Desert Gardens Nursery

We hired Desert Gardens to do our front and back yards of our new home. We found them at a home show, we had really liked a water feature they had built for the show. Jenny came out and talked to us, measured and came up with an absolutely beautiful design. The work was done by Kyle and one or two others only. We had a ton of pavers installed and I specifically asked if they were going to use polymeric sand. Kyle assured us that no, we didn’t need it. Near the end of the install is when thing started to go awry. Jenny refused to return any calls or texts. Kyle took forever to get back to us. We made them redo the paver walkway on the side of the house because that was not what we had agreed on. We repeatedly asked for product info in case we needed to replace anything down the road. Never got it. Never got any instructions on how to care for the water feature. Had to make several calls to get info on plant care. The water feature was losing water daily and we couldn’t figure out why. We finally got a hold of Kyle who told us it was from evaporation. 5 gallons a day? I don’t think so. And then it rained, I mean really rained. Most of the sand in the pavers in the front just washed away. And the front walkway steps collapsed. That’s when we finally got someone to come out. He «repaired» the steps and then had a look at the water feature. It seems the liner has slipped and all that water was going into the surrounding landscape. He also took up a couple of the pavers and re-​leveled them but that was all he could do. A couple of months later, the bull nosed pavers on the front walkway came loose. No surprise really. More rain, more sand washing away. We paid them $ 40,000.00. It’s only been a year folks. We just had someone out the other day to redo the pavers properly. Even he said that Desert Gardens cheaped out on the install and that the raised patio in back was done wrong. Going to have to have that redone at some point too. We absolutely loved the design, but save your money people, their work and their follow through are sub par… never again. Oh and Jenny had strangers just traipsing through our back yard, «showing off her design» when she thought we weren’t at home and without our permission. A lack of respect, and a lack of integrity.

Finally made it out to this place, which based on their website is apparently a new location for them, having moved out of their old digs. This is actually closer to me, so I decide to swing by this afternoon while I was in the area.
First impressions, the parking lot area is a bit … industrial for lack of a better word. I guess they are adjacent to what looks like a construction lot/​quarry type thing, complete with piles of rock and earth moving equipment. As a result, the entry way and parking area is basically uneven dirt and large gravel. A bit rough, even for a nursery, and it wasn’t entirely clear where I was supposed to park either. No matter, I pulled in close to the entrance and was on my way.
Once past the gates, I was immediately greeted by a nice selection of specimen sized palm trees, and just past that, a treasure trove of agave, which is what I had hoped to find. They had some beautiful and large examples of A. tequilana ‘sunrise’ (variegated form), which I drooled over for several minutes. Past here, they had more manageable sizes (3 to 5 gallon) of some other species, including A. ‘sharkskin’, A. scabra (asperrima), A. salmiana and of course A. americana and A. americana marginata. I also saw some A. havardiana and A. parryi in a couple forms and even A. celsii ‘nova’. With a little digging, I was also able to find some A. salmiana marginata, which along with the A. scabra had been on my mental «must have» list for some time. I ended purchasing both of them, each having several pups already in the pot, and for what I considered very fair prices.
There’s also a lot of rustic, artistic décor available here, which adds some uniqueness to the nursery and the scenery in general. I think the operation is still in transit to some extent, and their website warns of this, but I had no issues getting what I needed and then some. The location is definitely convenient and the selection of Agave, in particular, is great. I love that they have a good amount of species not well represented (or represented at all) in more common chain nurseries around town, and that they label their products accurately.
I will definitely be back to dig around some more and see what else I can’t live without. Highly recommend anyone else looking for some less common Agave to give this place a try.