Val Little used old augers as posts for a shade structure made of bedsprings in her inventive West University-area garden.

Photos by scott calhoun / for the Arizona Daily Star

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By Scott Calhoun

For her birthday, Val Little didn't ask for clothes, jewelry or fine foods — all she wanted was a little help raising her garden ramada.

Like the rest of her garden, Little's ramada — several antique bedsprings suspended on posts that are old industrial augers — is no average affair. The same could be said for Little's commitment to water-thrifty plants and recycled objects.

While it's true that there is no shortage of creative gardens in Little's West University neighborhood, hers stands out for its sheer playfulness. The front yard of her bungalow hints at the surprises that await in back. The mesquite trees, cordia, agave and wildflowers let you know that a desert-plant lover lives here, and one who believes in conserving water. The pots made from old gasoline cans and decorated with "flowers" made from reused stove knobs give you an idea of just how passionate Little is about gardening with, as she calls it, "junque."

"Who I am is a person who believes in recycling everything," Little says. "I purposefully live in an old house partly because I just like old things and partly because I abhor waste."

Even though Little's back yard is made up almost entirely of found or discarded objects, it appears designed and orderly rather than littered or chaotic. As Little's friend, garden designer Greg Corman, puts it: "She doesn't overdo it. Val has such a good eye for combining elements in her garden that it doesn't look like just a bunch of junk."

Take Little's bedsprings. We may have seen abandoned, rusty bedsprings in the desert, but Little's arrangement transforms them into high garden art. Along one of her backyard walls, a trio of bedsprings serves as trellises for an assortment of vines.

"I love the different patterns of the springs, and I imagine the workmanship that went into each one," Little says.

Adjacent to the bedsprings, the top of a fence post bristles with a bundle of steel wire, another flourish made possible by Little's tireless junk shopping. Underfoot, a grid of old water-meter lids serves as a durable and unique paving surface.

Corman recalls one junkyard shopping trip with Little: "I'm wearing hiking boots and old jeans, and she is wearing an elegant outfit with these lovely shoes. You'd never guess that a woman like this would get so excited about an old bed frame dug out of the dirt."

Little, who was trained as a landscape architect at the University of California at Berkeley, moved to Tucson for the desert.

"I fell completely in love with the desert. I sold my home in California and moved here," Little says.

Her professional life, as the director of the Water Conservation Alliance of Southern Arizona, now revolves around helping Southern Arizonans conserve water.

Her own garden is a prime example of how a water-thrifty garden can be regionally appropriate and beautiful. It thrives without the help of a drip system.

"Drip systems can be effective if they are maintained and managed correctly, but an old bucket with a hole in it can also water your plants. If you are a plant lover who pays attention to the individual water needs of each plant, you can get by without an automatic system," Little says.