter, the leaves it sheds are basically thousands of organic pellets of Nitrogen fertilizer that makes up for what your garden bed will be lacking by the time your fall crops are coming to fruition. Instead of blowing away all these leaves, collect some of them and strategically mix them in with your garden soil after the fall crops are finished. Not only that, but if the tree’s roots have made their way under or even into your raised bed, Nitrogen is likely being produced naturally beneath the surface.

Another strategy that can get you a ready supply of healthy snacks is to plant winter legumes in your garden bed. After your fall crops finish, sow any of several species of “winter legumes” in your garden. Not only will you have beans or peas to snack on for the whole cool season, but  you’ll be supporting Nitrogen-fixing root systems in your soil. Once the spring comes and you’re ready to plant fresh crops, your soil will be equipped with a healthy surplus of organic nutrients! If you’ve ever heard of the “Three Sisters Garden,” legumes are one of those vital three “sisters” that replenishes nutrients in the soil for the next batch of crops, alongside corn and squash.

One last word of advice on this matter: If you are growing Nitrogen-fixing plants, DO NOT fertilize them with a fertilizer containing Nitrogen. This goes for the winter beans just as much as the full-sized Mesquite tree. If you add Nitrogen to their soil manually, it can weaken or even break the Nitrogen-fixing cycle in the roots of the affected legumes. Just let them be, and if they express signs of a nutrient deficiency, it’s most likely NOT a Nitrogen deficiency. Consult a professional on the proper solutions in order to save time and money!

At ELS Maintenance & Construction, we understand the intricate relationship between the landscapes and the plants we install on them, to a scientific level. If you know of a community or commercial center that needs new landscapers, email [email protected] and we can get started!

drip distance

How Far Should a Drip Be from a Tree Trunk?

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It may not seem like a big deal, but the space between a tree’s trunk and its water source can be a lifesaver or a killer in Arizona landscaping. Our soil texture, the nature of root development, and species of tree affect where to place drip lines most optimally for your trees. This applies to bushes and flowers to a lesser extent as well, but the effects of watering too close to the main root flare of a plant are only truly life-altering to plants as they grow larger.

The first thing to know is that our SOIL in the Phoenix area is high in clay and is very alkaline, meaning it contains salts and has a pH higher than 7 – often over 8 in some areas of the Valley. This means that air and water flow is often poor, and it takes much longer for water to creep downwards below the topsoil. This is why professionals recommend infrequent but deep waterings to fully satiate plants in the desert. This also means that if you water a tree with a drip that is placed directly next to its main trunk, that water is likely to sit in the first several inches of soil directly around the base of the trunk for hours. This is bad for two reasons. First: watering only at the base of a tree tells the tree only to grow fine roots close to the base of the tree, which can cause root girdling (tangling and constriction) and makes the tree more likely to fall during strong winds due to not being firmly rooted in the ground. Second: standing water at the base of many tree species, especially desert-adapted trees, can lead to rotting and infection of the trunk or root flare. Either way, watering too close to the trunk makes a tree more likely to fall over or die (or both).

It’s also important to keep in mind the SPECIES of the tree and what its development into MATURITY looks like. Measure your tree’s canopy diameter if possible. The diameter of the canopy is a good way to estimate the diameter of the root span beneath the surface. Because of this, the general guideline is to place the drips close to the edge of the canopy in a radius around the tree. This means that as a tree grows and matures, you should change the locations of driplines. Perhaps every three years the placement of drips around a tree should be changed to match the newly expanded canopy diameter. If the tree is native to desert ecosystems, like Palo Verdes, Acacias, Eucalyptus, Mesquites, etc., then the amount of water assistance can remain consistent, if not decrease until the tree is fully self-sufficient and established. If the tree is not native to the desert, it will need more water as it grows. If you had four, 2 GPH drips circling a Ficus tree with a 10-foot diameter, but after three years its canopy is 20 feet, you should move the drips to match the edge of the canopy and increase the number of 2 GPH drips to 10. This way, the tree is well-nourished and stable without ever having its trunk swamped.

Read Water Use It Wisely’s “Landscape Watering By The Numbers” by clicking here for more specific information.

At ELS Maintenance & Construction, we install, maintain, and improve irrigation infrastructure to save water and promote healthy plant growth in communities and commercial properties around the Valley. If you know of a community or commercial center that needs new landscapers, email [email protected] and we can get started!

snowy desert

7 Tips to Protect Your Plants from Frost

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With a little knowledge and planning, you can protect your landscape plants—and your investment—from frost damage.  In Arizona, we can get frosts from about Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day.

 As a rule of thumb, it’s important to know that younger, dehydrated and actively growing or flowering plants are most at risk for frost damage.

 As the weather cools, plants naturally “harden off” by slowing their new growth and ceasing blooms. Therefore, it’s important to protect landscape plants both from frost and from budding or blooming too soon before the danger of frost has passed. Still, the faster the drop in temperature, the lower the temperature and the longer the exposure, the more at risk any plant is to frost damage.

  1. Select frost-tolerant plants. Native plants will fare the best in all temperatures, whereas tropical plants may suffer in the cold. To find a plant’s temperature hardiness, search https://www.amwua.org/plants, AMWUA’s Plants for the Arizona Desert
  2. Keep soil appropriately moist. Although water requirements for different plant species vary year-round, it’s important to know that frost damage can be more severe in dehydrated plants. And, although it seems counterintuitive, it’s beneficial to water plants before a predicted frost because water releases energy in the form of heat when it cools, thereby warming the foliage above ground.
  3. Cover at night. Each night a frost is predicted, drape over sensitive plants a cloth that touches the ground, allowing warmth from the ground to fill the resulting dome structure. Remove the cover in the morning so the ground warms up again the next day. If you need to keep plants covered for multiple days, look for purpose-designed frost cloths or frost blankets. Do not use plastic because it freezes.
  4. Choose warm locations. Frost-sensitive plants will be better protected when they are sheltered, when they are exposed to full daytime sun (south and west sun are best) or when they are located near rocks, walls or benches, which radiate daytime warmth.
  5. Resist pruning. Pruning stimulates new plant growth, which can be even more susceptible to frost. Do not prune frost-damaged plants until spring, after the danger of frost has passed.
  6. Wrap tree trunks. For young citrus and other frost-sensitive trees, loosely wrap the trunk from the lowest foliage down to the ground using multiple layers. Leave wrapped for the winter.
  7. Add heat. Add incandescent lights or string lights below the foliage because their heat radiates upward. LED lights do not generate sufficient heat for this purpose.

If the weather forecast shows low nighttime temperatures, refer back to these 7 tips to prevent frost damage to your sensitive plants. You’ll be protecting their shape and giving them a head start on budding and blooming when spring comes.