Upright Junipers a Substitute for Very Large Italian Cypress

 

Italian cypress will grow to 40 feet and taller. Great for big buildings but not for homes. Consider smaller evergreen trees (conifers) like some of the upright junipers. Choose heat tolerant types if you do like 'Spartan'.

Q. I bought a few ‘Spartan’ junipers for a hedge or screen instead of Italian cypress. They are now about 8 feet tall and starting to fill in. How much water do they need?

A. ‘Spartan’ is an “upright” juniper that grows to about 15 feet in height and 3 foot in width when mature. Always water them so the soil has at least one day without water to “dry out” before the next irrigation. Like Italian cypress, they benefit from periodic deep watering rather than daily irrigations. If watered daily, they will likely die from root rot.

Because of their smaller size they are a better choice for a single-story home than Italian and other cypress’ like Arizona and Leyland. Like Italian Cypress, other types of cypress and junipers may have problems with spider mites during the hot summer months so wash them off with a hose during those times. If your soil is heavy or doesn’t drain easily, consider planting on top of a rise in the landscape, amend the soil for drainage, and use drip irrigation.

The problem with upright junipers is that they are untested for extremely hot, dry, and isolated locations found in some desert landscapes. A better plant choice for those areas is our native Utah juniper except that it can get large like Italian Cypress but has the same “root rot” issues. But its size can be controlled with irrigations.

Utah juniper is a Nevada native tree that does not use much water whose growth can be controlled with irrigation. They can get to 40 feet, like Italian cypress if watered with abandon.

Other upright Chinese junipers to consider besides ‘Spartan’ include ‘Blue Point’, ‘Hetz’, and the Rocky Mountain upright juniper ‘Skyrocket’ which grow to about 15 to 20 feet tall and 3 feet wide. Because of their “unknowns” to heat tolerance, I am usually hesitant to recommend them.

Water Bill too High? Keep Good Trees and Get Rid of the Rest

 

Any plants that get bigger will shade and kill each other as they get larger. You want to reduce watering? Keep the trees that provide good and remove the rest. Dont forget this requires less water. Manage it.

Q. I have 13 each, 40 or 50-foot-tall pine trees in my yard with grass growing beneath them. The grass doesn’t look good there, but it’s how these trees get their water. I also have scattered shrubs in the yard as well. Last summer my water bill hit $400! Is there any way to convert to desert landscaping and keep the trees?

A. You want to convert to “desert landscaping” to lower your water bill? The cost of water will always increase. About 70-80% of your water bill comes from watering your landscape. The most efficient landscape uses about 10 to 15 gallons for each square foot of landscaped area. That’s what to aim for with an irrigated landscape unless you want it to look like the desert. Yours is considerably more than that.

Tough decisions must be made

Determine which plants provide the most cooling and pleasure to you and remove the others. Every plant requires water. Consider replacing plants with man-made structures that don’t need water such as gazebos and artwork. There is nothing wrong with open spaces provided they aren’t close to the house or where you sit outside.

Force Plant Roots Deep When Its Cool

The roots of pine trees are shallow and extensive in these grassy areas. Plant roots grow wherever water is available including your neighbor’s property. Look over the wall and see. When water is applied to a lawn, the roots of trees are shallow when they should be deep. Tall pine trees need roots that are 3 feet deep to resist blowing over in strong winds. Once you start removing pine trees, the “remainers” will receive more wind and have less support.

Drip tubing has drip emitters embedded into its walls. Drip emitters will come in different sizes but not the drip emitters embedded into the walls of drip tubing. They are all the same, perfect when plants need all the same amount of water.

Consider Drip Tubing

Consider drip tubing rather than drip emitters where plants greater than 3 feet tall are growing in clusters. When grass is watered with pop-up sprinklers, usually 12 to 15 minutes is all that’s needed. Not true when you convert to water applied more deeply from drip irrigation. In a conversion to drip irrigation the time increases from 12 to 15 minutes to one or two hours. To “fine tune” the time needed, use a piece of steel rebar and apply enough water to wet the soil 3 feet deep around the pine trees.

Do It in the Fall

The best time of year to do this is when weather cools off in the fall; starting around the end of September in Las Vegas. Making this conversion in the fall gives you the fall, winter and spring months to force large tree roots to grow deeper in the former grassy areas.

How to Reduce Landscape Irrigation

 

Make every plant count! Each plant uses water. In the desert, water is precious. Chinese pistache at the Springs Preserve.

 

Make Each Plant Individual and Important!

Minimize the number of big plants in a landscape. Water is a scarce resource in the desert. Its price will always increase. Lowering landscape temperatures and irrigation go hand in hand. If water is used wisely, temperatures will decrease where water is applied. Plants always require water when growing in the desert. Wherever plants are planted in the landscape, water is needed. As they get bigger, they require more water applied further from the plant. Large mature sized plants require more and more water as they grow bigger and bigger.

Every plant needs water. As plants get bigger, they need more water. Can you accomplish the same purpose by using fewer plants?

Do Three Things

Do three things to your landscape to become efficient in its water use; preserve only the plants that provide you and your home the most cooling and pleasure, improve the irrigation system, and learn how to water. The last one, “learn how to water”, should be first. Learning how to water landscape plants enlightens the others.

Shade from a small deciduous tree falling on the south windows and walls of the home can reduce energy costs for air conditioning by 20 to 25%.

Shade South and West Sides

Shade the south and west sides, walls and windows of your home and outside sitting areas. This type of irrigation creates “oasis landscapes”, perfect for the desert. Plan to apply the most water to “oasis” areas. Trees and shrubs provide the most cooling for homes and sitting areas. There is nothing wrong with open areas, but they will be hotter. Make these open areas interesting to look at.

Sometimes being creative in your design can save water. Here a trellised plant provides shade on the opening of a door.

Make Shade from Nonplants

Shade doesn’t have to come from plants. Shade also comes from man-made structures. Concrete and steel structures are the best choices for desert climates and don’t use water. There is nothing wrong with artwork in landscapes. Consider man-made structures in combination with vines or smaller plants instead of trees. Small plants use less water than big plants. Where are large plants found in the desert?

An arbor covered with a vine uses less water than a tree.

Drip Irrigation May Not Be for YOU

Drip irrigation is among the most efficient ways of irrigating plants. But if you don’t know how to use it, it’s no better than flooding the landscape with water. Plants growing above 3 feet tall should be watered less frequently. Roots of tall plants will find water applied to the smaller plants and adjust their root growth to where water is applied in these areas.

Basin irrigation can be just as efficient as drip irrigation. Keep the floor of the basins flat and the sides in repair.

Take Charge of Watering!

A well-designed irrigation system and the knowledge how to use it puts you in charge of watering rather than the landscape telling you when it needs water.

Take charge of your irrigation and plant growth and you can have what you want and afford it.

Do Your Plants a Favor. Woodchip (Wood chip) Mulch Available!

 North Las Vegas, Nevada.

Wood Chip Mulch: Fully stocked! open at 8 AM for load-your-own! Please bring your own tools and containers! Drive around the west side of the property to the mulch piles in the back, Please wear a mask if others are around. Pick-up trucks can be tractor loaded from 8:30 -11:30 for a $5 fee. For more information call 702-257-5555.

This is what you see from Horse Drive.

This is where it is located in North Las Vegas.

This is what woodchip mulch will do for your fruit trees. Notice those with woodchip mulch applied vs. those NOT with woodchip mulch applied to the soil surface after planting.