Talk to homeowners about your landscape needs

People are always asking nurseries what grows out here and what is the best method of irrigation to use in this valley. The problem is, the answer is verbally explained to you. If you are a visual person, that doesn’t work. What’s good about the Pahrump Valley Garden Club Landscape Tour is one can see the aswers to the questions.

The 10th Annual Landscape Tour will run this Saturday from 8 a.m. until noon. Tickets can be purchased from Star Nursery, the library or at the Cooperative Extension office for $5. This is an annual fundraiser, according to president Sandy Nelson, which helps out the garden club and also goes to a local charity, which is voted on by the club.

“Last year we gave to the disabled veterans and a local scholarship fund,” Nelson said.

This year’s tour consists of five houses, which are picked by the club.

“The houses don’t necessarily have to be club members,” she said. “We found two of them by just knocking on doors. We give a free membership to all participants in the tour to our club.”

One of the best things about the landscape tour is people can ask questions of the homeowners on how things were done. This year the president of the club said the five choices were good ones.

“I like this tour because of the variety we have,” Nelson said. “This tour allows the community to come out and get great ideas for their gardens. This year we have landscapes that focus on garden art, desert landscaping, vegetable gardening and greenhouse gardens.”

Nelson said that she liked the landscape that had the garden art.

“The landscape is whimsical and has a lot of bright colors,” she said. “It also incorporates rock in the form of a replica of a gold mine. The mine uses a lot of antiques.”

If you are interested in desert landscaping but are tired of the same old Texas Rangers and the use of Red Yucca, Nelson said this year people will be pleased to find a landscaper that has found other plants besides desert plants that grow well out here.

“This one house has a lot of different trees that grow well out in the desert, like a magnolia tree,” Nelson said.

Also the president found a home that uses a different way of drip irrigation.

“This gardener uses drip in his vegetable garden, but has incorporated the irrigation into the structure,” she said. “And he uses different emitters.”

The bottom line is that there are five good examples of how to garden in the valley and if you are having problems or wanting ideas for your own home, taking the tour is worth your while and it only takes about 3 hours to do the whole thing.