Under the Borrego Sky

Owning a home in a desert climate means embracing landscaping that may include a mix of cacti, palms, bushes, and other plants that thrive in arid conditions.

When my husband and I bought our home in the small desert town of Borrego Springs, California, we had no problem with that at all, assuming that desert landscaping is low effort.

Boy, Were We Mistaken

Maybe it will get easy once we tame our wildly overgrown property, which I jokingly refer to as “the jungle.” For now, though, we’re in this endless loop of trimming, hedging, chipping, pulling, and raking.

To be fair, even though there’s still plenty to do, we’ve made significant progress in our first year in the desert. Some of the work we’ve tackled includes:

• Lopping off the tops of too-tall oleander bushes
• Removing Palo Verde branches that had grown into data lines
• Cutting back a large Mesquite tree that our insurance company wanted addressed because it was hanging too close to our house
• Clearing dead palm fronds
• Pruning cacti
• Spraying weeds and pulling larger ones from the ground
• Trimming other trees, bushes, and flowering plants around the property

That amount of work produces a lot of yard debris and one of the first questions we had when we started was: How do we get rid of it all?

What We Learned About Clearing Yard Debris in Borrego Springs

We contacted our garbage provider and learned that regular yard debris pickup isn’t included in the local service. In Borrego Springs, residents either take debris to a landfill themselves or hire a private crew to haul it away.

We tried the DIY approach first (to save money), loading as much of it as we could into the back of our pickup truck. But with a short bed, we really couldn’t make much of a dent. Plus, it took a lot of time and effort to load it all up, drive it the landfill, empty it onto the pile, and then come home and clean out the pickup’s bed.

Eventually, we hired a locally-owned business to handle our debris once it piles up. The owner is incredibly friendly and responsive, and his crew works efficiently, always leaving the areas neat and tidy. It’s an added expense, but it saves us effort and allows us to support local folks in our community at the same time.

Of course, it would be much more convenient to have a yard debris bin that we could roll out each week with the regular garbage and recycling.

But ease isn’t why we chose Borrego Springs.

We chose this town because the desert has a way of getting under your skin. Long before we owned a home here, the area had already claimed a piece of our hearts during countless day trips and camping weekends in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Some aspects of life here, like yard work, take extra effort, planning, and money. But living in a place this special makes it all worthwhile. I’ve loved seeing our outdoor space transform and can’t wait to enjoy all the little improvements yet to come.

---

Photographs on this page are a labor of love by Under the Borrego Sky. To respect the work behind the lens, please do not use these images without a quick hello and permission first.