I've never been to Ohio and I don't know what the average yard looks like there but I did live in Phoenix for fifteen years. I live in Oregon but I miss the desert. My kitchen, laundry room and dining room are very Southwestern. Didn't think of doing the yard..... I think your idea of using a dry stream bed, large rocks, ornamental grasses, Russian sage etc. will work in giving that Southwest feel. There are also pines in AZ so a pine tree would not be out of place. I personally, detest Italian cypress which are the columnar evergreens you see around town but agree that a tall columnar evergreen might give the feel of a Saguaro. Hollywood junipers are very common in Southern CA and would not be out of place. They are very twisted and gnarled. If you build up some mounds from the dirt dug out for the dry streambed that will help too. Most good desert landscapes have them. Decomposed granite is the rock most commonly used in the Southwest as a mulch. I don't think I would use it in Ohio, I think I'd use the wood chips someone suggested above. The rock would just be too out of place. I'm not familiar with Ohio weather so forgive me if plants I suggest aren't going to make it through winter. Lavender and Rosemary can combine with the Russian Sage. Caryopteris too. Flower Carpet roses would be a great substitute for Bougainvillea, especially the magenta ones. Homestead Verbena can double for Lantana and will cover a lot of ground so there isn't so much mulch. I think you should go for a lusher look than many do in the desert. Many just don't realize how much they can really plant or try to plant the wrong things. Lowe's and Home Depot are just as guilty there as having plants that won't grow in the desert as they are having desert plants in colder climates. You need something for accent. A wagon wheel. Drift wood. Pottery. Please not a cement donkey or sleeping hombre.

Thanks for the kind words Hoovb and walkin. I too love pomegranate and we have three varieties, you just can't beat pom. jelly. I love high country gardens and have been ordering plants from them every spring for fifteen years. If you are in the high desert most of their selection should be great but we are lower and hotter and not all of it is good for us here but it never hurts to try something new out. At both our houses we started out with bad trees dirt with burmuda naturalized in it. Getting rid of that beast has been our biggest challange but is doable. If you have a running grass lawn changing over a section at a time might be hard but if it is a fescue it can be done that way. Make sure you have some negative space in your plan. If you end up with a solid glob of plants it won't be attractive. Lawn does the job in wet climates but in dry areas hardscape and gravel can do the same thing. If you do have a hard to get rid of grass like burmuda persistance is key. I've dug it out, covered with black plastic to exclude light, and sprayed with roundup. The main thing is to keep after it. Here's another pic of two great desert plants almost as showy as roses and more heat and drought tolerant, cassia nemophylla and penstemon parryi(and my daughter). Maria

My climber is John Cabot. It is pink and blooms well in the spring. It has no winter dieback in Wisconsin. It never has problems with blackspot. I've heard that both Ramblin' Red and Quadra are good red hardy climbers but I don't have them. If you want to save Don Juan, use the Bayer Disease Control spray. You'll have to spray it once a week but it should stop the blackspot. I don't think Don Juan is cane hardy in Michigan though so I doubt it would be much of a climber for you. There is a difference between winter hardy which means the rose will survive the winter but may die back to the ground and cane hardy which means the canes of the roses will live through the winter. For a climber you need a cane hardy rose.

Bump....shouldn't this be in the Homes forums?