Whenever the talk of enjoying your garden comes up, it’s always the thought of a full green leafy garden that comes to mind. People living in desert areas with very little rainfall have always felt left out and unable to enjoy this garden feeling. Even though a full green feeling is far off; you can still enjoy a beautiful garden landscape in your front yard by implementing some desert landscape ideas mentioned in this article.
Watering a garden in desert areas is difficult as the weather can get pretty hot and dry, making the plants consume more water; that is your water bills rising. To reduce the amount you spend on your front yard while still enjoying its beauty, there are unique desert plants you can grow and fantastic front yard landscape designs to implement.
These landscape ideas will not only raise the curb appeal of your home but also save you a considerable amount you would’ve otherwise spent on watering plants not suited to your region. To make your work easier, I’ve curated some of the best front yard desert ideas you can try out.
1. Aloe Vera Walkway Bed
The aloe vera plant is sturdy and easy to maintain and is a great Desert Landscape Ideas to try for. It requires very little maintenance from you as its leaves can store water and nutrients for use during droughts.
Another beneficial property of this plant is its medicinal nature; it can be used to cure various skin challenges and inflammation. Grow them some inches apart from each other and use gravel to cover the bed.
2. Succulent Light Show
Adding warm lights to your succulent front yard landscape will further increase the curb appeal. The view takes over when the sun sets to create a magical feeling in your front yard. Simply add lighting around your front yard and enjoy its beauty at night.
3. Desert Trees And Shrubs
Desert areas are known for their usually hot climate. This desert landscape idea seeks to remedy a little of that problem by providing a shade area where you can relax and enjoy the cool breeze. Grow desert trees in your front yard, add shrubs along the driveway for more contrast.
4. Small Front Yard Delight
If you have a small front yard in a desert area, you can still enjoy your garden by incorporating this garden idea. Adding ball cactus into your front yard design makes it more pleasing to the eyes. Small beds are made in-between walkways.
5. Large Single Garden Bed
Your front yard can take a new look with this large desert bed. This bed is covered with gravel and split in the middle using small-sized rocks, which gives it a different color. Desert trees and shrubs make up this exciting landscape.
6. Green Desert Front Yard
Green is not something readily associated with desert gardens, but that shouldn’t be the case. You can still have lots of green in your front yard landscape by sparsely adding sturdy green plants around your front yard. It not only improves the mood but makes your yard unique among other desert landscape ideas.
7. Reflective Lighting And Brightly Colored Vegetation
Because of the climate in desert areas, using lighter colors in your front yard will help reflect sunlight away from your yard, thereby keeping it cool. Adding brightly colored plants to the landscape will match the light colors used for the building.
8. Lush Green Landscape
Yes, you can still enjoy having a lawn in your front yard even if you live in areas with reduced rainfall. You, however, need to add irrigation systems like sprinkler systems to ensure it gets enough water.
Depending on land type and watering frequency, the grass may take longer to grow, but that shouldn’t be a problem as you’ll be enjoying this green landscape in no time.
9. Dare to Dream
Desert areas are limiting on the type of plants and designs you can make. But if you’re daring enough, you can break all limitations and grow vegetation of drought-resistant plants, including trees, shrubs, and grasses.
10. Front Yard Desert Bed
You can create a desert bed in your front yard using stones to form the barrier. It is both pleasing and matching for the desert plants. Succulents like cactus, aloe vera, and the snake plant gracing this bed will bring it to life. Your front yard will wear a new look with this bed at its center.
11. Open Yard Design
If you’re looking for something even less time consuming then this open space front yard design is here for you.
To set this up in your garden, sparsely plant cactus balls and short trees at the edges while using gravel and rocks to beautify the bed.
This Desert Landscape Idea will allow you to fully enjoy the desert sunrise and sunset as there’ll be little or no blockage.
12. Add Leafy Plants in Pots
Adding desert-friendly leafy plants in pots to your front yard garden bed will boost the beauty of other plants near it. Most of these desert-friendly leafy plants are excellent butterfly plants and would be a wonderful addition if you’re looking to make a butterfly garden.
