Garden & Landscape

Bringing the outdoors in with lush greenery is an excellent way to spruce up your sweet home. Extra care is needed for your indoor plants if you have furry friends roaming around. We want our pets to be happy and healthy, but some common houseplants can cause anything from mild irritation to a full-blown pet emergency. Keep your pet paradise toxin-free and choose plants that won’t make our four-legged pals do a double take.

Fortunately, many “pawsitively perfect” pet-friendly plants can add life and beauty to your home without posing a risk to your beloved animals. Here are a few of the best choices, along with tips on how to grow them indoors:

There are no silly questions when it comes to gardening. We are on this journey together; some have more experience than the rookies just starting out. That’s why two decades of garden articles, radio programs, and podcasts exist. Gardening is learned by making mistakes. I want to ensure you make mistakes in the right direction, never going backward.

Let’s start with the obvious. If something is alive in your home, it will need water. Houseplants most likely need a deep soak every 10 to 14 days. Succulents, cacti, and plants in dark rooms need water less often, probably every 2 to 3 weeks. Dogs and cats should not eat your houseplants; it’s not good for them.

Over and over again, I see these common mistakes. Eliminate even one, and you become a better plant parent and gardener.

he easiest gardening is in containers. Tall plants turn ordinary container gardens into living art, adding height, variety, and drama. My designer rule for stylish containers is “thriller, spiller, then fillers.”

Combine a tall, “thrilling” focal point with plants spilling over the sides of your container to soften the edges. Filler plants bridge the space between. Very little potting soil should be visible when your design is complete. Plants will be touching foliage-to-foliage.

Start with a tall “thrilling” plant, and the rest of your job is easy. Here is my go-to list of tall plants that thrive in container gardens.

Flavorful herbs are some of the easiest garden plants to grow, but you want to pay attention to your herb garden. Once in the ground, herbs are quickly ready for harvesting, unlike most other vegetables, which need time to ripen and mature.

The key to keeping herbs growing is to harvest often, even if you don’t need more. Herbal leaves are popular in cooking. Cutting them back throughout the growing season encourages healthy new growth and an attractive shape and keeps them producing.

Arizona is famous for its weather, which facilitates myriad outdoor activities. When all this activity brings the party to your deck, patio, or pool’s edge, the fragrance of the garden should be positive and uplifting to the friends who gather. Forget the candles and citronella. This is the perfect place to add sweetly scented plants for ambiance. The right plants remind us of why the mountains of Arizona are meant to be enjoyed outdoors.

In the past, a person needed a lot of land to grow fruit trees. Things have changed. Dwarf and semi-dwarf fruit trees have made it possible to grow crops in just about any yard. Most standard-sized fruit trees mature at a height and width of between 18 and 25 feet, requiring a big chunk of space and also proving difficult to prune and spray without using a ladder.

Still, even with smaller trees, growing fruit is a long-term investment. Trees can take anywhere from two to 10 years to bear fruit. If you plan to be harvesting for years to come, it pays to do some upfront planning.