Scott Calhoun’s new book, The Hot Garden, is a book for those
who live in the hot zone of this continent and need a little
encouragement to garden. Calhoun says most gardening books leave out
this parched area of the country. The Civano resident is a writer,
photographer and landscape designer who grew up in Phoenix during a
time when planting native species in one’s yard was looked at as almost
crazy. For more information, check out Calhoun’s blog at web.me.com/zonagardens/Site/Blog/Blog.html,
and his Web site at www.zonagardens.com.
Do we really garden in Tucson?
Most people don’t think of this as a gardening city, but if you can
get out of your head this need for grass and hydrangeas … then, yes,
you can garden in Tucson. I travel a lot and speak to different garden
clubs clear across the country. I don’t really find any place that has
the same diversity of plants that are as endlessly interesting as the
drought-tolerant succulents we have here. One problem is that most
horticulture literature and writing is about some place else and
doesn’t apply here.
And you’re hoping to change that?
Right. There is a great community here of horticulturists and
writers interested in how plants can change people’s lives. I’m working
on (another) book right now (and traveling in Mexico) with Greg Starr,
who has a nursery here in town and is a noted agave expert. People have
been hunting for new species of that plant for the last 100 years. Our
proximity to Mexico is really cool. In this region, we have a rich
culture of plant interests, plant trade and garden design. But it isn’t
something we recognize. Designer friends I have in Phoenix make special
pilgrimages to Tucson, to Tohono Chul Park and Desert Survivors
Nursery, because between here and Mexico, we have a whole rainbow of
specialty cactus. The goal is for people to get over things that have
spikes and spines.
Have you always been a spine freak?
I grew up in the Phoenix area, and my family has been here a long
time, too. I’ve lived in Salt Lake City and Portland (Ore.). (The
desert) is one of those things you have to move away from and come back
to appreciate. When I got back, I started to appreciate native plants
and … I wanted to build a garden. In Tucson, there’s a real
ecological vein in landscape design. There’s a philosophy that plants
and (the) wild become an integral part of landscapes here. That doesn’t
happen anyplace else. When I was a kid, and we’d go hiking with my dad
up Superstition Mountain, my dad pointed out all of these plants. Then
we’d make our drive back to Phoenix, and I remember seeing none of those plants, and wondering: Why? That’s changing now, even in
Phoenix.
Don’t these changes have to do with the fact that we now see
water as a finite resource in the desert?
There are water issues, and those are not going away. I was just in
San Diego. They are building these desalinization plants, and having to
re-plumb Lake Mead. Las Vegas is paying people by the square foot to
take out grass lawns. It’s actually exciting. It creates enormous
opportunities for gardening and talk about some plants no one is paying
attention to.
Your new book is a good fit for that discussion. Why did you
write it?
It covers parts of the Southwest where the predominant mulch is
typically gravel—Phoenix, Tucson, Yuma, Palm Springs, Albuquerque
and El Paso. This is a great neglected region, yet with all these
unusual plants. It’s a place where we have really hot summers and,
strangely enough, cold winters. We’re not largely in a frost-free zone.
In this book, I’m trying to address that and point out what the
particular aspects of design and gardening are in this region. … I
also look at pathways, how we use recycled objects. … There’s a great
freedom to landscaping here. I was in New England a few years ago and
met a designer who was so tired of designing gardens there. He said
everybody just wants the same thing, only nicer than their neighbors.
I’m designing a garden for a client right now. We took out all this
flagstone (in his yard) and, in trying to figure out what to do with
the stone, we made these old rusted rebar cages and stacked the
flagstone to create a sculpture element. It is a great example of the
freedom we have here … things we can do here that in Cleveland won’t
fly.
This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2009.