An overgrown lot in Carefree becomes a vibrant botanical haven for two passionate home gardeners.

The backyard view to Pinnacle Peak was the reason Tammy Moerer and Brad Chapman bought their Carefree house in 2009 when they moved to the Valley from Nebraska. That the almost 2 acres of gardens had been long neglected and were overgrown with brittlebush didn’t deter the couple. “When I lived in Nebraska, I enjoyed being outdoors and doing landscaping,” Brad says. And as a member of the board of Omaha’s renowned Lauritzen Gardens, he had more than a passing familiarity with things botanical.

For her part, Tammy grew up on a Nebraska farm, so she was no stranger to working with the land. The duo dug into what has become a continual work in progress, transforming their property into a botanical wonderland that celebrates all the flora of the desert.

It all looks so well-planned, this series of garden spaces featuring cacti and succulents of almost every variety, gathered in amiable clusters or marching along the gravel walkways that tie everything together. Yet, Brad confesses, they never sat down and created a master plan. “A lot of the planning involved sitting, maybe drinking a margarita, and just looking,” he says.

Mostly, the couple went to plant nurseries throughout the Valley, looking for specimens that caught their fancy. “I have a bad habit of wandering through Home Depot’s garden section and buying things that I think look neat, then losing the tag, so I have no idea what it is or how big it’ll get,” Brad says.

Their first move was to create a welcoming entrance to the property with a long driveway that ends in a circle of concrete and brick, cut and stained to resemble the sun’s rays. Paths of pavers and gravel wind from the driveway in a walkway that meanders around the house through a series of garden rooms, each with its own set of delights. “We have so many different spaces, we’ve given them names,” Tammy says.

The “veranda garden” sits off the back of the home, where a spacious terrace overlooks the swimming pool and the view of Pinnacle Peak to the south. The couple opened up the home by replacing a wall with a 24-foot-long slider system that enhances the indoor/outdoor connection. An entertaining area includes an outdoor bar with rustic wooden pergolas designed by Tammy. At the far end of the pool, a waterfall cascades down a wall of rocks, and in garden beds around the perimeter, Brad and Tammy installed plants, tall and short, spiky and mounded, in a variety of colors and textures, including Mexican fence post, blue agave and golden barrel cactus. Off to one side of the pool is a shady area with a tiny lawn of artificial turf where the couple exchanged wedding vows in 2011. Among their favorite plants is a euphorbia, a succulent they planted early on that has grown so tall it has joined the canopy of trees that shade this part of the garden. “It’s so happy here,” Tammy says. Every now and then they’ll cut a piece off it and plant it elsewhere. “Now we have a whole family of euphorbia,” she says.

The “Spanish garden” sits off the main kitchen on the west side of the house. The couple forged a connection to the outdoors here, too, expanding the kitchen and adding a large slider that leads to a new patio whose tile is a continuation of the kitchen floor. Here, the couple might enjoy morning coffee or a pre-dinner cocktail while gazing at the fire pit backed with Paradise Blue stone. The stone, from fist-sized to boulders, is scattered throughout the property, bringing year-round color, even in months when not much is blooming.

This part of the yard slopes steeply, so a system of retaining walls was built, resulting in a more walkable space with a series of terraces and beds that Brad and Tammy have planted with more varieties of plants.

Brad, who grew up in Montana, says, “I wanted to plant things I couldn’t grow in Montana—including lots of limes for margaritas.” In addition to the lime trees, the “orchard garden” holds lemons, oranges, grapefruit, guava, artichoke, pomegranate, dragon fruit and, new to the experiment, an avocado tree. “The dragon fruit has yet to give us anything,” Brad says. “I’ll have to talk to it.”

The couple tries to stick to plants that are indigenous to the Southwest, but now and then, nature plays a trick. “We weren’t going to have a palm tree because they’re not native,” Tammy says. “But then this little thing popped up out of the ground and we said, ‘Well, let’s see what it is.’ It turned out to be a palm tree.” Native or not, the palm seems right at home among the mesquite and paloverde trees that are more typical of this part of the world.

Adding to the visual and textural interest of the hundreds of varieties of plants in the ground are the specimens that grow in the colorful pots that punctuate the landscape. “I put things in pots and schlep them around,” Tammy explains. “Then, when they get big enough, they get transplanted somewhere in the gardens.”

Supplementing it all are the treasures Tammy finds at shops in the Valley. Rusted metal sculptures, an old wooden wagon, a vintage cowboy boot and any number of stars and angels are tucked in among the plantings.

The yard that gives them such pleasure is an ongoing work in progress. “It’s living art,” Brad says. “It constantly evolves as we live in it and experience it.”

“It’s so fun to stand back and watch how it’s changed over time,” Tammy adds. “Nature in the desert is phenomenal.”

“The landscape is living art. It constantly evolves as we live in it and experience it.”

—Brad chapman, owner