I like looking for new landscape ideas, and I especially like those that incorporate used or found stuff.  You know, the stuff that’s laying around waiting for a spot at the landfill?  Yeah, that stuff.

Nice thing is…our natural desert gardens lend themselves really well to found stuff.  Now, I’m bred from good farm stock so it took me just a minute to figure out that this is an old track from a tractor…turned sideways into a planter.  There are two of them in front of MDI Rock in North Phoenix, as well as some smaller track around their decomposed granite beds.

But you don’t have to drive all the way out to North Phoenix to find inspiration…unless, of course, you live out that way.  The extraordinary lives in the ordinary.  All I did was run a simple errand, and I now have a freakin’ cool idea locked into my brain…just waiting…

Well, here it is, October in the desert, and all I can think about is how freakin’ thrilled I am for “turf break”!  No more fertilizing, mulching, mowing and–say it isn’t so!–NO MORE WATERING the weeds that we call grass!

Now, I can pretend that I’m on a one-woman mission to save the Earth from our thirsty ways by having a completely natural desert landscape.  But I’m not.  No, I’m out to save the greenbacks!  The fewer of those that I have to send to the City of Phoenix for water, the happier I am.  That’s why I love turf break!

BUT…some of you like to overseed for winter and don’t mind all the maintenance and money it takes to get there.  I salute you for that.  Just don’t do it while it’s hot.  Wait until nighttime temps drop to 65 or below for 3-7 consecutive days, and then start overseeding.

By the way, the very nature of overseeding forces Bermuda grass into dormancy so another grass can grow over it–which shocks the system.  So lay off the overseeding every couple of years…and enjoy a turf break!