The front yard of this home in Tempe AZ has been gradually converted from a green lawn to the fruit-bearing orchard it is now. The casual beauty of the agriscaped front yard of the home in the picture provides a lot of joy and pride to its owners during the whole year. In December, the pine tree is decorated with holiday lights. In February, citrus trees are quite a sensory experience - fragrant and stunningly beautiful with the opulence of the lemon tree, with the aromas of the orange and tangelo trees. I was surprised when I counted the number of shrubs and trees – total of fifteen: two eucalyptuses (huge), one pine tree, one cedar, two varieties of apricots, two apple trees, one lemon, one tangelo, one orange, several purple bougainvillea shrubs.

The proud owners of this home enjoy fresh fruit from their own garden almost in any season – by the time the citruses are gone, the apricots and peaches will be coming into season, and after them are the apples (now in beautiful pink blossoms in the picture). Besides fruit, the owners enjoy a few greens for their salad. There’s mint, parsley, arugula, and a few rosemary plants. Those of us who prepare home meals know – nice to have these in a few dishes, but we can never use up the whole bunch that we bought from the store.

The front yard fits perfectly well with the neighbor’s desert landscaping and with the green lawn across the street. It adds its own signature, character and much desired shade in a street of well-maintained homes. It consumes a lot less water than a green grass lawn, requires little time to maintain it, and is practically self-sufficient, yet aesthetically competing very successfully in color, fragrance and shape with purely decorative, designer-landscaped yards.

Agriscaped yards add to the value of properties and create a welcoming atmosphere to the new buyers when they are viewing homes.