Landscape Design
Photos of completed gardens designed by Scott Calhoun and Zona Gardens, LLC.
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La Reserve Rainwater Garden
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La Reserve Rainwater Garden
Rainwater basins and low-care succulent plants to create a tapestry of color.
Sabino Canyon Courtyard Garden
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Sabino Canyon Courtyard Garden
A sleeper of a little garden in a Sabino Canyon area townhouse backyard.
Tortolita Color Blast
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Tortolita Color Blast
It was as if the design had leapt off my drawing board and come to life.
The Civano Seed Bank
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The Civano Seed Bank
Through selective weeding and resowing seeds, she has built up a seed bank in her garden that gets accrues compound interest.
Barrio Magic
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Barrio Magic
This barrio-area landscape remodel began as a job to look at a few pots and evolved into a project that involved planting three courtyards, fabricating 4 steel trellises, and planting up over 30 substantial custom-picked pots.
Catalina Contemporary
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Catalina Contemporary
Scott Calhoun framed views of the mountains with succulents, and clustered interesting cactus species both in the ground and in raised steel planters.
Zona Gardens Studio
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Zona Gardens Studio
Back in 2004, when my wife and I bought a studio space for my business with a blank slate garden, I was pretty excited. I’m just saying that having unfettered creative control is, well, awesome!
Circling An Idea
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Circling An Idea
They hired us to do the design and we drew a circular seat wall, stock tank veggie garden, and lots of succulent plantings that were easy to care for.
Casa Granada
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Casa Granada
Zona Gardens designed and planted extensive container gardens in nearly every patio nook. The containers hold mix of sturdy cacti and succulents and a few potted annuals to lend color in the cool season.
Eastside Purple
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Eastside Purple
The garden has a pollinator focus and plants such as black dalea hum with activity in the fall. Trees include desert willow and blackbrush acacia.
Rock & Roll Fence
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Rock & Roll Fence
The south-facing fence has warmed and nurtured a pair of Mexican fencepost cactus that are among the most handsome specimens on Tucson’s east side.
Beneath Palms
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Beneath Palms
A curving gravel path and offset ocotillo panel fencing provide a secret passage to the rear garden.
Going in Circles
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Going in Circles
In this central Tucson backyard, we used circles to concoct a curvaceous plan: we began with a cylindrical rainwater cistern, a circle of turf, a raised circular cacti and succulent bed, with an adjacent circle pattern pavers.
The Green House
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The Green House
In the back we created a deer grass oasis around a stock-tank style fountain and salvaged mesquite tree. The back yard is watered by graywater from the Michal’s outdoor shower.
Working with Yellow
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Working with Yellow
Beginning with a very-much-alive ocotillo fence to screen an adjacent construction site, we planted two varieties of Texas ranger, Texas firecracker bush, beaked yuccas, and mesquite.
Pine-Oak Woodland
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Pine-Oak Woodland
We augmented the pine with Chinqaupin oaks, white orchid trees, ocotillo, deer grass, superb penstemon, sandpaper verbena and pale-leaf yucca.
Bear Grass + Silver Carpet
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Bear Grass + Silver Carpet
In a narrow rectangular space, we created a geometric grid of flagstone, ‘Silver Falls’ dichondra, interspersed with bear grass and rain lilies.
Sonoran-Asian Fusion
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Sonoran-Asian Fusion
We fashioned as simple courtyard planting using Sonoran plants like desert willows, yellow orchid vine, bamboo muhly, slipper plant and grape ivy.
Moroccan Blues
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Moroccan Blues
Taking cues from what is probably the world’s most famous blue-walled garden, Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech, Morocco, this central Phoenix courtyard uses silvery leaves and blue walls to make a design statement.
Saddlebrook Cactus Club
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Saddlebrook Cactus Club
Wildlife attracting plants such as desert willow and palo verde trees to help create an equilibrium with the existing cactus-heavy plantings.
Faraway Skies
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Faraway Skies
To break up the long rectangle of the backyard, we used a French curve-shaped steel border to separate a gravel patio from planted areas.
Flagstones + Feather Trees
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Flagstones + Feather Trees
I put a small stock tank fountain in the center of the garden, which effectively divided the garden into quadrants. In those quadrants I planted gorilla’s armpit, Texas tuberose, partridge breast aloe, and Angelita daisies.
Desert/Oasis
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Desert/Oasis
Around the koi ponds I planted bull grass, Chihuahuan orchid shrub, and a variety of penstemon and agave species. Although the garden has a pool and koi ponds, the plants that surround those oasis areas require very little water.
Bounty of Boulders
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Bounty of Boulders
This site was blessed with a surfeit of large rocks, some as big as VW vans.
Banking on Seed
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Banking on Seed
They created a mighty seed bank in their soil. The resulting garden is thick with penstemon, fairy duster, desert marigold, and brittlebush.