Resources for Local Gardeners

As an avid gardener, winter is a time of planning. With a cup of tea in hand, I am combing through seed catalogs looking for my old favorites or new varieties I want to try in my garden this year. I am also thinking about my planting beds and where there may be space for one more tree, shrub or flowering perennial. You can never have too many plants!

In planning my garden, I like to consult some of the local publications and websites we have available to us as northern Arizona gardeners. Last year, as part of the Arboretum at Flagstaff’s new website launch, we created a Flagstaff Gardening Resources page where we archived many of these resources for public access.

With so much information on the internet from other areas of the country, these locally produced materials are invaluable as they provide some of the best expertise for our region. Here are a few of my favorites from the Arboretum’s resource page.

The Garden in Flagstaff website offers a unique collection of Flagstaff area microclimate maps including temperature, precipitation, and wind. When I reviewed the maps a few years ago, I was pleased to find that I purchased a home (and garden!) in the warmer microclimate of my neighborhood. The website also presents details about Flagstaff geology and soils, diagrams illustrating plant communities and wildlife corridors around our community, worksheets that help you evaluate your site and recommendations for specific neighborhoods.

For a concise plant selection list, I find the Flagstaff Fabulous Plants brochure to be a great reference. The succinct list of the best trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, accents, perennials and groundcovers for local landscapes is based on plants who meet the following criteria: commercially available, ecologically appropriate, low water use, low maintenance, color/texture, survivability and cold hardiness. The pamphlet also provides a nice summary of the seven principles of low water use landscaping commonly referred to as xeriscaping.

For more specific plant lists for Flagstaff neighborhoods, the City of Flagstaff’s website Plant Lists by Neighborhood provides low-water native plants appropriate to Cheshire, downtown, southeast of Route 66, south Flagstaff, Sunnyside and west Flagstaff. The website also includes a handy map divided by microclimatic conditions and soil types so you can easily locate your neighborhood.

For more in-depth look at why our native plants are ideally suited to Flagstaff gardens, have a read through the publication Restoring Native Plants and Landscapes: A Guide for Residents of Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests produced by the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University.

If you are looking to attract birds and pollinators to your garden, the Database of Bird and Pollinator Friendly Plants,” recently compiled by local author Susan Lamb and the Northern Arizona Audubon Society, is a great resource. Organized by elevation gradient, the plant lists help you choose sustainable species that will thrive in gardens above or below 6,500 feet. Specific benefits of each species and general principles of creating a habitat garden are also included.

Ponderosa pine and aspens are Flagstaff’s two most iconic trees. However, there are numerous other native and adapted trees that can be grown in our high and dry gardens. To explore your options, take a look at the PDF booklet Beyond the Ponderosa: Successful Landscape Trees for Higher Elevations in the Southwest. Published back in 1998 by the Flagstaff Community Tree Board with technical editors from Northern Arizona University and University of Arizona, the guide provides detailed descriptions of tree species including several photos that allow you to see the characteristics of each tree and aid in their identification. A helpful section on tree care that discusses pruning, mulching, site selection and staking is also included. My printed copy of this wonderful publication is looking pretty worn as I have consulted it countless times over the last 20 years!