All good things start with a solid plan. Developing a landscape plan saves you not only time and money, but it is more likely to result in a beautiful yard. A few generous local landscape architects donated their time and put together some landscape design templates of a typical front yard for our 505Outside subscribers.

Above is a look at an example landscape template for a south facing front yard. This design brings all those local native plants you see in the foothills into your landscape. It’s full of a mix of oaks, sages and grasses. Take a look and get inspired to recreate this in your own yard.

Trees: Deciduous

Gambel oak

Netleaf hackberry

Shrub live oak

Desert willow

Trees: Evergreen

One-seed juniper (female only)

Shrubs

Mountain mahogany

Cliffrose

Utah serviceberry

Chamisa

Sand sage

Cliff fendlerbush

Flowering Plants

Blackfoot daisy

Globemallow

Desert marigold

Desert Accents

Beargrass

Banana yucca

Claret cup cactus

Groundcovers

Prairie zinnia

Desert four o’clock

Grasses

Little bluestem

Blue grama

Vine

Western virgin’s bower

Learn more here:

Desert friendly landscape reveal

Climate ready landscapes

Waterwise Design Templates

Author: Jill Brown, ASLA, is a landscape architect and owner of My Landscape Coach in Albuquerque. Have a question about the article? AskAnExpert@abcwua.org