Rosie on the House: Arizona patios demand latest, greatest amenities

Rosie Romero

Outdoor living is popular everywhere, but Arizona homeowners definitely know how to do it best. We’re experts at turning the backyard into a second “living room/kitchen/family room” that we can use almost all year long. 

Here are a batch of new ideas for making your outdoor living room more inviting: 

-- Foodscaping. Arizona homeowners love growing their own food. Why not make economical use of all that eternal sunshine?  Carefully tended artichokes and purple cabbages can even make great landscaping plants.  But if watering, fertilizing, covering and uncovering, and killing pests seems overwhelming, try a portable foodscape of containers filled with cherry tomatoes and herbs mixed in with dwarf lemons and oranges in pots. It’s a lot easier to grow things on a patio than in the rock-hard soil that may be out back. 

-- The bed-head xeriscape. You don’t really want to put in a couple of tons of crushed granite surrounding a cactus or two, now do you? That’s a tidy solution; you might never even have to spray with pre-emergent. But it’s also a yard that would make you really thirsty just looking at it. Lots of people are going for the bed-head look – lots of untidy plants that are overgrown, rumpled and easy on the water: agaves, ornamental grasses, sages, yuccas, palo verdes and a few yellow bells and fairy dusters. 

-- Attracting the birds and the butterflies. Scented flowers and foliage can attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Consider red yucca, penstemon, butterfly bushes, Baja fairy dusters, lantana and autumn sage. 

-- Fire pits. They’re still building outdoor fireplaces, of course, but the latest must-have is a fire pit. They even sell portable ones that look like mini-coffee tables with places to set food and drink. If you’re thinking about firing up, remember about fire pits and fireplaces that you can’t burn real wood in many places in Arizona very often -- if at all. So be sure to hook up these devices to a source of propane or natural gas.

-- Misters, foggers and more. Misters have been around forever, but the newest misters for cooling off your outdoor living room are more versatile and efficient. For a long time, misters hung in tubes along the ceiling edges of covered patios. “But today you can bring the misters in from out on the periphery of the action to where the people are,” says Pete Rambo of MistAmerica in Phoenix. “You can have misters in ceiling fans that broadcast the mist in a 360-degree radius.” 

You can also mount the newest misters onto your existing shade umbrellas. Or you can have free-standing fans that blow mist over your seating areas. Another cooling idea for July and August: Pumps can put out billowing clouds of fog to roll across your swimming pool and your patio. To create the perfect outdoor climate all year long, you might also want a free-standing heat lamp or two around for cooler evenings.

-- Built-in seating. Today’s homeowners want some permanent seating built in when a yard is landscaped. Benches shaped from blocks of stone or pavers can form a semi-circle in front of a fire pit or fireplace perhaps. Or they can serve as seating for a built-in table. 

As for free-standing patio furniture, Stephen Ramey of Today’s Patio in Phoenix says that the biggest seller among today’s homeowners is wicker furniture made of PVC with a UV inhibitor. It’s tough and durable in the Arizona sunshine and lasts 10 times as long as wicker made from natural materials. “Metal can be durable,” he says, “but it gets too hot in the sun. You can still have the old-fashioned look in wicker, but now it’s being used in contemporary styles as well.” 

-- Multiple cooking options. One barbecue grill isn’t enough for many Arizona homeowners, especially in July and August when they want to cook every dinner outside to avoid heating up the house. Besides a grill area, you want individual burners for the side dishes. Many outdoor chefs add a smoker or an egg-shaped kamado-style cooker to their backyards. You can also buy a gadget or two for your grill to turn it into a pizza oven. 

-- New ways to light up the night – Incandescent lighting is long-gone. You need to switch to the latest in low voltage LED fixtures in your backyard for more lighting power at less cost. To make everyone feel comfortable with being outside in the evening, you need several layers of lighting: overhead light fixtures on the ceiling of the covered patio, path lights to take you in and out of the house, lighting on your favorite ocotillo or saguaro, and maybe even strings of lights or a few tiki-style torches. And don’t forget lanterns on the dining table. 

-- Electronic garden-tainment. The number of all-weather outdoor TVs on the market are increasing. These are HDTVs that are designed to withstand extreme temps and outdoor weather. However, they are a bit pricier than regular HDTVs. So perhaps you prefer to set up just one indoor TV on the patio for special sports events. Take it back inside when it’s not in use or at the hottest or coldest times of the year. 

-- Artificial turf. As for more active entertainment, consider adding make-believe grass for a miniature practice putting green to amuse the golfers while the steak is on the grill. Artificial turf, used properly, can soften the landscape, and you don’t need to worry about watering or overseeding.