Photos by Richard Maack Cheryl and Dick Christenson enjoy a moment in their high-country garden.

“My name is Cheryl and I’m a plant-aholic,” Cheryl Christenson cheerfully admits. A sign near her front door carries the same statement, alerting plant-loving visitors that a visual treat is in store.

Christenson was hit with gardener’s “culture shock” when she and husband Dick moved from Mankato, Minnesota, to Sedona, Arizona, in 1999. An experienced gardener, she had been accustomed to “top soil as deep as I wanted to dig,” she remembers. “Here, our first home was built on solid rock, so I started out by planting in containers.”

Gardening is full of challenges wherever one lives, which is a large part of its appeal, she notes. “In Minnesota, we had great soil, but the gardening season was short.” In Sedona’s red rock country, Christenson enjoys year-round gardening weather but was stymied initially by soil conditions.

She gained more knowledge through trial and error and in 2000 took the Master Gardener course offered by University of Arizona Yavapai County Cooperative Extension in Cottonwood, Arizona. “That’s when I learned about the alkalinity of high-desert soils and how native plants are well-adapted to thrive in spite of it,” she recalls. “When I started planting more natives and well-adapted species, it made all the difference in my success rate.”

Five years ago, the couple bought an acre-plus lot in the Village of Oak Creek, a few miles from Sedona, on which to build their current home. Designing the landscape herself, Christenson followed basic xeriscape guidelines for plant placement, grouping flora according to its water requirements into three zones—oasis, transition and arid.

In the front yard of Cheryl and Dick Christenson’s Sedona-area home is vegetation that makes up the transition zone. Located between plants requiring more water and those that need less, this space boasts pink-flowering desert willow tree, lavender-blooming chaste tree, purple plum and Mexican hat plant.

ZONE PLANTING
As its name suggests, an oasis zone provides comfortable outdoor retreats close to the home. Plants that require shade or supplemental water are best-suited for this area.

Located farthest from the house is the arid zone, which consists of native vegetation that blends unobtrusively with the natural terrain. Once established, arid zone plants are capable of surviving only on rainfall.

Situated in-between the oasis and arid zones is the transition zone. Plants here may survive on rainfall or need only occasional supplemental water, depending on the weather.

During construction of their home, the couple removed only one tree and was able to leave remaining junipers and mesquites in place for arid and transition zones. Christenson added trees that would produce shade quickly but would not outgrow their space and require regular pruning or removal. She transplanted Arizona ash, Black Mission fig, chaste tree, desert willow, honey locust, pomegranate, purple plum, redbud, sycamore and Raywood ash. “The Raywood is actually slow-growing, but it displays beautiful fall color,” she says.

Garden beds border the patios in the oasis zone. Before planting the beds, Christenson amended the soil with organic matter, which should be replenished every year to improve water retention and add nutrients, she recommends. “Lucky for me, my friend Jo Parrish owns horses, and she makes wonderful compost from the manure. She does all the work, then shares the result with her gardening friends.”

Christenson fills the beds with plants selected for color, texture and form as well as staggered bloom times. Included are Asiatic lily, bearded iris, bee balm, catmint, chrysanthemum, clematis, coral bells, crape myrtle, crocosmia, cup flower, daffodil, Dutch iris, ‘Firewitch’ dianthus, geum, gladiolus, hummingbird mint, Jerusalem sage, lamb’s ear, ‘Munstead’ lavender, purple coneflower, roses, ruellia and society garlic.