14 Desert Landscape Ideas for Amazing Backyard

If you live in a dry area with a desert climate, you may have a little trouble finding landscaping ideas for your garden. Consider desert landscape ideas with living materials and plants that can withstand dry temperatures to refresh your desert garden.

What To Consider In Determining A Desert Landscape Ideas

It’s actually easy to come up with dynamic desert landscape ideas if you pay attention to the following three aspects: scale, color, and shape.

Scale

Landscape elements such as rocks, trees, shrubs, and flowering plants in your yard should complement each other at scale. It will serve as a starting guide for you. Short plants like grass or desert flowers will create density and emphasis. While large stones or tall trees are used as walls to create the illusion of height.

Color

Desert regions are often rocky or sandy brown or gray, so incorporating a color element is essential to any desert landscaping idea. You can infuse color assets through warm red and yellow lowering succulents like aloe or iced plants.

Shape

It may sound a little funny to think about the shape of the plants in your desert landscape plan. But you still have to pay attention to this so that all the elements of your desert landscape can blend harmoniously.

Desert Landscape with Rock Garden

Rock Garden
Image Credit: planetdesert.com

If you’ve never created a desert garden before, then that will seem like a big problem. And here’s the desert landscape ideas that you should try as a start, creating a rock garden.

For starters, start by making a rock garden in a small pot. Choose your favorite pot and fill it with succulents or small cacti. Then add some rocks between your plants and surround it with pebbles.

The combination of stones and pebbles will create an authentic rock garden look. Meanwhile, those who will be the stars of the show are the succulent plants or cacti earlier. Make sure you provide good planting media and drainage in your pot.

Desert Landscape with Cacti Contrast

cactus contrast landscape
Image Credit sunset.com

Although the plants for desert landscape ideas may be confined between succulents and cacti, that doesn’t mean it will be boring. Try loading the garden by contrasting a green cactus with a reddish-orange wood wall behind it.

The striking color difference between the wall and the cactus plants in front will make the cactus color stand out more. In addition, the selection of a wooden wall as a background provides an attractive rustic theme.

Desert Landscape with Colorful Succulents

Desert landscape with colorful succulent
Image Credit: designtrends.com

Desert gardens often find them pretty dull, but that’s not always the case. In fact, you can find colorful succulents with a variety of different shades in nurseries.

The succulents seen in this desert landscape image are colorful and very exotic. It features several types of plants in striking colors, which makes the desert garden’s reputation no longer dull.

Desert Landscape with Succulent Wall

Desert landscape with succulent wall garden
Image Credit: designtrends.com

This is a smart alternative to creating a desert landscape in a contemporary style. This very very interesting landscaping idea where succulents are planted on the wall as vertical landscaping.

Even if the succulent is planted vertically on the wall, it will not be difficult for you to maintain. You just take care of it just like any other garden.

Desert Landscape with Petite Palm

Desert landscape with Petite Palm
Image Credit: trees.com

Small areas are often overlooked because it is difficult to find landscaping ideas for small spaces. However, it turns out that this assumption is wrong. You can create a desert landscape by making use of the small space in your home. Without even showing ground level.

You can place a dwarf palm tree with green leaves and white or gray pebbles, as shown in this image. This is the perfect yet simple way to create a modern landscape look in an area that is usually neglected.

The contrasting green of the two plants and the white pebbles that hide the desert soil give it a classic, neutral look. In the end, you can turn a small, neglected room into a delightful desert view in your room.

Purple Garden

Image Credit: trees.com

If above we discussed colorful garden ideas, then now this desert landscape idea is a purple garden. With the dominant purple color, it strikes a stunning contrast with the bright greenish foliage.

For a purple look, you can place purple pebbles and spread them all over the ground. So what if purple isn’t your color?

Of course, you are free to choose landscaping ideas according to your taste. You can choose the color of the gravel according to your taste to cover the entire surface of the soil.

