As a kid growing up in Las Vegas, Michael Krikorian made the surrounding desert his playground, a scrubby place to explore and catch lizards.

“I loved the desert and learned to love the critters and plants that adapted to that environment,” he said.

The desert remained clear in his memory, more than 50 years after moving to cooler, greener Sonoma County to study psychology at Sonoma State University. So during the pandemic, like many stir-crazy souls looking for a project, Krikorian hatched a plan to bring the desert of his youth to his Windsor front yard.

It was something he had been thinking about doing for awhile. The abundance of time made available by working at home rather than driving to an office created an opportunity to finally install a cactus garden and do the work himself, even hauling in some 60 bags of rock, one by one.

“I find I miss the unique beauty of the cactus I used to see as a boy,” he said.

Krikorian brought in soil, contoured the land and spread out a bed of volcanic rock. He then started creating what amounts to a carefully curated collection of cactus plants, those remembered from his childhood and others he’s discovered while enthusiastically diving into a new world of gardening.

Shortly after buying his Windsor home 10 years ago, Krikorian took advantage of city incentives to replace his water-hungry landscape with more water-efficient plants. Then, as Sonoma County entered yet another drought and concern over climate change grew, Krikorian figured it wouldn’t be that radical to turn over at least half his front yard to plants with ultra-low water needs.

“The more I thought about it, this is a great place to grow cactus. The county is moving toward less moisture and more heat. The environment has really changed. It made more and more sense to me,” he said.

His yard remains a work in progress. But after two years, it’s starting to fill in nicely with an intriguing array of aloes, agaves and cactuses, each one unique in size, shape and texture.

The name of the bunny ear cactus (Opuntia microdasys), for example, makes it sound soft and benign, but in fact it refers to the upright pads poking out like rabbit ears. It would be best not to pet them. Each white dot on the plant’s surface is a glochid, a patch of hundreds of small spines that can get into the skin. Wear gloves when handling, if you decide to plant them.

“I have no irrigation hooked up to it,” Krikorian said of his new garden. “At the most, I water it once a week in the summer, and come winter I don’t water it at all. The biggest danger to cactus is over-watering. The roots will rot if they’re sitting in water.”

That means cactuses also need soil with a lot of sand mixed in to make it porous, so the soil doesn’t hold water and is more like desert soil.

When it comes to choosing plants, Krikorian is much like any collector. He is constantly on the hunt. He looks at what’s growing in other people’s yards. He scans the internet and scours nurseries and garden centers, often while he’s on the road in his camper in places like Utah and Arizona. Inspiration can happen anywhere, unexpectedly.

“One place that inspired me is the Luther Burbank Center parking lot into Sutter Hospital,” he said. “A few years ago, they planted cactus there and there are a few really nice ones I was inspired to look up.”

On a road trip to the Southwest, he scored a Santa Rita prickly pear he finds particularly intriguing. He spotted it at a nursery and while they didn’t have any potted ones to sell, when he told them he had come “all the way from California,” they broke off two pads from a plant and sent him home with them to sprout. It’s a lesson for any gardener: If they don’t have the plant, maybe they can give you a cutting.

As ground cover for his new desert landscape, Krikorian chose a multicolored volcanic rock that nicely sets off each plant like a sculpture in an outdoor gallery.

Ruth Bancroft Garden and Nursery: Extensive collection of succulents, including cactuses and other drought-tolerant plants, is maintained in this 3.5-acre garden in Walnut Creek, open year-round to the public. They offer classes, including many on Zoom, and plants for sale. 552 Bancroft Road, Walnut Creek. 925-944-9352; ruthbancroftgarden.org

Cactus Jungle Nursery: 130 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., San Anselmo. 415-870-9930, cactusjungle.com

After looking for just the right rock, he found it at Sequoia Landscape Materials in Santa Rosa. He bought it by the bag as he developed the garden.

“I love how it contrasts and looks fairly natural compared to rocks that are mono-colored,” he said. “Nature is not like that.”

One plant from the original landscape was spared — a Japanese maple. He brought in only one other tree — a sago palm, a low- and slow-growing plant in the cycad family with long green fronds that are more tropical or subtropical. But Krikorian figured it still will look appropriate with desert plants and will give the landscape a Palm Springs vibe.

Krikorian has collected cactuses, aloes and agaves he thinks will do well in Sonoma County. And so far, so good. All his fledgling plants are thriving.

As for local sourcing, Krikorian likes Monrovia (monrovia.com), which supplies to some Sonoma County nurseries, so you might be able to score desert plants closer to home. They grow succulents, aloes, agaves and cactuses.

Blue elf aloe is one of his favorites. This hybrid has narrow upright leaves and produces red-orange flowers that attract hummingbirds. It loves heat and is good for small spaces, growing up to 2 feet. It thrives in poor soil and makes a nice addition to rock gardens and borders or in containers.

Here are Krikorian’s other favorites:

Staff Writer Meg McConahey can be reached at 707-293-6094 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com.

Like most everyone, I love a good feature story that takes me somewhere I’ve never been or tells me something I don’t know. Where can I take you? Who in Sonoma County would you like to know better? I cover the people, places and ideas that make up Sonoma County, with general features, people profiles and home and garden, interior design and architecture stories. Hit me up with your tips, ideas and burning questions.

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