Name of Project: Mojave Water Harvest Garden.
Project Location: Las Vegas, Nevada.
Date of Completion: 1992-present, not intended to be finished.
Owner/Client: Withheld to allow blind review.

Narrative Summary:

The project represents an experimental prototype for conversion of typical residential gardens in Las Vegas. The original 1970’s ranch style house, located on a quarter acre lot in a typical suburban neighborhood, contained sloping lawns where irrigation water drained into a large swimming pool and into the street. West facing bedrooms acted as solar collectors that warmed excessively during summer days. The designer/builder/owner sought to use readily accessible materials that could be constructed by non-professionals on a small budget of less than $10,000. Goals Included:

• Respond to the harsh, yet hauntingly beautiful characteristics of the Mojave Desert.
• Introduce concepts of permanence, stability, and embracing the desert as an alternative to the current culture of impermanence; reliance on chemicals, high water use, and excessive air conditioning; and imitation of other places and ecosystems.
• Allow natural processes of growth, decay, and changes to take place within the garden.
• Respect and use natural resources judiciously, especially the critical shortage of water (65% of Las Vegas water consumption is devoted to landscape irrigation).
• Retain and use scarce rainwater falling on property.
• Reduce nuisance runoff into street and swimming pool.
• Introduce native Mojave materials - plants, earth, stone – when possible to reduce water consumption, provide wildlife habitat, and merge the garden with the desert environment.
• Augment native materials with adapted materials from related ecosystems when necessary.
• Reduce solar gain into 1970’s ranch style house.
• Mitigate the extremes of climate by providing multiple places with specific microclimates that foster gracious outdoor living.
• Use permeable, low reflection paving materials for patios and walkways.
• Introduce an aesthetic that reduces maintenance and accommodates the messiness of ordinary daily life.
• Retain leaf litter and seed pods to acknowledge seasonal change and compost organic matter to enrich native soils.
• Use color to connect interior and exterior spaces. Use most intense colors in the kitchen/family room and reduce intensity of colors as one moves away from that core.
• Retain some existing mature plants as an anchor for the garden.

Starting in 1992, the owners regarded the site to allow slopes away from the sidewalk to harvest front yard runoff. A granite boulder wall retains an upper level patio and planting beds, and echoes the Wilson Cliffs escarpment on the west side of the Las Vegas Valley. Decomposed granite paving allows percolation to the shallow aquifer (the garden is located near the original springs that identified “las vegas” and the water table ranges from 20 – 50’ in this area). Plants are allowed to reseed in the paving and planting areas. An existing, mature pine tree was kept because of the shade it provides to the house and parking area.

The backyard was graded toward a small, central turf panel used for sunbathing, dog lounging, and group horseplay. Large concrete patios were replaced with flagstone paths, patios, and planting areas adjacent to the western façade. Patio tables were located so that residents could choose the coolest site in summer and warmest in winter. Stucco bench walls sculpt outdoor rooms and retain earth. Chilopsis linearis and inexpensive rattan mats provide afternoon and evening shade. Acacia smallii, planted along the west property line, shade the north patio where a fire pit is used for occasional bonfires. The aging, rooftop air conditioner was replaced with a dual system evaporative cooler/air conditioner that reduces energy needs by approximately 30% and introduces much appreciated humidity during hot months.

Turf was also removed from side yards and replaced with flagstone or decomposed granite. Two existing pomegranate trees produce enough grenadine and jelly for the entire year while existing grape vines provide table grapes each spring. Existing ivy and pyracantha were retained to provide green blankets over privacy walls.