However, we recommend that you stick to bright or neutral colors. Because bright colors will give you a cheerful impression, while neutral colors will give you an elegant and classy look.

Highs and Lows

High and low desert landscape idea
Image Credit: shutterstock.com

Desert soils often have unequal height, often also have a ground level with a slope. You can take advantage of the slope to design a charming desert landscape.

Starting by combining plants with high and low sizes and colors that contrast with each other. You must align tall plants and low plants to this slope of the soil.

Desert Landscape with Reflection Retreat

Desert Landscape with Reflection Retreat
Image Credit: trees.com

Desert gardens are not always dry, dusty, dull places. The proof, the desert garden landscape in this image is far from dry and dusty with the focal point in the form of a reflection pool.

The combination of a quiet pond with cactus plants is quite interesting, this will be a place for you to spend more time relaxing. This garden is also a great place to do yoga or outdoor meditation.

Desert Courtyard Garden

Desert courtyard garden
Image Credit: starkinsider.com

This courtyard garden is an example of a desert landscape design that is perfect for creating a modern and relaxing area in a small space that is almost maintenance-free. Therefore, to fill your courtyard garden, you must choose plants that grow slowly and are maintenance-free too, of course.

All of these factors encourage us to use succulent plants. Since this plant does not need a lot of water, it is suitable for desert climates. You can replicate the example above, combining a large cactus, Agave plant, desert rose, and a black olive tree.

Large Succulent Landscape Garden

Large Succulent Landscape Garden
Image Credit: designtrends.com

Succulent plants certainly make you never run out of ideas for creating desert landscaping. Besides being easy to care for, this plant is suitable to be placed indoors and outdoors. Even as you can see above, large quantities of succulents can turn into a large, beautiful garden.

Succulent plants have many variants of shape, color, and size. Some of them also have flowers that you can combine in several landscape styles.

Desert Landscape with Patterned Pebbles

Desert Landscape with Patterned Pebbles
Image Credit: trees.com

One low-budget desert landscaping idea is to make patterned pebble. You can prepare two pebbles with two contrasting colors: white and dark gray, as in the example image above. Your goal is to draw a chessboard pattern with the pebbles.

Before placing the pebble on the ground, you have to make a pattern first. You can mark the pattern by attaching garden twine and pegs, or mark it with a sharp garden tool.

After the pattern is finished, fill it with colored gravel according to the example image above. So what if you don’t like the pattern? Of course, you are free to choose your own pattern of patterned pebble floors.

Desert Landscape with Raised Cactus Bed

Desert Landscape with Raised Cactus Bed
Image Credit: trees.com

The desert climate is perfect for growing cacti, but you may be worried about their spines. It will be very dangerous if touched by children or your pet, it will definitely hurt.

The image above shows the solution to the problem, the raised bed feels ideal. Apart from providing a practical solution, a raised bed filled with numerous cacti can also be a great feature in any desert garden.

Cactus plants are really able to survive in desert climates, and will even thrive. They don’t need maintenance, it’s just that you need to water them every once in a while.

Green Succulent Garden Idea

Green Succulent Garden idea
Image Credit: billbocken.com

One more alternative desert landscape idea by using succulent plants, like the picture above, creating a green succulent garden. As it sounds, you only need to collect a large number of green succulents. Then you can plant them regularly in your yard. This idea looks very simple, but you can feel the cool green leaves on your desert soil with this garden idea.

Light Up Your Landscape

Light up the landscape
Image Credit: trees.com

Adding lighting to your desert landscape can instantly change the look and feel of a room, especially at night. Lighting will create romance and warmth, it will decorate your desert garden all year round.

Solar lights are a great choice for outdoor lighting in desert regions. The main reason for choosing solar lights is that you don’t need to have access to electric power, and you certainly won’t be billed.

Hot weather provides its own advantages for these solar lights because it will quickly charge the battery. You can simply place it in several corners of the floor or hang it with a light string tied to a tree trunk or branch.

 

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