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.

Hi Laura! Yeah, me too! We were planning on coming back out to Va Beach proper at some point this trip, probably today, but once it started snowing yesterday when we were out on the James River we pretty much figured that we would not be making it. We have a 4WD jeep that goes just fine, even in 2 feet of snow, but a longer trip like that became out of the question today with a foot already on the ground and still coming down extremely heavy. This is almost as bad as our 2nd worst storm last winter (we had 3 huge ones) in terms of depth, and conditions/ visibility/ winds. We were expecting some snow here, but not a BLIZZARD!!!! This kind of snow in Southeast VA is almost unheard of. Of course we are leaving to go back to DC / NoVA tomorrow, where they are getting just light snow/ flurries. Last night they were calling for 6-8" up there but it looks like they may only get an inch, if that. Ill try and get over to the palm tree "farm" about 1/2 mile away to take some pics of the hundreds of windmills in the snow. Be safe, enjoy the scenery, and I hope your palms make it just fine. I have faith they will. =o)

This is a new reply to an old post, but there are native live oaks in the area roughly between Ft. Worth, Abilene, and Wichita Falls, Texas that should work beautifully in your area. For some reason, nobody has developed commercial cultivars from this area. Live oaks, especially along the northern margin of their range, can vary in their characteristics. The ideal would be one with dense foliage that stays dark green all winter on a non-stoloniferous tree that branches With strong crotch angles. For commercial growers, it would probably require two trips to western North Texas—one in February/March to identify trees with the right characteristics, and once again in September/October to collect acorns. Maybe ten years of field trials would be in order after that. Of course this would be more of a long-range project than collecting an annual or perennial, but it could fundamentally change the landscape in Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Eastern Seaboard up to Philadelphia or maybe New York.

Would love to see more info on plants in Brazil- couldn't find a forum for this area-any info greatly appreciated. thanks