13. Whale Tongue Agave And Rocks Combination
The whale tongue Agave plant is a plant requiring very little in terms of maintenance and can beautify your front yard with the right rock combination. Rocks are a common sight in desert areas and can be put to good use by adding them to your front yard design.
14. Add a Captivating Structure
A fantastic structure placed at your home’s entrance will not only mask the bland desert look but also make it the topic among friends. A sculpture as intriguing as the one on the picture that seems to defy gravity will capture the attention of visitors and leave them awestruck.
15. DIY Cinder Block And Succulents Design
This is an easy to replicate front yard desert idea that makes use of cinder blocks as the container and succulents to beautify your front yard.
The cinder blocks are placed in your front porch just beside your front door and filled with potting soil. Different succulents like the snake plant are planted and allowed to grow.
16. Set The Stage
The rarest and most expensive plants should be put on a stage where they can easily be seen and appreciated. Making a platform very close to your front door and growing those beautiful plants is an excellent way to set your front yard apart.
17. Add Features From Your Home’s Design
Your home’s design can give you ideas on how to style your front yard, even in deserted areas. This home was built on a lava rock field, so lava rocks were added to the front yard stairs.
18. Retaining Wall Desert Idea
Two layers of retaining walls help make this tall wall more appealing and create extra space to grow your desert plants. Trailing rosemary is planted on the topmost layer and allowed to spill over to the lower tiers. Other brightly colored plants are added for contrast.
19. Rocks And Desert Friendly Plants
Instead of growing a difficult to maintain lawn, why not grow a climate encouraging garden fitted with different succulents and rocks at specific corners for added aesthetics. This design is one of many rock garden ideas you can add to your front yard.
20. Use Pebbles/Gravel as Mulch
Pebbles are a more natural mulch material in desert areas than wood chippings as they allow for easy drainage of excess water that can damage the stems of desert plants.
21. Container Gardening
You can use containers to grow cactus balls and place them along your front yard walkway. Using matching containers for the same plant will add beauty to your yard.
22. Front Yard Art
You can showcase your personality by adding some garden arts to your desert front yard. Bland areas can get a new meaning with some desert-inspired art like a wheel on a dried tree stump like the one seen in the picture.
23. Group Smaller Plants
Smaller desert species look more prominent when they’re grouped with similar plants. Randomly placing rocks will draw attention to the beauty you’ve created.
24. Two Plants, Too Unique
Limiting the number of plants you can choose from to just two not only makes your front yard clean and easy on the eye, but it also makes it easy for you to maintain as you don’t have to pay attention to the different needs of numerous plants.
25. Concrete Pot Front Yard Garden
Because of the hard and often nutrient-poor soil type found in desert areas, it may be necessary to make use of pots when growing plants for your front yard. A concrete Pot will match perfectly to the surroundings.
26. Brick Walkway and Cactus Design
A brick walkway can keep desert dust away from your home while improving your front yard landscape. Plant cactus balls along the sidewalk for a more attractive yard.
27. Brick Space Desert Idea
Do you live in an urban desert area with little front yard space? This desert landscape idea utilizes the small space to create a tiered surface to accommodate a few drought-resistant species.
28. Hilly Terrain
Do you live in hilly terrain and feel you cannot get the perfect front yard landscape because of this? Sit back; this idea uses gravel to beautify the terrain and grows a few desert plants to make it lively.
29. Rocky Bonanza
Areas with a lot of rocks can make use of the stones to further enhance their front yard landscape. Adding delicate plants in pots and placing them in strategic locations will get this idea going.
30. Have it All
Setting up both a desert bed and a rain-forest bed side by side will let you enjoy the best of both worlds. One is looking lush and covered with mulch to reduce the loss of water and the other covered with gravel.
Desert inspired landscape is not only for homes in desert areas, but most of them can also be replicated in areas with a lot of rainfall. Try out as many as you like to get the best for you.
