The Modern Garden Company is a resource for planning outdoor spaces in Arizona. The site exists to answer the questions that come up before a project starts: what holds up to desert heat, how much shade a space actually needs, which materials earn their cost, and when a job calls for a licensed contractor.
Most outdoor design advice online is written for milder climates, where summer heat is a seasonal inconvenience. In the Greater Phoenix area it’s the first thing you design around. Surface temperatures, sun angle, and monsoon season decide what works, and a space built for a temperate climate tends to fail, literally or practically, under a desert summer.
The site is organized by type of space rather than one long checklist, because a backyard patio, a hotel courtyard, a spa garden, and a resort pool deck each ask for different things. Each has its own guide, and together they cover residential, hospitality, commercial, and wellness environments across the region.
A good place to start is the The Modern Garden Company home page, which links out to every guide on the site.